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Rail transport modelling
Railway modelling (UK, Australia and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale.
The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, tracks, signalling and landscapes including: countryside, roads, bridges, buildings, vehicles, urban landscape, model figures, lights, and features such as rivers, hills, tunnels, and canyons.
The earliest model railways were the 'carpet railways' in the 1840s. Electric trains appeared around the start of the 20th century, but these were crude likenesses. Model trains today are more realistic, in addition to being much more technologically advanced. Today modellers create model railway layouts, often recreating real locations and periods throughout history. The world's oldest working model railway is a model designed to train signalmen on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. It is located in the National Railway Museum, York, England and dates back to 1912. It remained in use until 1995. The model was built as a training exercise by apprentices of the company's Horwich works and supplied with rolling stock by Bassett-Lowke.
Involvement ranges from possession of a train set to spending hours and large sums of money on a large and exacting model of a railroad and the scenery through which it passes, called a "layout". Hobbyists, called "railway modellers" or "model railroaders", may maintain models large enough to ride (see "Live steam, Ridable miniature railway" and "Backyard railroad").
Modellers may collect model trains, building a landscape for the trains to pass through. They may also operate their own railroad in miniature. For some modellers, the goal of building a layout is to eventually run it as if it were a real railroad (if the layout is based on the fancy of the builder) or as the real railroad did (if the layout is based on a prototype). If modellers choose to model a prototype, they may reproduce track-by-track reproductions of the real railroad in miniature, often using prototype track diagrams and historic maps.
Layouts vary from a circle or oval of track to realistic reproductions of real places modelled to scale. Probably the largest model landscape in the UK is in the Pendon Museum in Oxfordshire, UK, where an EM gauge (same 1∶76.2 scale as 00 but with more accurate track gauge) model of the Vale of White Horse in the 1930s is under construction. The museum also houses one of the earliest scenic models – the Madder Valley layout built by John Ahern. This was built in the late 1930s to late 1950s and brought in realistic modelling, receiving coverage on both sides of the Atlantic in the magazines "Model Railway News" and "Model Railroader". Bekonscot in Buckinghamshire is the oldest model village and includes a model railway, dating from the 1930s. The world's largest model railroad in H0 scale is the "Miniatur Wunderland" in Hamburg, Germany. The largest live steam layout, with of track is 'Train Mountain' in Chiloquin, Oregon, U.S.
Operations form an important aspect of rail transport modelling with many layouts being dedicated to emulating the operational aspects of a working railway. These layouts can become extremely complex with multiple routes, movement patterns and timetabled operation. The British outline model railway of Banbury Connections is one of the world's most complicated model railways.
Model railroad clubs exist where enthusiasts meet. Clubs often display models for the public. One specialist branch concentrates on larger scales and gauges, commonly using track gauges from . Models in these scales are usually hand-built and powered by live steam, or diesel-hydraulic, and the engines are often powerful enough to haul dozens of human passengers.
The Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) at MIT in the 1950s pioneered automatic control of track-switching by using telephone relays.
The oldest society is 'The Model Railway Club' (established 1910), near Kings Cross, London, UK. As well as building model railways, it has 5,000 books and periodicals. Similarly, 'The Historical Model Railway Society' at Butterley, near Ripley, Derbyshire specialises in historical matters and has archives available to members and non-members.
The words "scale" and "gauge" seem at first interchangeable but their meanings are different. "Scale" is the model's measurement as a proportion to the original, while "gauge" is the measurement between the rails.
The size of engines depends on the scale and can vary from tall for the largest ridable live steam scales such as 1∶4, down to matchbox size for the smallest: Z-scale (1∶220) or T scale (1∶450). A typical HO (1∶87) engine is tall, and long. The most popular scales are: G scale, Gauge 1, O scale, S scale, HO scale (in Britain, the similar OO), TT scale, and N scale (1∶160 in the United States, but 1∶148 in the UK). HO and OO are the most popular. Popular narrow-gauge scales include Sn3, HOn3 and Nn3, which are the same in scale as S, HO and N except with a narrower spacing between the tracks (in these examples, a scale instead of the standard gauge).
The largest common scale is 1∶8, with 1∶4 sometimes used for park rides. G scale (Garden, 1∶24 scale) is most popular for backyard modelling. It is easier to fit a G scale model into a garden and keep scenery proportional to the trains. Gauge 1 and Gauge 3 are also popular for gardens. O, S, HO, and N scale are more often used indoors.
At first, model railways were not to scale. Aided by trade associations such as the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) and "Normen Europäischer Modellbahnen" (NEM), manufacturers and hobbyists soon arrived at "de facto" standards for interchangeability, such as gauge, but trains were only a rough approximation to the real thing. Official scales for the gauges were drawn up but not at first rigidly followed and not necessarily correctly proportioned for the gauge chosen. 0 (zero) gauge trains, for instance, operate on track too widely spaced in the United States as the scale is accepted as 1∶48 whereas in Britain 0 gauge uses a ratio of 43.5∶1 or 7 mm/1 foot and the gauge is near to correct. British OO standards operate on track significantly too narrow. The 4 mm/1 foot scale on a gauge corresponds to a track gauge of , (undersized). gauge corresponds to standard gauge in H0 (half-0) 3.5 mm/1 foot or 1∶87. This arose due to British locomotives and rolling stock being smaller than those found elsewhere, leading to an increase in scale to enable H0 scale mechanisms to be used. Most commercial scales have standards that include wheel flanges that are too deep, wheel treads that are too wide, and rail tracks that are too large. In H0 scale, the rail heights are codes 100, 87, 53
Later, modellers became dissatisfied with inaccuracies and developed standards in which everything is correctly scaled. These are used by modellers but have not spread to mass-production because the inaccuracies and overscale properties of the commercial scales ensure reliable operation and allow for shortcuts necessary for cost control. The finescale standards include the UK's P4, and the even finer S4, which uses track dimensions scaled from the prototype. This 4 mm:1 ft modelling uses wheels or less wide running on track with a gauge of . Check-rail and wing-rail clearances are similarly accurate.
A compromise of P4 and OO is 'EM' which uses a gauge of with more generous tolerances than P4 for check clearances. It gives a better appearance than OO though pointwork is not as close to reality as P4. It suits many where time and improved appearance are important. There is a small following of finescale OO which uses the same 16.5mm gauge as OO, but with the finer scale wheels and smaller clearances as used with EM- it is essentially 'EM-minus-1.7mm.'
Many groups build modules, which are sections of layouts, and can be joined together to form a larger layout, for meetings or for special occasions. For each kind of module system, there is an interface standard, so that modules made by different participants may be connected, even if they have never been connected before. Many of these module types are listed in the Layout standards organizations section of this article.
In addition to different scales, there are also different types of couplers for connecting cars, which are not compatible with each other.
In HO, the Americans standardized on horn-hook, or X2F couplers. Horn hook couplers have largely given way to a design known as a working knuckle coupler which was popularized by the Kadee Quality Products Co., and which has subsequently been emulated by a number of other manufactures in recent years. Working knuckle couplers are a closer approximation to the "automatic" couplers used on the prototype there and elsewhere. Also in HO, the European manufacturers have standardized, but on a coupler mount, not a coupler: many varieties of coupler can be plugged in (and out) of the NEM coupler box. None of the popular couplers has any resemblance to the prototype three-link chains generally used on the continent.
For British modellers, whose most popular scale is OO, the normal coupler is a tension-lock coupler, which, again has no pretence of replicating the usual prototype three-link chain couplers. Bachmann and more recently Hornby have begun to offer models fitted with NEM coupler pockets. This theoretically enables modellers of British railways to substitute any other NEM362 coupler, though many Bachmann models place the coupler pocket at the wrong height. A fairly common alternative is to use representations of chain couplings as found on the prototype, though these require large radius curves to be used to avoid derailments.
Other scales have similar ranges of non-compatible couplers available. In all scales couplers can be exchanged, with varying degrees of difficulty.
Some modellers pay attention to landscaping their layout, creating a fantasy world or modelling an actual location, often historic. Landscaping is termed "scenery building" or "scenicking".
Constructing scenery involves preparing a sub-terrain using a wide variety of building materials, including (but not limited to) screen wire, a lattice of cardboard strips, or carved stacks of expanded polystyrene (styrofoam) sheets. A scenery base is applied over the sub-terrain; typical base include casting plaster, plaster of Paris, hybrid paper-pulp (papier-mâché) or a lightweight foam/fiberglass/bubblewrap composite as in Geodesic Foam Scenery.
The scenery base is covered with substitutes for ground cover, which may be Static Grass or scatter. "Scatter" or "flock" is a substance used in the building of dioramas and model railways to simulate the effect of grass, poppies, fireweed, track ballast and other scenic ground cover. Scatter used to simulate track ballast is usually fine-grained ground granite. Scatter which simulates coloured grass is usually tinted sawdust, wood chips or ground foam. Foam or natural lichen or commercial scatter materials can be used to simulate shrubbery. An alternative to scatter, for grass, is static grass which uses static electricity to make its simulated grass actually stand up.
Buildings and structures can be purchased as kits, or built from cardboard, balsa wood, basswood, other soft woods, paper, or polystyrene or other plastic. Trees can be fabricated from materials such as Western sagebrush, candytuft, and caspia, to which adhesive and model foliage are applied; or they can be bought ready-made from specialist manufacturers. Water can be simulated using polyester casting resin, polyurethane, or rippled glass. Rocks can be cast in plaster or in plastic with a foam backing. Castings can be painted with stains to give colouring and shadows.
"Weathering" refers to making a model look used and exposed to weather by simulating dirt and wear on real vehicles, structures and equipment. Most models come out of the box looking new, because unweathered finishes are easier to produce. Also, the wear a freight car or building undergoes depends not only on age but where it is used. Rail cars in cities accumulate grime from building and automobile exhaust and graffiti, while cars in deserts may be subjected to sandstorms which etch or strip paint. A model that is weathered would not fit as many layouts as a pristine model which can be weathered by its purchaser.
There are many weather techniques that include, but are not limited to, painting, sanding, breaking, and even the use of chemicals to cause corrosion. Some processes become very creative depending on the skill of the modeller. For instance several steps may be taken to create a rusting effect to ensure not only proper colouring, but also proper texture and lustre.
Weathering purchased models is common. At the least, weathering aims to reduce the plastic-like finish of scale models. The simulation of grime, rust, dirt, and wear adds realism. Some modellers simulate fuel stains on tanks, or corrosion on battery boxes. In some cases, evidence of accidents or repairs may be added, such as dents or freshly painted replacement parts, and weathered models can be nearly indistinguishable from their prototypes when photographed appropriately.
Static diorama models or 'push along' scale models are a branch of model railways for unpowered locomotives, examples are Lone Star and Airfix models. Powered model railways are now generally operated by low voltage direct current (DC) electricity supplied via the tracks, but there are exceptions, such as Märklin and Lionel Corporation, which use alternating current (AC). Modern Digital Command Control (DCC) systems use alternating current. Other locomotives, particularly large models can use steam. Steam and clockwork driven engines are still sought by collectors.
Most early models for the toy market were powered by clockwork and controlled by levers on the locomotive. Although this made control crude the models were large and robust enough that handling the controls was practical. Various manufacturers introduced slowing and stopping tracks that could trigger levers on the locomotive and allow station stops.
Early electrical models used a three-rail system with the wheels resting on a metal track with metal sleepers that conducted power and a middle rail which provided power to a skid under the locomotive. This made sense at the time as models were metal and conductive. Modern plastics were not available and insulation was a problem. In addition the notion of accurate models had yet to evolve and toy trains and track were crude tinplate. A variation on the three-rail system, Trix Twin, allowed two trains to be independently controlled on one track, before the advent of Digital Command Control.
As accuracy became important some systems adopted two-rail power in which the wheels were isolated from each other and the rails carried the positive and negative supply with the right rail carrying the positive potential.
Other systems such as Märklin instead used fine metal studs to replace the central rail, allowing existing three-rail models to use more realistic track.
Where the model is of an electric locomotive, it may be supplied by overhead lines, like the full-size locomotive. Before Digital Command Control became available, this was one way of controlling two trains separately on the same track. The electric-outline model would be supplied by the overhead wire and the other model could be supplied by one of the running rails. The other running rail would act as a common return.
Early electric trains ran on trackside batteries because few homes in the late 19th century and early 20th century had electricity. Today, inexpensive train sets running on batteries are again common but regarded as toys and seldom used by hobbyists. Batteries located in the model often power garden railway and larger scale systems because of the difficulty in obtaining reliable power supply through the outdoor rails. The high power consumption and current draw of large scale garden models is more easily and safely met with internal rechargeable batteries. Most large scale battery powered models use radio control.
Engines powered by live steam are often built in large outdoor gauges of and , are also available in Gauge 1, G scale, 16 mm scale and can be found in O and OO/HO. Hornby Railways produce live steam locomotives in OO, based on designs first arrived at by an amateur modeller. Other modellers have built live steam models in HO/OO, OO9 and N, and there is one in Z in Australia.
Occasionally gasoline-electric models, patterned after real diesel-electric locomotives, come up among hobbyists and companies like Pilgrim Locomotive Works have sold such locomotives. Large-scale petrol-mechanical and petrol-hydraulic models are available but unusual and pricier than the electrically powered versions.
Modern manufacturing techniques mean mass-produced models achieve a high degree of precision and realism. In the past this was not the case and scratch building was very common. Simple models are made using cardboard engineering techniques. More sophisticated models can be made using a combination of etched sheets of brass and low temperature castings. Parts that need machining, such as wheels and couplings are purchased.
Etched kits are still popular, still accompanied by low temperature castings. These kits produce models that are not covered by the major manufacturers or in scales that are not in mass production. Laser machining techniques have extended this ability to thicker materials for scale steam and other locomotive types. Scratch builders may also make silicone rubber moulds of the parts they create, and cast them in various plastic resins (see Resin casting), or plasters. This may be done to save duplication of effort, or to sell to others. Resin "craftsman kits" are also available for a wide range of prototypes.
The first clockwork (spring-drive) and live steam locomotives ran until out of power, with no way for the operator to stop and restart the locomotive or vary its speed. The advent of electric trains, which appeared commercially in the 1890s, allowed control of the speed by varying the current or voltage. As trains began to be powered by transformers and rectifiers more sophisticated throttles appeared, and soon trains powered by AC contained mechanisms to change direction or go into neutral gear when the operator cycled the power. Trains powered by DC can change direction by reversing polarity.
Electricity permits control by dividing the layout into isolated blocks, where trains can be slowed or stopped by lowering or cutting power to a block. Dividing a layout into blocks permits operators to run more than one train with less risk of a fast train catching and hitting a slow train. Blocks can also trigger signals or other accessories, adding realism or whimsy. Three-rail systems often insulate one of the common rails on a section of track, and use a passing train to complete the circuit and activate an accessory.
Many layout builders are choosing digital operation of their layouts rather than the more traditional DC design. The industry standard command system is Digital Command Control (DCC). The advantages to DCC are that track voltage is constant (usually in the range of 20 volts AC) and the command throttle sends a signal to small circuit cards, or decoders, hidden inside the piece of equipment which control several functions of an individual locomotive, including speed, direction of travel, lights, smoke and various sound effects. This allows more realistic operation in that the modeller can operate independently several locomotives on the same stretch of track. Less common closed proprietary systems also exist. Several manufacturers offer software that can provide computer-control of DCC layouts.
In large scales, particularly for garden railways, radio control and DCC in the garden have become popular.
Several organizations exist to set standardizations for connectability between individual layout sections (commonly called "modules"). This is so several (or hundreds, given enough space and power) people or groups can bring together their own modules, connect them together with as little trouble as possible, and operate their trains. Despite different design and operation philosophies, different organizations have similar goals; standardized ends to facilitate connection with other modules built to the same specifications, standardized electricals, equipment, curve radii.
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Morphophonology
Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes (minimal meaningful units) when they combine to form words.
Morphophonological analysis often involves an attempt to give a series of formal rules that successfully predict the regular sound changes occurring in the morphemes of a given language. Such a series of rules converts a theoretical underlying representation into a surface form that is actually heard. The units of which the underlying representations of morphemes are composed are sometimes called morphophonemes. The surface form produced by the morphophonological rules may consist of phonemes (which are then subject to ordinary phonological rules to produce speech sounds or "phones"), or else the morphophonological analysis may bypass the phoneme stage and produce the phones itself.
When morphemes combine, they influence each other's sound structure (whether analyzed at a phonetic or phonemic level), resulting in different variant pronunciations for the same morpheme. Morphophonology attempts to analyze these processes. A language's morphophonological structure is generally described with a series of rules which, ideally, can predict every morphophonological alternation that takes place in the language.
An example of a morphophonological alternation in English is provided by the plural morpheme, written as "-s" or "-es". Its pronunciation varies among , , and , as in "cats", "dogs", and "horses" respectively. A purely phonological analysis would most likely assign to these three endings the phonemic representations , , . On a morphophonological level, however, they may all be considered to be forms of the underlying object , which is a morphophoneme. The different forms it takes are dependent on the segment at the end of the morpheme to which it attaches: the dependencies are described by morphophonological rules. (The behaviour of the English past tense ending "-ed" is similar: it can be pronounced , or , as in "hoped", "bobbed" and "added".)
The plural suffix "-s" can also influence the form taken by the preceding morpheme, as in the case of the words "leaf" and "knife", which end with in the singular/but have in the plural ("leaves", "knives"). On a morphophonological level, the morphemes may be analyzed as ending in a morphophoneme , which becomes voiced when a voiced consonant (in this case the of the plural ending) is attached to it. The rule may be written symbolically as -> [αvoice] / [αvoice]. This expression is called Alpha Notation in which α can be + (positive value) or − (negative value).
Common conventions to indicate a morphophonemic rather than phonemic representation include double slashes (⫽ ⫽) (as above, implying that the transcription is 'more phonemic than simply phonemic'). This is the only convention consistent with the IPA. Other conventions include pipes (| |), double pipes (‖ ‖) and curly brackets ({ }). Braces, from a convention in set theory, tend to be used when the phonemes are all listed, as in {s, z, ᵻz} for the English plural morpheme.
For instance, the English word "cats" may be transcribed phonetically as , phonemically as and morphophonemically as , if the plural is argued to be underlyingly , assimilating to after a voiceless nonsibilant. The tilde ~ may indicate morphological alternation, as in for "kneel~knelt" (the plus sign '+' indicates a morpheme boundary).
Inflected and agglutinating languages may have extremely complicated systems of morphophonemics. Examples of complex morphophonological systems include:
Until the 1950s, many phonologists assumed that neutralizing rules generally applied before allophonic rules. Thus phonological analysis was split into two parts: a morphophonological part, where neutralizing rules were developed to derive phonemes from morphophonemes; and a purely phonological part, where phones were derived from the phonemes. Since the 1960s (in particular with the work of the generative school, such as Chomsky and Halle's "The Sound Pattern of English") many linguists have moved away from making such a split, instead regarding the surface phones as being derived from the underlying morphophonemes (which may be referred to using various terminology) through a single system of (morpho)phonological rules.
The purpose of both phonemic and morphophonemic analysis is to produce simpler underlying descriptions for what appear on the surface to be complicated patterns. In purely phonemic analysis the data is just a set of words in a language, while for the purposes of morphophonemic analysis the words must be considered in grammatical paradigms to take account of the underlying morphemes. It is postulated that morphemes are recorded in the speaker's "lexicon" in an invariant (morphophonemic) form, which, in a given environment, is converted by rules into a surface form. The analyst attempts to present as completely as possible a system of underlying units (morphophonemes) and a series of rules that act on them, so as to produce surface forms consistent with the linguistic data.
The isolation form of a morpheme is the form in which that morpheme appears in isolation (when it is not subject to the effects of any other morpheme). In the case of a bound morpheme, such as the English past tense ending "-ed", it is generally not possible to identify an isolation form since such a morpheme does not occur in isolation.
It is often reasonable to assume that the isolation form of a morpheme provides its underlying representation. For example, in some varieties of American English, "plant" is pronounced , while "planting" is , where the morpheme "plant-" appears in the form . Here, the underlying form can be assumed to be , corresponding to the isolation form, since rules can be set up to derive the reduced form from this (but it would be difficult or impossible to set up rules that would derive the isolation form from an underlying ).
That is not always the case, however; the isolation form itself is sometimes subject to neutralization that does not apply to some other instances of the morpheme. For example, the French word "petit" ("small") is pronounced in isolation without the final [t] sound, but in certain derived forms (such as the feminine "petite"), the [t] is heard. If the isolation form were adopted as the underlying form, the information that there is a final "t" would be lost, and it would then be difficult to explain the appearance of the "t" in the inflected forms. Similar considerations apply to languages with final obstruent devoicing, in which the isolation form undergoes loss of voicing contrast, but other forms may not.
If the grammar of a language is assumed to have two rules, rule A and rule B, with A ordered before B, a given derivation may cause the application of rule A to create the environment for rule B to apply, which was not present before the application of rule A. Both rules then are in a "feeding relationship".
If rule A is ordered before B in the derivation in which rule A destroys the environment to which rule B applies, both rules are in a "bleeding order".
If A is ordered before B, and B creates an environment in which A could have applied, B is then said to counterfeed A, and the relationship is "counterfeeding".
If A is ordered before B, there is a "counterbleeding" relationship if B destroys the environment that A applies to and has already applied and so B has missed its chance to bleed A.
"Conjunctive ordering" is the ordering that ensures that all rules are applied in a derivation before the surface representation occurs. Rules applied in a feeding relationship are said to be "conjunctively ordered".
"Disjunctive ordering" is a rule that applies and prevents the other rule from applying in the surface representation. Such rules have a bleeding relationship and are said to be "disjunctively ordered".
The principle behind alphabetic writing systems is that the letters (graphemes) represent phonemes. However, many orthographies based on such systems have correspondences between graphemes and phonemes that are not exact, and it is sometimes the case that certain spellings better represent a word's morphophonological structure rather than the purely-phonological structure. An example is that the English plural morpheme is written "-s", regardless of whether it is pronounced or : "cats and "dogs, not "dogz".
The above example involves active morphology (inflection), and morphophonemic spellings are common in this context in many languages. Another type of spelling that can be described as morphophonemic is the kind that reflects the etymology of words. Such spellings are particularly common in English; examples include science" vs. "unconscious" , prejudice" vs. prequel" , sign signature" , nation" vs. nationalism" , and special" vs. species" .
For more detail on this topic, see Phonemic orthography, particularly the section on Morphophonemic features.
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Mirror
A mirror or reflector is an object such that each narrow beam of light that incides on its surface bounces (is reflected) in a single direction. This property, called specular reflection, distinguishes a mirror from objects that scatter light in many directions (such as flat-white paint), let it pass through them (such as a lens or prism), or absorb it.
Most mirrors behave as such only for certain ranges of wavelength, direction, and polarization of the incident light; most commonly for visible light, but also for other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum from X-rays to radio waves. A mirror will generally reflect only a fraction of the incident light; even the best mirrors may scatter, absorb, or transmit a small portion of it. If the mirror's width is only a few times the wavelength of the light, a significant part of the light will also be diffracted instead. An object that is a mirror when examined at a small scale (like a bearing ball) may seem to be scattering light when examined at a larger scale.
When looking at a mirror, one will see a mirror image or reflected image of objects in the environment, formed by light emitted or scattered by them and reflected by the mirror towards one's eyes. This effect gives the illusion that those objects are behind the mirror, or (sometimes) in front of it. A plane mirror will yield a real-looking undistorted image, while a curved mirror may distort, magnify, or reduce the image in various ways.
A mirror is commonly used for inspecting oneself, such as during personal grooming; hence the old-fashioned name looking glass. This use, which dates from the Prehistory, overlaps with uses in decoration and architecture. Mirrors are also used to view other items that are not directly visible because of obstructions; examples include rear-view mirrors in vehicles, security mirrors in or around buildings, and dentist's mirrors. Mirrors are also used in optical and scientific apparatus such as telescopes, lasers, cameras, periscopes, and industrial machinery.
The terms "mirror" and "reflector" can be used for devices that reflect other types of radiation according to the same laws. An acoustic mirror reflects sound waves, and may be used for applications such as directional microphones, atmospheric studies, sonar, and sea floor mapping. An atomic mirror reflects matter waves, and can be used for atomic interferometry and atomic holography.
The first mirrors used by humans were most likely pools of dark, still water, or water collected in a primitive vessel of some sort. The requirements for making a good mirror are a surface with a very high degree of flatness (preferably but not necessarily with high reflectivity), and a surface roughness smaller than the wavelength of the light.
The earliest manufactured mirrors were pieces of polished stone such as obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass. Examples of obsidian mirrors found in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) have been dated to around 6000 BC. Mirrors of polished copper were crafted in Mesopotamia from 4000 BC, and in ancient Egypt from around 3000 BC. Polished stone mirrors from Central and South America date from around 2000 BC onwards.
By the Bronze Age most cultures were using mirrors made from polished discs of bronze, copper, silver, or other metals. In China, bronze mirrors were manufactured from around 2000 BC, some of the earliest bronze and copper examples being produced by the Qijia culture. Such metal mirrors remained the norm through to Greco-Roman Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. During the Roman Empire silver mirrors were in wide use even by maidservants.
Speculum metal is a highly reflective alloy of copper and tin that has been used for mirrors until a couple of centuries ago. Such mirrors may have originated in China and India. Mirrors of speculum metal or any precious metal were hard to produce and were only owned by the wealthy.
Common metal mirrors tarnished and required frequent polishing. Bronze mirrors had low reflectivity and poor color rendering, and stone mirrors were much worse in this regard. These defects explain the New Testament reference in 1 Corinthians 13 to seeing "as in a mirror, darkly."
The Greek philosopher Socrates, of "know thyself" fame, urged young people to look at themselves in mirrors so that, if they were beautiful, they would become worthy of their beauty, and if they were ugly, they would know how to hide their disgrace through learning.
Glass began to be used for mirrors in the 1st century CE, with the development of soda-lime glass and glass blowing. The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder claims that artisans in Sidon (modern-day Lebanon) were producing glass mirrors coated with lead or gold leaf in the back. The metal provided good reflectivity, and the glass provided a smooth surface and protected the metal from scrathes and tarnishing. However, there is no archeological evidence of glass mirrors before the third century.
These early glass mirrors were made by blowing a glass bubble, and then cutting off a small circular section from from 10 to 20 cm in diameter. Their surface was either concave or convex, and imperfections tended to distort the image. Lead-coated mirrors were very thin to prevent cracking by the heat of the molten metal. Due to their poor quality, high cost, and small size, solid-metal mirrors, primarily of steel, remained in common use until the late nineteenth century.
Silver-coated metal mirrors were developed in China as early as 500 CE. The bare metal was coated with an amalgam, then heated it until the mercury boiled away.
The evolution of glass mirrors in the Middle Ages followed improvements in glassmaking technology. Glassmakers in France made flat glass plates by blowing glass bubbles, spinning them rapidly to flatten them, and cutting rectangles out of them. A better method, developed in Germany and perfected in Venice by the 16th century, was to blow a cylinder of glass, cut off the ends, slice it along its length, and unroll it onto a flat hot plate. Venetian glassmakers also adopted lead glass for mirrors, because of its crystal-clarity and its easier workability. By the 11th century, glass mirrors were being produced in Moorish Spain.
During the early European Renaissance, a fire-gilding technique developed to produce an even and highly reflective tin coating for glass mirrors. The back of the glass was coated with a tin-mercury amalgam, and the mercury was then evaporated by heating the piece. This process caused less thermal shock to the glass than the older molten-lead method. The date and location of the discovery is unknown, but by the 16th century Venice was a center of mirror production using this technique. These Venetian mirrors were up to square.
For a century, Venice retained the monopoly of the tin amalgam technique. Venetian mirrors in richly decorated frames served as luxury decorations for palaces throughout Europe, and were very expensive. For example, in the late seventeenth century, the Countess de Fiesque was reported to have traded an entire wheat farm for a mirror, considering it a bargain. However, by the end of that century the secret was leaked through to industrial espionage. French workshops succeeded in large-scale industrialization of the process, eventually making mirrors affordable to the masses, in spite of the toxicity of mercury's vapor.
The invention of the ribbon machine in the late Industrial Revolution allowed modern glass panes to be produced in bulk. The Saint-Gobain factory, founded by royal initiative in France, was an important manufacturer, and Bohemian and German glass, often rather cheaper, was also important.
The invention of the silvered-glass mirror is credited to German chemist Justus von Liebig in 1835. His wet deposition process involved the deposition of a thin layer of metallic silver onto glass through the chemical reduction of silver nitrate. This silvering process was adapted for mass manufacturing and led to the greater availability of affordable mirrors.
Currently mirrors are often produced by the wet deposition of silver, or sometimes nickel or chromium (the latter used most often in automotive mirrors) via electroplating directly onto the glass substrate.
Glass mirrors for optical instruments are usually produced by vacuum deposition methods. These techniques can be traced to observations in the 1920s and 1930s that metal was being ejected from electrodes in gas discharge lamps and condensed on the glass walls forming a mirror-like coating. The phenomenon, called sputtering, was developed into an industrial metal-coating method with the development of semiconductor technology in the 1970s.
A similar phenomenon had been observed with incandescent light bulbs: the metal in the hot filament would slowly sublimate and condense on the bulb's walls. This phenomenon was developed into the method of evaporation coating by Pohl and Pringsheim in 1912. John D. Strong used evaporation coating to make the first aluminum-coated telescope mirrors in the 1930s. The first dielectric mirror was created in 1937 by Auwarter using evaporated rhodium.
The metal coating of glass mirrors is usually protected from abrasion and corrosion by a layer of paint applied over it. Mirrors for optical instruments often have the metal layer on the front face, so that the light does not have to cross the glass twice. In these mirrors, the metal may be protected by a thin transparent coating of anon-metallic (dielectric) material. The first metallic mirror to be enhanced with a dielectric coating of silicon dioxide was created by Hass in 1937. In 1939 at the Schott Glass company, Walter Geffcken invented the first dielectric mirrors to use multilayer coatings.
The Greek in Classical Antiquity were familiar with the use of mirrors to concentrate light. Parabolic mirrors were described and studied by the mathematician Diocles in his work "On Burning Mirrors". Ptolemy conducted a number of experiments with curved polished iron mirrors, and discussed plane, convex spherical, and concave spherical mirrors in his "Optics".
Parabolic mirrors were also described by the Caliphate mathematician Ibn Sahl in the tenth century. The scholar Ibn al-Haytham discussed concave and convex mirrors in both cylindrical and spherical geometries, carried out a number of experiments with mirrors, and solved the problem of finding the point on a convex mirror at which a ray coming from one point is reflected to another point.
Mirrors can be classified in many ways; including by shape, support and reflective materials, manufacturing methods, and intended application.
Typical mirror shapes are planar, convex, and concave.
The surface of curved mirrors is often a part of a sphere, for ease of fabrication. Mirrors that are meant to precisely concentrate parallel rays of light into a point are usually made in the shape of a paraboloid of revolution instead; they are used in telescopes (form radio waves to X-rays), in antennas to communicate with broadcast satellites, and in solar furnaces. A segmented mirror, consisting of multiple flat or curved mirrors, properly placed and oriented, may be used instead.
Mirrors that are intended to concentrate sunlight onto a long pipe may be a circular cylinder or of a parabolic cylinder.
The most common structural material for mirrors is glass, due to its transparency, ease of fabrication, rigidity, hardness, and ability to take a smooth finish.
The most common mirrors consist of a plate of transparent glass, with a thin reflective layer on the back (the side opposite to the incident and reflected light) backed by a coating that protects that layer against abrasion, tarnishing, and corrosion. The glass is usually soda-lime glass, but lead glass may be used for decorative effects, and other transparent materials may be used for specific applications.
A plate of transparent plastic may be used instead of glass, for lighter weight or impact resistance. Alternatively, a flexible transparent plastic film may be bonded to the front and/or back surface of the mirror, to prevent injuries in case the mirror is broken. Lettering or decorative designs may be printed on the front face of the glass, or formed on the reflective layer. The front surface may have an anti-reflection coating.
Mirrors which are reflective on the front surface (the same side of the incident and reflected light) may be made of any rigid material. The supporting material does not need to be transparent, but telescope mirrors often use glass anyway. Often a protective transparent coating is added on top of the reflecting layer, to protect it against abrasion, tarnishing, and corrosion, or to absorb certain wavelengths.
Thin flexible plastic mirrors are sometimes used for safety, since they cannot shatter or produce sharp flakes. Their flatness is achieved by stretching them on a rigid frame. These usually consist of a layer of evaporated aluminum between two thin layers of transparent plastic.
In common mirrors, the reflective layer is usually some metal like silver, tin, nickel, or chromium, deposited by a wet process; or aluminum, deposited by sputtering or evaporation in vacuum. The reflective layer may also be made of one or more layers of transparent materials with suitable indices of refraction.
The structural material may be a metal, in which case the reflecting layer may be just the surface of the same. Metal concave dishes are often used to reflect infrared light (such as in space heaters) or microwaves (as in satellite TV antennas). Some telescopes, such as the Sky Mirror and liquid metal telescopes, as well as mirrors for high-power laser cutting, also use all-metal mirrors.
Mirrors that reflect only part of the light, while transmitting some of the rest, can be made with very thin metal layers or suitable combinations of dielectric layers. They are typically used as beamsplitters. A dichroic mirror, in particular, has surface that reflects certain wavelengths of light, while letting other wavelenths pass through. A cold mirror is a dichroic mirror that efficiently reflets the entire visible light spectrum while transmitting infrared wavelengths. A hot mirror is the opposite: it reflects infrared light while transmitting visible light. Dichroic mirrors are often used as filters to remove undesired components of the light in cameras and measuring instruments.
An active mirror will produce reflected beams that have more power than the incident beams. They are used to make disk lasers. The amplification is typically over a narrow range of wavelengths, and requires an external source of power.
In X-ray telescopes, the X-rays incide on a highly precise metal surface at almost grazing angles, and only a small fraction of the rays are reflected. In flying relativistic mirrors conceived for X-ray lasers, the reflecting surface is a spherical shockwave (wake wave) created in a in a low-density plasma by a very intense laser-pulse, and moving at an extremely high velocity.
A phase-conjugating mirror uses nonlinear optics to reverse the phase difference between incident beams. Such mirrors may be used, for example, for combination and self-guiding of laser beams and correction of atmospheric distortions in imaging systems.
When a sufficiently narrow beam of light is reflected at a point of a surface, the surface's normal direction formula_1 will be the bisector of the angle formed by the two beams at that point. That is, the direction vector formula_2 towards the incident beams's source, the normal vector formula_1, and direction vector formula_4 of the reflected beam will be coplanar, and the angle between formula_1 and formula_4 will be equal to the angle of incidence between formula_1 and formula_2, but of opposite sign.
This property can be explained by the physics of an electromagnetic plane wave that is incident to a flat surface that is electrically conductive or where the speed of light changes abruptly, as between two materials with different indices of refraction.
More specifically, a concave parabolic mirror (whose surface is a part of a paraboloid of revolution) will reflect rays that are parallel to its axis into rays that pass through its focus. Conversely, a parabolic concave mirror will reflect any ray that comes from its focus towards a direction parallel to its axis. If a concave mirror surface is a part of a prolate ellipsoid, it will reflect any ray coming from one focus toward the other focus.
A convex parabolic mirror, on the other hand, will reflect rays that are parallel to its axis into rays that seem to emanate from the focus of the surface, behind the mirror. Conversely, it will reflect incoming rays that converge toward that point into rays that are parallel to the axis. A convex mirror that is part of a prolate ellipsoid will reflect rays that converge towards one focus into divergent rays that seem to emanate from the other focus.
Spherical mirrors do not reflect parallel rays to rays that converge to or diverge from a single point, or vice-versa, due to spherical aberration. However, a spherical mirror whose diameter is sufficiently small compared to the sphere's radius will behave very similarly to a parabolic mirror whose axis goes through the mirror's center and the center of that sphere; so that spherical mirrors can substitute for parabolic ones in many applications.
A similar aberration occurs with parabolic mirrors when the incident rays are parallel among themselves but not parallel to the mirror's axis, or are divergent from a point that is not the focus — as when trying to form an image of an objet that is near the mirror or spans a wide angle as seen from it. However, this aberration can be sufficiently small if the object image is sufficiently far from the mirror and spans a sufficiently small angle around its axis.
Objects viewed in a (plane) mirror will appear laterally inverted (e.g., if one raises one's right hand, the image's left hand will appear to go up in the mirror), but not vertically inverted (in the image a person's head still appears above their body). However, a mirror does not usually "swap" left and right any more than it swaps top and bottom. A mirror typically reverses the forward/backward axis. To be precise, it reverses the object in the direction perpendicular to the mirror surface (the normal). Because left and right are defined relative to front-back and top-bottom, the "flipping" of front and back results in the perception of a left-right reversal in the image. (If you stand side-on to a mirror, the mirror really does reverse your left and right, because that's the direction perpendicular to the mirror.)
Looking at an image of oneself with the front-back axis flipped results in the perception of an image with its left-right axis flipped. When reflected in the mirror, your right hand remains directly opposite your real right hand, but it is perceived as the left hand of your image. When a person looks into a mirror, the image is actually front-back reversed, which is an effect similar to the hollow-mask illusion. Notice that a mirror image is fundamentally different from the object and cannot be reproduced by simply rotating the object.
For things that may be considered as two-dimensional objects (like text), front-back reversal cannot usually explain the observed reversal. In the same way that text on a piece of paper appears reversed if held up to a light and viewed from behind, text held facing a mirror will appear reversed, because the observer is behind the text. Another way to understand the reversals observed in images of objects that are effectively two-dimensional is that the inversion of left and right in a mirror is due to the way human beings turn their bodies. To turn from viewing the side of the object facing the mirror to view the reflection in the mirror requires the observer to look in the opposite direction. To look in another direction, human beings turn their heads about a vertical axis. This causes a left-right reversal in the image but not an up-down reversal.
The reflectivity of a mirror is determined by the percentage of reflected light per the total of the incident light. The reflectivity may vary with wavelength. All or a portion of the light not reflected is absorbed by the mirror, while in some cases a portion may also transmit through. Although some small portion of the light will be absorbed by the coating, the reflectivity is usually higher for first-surface mirrors, eliminating both reflection and absorption losses from the substrate. The reflectivity is often determined by the type and thickness of the coating. When the thickness of the coating is sufficient to prevent transmission, all of the losses occur due to absorption. Aluminum is harder, less expensive, and more resistant to tarnishing than silver, and will reflect 85 to 90% of the light in the visible to near-ultraviolet range, but experiences a drop in its reflectance between 800 and 900 nm. Gold is very soft and easily scratched, costly, yet does not tarnish. Gold is greater than 96% reflective to near and far-infrared light between 800 and 12000 nm, but poorly reflects visible light with wavelengths shorter than 600 nm (yellow). Silver is expensive, soft, and quickly tarnishes, but has the highest reflectivity in the visual to near-infrared of any metal. Silver can reflect up to 98 or 99% of light to wavelengths as long as 2000 nm, but loses nearly all reflectivity at wavelengths shorter than 350 nm. Dielectric mirrors can reflect greater than 99.99% of light, but only for a narrow range of wavelengths, ranging from a bandwidth of only 10 nm to as wide as 100 nm for tunable lasers. However, dielectric coatings can also enhance the reflectivity of metallic coatings and protect them from scratching or tarnishing. Dielectric materials are typically very hard and relatively cheap, however the number of coats needed generally makes it an expensive process. In mirrors with low tolerances, the coating thickness may be reduced to save cost, and simply covered with paint to absorb transmission.
Surface quality, or surface accuracy, measures the deviations from a perfect, ideal surface shape. Increasing the surface quality reduces distortion, artifacts, and aberration in images, and helps increase coherence, collimation, and reduce unwanted divergence in beams. For plane mirrors, this is often described in terms of flatness, while other surface shapes are compared to an ideal shape. The surface quality is typically measured with items like interferometers or optical flats, and are usually measured in wavelengths of light (λ). These deviations can be much larger or much smaller than the surface roughness. A normal household-mirror made with float glass may have flatness tolerances as low as 9–14λ per inch (25.4 mm), equating to a deviation of 5600 through 8800 nanometers from perfect flatness. Precision ground and polished mirrors intended for lasers or telescopes may have tolerances as high as λ/50 (1/50 of the wavelength of the light, or around 12 nm) across the entire surface. The surface quality can be affected by factors such as temperature changes, internal stress in the substrate, or even bending effects that occur when combining materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion, similar to a bimetallic strip.
Surface roughness describes the texture of the surface, often in terms of the depth of the microscopic scratches left by the polishing operations. Surface roughness determines how much of the reflection is specular and how much diffuses, controlling how sharp or blurry the image will be.
For perfectly specular reflection, the surface roughness must be kept smaller than the wavelength of the light. Microwaves, which sometimes have a wavelength greater than an inch (~25 mm) can reflect specularly off a metal screen-door, continental ice-sheets, or desert sand, while visible light, having wavelengths of only a few hundred nanometers (a few hundred-thousandths of an inch), must meet a very smooth surface to produce specular reflection. For wavelengths that are approaching or are even shorter than the diameter of the atoms, such as X-rays, specular reflection can only be produced by surfaces that are at a grazing incidence from the rays.
Surface roughness is typically measured in microns, wavelength, or grit size, with ~80,000–100,000 grit or ~½λ–¼λ being "optical quality".
Transmissivity is determined by the percentage of light transmitted per the incident light. Transmissivity is usually the same from both first and second surfaces. The combined transmitted and reflected light, subtracted from the incident light, measures the amount absorbed by both the coating and substrate. For transmissive mirrors, such as one-way mirrors, beam splitters, or laser output couplers, the transmissivity of the mirror is an important consideration. The transmissivity of metallic coatings are often determined by their thickness. For precision beam-splitters or output couplers, the thickness of the coating must be kept at very high tolerances to transmit the proper amount of light. For dielectric mirrors, the thickness of the coat must always be kept to high tolerances, but it is often more the number of individual coats that determine the transmissivity. For the substrate, the material used must also have good transmissivity to the chosen wavelengths. Glass is a suitable substrate for most visible-light applications, but other substrates such as zinc selenide or synthetic sapphire may be used for infrared or ultraviolet wavelengths.
Wedge errors are caused by the deviation of the surfaces from perfect parallelism. An optical wedge is the angle formed between two plane-surfaces (or between the principle planes of curved surfaces) due to manufacturing errors or limitations, causing one edge of the mirror to be slightly thicker than the other. Nearly all mirrors and optics with parallel faces have some slight degree of wedge, which is usually measured in seconds or minutes of arc. For first-surface mirrors, wedges can introduce alignment deviations in mounting hardware. For second-surface or transmissive mirrors, wedges can have a prismatic effect on the light, deviating its trajectory or, to a very slight degree, its color, causing chromatic and other forms of aberration. In some instances, a slight wedge is desirable, such as in certain laser systems where stray reflections from the uncoated surface are better dispersed than reflected back through the medium.
Surface defects are small-scale, discontinuous imperfections in the surface smoothness. Surface defects are larger (in some cases much larger) than the surface roughness, but only affect small, localized portions of the entire surface. These are typically found as scratches, digs, pits (often from bubbles in the glass), sleeks (scratches from prior, larger grit polishing operations that were not fully removed by subsequent polishing grits), edge chips, or blemishes in the coating. These defects are often an unavoidable side-effect of manufacturing limitations, both in cost and machine precision. If kept low enough, in most applications these defects will rarely have any adverse effect, unless the surface is located at an image plane where they will show up directly. For applications that require extremely low scattering of light, extremely high reflectance, or low absorption due to high energy-levels that could destroy the mirror, such as lasers or Fabry-Perot interferometers, the surface defects must be kept to a minimum.
Mirrors are usually manufactured by either polishing a naturally reflective material, such as speculum metal, or by applying a reflective coating to a suitable polished substrate.
In some applications, generally those that are cost-sensitive or that require great durability, such as for mounting in a prison cell, mirrors may be made from a single, bulk material such as polished metal. However, metals consist of small crystals (grains) separated by grain boundaries that may prevent the surface from attaining optical smoothness and uniform reflectivity.
The coating of glass with a reflective layer of a metal is generally called "silvering", even though the metal may not be silver. Currently the main processes are electroplating, "wet" chemical deposition, and vacuum deposition Front-coated metal mirrors achieve reflectivities of 90–95% when new.
Applications requiring higher reflectivity or greater durability, where wide bandwidth is not essential, use dielectric coatings, which can achieve reflectivities as high as 99.997% over a limited range of wavelengths. Because they are often chemically stable and do not conduct electricity, dielectric coatings are almost always applied by methods of vacuum deposition, and most commonly by evaporation deposition. Because the coatings are usually transparent, absorption losses are negligible. Unlike with metals, the reflectivity of the individual dielectric-coatings is a function of Snell's law known as the Fresnel equations, determined by the difference in refractive index between layers. Therefore, the thickness and index of the coatings can be adjusted to be centered on any wavelength. Vacuum deposition can be achieved in a number of ways, including sputtering, evaporation deposition, arc deposition, reactive-gas deposition, and ion plating, among many others.
Mirrors can be manufactured to a wide range of engineering tolerances, including reflectivity, surface quality, surface roughness, or transmissivity, depending on the desired application. These tolerances can range from low, such as found in a normal household-mirror, to extremely high, like those used in lasers or telescopes. Increasing the tolerances allows better and more precise imaging or beam transmission over longer distances. In imaging systems this can help reduce anomalies (artifacts), distortion or blur, but at a much higher cost. Where viewing distances are relatively close or high precision is not a concern, lower tolerances can be used to make effective mirrors at affordable costs.
Mirrors are commonly used as aids to personal grooming. They may range from small sizes, good to carry with oneself, to full body sized; they may be handheld, mobile, fixed or adjustable. A classic example of the latter is the cheval glass, which may be tilted.
With the sun as light source, a mirror can be used to signal by variations in the orientation of the mirror. The signal can be used over long distances, possibly up to on a clear day. This technique was used by Native American tribes and numerous militaries to transmit information between distant outposts.
Mirrors can also be used for search to attract the attention of search and rescue parties. Specialized type of mirrors are available and are often included in military survival kits.
Microscopic mirrors are a core element of many of the largest high-definition televisions and video projectors. A common technology of this type is Texas Instruments' DLP. A DLP chip is a postage stamp-sized microchip whose surface is an array of millions of microscopic mirrors. The picture is created as the individual mirrors move to either reflect light toward the projection surface (pixel on), or toward a light absorbing surface (pixel off).
Other projection technologies involving mirrors include LCoS. Like a DLP chip, LCoS is a microchip of similar size, but rather than millions of individual mirrors, there is a single mirror that is actively shielded by a liquid crystal matrix with up to millions of pixels. The picture, formed as light, is either reflected toward the projection surface (pixel on), or absorbed by the activated LCD pixels (pixel off). LCoS-based televisions and projectors often use 3 chips, one for each primary color.
Large mirrors are used in rear projection televisions. Light (for example from a DLP as mentioned above) is "folded" by one or more mirrors so that the television set is compact.
Mirrors are integral parts of a solar power plant. The one shown in the adjacent picture uses concentrated solar power from an array of parabolic troughs.
Telescopes and other precision instruments use "front silvered" or first surface mirrors, where the reflecting surface is placed on the front (or first) surface of the glass (this eliminates reflection from glass surface ordinary back mirrors have). Some of them use silver, but most are aluminium, which is more reflective at short wavelengths than silver.
All of these coatings are easily damaged and require special handling.
They reflect 90% to 95% of the incident light when new.
The coatings are typically applied by vacuum deposition.
A protective overcoat is usually applied before the mirror is removed from the vacuum, because the coating otherwise begins to corrode as soon as it is exposed to oxygen and humidity in the air. "Front silvered" mirrors have to be resurfaced occasionally to keep their quality. There are optical mirrors such as mangin mirrors that are "second surface mirrors" (reflective coating on the rear surface) as part of their optical designs, usually to correct optical aberrations.
The reflectivity of the mirror coating can be measured using a reflectometer and for a particular metal it will be different for different wavelengths of light. This is exploited in some optical work to make cold mirrors and hot mirrors. A cold mirror is made by using a transparent substrate and choosing a coating material that is more reflective to visible light and more transmissive to infrared light.
A hot mirror is the opposite, the coating preferentially reflects infrared. Mirror surfaces are sometimes given thin film overcoatings both to retard degradation of the surface and to increase their reflectivity in parts of the spectrum where they will be used. For instance, aluminum mirrors are commonly coated with silicon dioxide or magnesium fluoride. The reflectivity as a function of wavelength depends on both the thickness of the coating and on how it is applied.
For scientific optical work, dielectric mirrors are often used. These are glass (or sometimes other material) substrates on which one or more layers of dielectric material are deposited, to form an optical coating. By careful choice of the type and thickness of the dielectric layers, the range of wavelengths and amount of light reflected from the mirror can be specified. The best mirrors of this type can reflect >99.999% of the light (in a narrow range of wavelengths) which is incident on the mirror. Such mirrors are often used in lasers.
In astronomy, adaptive optics is a technique to measure variable image distortions and adapt a deformable mirror accordingly on a timescale of milliseconds, to compensate for the distortions.
Although most mirrors are designed to reflect visible light, surfaces reflecting other forms of electromagnetic radiation are also called "mirrors". The mirrors for other ranges of electromagnetic waves are used in
optics and astronomy. Mirrors for radio waves (sometimes known as reflectors) are important elements of radio telescopes.
Two or more mirrors aligned exactly parallel and facing each other can give an infinite regress of reflections, called an infinity mirror effect. Some devices use this to generate multiple reflections:
It has been said that Archimedes used a large array of mirrors to burn Roman ships during an attack on Syracuse. This has never been proven or disproved. On the TV show "MythBusters", a team from MIT tried to recreate the famous "Archimedes Death Ray". They were unsuccessful at starting a fire on the ship. Previous attempts to light the boat on fire using only the bronze mirrors available in Archimedes' time were unsuccessful, and the time taken to ignite the craft would have made its use impractical, resulting in the "MythBusters" team deeming the myth "busted". It was however found that the mirrors made it very difficult for the passengers of the targeted boat to see, likely helping to cause their defeat, which may have been the origin of the myth. (See solar power tower for a practical use of this technique.)
Due to its location in a steep-sided valley, the Italian town of Viganella gets no direct sunlight for seven weeks each winter. In 2006 a €100,000 computer-controlled mirror, 8×5 m, was installed to reflect sunlight into the town's piazza. In early 2007 the similarly situated village of Bondo, Switzerland, was considering applying this solution as well. In 2013, mirrors were installed to reflect sunlight into the town square in the Norwegian town of Rjukan. Mirrors can be used to produce enhanced lighting effects in greenhouses or conservatories.
Mirrors are a popular design theme in architecture, particularly with late modern and post-modernist high-rise buildings in major cities. Early examples include the Campbell Center in Dallas, which opened in 1972, and the John Hancock Tower in Boston.
More recently, two skyscrapers designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, the Vdara in Las Vegas and 20 Fenchurch Street in London, have experienced unusual problems due to their concave curved glass exteriors acting as respectively cylindrical and spherical reflectors for sunlight. In 2010, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported that sunlight reflected off the Vdara's south-facing tower could singe swimmers in the hotel pool, as well as melting plastic cups and shopping bags; employees of the hotel referred to the phenomenon as the "Vdara death ray", aka the "fryscraper." In 2013, sunlight reflecting off 20 Fenchurch Street melted parts of a Jaguar car parked nearby and scorching or igniting the carpet of a nearby barber shop. This building had been nicknamed the "walkie-talkie" because its shape was supposedly similar to a certain model of two-way radio; but after its tendency to overheat surrounding objects became known, the nickname changed to the "walkie-scorchie."
Painters depicting someone gazing into a mirror often also show the person's reflection. This is a kind of abstraction—in most cases the angle of view is such that the person's reflection should not be visible. Similarly, in movies and still photography an actor or actress is often shown ostensibly looking at him- or herself in the mirror, and yet the reflection faces the camera. In reality, the actor or actress sees only the camera and its operator in this case, not their own reflection. In the psychology of perception, this is known as the Venus effect.
The mirror is the central device in some of the greatest of European paintings:
Mirrors have been used by artists to create works and hone their craft:
Mirrors are sometimes necessary to fully appreciate art work:
Contemporary anamorphic artist Jonty Hurwitz uses cylindrical mirrors to project distorted sculptures.
Some other contemporary artists use mirrors as the material of art:
In the Middle Ages mirrors existed in various shapes for multiple uses. Mostly they were used as an accessory for personal hygiene but also as tokens of courtly love, made from ivory in the ivory carving centers in Paris, Cologne and the Southern Netherlands. They also had their uses in religious contexts as they were integrated in a special form of pilgrims badges or pewter/lead mirror boxes since the late 14th century. Burgundian ducal inventories show us that the dukes owned a mass of mirrors or objects with mirrors, not only with religious iconography or inscriptions, but combined with reliquaries, religious paintings or other objects that were distinctively used for personal piety. Considering mirrors in paintings and book illumination as depicted artifacts and trying to draw conclusions about their functions from their depicted setting, one of these functions is to be an aid in personal prayer to achieve self-knowledge and knowledge of God, in accord with contemporary theological sources. E.g. the famous Arnolfini-Wedding by Jan van Eyck shows a constellation of objects that can be recognized as one which would allow a praying man to use them for his personal piety: the mirror surrounded by scenes of the Passion to reflect on it and on oneself, a rosary as a device in this process, the veiled and cushioned bench to use as a prie-dieu, and the abandoned shoes that point in the direction in which the praying man kneeled. The metaphorical meaning of depicted mirrors is complex and many-layered, e.g. as an attribute of Mary, the “speculum sine macula”, or as attributes of scholarly and theological wisdom and knowledge as they appear in book illuminations of different evangelists and authors of theological treatises. Depicted mirrors – orientated on the physical properties of a real mirror – can be seen as metaphors of knowledge and reflection and are thus able to remind the beholder to reflect and get to know himself. The mirror may function simultaneously as a symbol and a device of a moral appeal. That is also the case if it is shown in combination with virtues and vices, a combination which also occurs more frequently in the 15th century: The moralizing layers of mirror metaphors remind the beholder to examine himself thoroughly according to his own virtuous or vicious life. This is all the more true if the mirror is combined with iconography of death. Not only is Death as a corpse or skeleton holding the mirror for the still living personnel of paintings, illuminations and prints, but the skull appears on the convex surfaces of depicted mirrors, showing the painted and real beholder his future face.
Mirrors are frequently used in interior decoration and as ornaments:
Mirrors play a powerful role in cultural literature.
Only a few animal species have been shown to have the ability to recognize themselves in a mirror, most of them mammals. Experiments have found that the following animals can pass the mirror test:
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Mindanao
Mindanao (), also commonly known as Southern Philippines, is the second-largest island in the Philippines. Mindanao and the smaller islands surrounding it make up the island group of the same name. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, as of the 2010 census, the main island was inhabited by 20,281,545 people, while the entire Mindanao island group had an estimated population of 25,537,691 (2018).
According to the 2015 Philippine Population Census, Davao City is the most populous city on the island, with 1,632,991 residents, followed by Zamboanga City (pop. 861,799), Cagayan de Oro City (pop. 675,950), General Santos City (pop. 594,446), Iligan City (pop. 342,618), Butuan City (pop. 337,063) and Cotabato City (pop. 299,438). About 70% of residents identify as Christian and 20% as Muslim. Mindanao is divided into six administrative regions: the Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, the Caraga region, the Davao region, Soccsksargen, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Native ethnic groups in Mindanao include the Lumads (namely the Subanons of the Zamboanga Peninsula; the Bukidnon, the Ata Manobos, the Mamanwas, the Matigsalugs, the Agusan Manobos, the Talaandigs, the Kamigins, and the Higaonons of Northern Mindanao and the region of Caraga; the T'bolis, the Tirurays, the B'laans, the Saranganis, and the Cotabato Manobos of the region of SOCCSKSARGEN; and the Obo, the Mandayas, the Giangans, the Tagabawas, the Kalagans, the Sangirese, and the Mansaka of the Davao region) and the Moros (namely the Maguindanaos, the Maranaos, the Tausugs, the Yakans, the Iranuns, and the Sama, mainly concentrated within Bangsamoro). Joining them are the equally indigenous Visayan groups in coastal areas like the Butuanons, Surigaonons, and Kagay-anons of Northern Mindanao and the Caraga region as well as the Zamboangueños of the eponymous peninsula, along with descendants of modern settlers from the Visayas and Luzon (chiefly from the former), among them the Cebuanos and the Hiligaynons.
Mindanao is considered the major breadbasket of the Philippines, with eight of the top 10 agri-commodities exported from the Philippines coming from there.
Mindanao is known as "The Philippines' Land of Promise".
The name "Mindanao" is derived from the Spanish corruption of the name of the Maguindanao people, the dominant ruling ethnic group in the Sultanate of Maguindanao in southwestern Mindanao during the Spanish colonial period. The name itself means "people of the lake (Lanao)", though it is usually translated to "people of the flood plains" in modern sources.
Archaeological findings on the island point to evidence of human activity dating back about ten thousand years. Around 1500 BC Austronesian people spread throughout the Philippines.
The Subanon are believed to have established themselves on Mindanao Island during the Neolithic Era, or New Stone Age, the period in the development of human technology beginning around 10,000 BC according to the ASPRO chronology (between 4,500 and 2,000 BC). The evidence of old stone tools in Zamboanga del Norte may indicate a late Neolithic presence. Ceramic burial jars, both unglazed and glazed, as well as Chinese celadons, have been found in caves, together with shell bracelets, beads, and gold ornaments. Many of the ceramic objects are from the Yuan and Ming periods. Evidently, there was a long history of trade between the Subanon and the Chinese long before the latter's contact with Islam.
In the classic epoch of Philippine history (900 AD onwards), the people of Mindanao were heavily exposed to Hindu and Buddhist influence and beliefs from Indonesia and Malaysia. Indianized abugida scripts such as Kawi and Baybayin was introduced via Sulawesi and Java, and the cultural icons of the sarong (known as malong or patadyong), the pudong turban, silk, and batik and ikat weaving and dyeing methods were introduced. Artifacts found from this era include the Golden kinnara, Golden Tara, and the Ganesh pendant. These cultural traits passed from Mindanao into the Visayas and Luzon, but were subsequently lost or heavily modified after the Spanish arrival in the 16th century.
The Hindu-Buddhist cultural revolution was strongest in the coastal areas of the island, tending to become incorporated into local animist beliefs and customs among the tribes of the interior. The Rajahnate of Butuan, a fully Hindu kingdom mentioned in Chinese records as a tributary state in the 10th century, was concentrated along the northeastern coast of the island around Butuan. The Darangen epic of the Maranao people harkens back to this era as the most complete local version of the Ramayana. The Maguindanao at this time also had strong Hindu beliefs, evidenced by the Ladya Lawana (Rajah Ravana) epic saga that survives to the present, albeit highly Islamized from the 17th century onward.
The spread of Islam in the Philippines began in the 14th century, mostly through the influence of Muslim merchants from the western Malay Archipelago. The first mosque in the Philippines was built in the mid-14th century in the town of Simunul, Tawi-Tawi. Around the 16th century, the Muslim sultanates of Sulu, Lanao and Maguindanao were established from formerly Hindu-Buddhist Rajahnates.
As Islam gained influence in Mindanao, the natives of the Sultanates had to either convert to Islam or pay tribute to their new Muslim rulers. The largest of the Muslim polities in mainland Mindanao was the Sultanate of Maguindanao, which controlled the southern floodplains of the Rio Grande de Mindanao and most of the coastal area of the Illana Bay and the Moro Gulf. The name Mindanao was derived from this Sultanate. But most of Mindanao remained animist, especially the Lumad people in the interior. Most of the northern, eastern, and southern coastal regions inhabited by Visayans (Surigaonon and Butuanon) and other groups were later converted to Christianity by the Spanish.
In 1521 Antonio Pigafetta wrote an account of reaching 'Maingdano.' He was with Magellan on the first circumnavigation of the globe and sailing for the king of Spain.
On 2 February 1543, Ruy López de Villalobos was the first Spaniard to reach Mindanao. He called the island ""Caesarea Caroli"" after Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (and I of Spain). Shortly after Spain's colonization of Cebu, it moved on to colonize Butuan and the surrounding Caraga region in northeast Mindanao and discovered significant Muslim presence on the island. Over time a number of tribes in Mindanao converted to Roman Catholicism and built settlements and forts throughout the coastal regions. These settlements endured despite attacks from neighboring Muslim Sultanates. The most heavily fortified of them, apart from a short period in 1662 when Spain sent soldiers from the city to Manila after a threat of invasion from the Chinese general Koxinga, was Zamboanga City.
By the late 18th century Spain had geographic dominance over the island, having established settlements and forts in most of Mindanao, including Zamboanga City (which was then settled by Peruvian soldiers) and Misamis Occidental to the northwest, Iligan City, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, and Camiguin Island to the north, Butuan and the Caraga region to the east, and Davao in the island's gulf coast. Spain continued to engage in battles with Muslim Sultanates until the end of the 19th century.
In the Treaty of Paris in 1898 Spain sold the entire Philippine archipelago to the United States for $20 million. The 1900 Treaty of Washington and the 1930 Convention Between the United States and Great Britain clarified the borders between Mindanao and Borneo.
In 1939 the Philippine government encouraged citizens from Luzon and Visayas to migrate to Mindanao. Consisting mostly of Ilocanos, Cebuanos, and Illongos. Filipino settlers streaming into Soccsksargen led to the displacement of the Blaan and Tboli tribes.
In April 1942 Mindanao, along with the rest of the Philippines, officially entered World War II after Japanese soldiers invaded key cities in the islands. Many towns and cities were burned to the ground in Mindanao, most notably Davao City, Zamboanga City, Lanao, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan City, and Butuan. In the months of April and May 1942, Japanese forces defeated US troops commanded by William F. Sharp and Guy Fort, in a battle that started at Malabang (a town close to Gandamatu Macadar, Lanao) and ended close to the town of Ganassi, Lanao. Davao City was among the earliest to be occupied by the invading Japanese forces. They immediately fortified the city as a bastion of the Japanese defense system.
Davao City was subjected by the returning forces of Gen. Macarthur to constant bombing, before the American Liberation Forces landed in Leyte in October 1944. Filipino soldiers and local guerrilla fighters were actively fighting Japanese forces until liberation at the conclusion of the Battle of Mindanao.
Violent conflicts in the southwestern regions of Mindanao that began in the 1960s led to the 1971 Manili Massacre, Pata Island Massacre, the founding of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the formation of the Ilaga.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos's administration, the government was said to have encouraged Christian settlers in Mindanao, displacing many locals. The forced land seizures by Luzon and Visayan settlers resulted in ongoing conflict as the original owners seek ancestral land reclamation.
In March 2000 President Estrada declared an "All Out War" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after it committed a series of terrorist attacks on government buildings, civilians, and foreigners. A number of livelihood intervention projects, from organisations such as USAID and the Emergency Livelihood Assistance Program (ELAP), aided in the reconstruction of areas affected by constant battles on the island.
In December 2009, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo officially placed Maguindanao under a state of martial law following the Maguindanao massacre.
Tropical storm Sendong (international name, Washi) made landfall on 15 December 2011 in Mindanao. The recorded 24-hour rainfall in Lumbia station of PAGASA reached 180.9 mm, causing the overflow of the Cagayan de Oro River. The storm killed 1,268 people, with 49 others listed as missing. Most of the casualties were from Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. Those who survived were rendered homeless, seeking shelter in evacuation centers.
In May 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on the entire island group of Mindanao following the Marawi siege by the Maute terrorist group. Thousands of civilians were killed by the terrorist group during the siege, and more than 180,000 people were forced to evacuate Marawi City.
Mindanao's economy accounts for 14% of the country's gross domestic product. The region grew 4.9% in 2016 against Luzon's 5.5% and Visayas' 9.1%.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing make up more than 40% of Mindanao's market, being the country's largest supplier of major crops such as pineapples and bananas.
There are 2 defined growth corridors in the island namely Metro Davao and Metro CDO. Other regional centers are: Zamboanga City, General Santos City, Butuan City, Cotabato City, Dipolog City, Jolo, Surigao City, Pagadian City, Koronadal City, and Tagum City.
Being the top-performing economy in Mindanao, Davao Region has the 5th-biggest economy in the country and the second-fastest-growing economy next to Cordillera Autonomous Region. While the region's economy is predominantly agri-based, it is now developing into a center for agro-industrial business, trade and tourism. Its competitive advantage is in agri-industry as its products, papayas, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, fresh asparagus, flowers, and fish products are exported internationally. The region can be a vital link to markets in other parts of Mindanao, Brunei Darussalam and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia.
There is also a growing call center sector in the region, mostly centered in Davao City.
Some 2,130 government-led infrastructure projects worth P547.9 billion have also been lined up for Mindanao until 2022.
NEDA official said that 68% of that budget will be allotted for the transportation sector, while 16% will go to water resources, and 6% to social infrastructure.
Of this amount, 18 infrastructure projects have been identified as "flagship projects," five of them have already been approved by President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
The projects include the ₱35.26 billion Tagum-Davao-Digos Segment of the Mindanao Railway, the ₱40.57 billion Davao airport, the ₱14.62 billion Laguindingan airport, the ₱4.86 billion Panguil Bay Bridge Project, and the ₱5.44 billion Malitubog-Maridagao Irrigation Project, Phase II.
Projects in the pipeline are the second and third phases of the Mindanao Railway; the Agus-Pulangi plant rehabilitation; the Davao expressway; the Zamboanga Fish Port Complex rehabilitation; the Balo-i Plains Flood Control Project; Asbang Small Reservoir Irrigation Project; the Ambal Simuay Sub-Basin of the Mindanao River Basin Flood Control and River Protection Project; as well as the Road Network Development Project in Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao project.
The island consists of 6 administrative regions, 22 provinces, and 30 cities (27 provinces and 33 cities if associated islands are included).
The list of largest cities and municipalities in Mindanao in terms of population is shown in the table below.
Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines at 97,530 square kilometers, and is the eighth-most populous island in the world. The island of Mindanao is larger than 125 countries worldwide, including the Netherlands, South Korea, Austria, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Ireland. The island is mountainous, and is home to Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the country. Mindanao is surrounded by four seas: the Sulu Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south, and the Mindanao Sea to the north. Of all the islands of the Philippines, Mindanao shows the greatest variety of physiographic development. High, rugged, faulted mountains; almost isolated volcanic peaks; high rolling plateaus; and broad, level, swampy plains are found there.
The Mindanao island group is an arbitrary grouping of islands in southern Philippines which comprises the Mindanao mainland, the Sulu Archipelago (consisting of the islands of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi), and the outlying islands of Camiguin, Dinagat, Siargao, and Samal.
Platycerium grande is endemic to the island
The mountains of Mindanao can be grouped into ten ranges, including both complex structural mountains and volcanoes. The structural mountains on the extreme eastern and western portions of the island show broad exposures of Mesozoic rock, and Ultrabasic rocks at the surface in many places along the east coast. Other parts of the island consist mainly of Cenozoic and Quaternary volcanic or sedimentary rocks.
In the eastern portion of the island, from Bilas Point in Surigao del Norte to Cape San Agustin in Davao Oriental, is a range of complex mountains known in their northern portion as the Diwata Mountains. This range is low and rolling in its central portion. A proposed road connecting Bislig on the east coast with the Agusan River would pass through of broad saddle across the mountains at a maximum elevation of less than ; while the existing east–west road from Lianga, north of Bislig, reaches a maximum elevation of only . The Diwata Mountains, north of these low points, are considerably higher and more rugged, reaching an elevation of in Mount Hilong-Hilong, along the eastern portion of Cabadbaran City. The southern portion of this range is broader and even more rugged than the northern section. In Davao Oriental, several peaks rise above and one mountain rises to .
The east-facing coastal regions of Davao and Surigao del Sur are marked by a series of small coastal lowlands separated from each other by rugged forelands which extend to the water's edge. Offshore are numerous coral reefs and tiny islets. This remote and forbidding coast is made doubly difficult to access during the months from October to March by the heavy surf driven before the northeast trade winds. A few miles offshore is found the Philippine Deep. This ocean trench, reaching measured depths of , is the third-deepest trench, (after the Mariana Trench and Tonga Trench) on the earth's surface.
A second north–south mountain range extends from Talisayan in the north, to Tinaca Point in the southernmost point of Mindanao. This mountain range runs along the western borders of the Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, and Davao provinces. This range is mainly structural in origin, but it also contains at least three active volcano peaks. The central and northern portions of this range contain several peaks between , and here the belt of mountains is about across.
West of Davao City stand two inactive volcanoes: Mount Talomo at , and Mount Apo at . Mount Apo is the highest point in the Philippines. South of Mount Apo, this central mountain belt is somewhat lower than it is to the north, with peaks averaging only .
In Western Mindanao, a range of complex structural mountains forms the long, hand-like Zamboanga Peninsula. These mountains, reaching heights of only , are not as high as the other structural belts in Mindanao. There are several places in the Zamboanga Mountains where small inter-mountain basins have been created, with some potential for future agricultural development. The northeastern end of this range is marked by the twin peaks of the now-extinct volcano, Mount Malindang, that towers over Ozamis City at a height of . Mount Dapia is the highest mountain in the Zamboanga Peninsula, reaching a height of . Batorampon Point is the highest mountain of the southernmost end of the peninsula, reaching a height of only ; it is located in the boundary of Zamboanga City.
A series of volcanic mountains is located within the vicinity of Lake Lanao forming a broad arc through the Lanao del Sur, Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces. At least six of the twenty odd peaks in this area are active and several stand in semi-isolation. The Butig Peaks, with their four crater lakes, are easily seen from Cotabato. Mount Ragang, an active volcano cone reaching , is the most isolated, while the greatest height is reached by Mount Kitanglad at .
In South Cotabato, is another range of volcanic mountains, this time paralleling the coast. These mountains have a maximum extent of from northwest to southeast and measures some across. One of the well-known mountains here is Mount Parker, whose almost circular crater lake measures a mile-and-a-quarter in diameter and lies below its summit. Mount Matutum is a protected area and is considered as one of the major landmarks in the South Cotabato province.
Another important physiographic division of Mindanao is the series of upland plateaus in the Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur provinces. These plateaus are rather extensive and almost surround several volcanoes in this area. The plateaus are made up of basaltic lava flows inter-bedded with volcanic ash and tuff. Near their edges, the plateaus are cut by deep canyons, and at several points waterfalls drop down to the narrow coastal plain. These falls hold considerable promise for development of hydroelectric energy. Indeed, one such site at Maria Cristina Falls has already become a major producer. The rolling plateaus lie at an elevation averaging 700 meters above sea level, and offer relief from the often oppressive heat of the coastal lowlands.
Lake Lanao occupies a large portion of one such plateau in Lanao del Sur. This lake is the largest lake in Mindanao and the second largest in the country; it is roughly triangular in shape with an base, having a surface at 780 meters above sea level, and is rimmed on the east, south, and west by a series of peaks reaching 2,300 meters. Marawi City, at the northern tip of the lake, is bisected by the Agus River, that feeds the Maria Cristina Falls.
Another of Mindanao's waterfall sites is located in Malabang, south of Lake Lanao. Here the Jose Abad Santos Falls present one of the nation's scenic wonders at the gateway to a 200-hectare national park development.
The Limunsudan Falls, with an approximate height of , is the highest waterfall in the Philippines; it is located in Iligan City.
Mindanao contains two large lowland areas in the valleys of the Agusan River in Agusan, and the Rio Grande de Mindanao in Cotabato City.
There is some indication that the Agusan Valley occupies a broad syncline between the central mountains and the east-coast mountains. This valley measures from south to north and varies from in width. north of the head of Davao Gulf lies the watershed between the Agusan and the tributaries of the Libuganon River, which flows to the Gulf. The elevation of this divide is well under , indicating the almost continuous nature of the lowland from the Mindanao Sea on the north to the Davao Gulf.
The Rio Grande de Mindanao and its main tributaries, the Catisan and the Pulangi, form a valley with a maximum length of and a width which varies from at the river mouth to about in central Cotabato. The southern extensions of this Cotabato Valley extend uninterrupted across a watershed from Illana Bay on the northwest to Sarangani Bay on the southeast.
Other lowlands of a coastal nature are to be found in various parts of Mindanao. Many of these are tiny isolated pockets, along the northwest coast of Zamboanga. In other areas such as the Davao Plain, these coastal lowlands are wide and several times in length.
From Dipolog City eastward along the northern coast of Mindanao approaching Butuan City extends a rolling coastal plain of varying width. In Misamis Occidental, the now dormant Mount Malindang has created a lowland averaging in width. Shallow Panquil Bay divides this province from Lanao del Norte, and is bordered by low-lying, poorly drained lowlands and extensive mangroves. In Misamis Oriental, the plain is narrower and in places whittle into rugged capes that reach the sea. East of Cagayan de Oro, a rugged peninsula extends into the Mindanao Sea.
As of 2017, Mindanao had a population of over 25 million people. This comprises 22.1 percent of the entire population of the country.
An American census conducted in the early 1900s noted that the island was inhabited by people "greatly divided in origin, temperament and religion". Evidence of the island's cultural diversity can be seen in the buildings and ruins of old Spanish settlements in the northwestern peninsula that span eastwards to the southern gulf coast, the site of the ancient Rajahnate of Butuan in the northeast region (Caraga), the Sultanates in the southwest (Sultanate of Sulu, Sultanate of Lanao, Sultanate of Maguindanao), a number of Buddhist and Taoist temples, and the numerous indigenous tribes.
Today around 25.8 percent of the household population in Mindanao classified themselves as Cebuanos. Other ethnic groups included Bisaya/Binisaya (18.4%), Hiligaynon/Ilonggo (8.2%), Maguindanaon (5.5%), and Maranao (5.4%). The remaining 36.6 percent belonged to other ethnic groups. Cebuano registered the highest proportion of ethnic group in Northern Mindanao and Davao Region with 35.59 percent and 37.76 percent, respectively. In SOCCSKSARGEN, it was Hiligaynon/Ilonggo (31.58%), Binisaya/Bisaya (33.10%) in Zamboanga Peninsula, Maranao (26.40%) in ARMM, and Surigaonon (25.67%) in Caraga.
Dozens of languages are spoken in Mindanao; among them, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Surigaonon, Tausug, Maranao, Maguindanao, and Chavacano are most widely spoken. Of the seven aforementioned regional languages, Cebuano (often referred as Bisaya) has the highest number of speakers, being spoken throughout Northern Mindanao (except the southern parts of Lanao del Norte), the Davao region, the western half of the Caraga region (as well as the city of Bislig and the municipalities surrounding it in Surigao del Sur), the entirety of the Zamboanga Peninsula (with the exception of Zamboanga City), and southern SOCCSKSARGEN. Hiligaynon is the main language of SOCCSKSARGEN, where majority of the inhabitants are of ethnic Hiligaynon stock. Surigaonon is spoken in the eastern half of the Caraga region, mainly by the eponymous Surigaonons. Tausug is widely spoken in the western territories of the ARMM, specifically the Sulu Archipelago, which comprises the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, with a sizeable community of speakers residing in Zamboanga City. Maguindanao and Maranao are the dominant languages of the eastern territories of the ARMM, respectively, with the former being spoken in Lanao del Sur as well as the southern areas of Lanao del Norte, and the latter in the eponymous province of Maguindanao and also in adjacent areas which are part of SOCCSKSARGEN. Chavacano is the native language of Zamboanga City and is also the lingua franca of Basilan; it is also spoken in the southernmost fringes of Zamboanga Sibugay. It is also spoken, albeit as a minority language, in Cotabato City and Davao City, where dialects of it, respectively, exist, namely Cotabateñ and Castellano Abakay, both of which evolved from the variant of the language spoken in Zamboanga City. English is also widely understood and spoken, being highly utilized in business and academia.
Christianity is the dominant religious affiliation in Mindanao with 65.9% of the household population, majority of which are adherents of Roman Catholicism, Islam comprised 23.39%, and other religions were Evangelical (5.34%), Aglipayan (2.16%), and Iglesia ni Cristo (2.66%).
Major tourist spots are scattered throughout Mindanao, consisting mostly of beach resorts, scuba diving resorts, surfing, museums, nature parks, mountain climbing, and river rafting. Siargao, best known for its surfing tower in Cloud 9, also has caves, pools, waterfalls, and lagoons. There are archaeological sites, historical ruins, and museums in Butuan. White Island is a popular tourist spot in Camiguin. The Duka Bay and the Matangale dive resorts in Misamis Oriental offer glass bottomed boat rides and scuba diving lessons. Cagayan de Oro has beach resorts, the Mapawa Nature Park, white water rafting and kayaking, museums, and historical landmarks. Ziplining is the main attraction at the Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon. Iligan City has The Maria Christina Falls, Tinago Falls, nature parks, beaches, and historical landmarks. There are parks, historical buildings, the Vinta Ride at Paseo del Mar, boat villages, 11 Islands (commonly called as "Onçe Islas"), 17th-century Fort Pilar Shrine & Museum and the world-renowned "Pink Sand Beach" of Sta. Cruz in Zamboanga City. There are festivals, fireworks, and the Beras Bird Sanctuary in Takurong City. Davao has Mt Apo, parks, museums, beaches, historical landmarks, and scuba diving resorts.
Many areas in Mindanao suffer rotating 12-hour blackouts due to the island's woefully inadequate power supply. The island is forecast to continue suffering from a 200-megawatt power deficit until 2015, when the private sector begins to operate new capacity. Aboitiz Equity Ventures, a publicly listed holdings company, has committed to supplying 1,200 megawatts through a coal-fired plant on the border of Davao City and Davao del Sur that is slated for operation by 2018. The Agus-Pulangui hydropower complex, which supplies more than half of Mindanao's power supply, is currently producing only 635 megawatts of its 982 megawatts capacity due to the heavy siltation of the rivers that power the complex. Zamboanga City, an urbanised center in southwest Mindanao, is expected to begin experience daily three-hour brownouts due to the National Power Corporation's decision to reduce power supply in the city by 10 megawatts.
The Manila Electric Company (Meralco), the largest power distributor in the Philippines, and Global Business Power Corp (GBPC), also a major provider, have announced plans to enter Mindanao for the first time to establish solutions for the power problems within the island.
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Moveable feast
A moveable feast or movable feast is an observance in a Christian liturgical calendar that occurs on a different date (relative to the dominant civil or solar calendar) in different years.
The most important set of moveable feasts are a fixed number of days before or after Easter Sunday, which varies by 35 days since it depends partly on the phase of the moon and must be computed each year. In Eastern Christianity (including the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Eastern Catholic Churches), these moveable feasts form what is called the Paschal cycle, which stands in contrast to the approach taken by Catholic and Protestant Christianity.
Most other feast days, such as those of particular saints, are "fixed feasts", held on the same date every year. However, some observances are always held on the same day of the week, and thus occur on a range of days without depending on the date of Easter. For example, the start of Advent is the Sunday nearest November 30. In addition, the observance of some fixed feasts may move a few days in a particular year to not clash with that year's date for a more important moveable feast. There are rare examples of saints with genuinely moveable feast days, such as Saint Sarkis the Warrior in the calendar of the Armenian Church.
Since Islamic feasts (Id ul Adha and Id ul Fitr) are lunar month based, they take place in different solar calendar dates and can occur at any time of the year.
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Mark McGwire
Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed Big Mac, is an American former professional baseball first baseman. His Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career spanned from 1986 to 2001 while playing for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals, winning one World Series championship each with Oakland as a player in 1989 and with St. Louis as a coach in 2011. One of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history, McGwire holds the major league career record for at bats per home run ratio (10.6), and is the former record holder for both home runs in a single season (70 in 1998) and home runs hit by rookie (49 in 1987).
He ranks 11th all time in home runs with 583, and led the major leagues in home runs in five different seasons, while establishing the major league record for home runs hit in a four-season period from 1996 to 1999 with 245. Further, he demonstrated exemplary patience as a batter, producing a career .394 on-base percentage (OBP) and twice leading the major leagues in bases on balls. Injuries cut short the manifestation of even greater potential as he reached 140 games played in just eight of 16 total seasons. A right-handed batter and thrower, McGwire stood tall and weighed during his playing career.
A part of the 1998 Major League Baseball home run record chase of Roger Maris' 61 with the Cardinals, McGwire set the major league single-season home run record with 70, which Barry Bonds broke three years later with 73. McGwire also led the league in runs batted in, twice in bases on balls and on-base percentage, and four times in slugging percentage. Injuries significantly cut into his playing time in 2000 and 2001 before factoring into his retirement. He finished with 583 home runs, which was fifth all-time when he retired.
McGwire was a central figure in baseball's steroids scandal. In 2010, McGwire publicly admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during a large portion of his career. In his first ten years of eligibility, McGwire has not been elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
McGwire was born in Pomona, California. His father was a dentist. He attended Damien High School in La Verne, California, where he played baseball, golf, and basketball. He was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1981 amateur draft but did not sign. He played college baseball at the University of Southern California (where he was a teammate of Randy Johnson and Jack Del Rio) under coach Rod Dedeaux.
McGwire was selected by the Athletics with the 10th overall selection in the 1984 MLB draft.
He was a member of the silver medal-winning entry of the United States national team that same year at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, with Japan finishing ahead for gold medal.
After three years at Southern California and a stint on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, the Oakland Athletics drafted McGwire tenth overall in the 1984 Major League Baseball draft.
McGwire debuted in the major leagues in August 1986, hitting three home runs and nine runs batted in in 18 games.
Retaining his rookie status in 1987, McGwire took center stage in baseball with his home runs. He hit just four in the month of April, but followed in May with 15, and another nine in June. Before the All-Star break arrived, he totaled 33 HR and earned a spot on the American League (AL) All-Star team. On August 11, he broke Al Rosen's AL rookie record of 37 home runs. Three days later, McGwire broke the major league record of 38, which Frank Robinson and Wally Berger jointly held. In September, McGwire hit nine more home runs while posting monthly personal bests of a .351 batting average, .419 on-base percentage (OBP) and 11 doubles (2B). With 49 HR and two games remaining in the regular season, he chose to sit them out with an opportunity for 50 home runs to be present for the birth of his first child. McGwire also totaled 118 runs batted in (RBI), .289 batting average, 97 runs scored, 28 doubles, a .618 slugging percentage and a .370 on-base percentage (OBP). McGwire's 49 home runs as a rookie stood as a major league record until Aaron Judge hit 52 for the New York Yankees in 2017.
Not only did he lead the AL in home runs in 1987, but he also tied for the major league lead with Chicago Cubs right fielder Andre Dawson. McGwire also led the major leagues in SLG, finished second in the AL in adjusted on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS+, 164) total bases (344), third in RBI and on-base plus slugging (OPS, .987). He was thus a unanimous choice for the AL Rookie of the Year Award and finished sixth overall in the AL Most Valuable Player Award voting.
From 1988 to 1990, McGwire followed with 32, 33, and 39 home runs, respectively, becoming the first Major Leaguer to hit 30+ home runs in each of his first four full seasons. On July 3 and 4, 1988, he hit game-winning home runs in the 16th inning of both games. Through May 2009, McGwire was tied for third all-time with Joe DiMaggio in home runs over his first two calendar years in the major leagues (71), behind Chuck Klein (83) and Ryan Braun (79).
McGwire's most famous home run with the A's was likely his game-winning solo shot in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 3 of the 1988 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and former A's closer Jay Howell. McGwire's game-winner brought the A's their only victory in the 1988 World Series, which they lost in five games; however, McGwire and his fellow Bash Brother, José Canseco, played a large part in the 1989 championship club that defeated the San Francisco Giants in the famous "Earthquake Series".
Working diligently on his defense at first base, McGwire bristled at the notion that he was a one-dimensional player. He was generally regarded as a good fielder in his early years, even winning a Gold Glove Award in 1990 – the only one that New York Yankees legend Don Mattingly would not win between 1985 and 1994. In later years, his mobility decreased and, with it, his defense; however, McGwire's batting averages after his rookie season plummeted to .260, .231, and .235 from 1988 to 1990. In 1991, he bottomed out with a .201 average and 22 homers. Manager Tony La Russa sat him out the final game of the season to avoid allowing his batting average to dip below .200. Despite the declining averages during this time of his career, his high bases on balls totals allowed him to maintain acceptable OBPs. In fact, when he hit .201, his OPS+ was 103, or just over league average.
McGwire stated in an interview with "Sports Illustrated" that 1991 was the "worst year" of his life, with his on-field performance and marriage difficulties, and that he "didn't lift a weight" that entire season. With all that behind him, McGwire re-dedicated himself to working out harder than ever and received visual therapy from a sports vision specialist.
The "new look" McGwire hit 42 homers and batted .268 in 1992, with an outstanding OPS+ of 175 (the highest of his career to that point), and put on a home run hitting show at the Home Run Derby during the 1992 All-Star break. His performance propelled the A's to the American League West Division title in 1992, their fourth in five seasons. The A's lost in the playoffs to the eventual World Series champion, the Toronto Blue Jays.
Foot injuries limited McGwire to a total of 74 games in 1993 and 1994, and just 9 home runs in each of the two seasons. He played just 104 games in 1995, but his proportional totals were much improved: 39 home runs in 317 at-bats. In 1996, McGwire belted a major league leading 52 homers in 423 at-bats. He also hit a career high .312 average, and led the league in both slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
McGwire's total of 363 home runs with the Athletics surpassed the previous franchise record. He was selected or voted to nine American League All-Star Teams while playing for the A's, including six consecutive appearances from 1987 through 1992. He was one of only four players to hit a ball over the roof in the left field of Tiger Stadium.
On July 31, having already amassed 34 home runs to this point in the 1997 season, McGwire was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals for T. J. Mathews, Eric Ludwick and Blake Stein. Despite playing just two-thirds of the season in the American League, he finished ninth in home runs. In 51 games with the Cardinals to finish the 1997 season, McGwire compiled a .253 batting average, 24 home runs, and 42 RBI. Overall in 1997, McGwire led the majors with 58 home runs. He also finished third in the major leagues in slugging percentage (.646), fourth in OPS (1.039), fifth in OPS+ (170), tenth in RBI (123), and ninth in walks (101). He placed 16th in the NL MVP voting.
It was the last year of his contract, so there was speculation that McGwire would play for the Cardinals only for the remainder of the season, then seek a long-term deal, possibly in Southern California, where he still lived; however, McGwire signed a contract to stay in St. Louis. It is also believed that McGwire later encouraged Jim Edmonds, another Southern California resident who was traded to St. Louis, to forgo free agency and sign a contract with the Cardinals in 2000.
As the 1998 season progressed, it became clear that McGwire, Seattle Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., and Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa were all on track to break Roger Maris's single-season home run record. The race to break the record first attracted media attention as the home run leader changed often throughout the season. On August 19, Sosa hit his 48th home run to move ahead of McGwire; however, later that day McGwire hit his 48th and 49th home runs to regain the lead.
On September 8, 1998, McGwire hit a pitch by the Cubs' Steve Trachsel over the left field wall for his record-breaking 62nd home run, setting off massive celebrations at Busch Stadium. The fact that the game was against the Cubs meant that Sosa was able to congratulate McGwire personally on his achievement. Members of Maris's family were also present at the game. The ball was freely, albeit controversially, given to McGwire in a ceremony on the field by the stadium worker who found it.
McGwire finished the 1998 season with 70 home runs (including five in his last three games), four ahead of Sosa's 66, a record that was broken three seasons later in 2001 by Barry Bonds with 73.
McGwire was honored with the inaugural Babe Ruth Home Run Award for leading Major League Baseball in home runs. Although McGwire had the prestige of the home run record, Sammy Sosa (who had fewer HR but more RBI and stolen bases) won the 1998 NL MVP award, as his contributions helped propel the Cubs to the playoffs (the Cardinals in 1998 finished third in the NL Central). Many credited the Sosa-McGwire home run chase in 1998 with "saving baseball", by both bringing in new, younger fans and bringing back old fans soured by the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike.
McGwire kept his high level of offensive production from 1998 going in 1999 while setting or extending several significant records. For the fourth consecutive season, he led MLB in home runs with 65. It was also his fourth consecutive season with at least 50 home runs, extending his own major league record. Sosa, who hit 63 home runs in 1999, again trailed McGwire. Thus, they became the first, and still only, players in major league history to hit 60 or more home runs in consecutive seasons. McGwire also set a record from 1998 to 1999 for home runs in a two-season period with 135. Further, he owned the highest four-season HR total, with 245 from 1996 to 1999. In 1999, he drove in an NL-leading 147 runs while only having 145 hits, the highest RBI-per-hit tally for a season in baseball history.
Statistically in 2000 and 2001, McGwire's numbers declined relative to previous years as he struggled to avoid injury (32 HR in 89 games, and 29 HR in 97 games, respectively). He retired after the 2001 season.
After his playing career ended, McGwire demonstrated coaching ability, personally assisting players such as Matt Holliday, Bobby Crosby and Skip Schumaker before accepting an official role as hitting coach with an MLB team. On October 26, 2009, Tony La Russa, then manager of the Cardinals, confirmed that McGwire would become the club's fifth hitting coach of his tenure with the Cardinals, replacing Hal McRae. McGwire received a standing ovation prior to the Cardinals home opener on April 12, 2010. In his three seasons as Cardinals hitting coach, they featured a prolific offense that led the National League in hitting and on-base percentage, and were second in runs.
In early November 2012, McGwire rejected a contract extension to return as Cardinals hitting coach for the 2013 season. Instead, he accepted an offer for the same position with the Los Angeles Dodgers, in order to be closer to his wife and five children.
On June 11, 2013, McGwire was ejected for the first time as a coach during a bench-clearing brawl with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was suspended for two games starting the next day.
On December 2, 2015, he was named the new bench coach for the San Diego Padres. He left the team after the 2018 season.
Known as one of the top sluggers of his era, McGwire ended his career with 583 home runs, which was fifth-most in history when he retired. When he hit his 500th career home run in 1999, he did so in 5,487 career at bats, the fewest in major league history. He led all MLB in home runs in five different seasons, including 1987 and each season from 1996 to 1999. Totaling 245 home runs from 1996−99, it was the highest four-season home run output in major league history. Further, in each of those four seasons, he exceeded 50 home runs, becoming the first player to do so. He was also the first player to hit 49 or more home runs five times, including his rookie-season record of 49 in 1987. With a career average of one home every 10.61 at-bats, he holds the MLB record for most home runs per at-bat by over a full at-bat more than second-place Babe Ruth (11.76).
As of 2015, McGwire owned three of the four lowest single-season AB/HR ratios in MLB history, which covered his 1996, 1998 and 1999 seasons. They were actually the top three seasons in MLB history until Bonds broke his single-season HR record in 2001. McGwire's 1997 season ranked 13th. Considered one of the slowest running players in the game, McGwire had the fewest career triples (six) of any player with 5,000 or more at-bats, and had just 12 stolen bases while being caught stealing eight times.
In 1999, "The Sporting News" released a list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, ranking McGwire at number 91. The list had been compiled during the 1998 season and included statistics through the 1997 season. That year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2005, "The Sporting News" published an update of their list, and McGwire had been moved up to Number 84.
McGwire first became eligible for Hall of Fame voting in 2007. For election, a player needs to be listed on 75% of ballots cast; falling under 5% removes a player from future consideration. Between 2007 and 2010 McGwire's performance held steady, receiving 128 votes (23.5%) in 2007, 128 votes (23.6%) in 2008, 118 votes (21.9%) in 2009, and 128 votes (23.7%) in 2010. The subsequent ballot in 2011 showed the first sub-20% total of 115 votes (19.8%), and McGwire's total votes continued to decline (112 votes (19.5%) in 2012, 96 votes (16.9%) in 2013, 63 votes (11.0%) in 2014, and 55 votes (10.0%) in 2015) until he was finally eliminated after receiving only 54 votes (12.3%) in 2016.
A portion of Interstate 70 in Missouri in St. Louis and near Busch Stadium was named "Mark McGwire Highway" to honor his 70 home run achievement, along with his various good works for the city. In May 2010, St. Louis politicians succeeded in passing a state bill to change the name of "Mark McGwire Highway", a 5-mile stretch of Interstate 70, to "Mark Twain Highway".
† – "tied with Sammy Sosa"
†† – "tied with Babe Ruth and Sammy Sosa"
In 16 seasons playing major league baseball (1986–2001), McGwire accumulated the following career totals:
In a 1998 article by Associated Press writer Steve Wilstein, McGwire admitted to taking androstenedione, an over-the-counter muscle enhancement product that had already been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the NFL, and the IOC; however, use of the substance was not prohibited by Major League Baseball at the time, and it was not federally classified as an anabolic steroid in the United States until 2004.
Jose Canseco released a book, "", in 2005. In it, he wrote positively about steroids and made various claims—among them, that McGwire had used performance-enhancing drugs since the 1980s and that Canseco had personally injected him with them.
In 2005, McGwire and Canseco were among 11 baseball players and executives subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing on steroids. During his testimony on March 17, 2005, McGwire declined to answer questions under oath when he appeared before the House Government Reform Committee. In a tearful opening statement, McGwire said:
On January 11, 2010, McGwire admitted to using steroids on and off for a decade and said, "I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era." He admitted using them in the 1989/90 offseason and then after he was injured in 1993. He admitted using them on occasion throughout the 1990s, including during the 1998 season. McGwire said that he used steroids to recover from injuries.
McGwire's decision to admit using steroids was prompted by his decision to become hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. According to McGwire, he took steroids for health reasons rather than to improve performance.
McGwire's brother Dan McGwire was a quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins of the NFL in the early 1990s, and was a first-round draft choice out of San Diego State University. He has another brother, Jay McGwire, a bodybuilder, who wrote a book in 2010 detailing their shared steroid use.
McGwire married Stephanie Slemer—a former pharmaceutical sales representative from the St. Louis area—in Las Vegas on April 20, 2002. On June 1, 2010, their triplet girls were born: Monet Rose, Marlo Rose, and Monroe Rose. They join brothers Max and Mason. They reside in a gated community in Shady Canyon, Irvine, California. Together they created the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children to support agencies that help children who have been sexually and physically abused come to terms with a difficult childhood. Mark has a son, Matthew (b. 1987), from a previous marriage (1984–1990, divorced) to Kathleen Hughes.
Prior to admitting to using steroids, McGwire avoided the media and spent much of his free time playing golf. He also worked as a hitting coach for Major League players Matt Holliday, Bobby Crosby, Chris Duncan and Skip Schumaker.
McGwire appeared as himself in season 7, episode 13 of the sitcom "Mad About You".
McGwire provided his voice for an episode of "The Simpsons" titled "Brother's Little Helper", where he played himself.
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Manufacturing Consent
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in which the authors propose that the mass communication media of the U.S. "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion", by means of the propaganda model of communication. The title derives from the phrase "the manufacture of consent", employed in the book "Public Opinion" (1922), by Walter Lippmann (1889–1974). The "consent" referred to is consent of the governed.
The book was revised 20 years after its first publication to take account of developments such as the fall of the Soviet Union. There has been debate about how the Internet has changed the public's access to information since 1988.
In 1988, the book, "Manufacturing Consent," was published during the Cold War and has updated several editions. The newest edition for this book is published in 2002. It added several newly happened events and debates, especially in the field of economics. The updated version of "Manufacturing Consent" revised the propaganda model.
Chomsky credits the origin of the book to the impetus of Alex Carey, the Australian social psychologist, to whom Herman and he dedicated the book. The book was much inspired by Herman's earlier financial research. Since Herman's contribution to the book was so important, Chomsky insisted on putting Herman's name in front of his name, contrary to the pair’s habit of alphabetic listing. Herman and Chomsky were close friends for fifty years.
The book introduced the propaganda model of communication, which is still developing today.
The propaganda model for the manufacture of public consent describes five editorially distorting filters, which are applied to the reporting of news in mass communications media:
According to Chomsky, "most of the book" was the work of Edward S. Herman. Herman describes a rough division of labor in preparing the book whereby he was responsible for the preface and chapters 1–4 while Chomsky was responsible for chapters 5–7. According to Herman, the propaganda model described in the book was originally his idea, tracing it back to his 1981 book "Corporate Control, Corporate Power". The main elements of the propaganda model (though not so called at the time) were discussed briefly in volume 1 chapter 2 of Herman and Chomsky's 1979 book "The Political Economy of Human Rights", where they argued, "Especially where the issues involve substantial U.S. economic and political interests and relationships with friendly or hostile states, the mass media usually function much in the manner of state propaganda agencies."
Herman was a professor of finance at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Chomsky is a linguist and activist scholar. He wrote "Towards a New Cold War" and other books. The two authors won the Orwell Award for "Manufacturing Consent".
Before "Manufacturing Consent" was published in 1988, the two authors had collaborated on the same subject before. Their book "", a book about American foreign policy and the media, was published in 1973. The publisher for the book, a subsidiary of Warner Communications Incorporated, was deliberately put out of business after printing 20,000 copies of the book, most of which were destroyed, so the book was not widely known.
Four years after publication, "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" was adapted as "" (1992), a documentary film that discusses the propaganda model of communication and the politics of the mass-communications business, as well as a biography of Chomsky. The film was directed by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick. The length of this film is three hours and was firstly opened in the film forum. The film was conducted in English and was released in several English spoken countries. The origin-country for this film is Canada. The documentary film for this book is a visual version to express the ideas from the linguist, Noam Chomsky.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20549
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Maeshowe
Maeshowe (or Maes Howe; ) is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was probably built around . In the archaeology of Scotland, it gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney. Maeshowe is a significant example of Neolithic craftsmanship and is, in the words of the archaeologist Stuart Piggott, "a superlative monument that by its originality of execution is lifted out of its class into a unique position." Maeshowe is a scheduled monument and is part of the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney", a group sites including Skara Brae, which were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Maeshowe is one of the largest tombs in Orkney; the mound encasing the tomb is in diameter and rises to a height of . Surrounding the mound, at a distance of to is a ditch up to wide. The grass mound hides a complex of passages and chambers built of carefully crafted slabs of flagstone weighing up to 30 tons. It is aligned so that the rear wall of its central chamber held up by a bracketed wall, is illuminated on the winter solstice. A similar display occurs in Newgrange.
This entrance passage is long and leads to the central almost square chamber measuring about on each side. The current height of the chamber is , this reflects the height to which the original stonework is preserved and capped by a modern corbelled roof. The original roof may have risen to a height of or more. The entrance passage is only about high, requiring visitors to stoop or crawl into the central chamber. That chamber is constructed largely of flat slabs of stone, many of which traverse nearly the entire length of the walls. In each corner lie huge angled buttresses that rise to the vaulting. At a height of about , the wall's construction changes from the use of flat to overlapping slabs creating a beehive-shaped vault.
Estimates of the amount of effort required to build Maeshowe vary; a commonly suggested number is 39,000 man-hours, although Colin Renfrew calculated that at least 100,000 hours would be required. Dating of the construction of Maeshowe is difficult but dates derived from burials in similar tombs cluster around . Since Maeshowe is the largest and most sophisticated example of the Maeshowe "type" of tomb, archaeologists have suggested that it is the last of its class, built around . The people who built Maeshowe were users of grooved ware, a distinctive type of pottery that spread throughout the British Isles from about .
Maeshowe appears as a grassy mound rising from a flat plain near the southeast end of the Loch of Harray. The land around Maeshowe at its construction probably looked much as it does today: treeless with grasses representative of Pollen Assemblage Zone MNH-I reflecting "mixed agricultural practices, probably with a pastoral bias – there is a substantial amount of ribwort pollen, but also that of cereals."
Maeshowe is aligned with some other Neolithic sites in the vicinity, for example the entrance of "Structure 8" of the nearby Barnhouse Settlement directly faces the mound. In addition, the so-called "Barnhouse Stone" in a field around 700 metres away is perfectly aligned with the entrance to Maeshowe. This entrance corridor is so placed that it lets the direct light of the setting sun into the chamber for a few days each side of the winter solstice, illuminating the entrance to the back cell.
A Neolithic "low road" connects Maeshowe with the magnificently preserved village of Skara Brae, passing near the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. Low roads connect Neolithic ceremonial sites throughout Britain. Some archeologists believe that Maeshowe was originally surrounded by a large stone circle. The complex including Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones of Stenness, Skara Brae, as well as other tombs and standing stones represents a concentration of Neolithic sites that is rivalled in Britain only by the complexes associated with Stonehenge and Avebury.
The tomb gives its name to the Maeshowe type of Scottish chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney. Maeshowe is very similar to the famous Newgrange tomb in Ireland, suggesting a linkage between the two cultures. Chambered tombs of the Maeshowe "type" are characterized by a long, low entrance passageway leading to a square or rectangular chamber from which there is access to a number of side cells. Although there are disagreements as to the attribution of tombs to tomb types, there are only seven definitely known Maeshowe type tombs. On Mainland, there are, in addition to Maeshowe; the tombs of Cuween Hill, Wideford Hill, and Quanterness. The tomb of Quoyness is found on Sanday, while Vinquoy Hill is located on Eday. Finally, there is an unnamed tomb on the Holm of Papa Westray. Anna Ritchie reports that there are three more Maeshowe type tombs in Orkney but she doesn't name or locate them.
According to the description herein, a chambered tomb is normally characterized by grave goods, which were found at Cuween Hill and the tomb on Holm of Papa Westray (see the paragraph above) but were not found at Maeshowe. Further, the description of a passage grave states: "Not all passage graves have been found to contain evidence of human remains. One such example is Maeshowe." In addition, the Statement of Significance (cited below in the section describing the Maeshowe World Heritage designation) says, "It is an expression of genius within a group of people whose other tombs were claustrophobic chambers in smaller mounds.".
A potential explanation for the extraordinary genius of Maeshowe engineering and the lack of human remains was described by Tompkins (1971) who compared the structure at "Maes-Howe" to the Great Pyramid (p. 130-133), suggesting the site was used as an observatory, calendar, and for May Day ceremonies rather than as a tomb.
Tompkins (1971) extensively studied numerous documents related to the measurement and exploration of the Great Pyramid of Giza. He stated the central "observation chamber" (p. 130) at Maeshowe was "corbeled like the Great Pyramid's Grand Gallery", was carefully leveled, plumbed", and the jointing is of a quality that "rivals that of the Great Pyramid". Rather than chambers of a tomb, Tompkins suggested the structure contained small "retiring rooms for the observers" (p. 130). He suggested the entrance was very similar to Egyptian pyramids in that it had a "54-foot observation passage aimed like a telescope at a megalithic stone [2772 ft. away] to indicate the summer solstice" (p. 130) in addition to its "Watchstone" to the West that indicated the equinoxes. The "sighting passage" (p. 133) points to a northern star like the pyramids of Saqqara, Dashur and Medûm. Tompkins stated that "The similarity [of the pyramids] to the structure at Maes-Howe is indeed amazing" (p. 133). He cited Professor Alexander Thom, former Chair of Engineering Science at Oxford, as writing about the geometry of construction and astronomical alignment of Maeshowe in this context in 1967 (Tompkins, 1971, p. 137-138).
Tompkins (1971), citing Thom (1967) and others, described in detail how Maeshowe, Silbury Hill (Tompkins, 1971, p. 128) and other ancient mounds and Neolithic megaliths across Britain served as extremely accurate observatories, calendars, and straight-line beacons for travelers, as well as how they were used ceremonially in May Day celebrations more than 4000 years ago.
The "modern" opening of the tomb was by James Farrer, an antiquarian and the Member of Parliament for South Durham, in July 1861. Farrer, like many antiquarians of the day, was not noted for his careful excavation of sites. John Hedges describes him as possessing "a rapacious appetite for excavation matched only by his crude techniques, lack of inspiration, and general inability to publish." Farrer and his workmen broke through the roof of the entrance passage and found it filled with debris. He then turned his attention to the top of the mound, broke through and, over a period of a few days, emptied the main chamber of material that had filled it completely. He and his workmen discovered the famous runic inscriptions carved on the walls, proof that Norsemen had broken into the tomb at least six centuries earlier.
As described in the Orkneyinga Saga, Maeshowe was looted by the famous Vikings Earl Harald Maddadarson and Ragnvald, Earl of Møre in about the 12th century. The more than thirty runic inscriptions on the walls of the chamber represent the largest single collection of such carvings in the world. More recent fieldwork has demonstrated that the application of a computational photography technique, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), can shed light onto the nature of the inscriptions and their sequencing.
Excavations have revealed that the external wall surrounding the ditch was rebuilt in the 9th century. Some archaeologists see this as evidence that the tomb may have been reused by the Norse people and that they were the source of the "treasure" found by the later looters.
The etymological genesis of the name "Maeshowe" is uncertain. The name may involve Gaelic "mas", meaning "a buttock"; in reference to a hillock. However, Celtic-derived toponyms are uncommon in the Northern Isles, and derivation from an analog of Welsh "maes", "a field", is a doubtful proposition.
A "Masshowe" on Holm suggests an etymological parallel.
The "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" was listed as a World Heritage site in December 1999. In addition to Maeshowe, the site includes Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and other nearby sites. It is managed by Historic Environment Scotland, whose "Statement of Significance" for the site begins:
The monuments at the heart of Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae proclaim the triumphs of the human spirit in early ages and isolated places. They were approximately contemporary with the mastabas of the archaic period of Egypt (first and second dynasties), the brick temples of Sumeria, and the first cities of the Harappa culture in India, and a century or two earlier than the Golden Age of China. Unusually fine for their early date, and with a remarkably rich survival of evidence, these sites stand as a visible symbol of the achievements of early peoples away from the traditional centres of civilisation ... Maes Howe is a masterpiece of Neolithic engineering. It is an exceptionally early architectural accomplishment. With its almost classical strength and simplicity it is a unique survival from 5000 years ago. It is an expression of genius within a group of people whose other tombs were claustrophobic chambers in smaller mounds.
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Montevideo Convention
The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States is a treaty signed at Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 26, 1933, during the Seventh International Conference of American States. The Convention codifies the declarative theory of statehood as accepted as part of customary international law. At the conference, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull declared the "Good Neighbor Policy", which opposed U.S. armed intervention in inter-American affairs. The convention was signed by 19 states. The acceptance of three of the signatories was subject to minor reservations. Those states were Brazil, Peru and the United States.
The convention became operative on December 26, 1934. It was registered in "League of Nations Treaty Series" on January 8, 1936.
The conference is notable in U.S. history, since one of the U.S. representatives was Dr. Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, the first U.S. female representative at an international conference.
In most cases, the only avenue open to self-determination for colonial or national ethnic minority populations was to achieve international legal personality as a nation-state. The majority of delegations at the International Conference of American States represented independent states that had emerged from former colonies. In most cases, their own existence and independence had been disputed or opposed by one or more of the European colonial empires. They agreed among themselves to criteria that made it easier for other dependent states with limited sovereignty to gain international recognition.
The convention sets out the definition, rights and duties of statehood. Most well-known is Article 1, which sets out the four criteria for statehood that have been recognized by international organizations as an accurate statement of customary international law:
Furthermore, the first sentence of Article 3 explicitly states that "The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states." This is known as the declarative theory of statehood. It stands in conflict with the alternative constitutive theory of statehood: a state exists only insofar as it is recognized by other states. It should not be confused with the Estrada doctrine. "Independence" and "sovereignty" are not mentioned in article 1.
An important part of the convention was a prohibition of using military force to gain sovereignty. According to Article 11 of the Convention,
Furthermore, Article 11 reflects the contemporary Stimson Doctrine, and is now a fundamental part of international law through article 2 paragraph 4 of the Charter of the United Nations.
The 16 states that have ratified this convention are limited to the Americas.
A further four states signed the Convention on 26 December 1933, but have not ratified it.
The only state to attend the Seventh International Conference of American States, where the convention was agreed upon, which did not sign it was Bolivia. Costa Rica, which did not attend the conference, later signed the convention.
As a restatement of customary international law, the Montevideo Convention merely codified existing legal norms and its principles and therefore does not apply merely to the signatories, but to all subjects of international law as a whole.
The European Union, in the principal statement of its Badinter Committee, follows the Montevideo Convention in its definition of a state: by having a territory, a population, and a political authority. The committee also found that the existence of states was a question of fact, while the recognition by other states was purely declaratory and not a determinative factor of statehood.
Switzerland, although not a member of the European Union, adheres to the same principle, stating that "neither a political unit needs to be recognized to become a state, nor does a state have the obligation to recognize another one. At the same time, neither recognition is enough to create a state, nor does its absence abolish it."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20551
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Macrolide
The macrolides are a class of natural products that consist of a large macrocyclic lactone ring to which one or more deoxy sugars, usually cladinose and desosamine, may be attached. The lactone rings are usually 14-, 15-, or 16-membered. Macrolides belong to the polyketide class of natural products. Some macrolides have antibiotic or antifungal activity and are used as pharmaceutical drugs.
Macrolides are bacteriostatic in that they suppress or inhibit bacterial growth rather than killing bacteria completely.
The first macrolide discovered was erythromycin, which was first used in 1952. Erythromycin was widely used as a substitute to penicillin in cases where patients were allergic to penicillin or had penicillin-resistant illnesses. Later macrolides developed, including azithromycin and clarithromycin, stemmed from chemically modifying erythromycin; these compounds were designed to be more easily absorbed and have fewer side-effects (erythromycin caused gastrointestinal side-effects in a significant proportion of users).
Antibiotic macrolides are used to treat infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria (e.g., "Streptococcus pneumoniae") and limited Gram-negative bacteria (e.g., "Bordetella pertussis", "Haemophilus influenzae"), and some respiratory tract and soft-tissue infections. The antimicrobial spectrum of macrolides is slightly wider than that of penicillin, and, therefore, macrolides are a common substitute for patients with a penicillin allergy. Beta-hemolytic streptococci, pneumococci, staphylococci, and enterococci are usually susceptible to macrolides. Unlike penicillin, macrolides have been shown to be effective against Legionella pneumophila, mycoplasma, mycobacteria, some rickettsia, and chlamydia.
Macrolides are "not" to be used on non-ruminant herbivores, such as horses and rabbits. They rapidly produce a reaction causing fatal digestive disturbance. It can be used in horses less than one year old, but care must be taken that other horses (such as a foal's mother) do not come in contact with the macrolide treatment.
Macrolides can be administered in a variety of ways that include tablets, capsules, suspensions, injectings and topically.
Macrolides are protein synthesis inhibitors. The mechanism of action of macrolides is inhibition of bacterial protein biosynthesis, and they are thought to do this by preventing peptidyltransferase from adding the growing peptide attached to tRNA to the next amino acid (similarly to chloramphenicol) as well as inhibiting ribosomal translation. Another potential mechanism is premature dissociation of the peptidyl-tRNA from the ribosome.
Macrolide antibiotics do so by binding reversibly to the P site on the 50S subunit of the bacterial ribosome. This action is considered to be bacteriostatic. Macrolides are actively concentrated within leukocytes, and thus are transported into the site of infection.
The macrolide antibiotics erythromycin, clarithromycin, and roxithromycin have proven to be an effective long-term treatment for the idiopathic, Asian-prevalent lung disease diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB). The successful results of macrolides in DPB stems from controlling symptoms through immunomodulation (adjusting the immune response), with the added benefit of low-dose requirements.
With macrolide therapy in DPB, great reduction in bronchiolar inflammation and damage is achieved through suppression of not only neutrophil granulocyte proliferation but also lymphocyte activity and obstructive secretions in airways. The antimicrobial and antibiotic effects of macrolides, however, are not believed to be involved in their beneficial effects toward treating DPB. This is evident, as the treatment dosage is much too low to fight infection, and in DPB cases with the occurrence of the macrolide-resistant bacterium "Pseudomonas aeruginosa", macrolide therapy still produces substantial anti-inflammatory results.
US FDA-approved :
Non-US FDA-approved:
Ketolides are a class of antibiotics that are structurally related to the macrolides. They are used to treat respiratory tract infections caused by macrolide-resistant bacteria. Ketolides are especially effective, as they have two ribosomal binding sites.
Ketolides include:
Fluoroketolides are a class of antibiotics that are structurally related to the ketolides. The fluoroketolides have three ribosomal interaction sites.
Fluoroketolides include:
The drugs tacrolimus, pimecrolimus, and sirolimus, which are used as immunosuppressants or immunomodulators, are also macrolides. They have similar activity to ciclosporin.
Polyene antimycotics, such as amphotericin B, nystatin etc., are a subgroup of macrolides. Cruentaren is another example of an antifungal macrolide.
A variety of toxic macrolides produced by bacteria have been isolated and characterized, such as the mycolactones.
The primary means of bacterial resistance to macrolides occurs by post-transcriptional methylation of the 23S bacterial ribosomal RNA. This acquired resistance can be either plasmid-mediated or chromosomal, i.e., through mutation, and results in cross-resistance to macrolides, lincosamides, and streptogramins (an MLS-resistant phenotype).
Two other types of acquired resistance rarely seen include the production of drug-inactivating enzymes (esterases or kinases), as well as the production of active ATP-dependent efflux proteins that transport the drug outside of the cell.
Azithromycin has been used to treat strep throat (Group A streptococcal (GAS) infection caused by "Streptococcus pyogenes") in penicillin-sensitive patients, however macrolide-resistant strains of GAS are not uncommon. Cephalosporin is another option for these patients.
A 2008 "British Medical Journal" article highlights that the combination of some macrolides and statins (used for lowering cholesterol) is not advisable and can lead to debilitating myopathy. This is because some macrolides (clarithromycin and erythromycin, not azithromycin) are potent inhibitors of the cytochrome P450 system, particularly of CYP3A4. Macrolides, mainly erythromycin and clarithromycin, also have a class effect of QT prolongation, which can lead to torsades de pointes. Macrolides exhibit enterohepatic recycling; that is, the drug is absorbed in the gut and sent to the liver, only to be excreted into the duodenum in bile from the liver. This can lead to a buildup of the product in the system, thereby causing nausea. In infants the use of erythromycin has been associated with pyloric stenosis.
Some macrolides are also known to cause cholestasis, a condition where bile cannot flow from the liver to the duodenum. A new study found an association between erythromycin use during infancy and developing IHPS (Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis) in infants . However, no significant association was found between macrolides use during pregnancy or breastfeeding .
A Cochrane review showed gastrointestinal symptoms to be the most frequent adverse event reported in literature.
Macrolides should not be taken with colchicine as it may lead to colchicine toxicity. Symptoms of colchicine toxicity include gastrointestinal upset, fever, myalgia, pancytopenia, and organ failure.
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Meta element
Meta elements are tags used in HTML and XHTML documents to provide structured metadata about a Web page.
They are part of a web page's codice_1 section. Multiple Meta elements with different attributes can be used on the same page. Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other metadata not provided through the other codice_1 elements and attributes.
The meta element has two uses: either to emulate the use of an HTTP response header field, or to embed additional metadata within the HTML document.
With HTML up to and including HTML 4.01 and XHTML, there were four valid attributes: codice_3, codice_4, codice_5 and codice_6. Under HTML 5 there are now five valid attributes, codice_7 having been added. codice_4 is used to emulate an HTTP header, and codice_5 to embed metadata. The value of the statement, in either case, is contained in the codice_3 attribute, which is the only required attribute unless codice_7 is given. codice_7 is used to indicate the character set of the document, and is available in HTML5.
Such elements must be placed as tags in the codice_1 section of an HTML or XHTML document.
The two distinct parts of the elements are:
codice_14 elements can specify HTTP headers which should be sent before the actual content when the HTML page is served from the web server to the client. For example:
as an alternative to the response header codice_16 to indicate the media type and, more commonly needed, the UTF-8 character encoding.
Meta tags can be used to describe the contents of the page:
In this example, the codice_14 element describes the contents of a web page.
Meta elements provide information about the web page, which can be used by search engines to help categorize the page correctly.
They have been the focus of a field of marketing research known as search engine optimization (SEO), where different methods are used to provide a user's website with a higher ranking on search engines. Prior to the rise of content-analysis by search engines in the mid-1990s (most notably Google), search engines were reliant on metadata to correctly classify a Web page and webmasters quickly learned the commercial significance of having the right meta element. The search engine community is now divided as to the value of meta tags. Some claim they have no value, others that they are central, while many simply conclude there is no clear answer but, since they do no harm, they use them just in case. Google states they do support the meta tags "content", "robots", "google", "google-site-verification", "content-type", "refresh" and "google-bot".
Major search engine robots look at many factors when determining how to rank a page of which meta tags will only form a portion. Furthermore, most search engines change their ranking rules frequently. Google have stated they update their ranking rules every 48 hours. Under such circumstances, a definitive understanding of the role of meta tags in SEO is unlikely.
The codice_18 attribute was popularized by search engines such as Infoseek and AltaVista in 1995, and its popularity quickly grew until it became one of the most commonly used codice_14 elements.
No consensus exists whether or not the codice_18 attribute has any effect on ranking at any of the major search engines today. It is speculated that it does if the keywords used in the codice_14 can also be found in the page copy itself. With respect to Google, thirty-seven leaders in search engine optimization concluded in April 2007 that the relevance of having keywords in the codice_14-attribute codice_18 is little to none and in September 2009 Matt Cutts of Google announced that they were no longer taking keywords into account whatsoever. However, both these articles suggest that Yahoo! still makes use of the keywords meta tag in some of its rankings. Yahoo! itself claims support for the keywords meta tag in conjunction with other factors for improving search rankings. In October 2009 Search Engine Round Table announced that "Yahoo Drops The Meta Keywords Tag Also" but later reported that the announcement made by Yahoo!'s Senior Director of Search was incorrect. In the corrected statement Yahoo! Senior Director of Search states that "…What changed with Yahoo's ranking algorithms is that while we still index the meta keyword tag, the ranking importance given to meta keyword tags receives the lowest ranking signal in our system … it will actually have less effect than introducing those same words in the body of the document, or any other section." In Sept 2012, Google announced that they will consider Keyword Meta tag for news publishers. Google said that this may help worthy content to get noticed. The syntax of the news meta keyword has subtle difference from custom keyword meta tag; it is denoted by "news_keywords", while the custom keyword meta tag is denoted by "keywords". Google News no longer takes into account keywords announced by news_keywords.
According to Moz, "Title tags are the second most important on-page factor for SEO, after content". They convey to the search engines what a given page is all about. It used to be standard SEO practice to include the primary and the secondary keywords in the title for better ranking. Google has gone through various iterations of showing short or longer amounts of content from within the title tags.
Regardless, the title tags still hold importance in three different ways.
Unlike the codice_18 attribute, the codice_25 attribute is supported by most major search engines, like Yahoo! and Bing, while Google will fall back on this tag when information about the page itself is requested (e.g. using the related: query). The codice_25 attribute provides a concise explanation of a Web page's content. This allows the Web page authors to give a more meaningful description for listings than might be displayed if the search engine was unable to automatically create its own description based on the page content. The description is often, but not always, displayed on search engine results pages, so it can affect click-through rates. While clicks for a result can be a positive sign of effective codice_29 and codice_25 writing, Google does not recognize this meta element as a ranking factor, so using target keyword phrases in that element will not help a site rank better. W3C doesn't specify the size of this description meta tag, but almost all search engines recommend it to be shorter than 160 characters of plain text.
The codice_31 attribute tells search engines what natural language the website is written in (e.g. English, Spanish or French), as opposed to the coding language (e.g. HTML). It is normally an IETF language tag for the language name. It is of most use when a website is written in multiple languages and can be included on each page to tell search engines in which language a particular page is written.. User-agents can (and do) use language information to select language-appropriate fonts, which improves the overall user experience of the page.
The codice_33 attribute, supported by several major search engines, controls whether search engine spiders are allowed to index a page, or not, and whether they should follow links from a page, or not. The attribute can contain one or more comma-separate values. The codice_35 value prevents a page from being indexed, and codice_36 prevents links from being crawled. Other values recognized by one or more search engines can influence how the engine indexes pages, and how those pages appear on the search results. These include codice_37, which instructs a search engine not to store an archived copy of the page, and codice_38, which asks that the search engine not include a snippet from the page along with the page's listing in search results.
Meta tags are one of the best options for preventing search engines from indexing content of a website.
The search engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN use in some cases the title and abstract of the DMOZ (aka Open Directory Project) listing of a website for the title and/or description (also called snippet or abstract) in the search engine results pages (SERP). To give webmasters the option to specify that the Open Directory Project content should not be used for listings of their website, Microsoft introduced in May 2006 the new "codice_39" value for the "codice_33" element of the meta tags. Google followed in July 2006 and Yahoo! in October 2006.
The syntax is the same for all search engines who support the tag.
Webmasters can decide if they want to disallow the use of their ODP listing on a per search engine basis
Google:
Yahoo!
MSN and Live Search (via bingbot, previously msnbot):
Yahoo! puts content from their own Yahoo! directory next to the ODP listing. In 2007 they introduced a meta tag that lets web designers opt-out of this.
Adding the codice_41 tag to a page will prevent Yahoo! from displaying Yahoo! Directory titles and abstracts.
For dynamically created web pages, Google proposes the above meta tag which causes fragment URLs (ones that look like "https://web.archive.org/web/20060720204300/http://www.url.com/#xyz" ) to be rewritten and recrawled as "ugly URLs" (i.e. ones looking like "http://www.url.com/?_escaped_fragment_=xyz" ). See for more details about the rewriting process. This rewrite step is a signal to the web site to please provide a simple and full HTML web page that is the result of executing the AJAX or other scripting on the page. This allows Google and other search engines to collect and index static web pages even when a web page is dynamically created and updated by the browser.
Yahoo! also introduced in May 2007 the attribute value: codice_42. This is not a meta tag, but an attribute and value, which can be used throughout Web page tags where needed. Content of the page where this attribute is being used will be ignored by the Yahoo! crawler and not included in the search engine's index.
Examples for the use of the codice_43 tag:
excluded content
excluded content
excluded content
Google does not use HTML keyword or meta tag elements for indexing. The Director of Research at Google, Monika Henzinger, was quoted (in 2002) as saying, "Currently we don't trust metadata because we are afraid of being manipulated." Other search engines developed techniques to penalize Web sites considered to be "cheating the system". For example, a Web site repeating the same meta keyword several times may have its ranking "decreased" by a search engine trying to eliminate this practice, though that is unlikely. It is more likely that a search engine will ignore the meta keyword element completely, and most do regardless of how many words are used in the element.
Google does, however, use meta tag elements for displaying site links. The title tags are used to create the link in search results:
Site name - Page title - Keyword description
The meta description often appears in Google search results to describe the link:
Additionally, enterprise search startup Swiftype considers meta tags as a mechanism for signaling relevancy for their web site search engines, even introducing their own extension called Meta Tags 2.
Meta refresh elements can be used to instruct a Web browser to automatically refresh a Web page after a given time interval. It is also possible to specify an alternative URL and use this technique in order to redirect the user to a different location.
Auto refreshing via a META element has been deprecated for more than ten years, and recognized as problematic before that.
The W3C suggests that user agents should allow users to disable it, otherwise META refresh should not be used by web pages.
For Internet Explorer's security settings, under the miscellaneous category, meta refresh can be turned off by the user, thereby disabling its redirect ability.
In Mozilla Firefox it can be disabled in the configuration file under the key name "accessibility.blockautorefresh".
Many web design tutorials also point out that client-side redirecting tends to interfere with the normal functioning of a Web browser's "back" button. After being redirected, clicking the back button will cause the user to go back to the redirect page, which redirects them again. Some modern browsers seem to overcome this problem however, including Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.
Auto-redirects via markup (versus server-side redirects) are not in compliance with the W3C's - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 (guideline 7.5).
Meta elements of the form codice_44 can be used as alternatives to HTTP headers. For example, codice_45 would tell the browser that the page "expires" on June 21, 2006 at 14:25:27 GMT and that it may safely cache the page until then. The HTML 4.01 specification optionally allows this tag to be parsed by HTTP servers and set as part of the HTTP response headers, but no web servers currently implement this behavior. Instead, the user agent emulates the behavior for some HTTP headers as if they had been sent in the response header itself.
Some HTML elements and attributes already handle certain pieces of meta data and may be used by authors instead of META to specify those pieces: the TITLE element, the ADDRESS element, the INS and DEL elements, the title attribute, and the cite attribute.
An alternative to codice_14 elements for enhanced subject access within a website is the use of a back-of-book-style index for the website. See the American Society of Indexers website for an example.
In 1994, ALIWEB, also used an index file to provide the type of information commonly found in meta keywords attributes.
In cases where the content attribute's value is a URL, many authors decide to use a link element with a proper value for its rel attribute as well.
For a comparison on when it is best to use HTTP-headers, meta-elements, or attributes in the case of language specification: see here.
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Mecha
The term may refer to both scientific ideas and science fiction genres that center on giant robots or machines (mechs) controlled by people. Mechas are typically depicted as humanoid mobile robots. The term was first used in Japanese ("meka") after shortening the English loanword "mekanikaru" ('mechanical'), but the meaning in Japanese is more inclusive, and "robot" ("robotto") or "giant robot" is the narrower term.
These machines vary greatly in size and shape, but are distinguished from vehicles by their humanoid or biomorphic appearance and size—bigger than a human. Different subgenres exist, with varying connotations of realism. The concept of Super Robot and Real Robot are two such examples found in Japanese anime and manga. The term may also refer to real world piloted humanoid or non-humanoid robotic platforms, either currently in existence or still on the drawing board (i.e. at the planning or design stage). Alternatively, in the original Japanese context of the word, "mecha" may refer to mobile machinery/vehicles (including aircraft) in general, manned or otherwise.
The word is an abbreviation, first used in Japanese, of the word "mechanical". In Japanese, mecha encompasses all mechanical objects, including cars, guns, computers, and other devices, and the term or "giant robot" is used to distinguish limbed vehicles from other mechanical devices. Outside of this usage, it has become associated with large humanoid machines with limbs or other biological characteristics. Mechas differ from robots in that they are piloted from a cockpit, typically located in the chest or head of the mech.
While the distinction is often hazy, mecha typically does not refer to form-fitting powered armor such as Iron Man's suit. They are usually much larger than the wearer, like Iron Man's enemy the Iron Monger, or the mobile suits depicted in the "Gundam" series.
In most cases, mecha are depicted as fighting machines, whose appeal comes from the combination of potent weaponry with a more stylish combat technique than a mere vehicle. Often, they are the primary means of combat, with conflicts sometimes being decided through gladiatorial matches. Other works represent mecha as one component of an integrated military force, supported by and fighting alongside tanks, fighter aircraft, and infantry, functioning as a mechanical cavalry. The applications often highlight the theoretical usefulness of such a device, combining a tank's resilience and firepower with infantry's ability to cross unstable terrain and a high degree of customization. In some continuities, special scenarios are constructed to make mecha more viable than current-day status. For example, in Gundam the fictional Minovsky particle inhibits the use of radar, making long-range ballistic strikes impractical, thus favouring relatively close range warfare of Mobile Suits.
However, some stories, such as the manga/anime series "Patlabor" and the American wargame "BattleTech" universe, also encompass mecha used for civilian purposes such as heavy construction work, police functions or firefighting. Mecha also see roles as transporters, recreation, advanced hazmat suits and other R and D applications.
Mecha have been used in fantasy settings, for example in the anime series "Aura Battler Dunbine", "The Vision of Escaflowne", "Panzer World Galient" and "Maze". In those cases, the mecha designs are usually based on some alternative or "lost" science-fiction technology from ancient times. In case of anime series "Zoids", the machines resemble dinosaurs and animals, and have been shown to evolve from native metallic organisms.
A chicken walker is a fictional type of bipedal robot or mecha, distinguished by its rear-facing knee joint. This type of articulation resembles a bird's legs, hence the name. However, birds actually have forward-facing knees; they are digitigrade, and what most call the "knee" is actually the ankle.
The 1868 Edward S. Ellis novel "The Steam Man of the Prairies" featured a steam-powered, back piloted, mechanical man.
The 1880 Jules Verne novel "La Maison à vapeur (The Steam House)" featured a steam-powered, piloted, mechanical elephant. One of the first appearances of such machines in modern literature was the "tripod" or "fighting machine" of H. G. Wells' famous "The War of the Worlds" (1897). The novel does not contain a fully detailed description of the tripods' (or "fighting-machine", as they are known in the novel) mode of locomotion, however it is hinted at: "Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand."
"Ōgon Bat", a kamishibai that debuted in 1931 (later adapted into an anime in 1967), featured the first piloted humanoid giant robot, , but as an enemy rather than a protagonist. The first humanoid giant robot piloted by the protagonist appeared in the manga in 1948. The manga and anime "Tetsujin 28-Go", introduced in 1956, featured a robot, Tetsujin, that was controlled externally by an operator via remote control. The manga and anime "Astro Boy", introduced in 1952, with its humanoid robot protagonist, was a key influence on the development of the giant robot genre in Japan. The first anime featuring a giant mecha being piloted by the protagonist from within a cockpit was the Super Robot show "Mazinger Z", written by Go Nagai and introduced in 1972. "Mazinger Z" introduced the notion of mecha as pilotable war machines, rather than remote-controlled robots. Nagai later introduced the concept of "gattai" ("combination"), where several modules slot together to form a super robot, with "Getter Robot" (1974 debut).
An early use of mech-like machines outside Japan is found in "The Invisible Empire", a "Federal Men" comic by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (serialized 1936 in New Comics #8-10). Other examples include the Brazilian comic "Audaz, the demolisher", by Álvaro "Aruom" Moura and Manoel Messias (1939), Kimball Kinnison's battle suit in E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensman" novel "Galactic Patrol" (1950), the French animated film "The King and the Mockingbird" (first released 1952), and Robert Heinlein's waldo in his 1942 short story, "Waldo" and the Mobile Infantry battle suits in Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" (1958).
A transforming mech can transform between a standard vehicle (such as a fighter plane or transport truck) and a fighting mecha robot. This concept of transforming mecha was pioneered by Japanese mecha designer Shōji Kawamori in the early 1980s, when he created the Diaclone toy line in 1980 and then the "Macross" anime franchise in 1982. In North America, the "Macross" franchise was adapted into the "Robotech" franchise in 1985, and then the Diaclone toy line was adapted into the "Transformers" franchise in 1986. Some of Kawamori's most iconic transforming mecha designs include the VF-1 Valkyrie from the "Macross" and "Robotech" franchises, and Optimus Prime (called Convoy in Japan) from the "Transformers" and "Diaclone" franchises.
In Japan, "robot anime" (known as "mecha anime" outside Japan) is one of the oldest genres in anime. Robot anime is often tied in with toy manufacturers. Large franchises such as "Gundam", "Macross", "Transformers" and "Zoids" have hundreds of different model kits.
The size of mecha can vary according to the story and concepts involved. Some of them may not be considerably taller than a tank ("Armored Trooper Votoms", "Megazone 23", "Code Geass"), some may be a few stories tall ("Gundam", "Escaflowne", "Bismark", "Gurren Lagann"), others can be as tall as a skyscraper ("Space Runaway Ideon", "Genesis of Aquarion", "Neon Genesis Evangelion"), some are big enough to contain an entire city ("Macross"), some the size of a planet ("Diebuster"), galaxies ("Getter Robo", "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann"), or even as large as universes ("Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen", "Demonbane").
The first giant robots seen were in the 1948 manga and Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1956 manga "Tetsujin 28-go". However, it wasn't until the advent of Go Nagai's "Mazinger Z" that the genre was established. "Mazinger Z" innovated by adding the inclusion of futuristic weapons, and the concept of being able to pilot from a cockpit (rather than via remote control, in the case of Tetsujin). According to Go Nagai:
"Mazinger Z" featured giant robots which were "piloted by means of a small flying car and command center that docked inside the head." It was also a pioneer in die-cast metal toys such as the Chogokin series in Japan and the Shogun Warriors in the U.S., that were (and still are) very popular with children and collectors.
Robot/mecha anime and manga differ vastly in storytelling and animation quality from title to title, and content ranges all the way from children's shows to ones intended for an older teen or adult audience.
Some of the first mecha featured in manga and anime were super robots. The super robot genre features superhero-like giant robots that are often one-of-a-kind and the product of an ancient civilization, aliens or a mad genius. These robots are usually piloted by Japanese teenagers via voice command or neural uplink, and are often powered by mystical or exotic energy sources.
The later real robot genre features robots that do not have mythical superpowers, but rather use largely conventional, albeit futuristic weapons and power sources, and are often mass-produced on a large scale for use in wars. The real robot genre also tends to feature more complex characters with moral conflicts and personal problems. The genre is therefore aimed primarily at young adults instead of children. "Mobile Suit Gundam" (1979) is largely considered the first series to introduce the real robot concept and, along with "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross" (1982), would form the basis of what people would later call real robot anime.
Some robot mecha are capable of transformation ("Macross" and "Zeta Gundam") or combining to form even bigger ones ("Beast King GoLion" and "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann"), the latter called "gattai". Go Nagai is often credited with inventing this in 1974 with the television series "Getter Robo".
Not all mecha need to be completely mechanical. Some have biological components with which to interface with their pilots, and some are partially biological themselves, such as in "Neon Genesis Evangelion", "Eureka Seven", and "Zoids".
Mecha based on anime have seen extreme cultural reception across the world. The personification of this popularity can be seen as 1:1 size "Mazinger Z", Tetsujin, and Gundam statues built across the world.
Mecha are often featured in computer and console video games. Because of their size and fictional power, mecha are quite popular subjects for games, both tabletop and electronic. They have been featured in video games since the 1980s, particularly in vehicular combat and shooter games, including Sesame Japan's side-scrolling shooter game "Vastar" in 1983, various "Gundam" games such as "" in 1984 and "" in 1986, the run and gun shooters "Hover Attack" in 1984 and "Thexder" in 1985, and Arsys Software's 3D role-playing shooters "WiBArm" in 1986 and "Star Cruiser" in 1988. Historically mecha-based games have been more popular in Japan than in other countries.
There are a few real prototypes of mecha-like vehicles. Currently almost all of these are highly specialized or just for concept purpose, and as such may not see mass production.
In the Western world, there are few examples of mecha, however, several machines have been constructed by both companies and private figures. Timberjack, a subsidiary of John Deere, built a practical hexapod walking harvester.
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Macro (computer science)
A macro (short for "macroinstruction", from Greek 'long') in computer science is a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to a replacement output sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to a defined procedure. The mapping process that instantiates (transforms) a macro use into a specific sequence is known as "macro expansion". A facility for writing macros may be provided as part of a software application or as a part of a programming language. In the former case, macros are used to make tasks using the application less repetitive. In the latter case, they are a tool that allows a programmer to enable code reuse or even to design domain-specific languages.
Macros are used to make a sequence of computing instructions available to the programmer as a single program statement, making the programming task less tedious and less error-prone. (Thus, they are called "macros" because a "big" block of code can be expanded from a "small" sequence of characters.) Macros often allow positional or keyword parameters that dictate what the conditional assembler program generates and have been used to create entire programs or program suites according to such variables as operating system, platform or other factors. The term derives from "macro instruction", and such expansions were originally used in generating assembly language code.
Keyboard macros and mouse macros allow short sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions to transform into other, usually more time-consuming, sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions. In this way, frequently used or repetitive sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements can be automated. Separate programs for creating these macros are called macro recorders.
During the 1980s, macro programs – originally SmartKey, then SuperKey, KeyWorks, Prokey – were very popular, first as a means to automatically format screenplays, then for a variety of user input tasks. These programs were based on the TSR (terminate and stay resident) mode of operation and applied to all keyboard input, no matter in which context it occurred. They have to some extent fallen into obsolescence following the advent of mouse-driven user interfaces and the availability of keyboard and mouse macros in applications such as word processors and spreadsheets, making it possible to create application-sensitive keyboard macros.
Keyboard macros have in more recent times come to life as a method of exploiting the economy of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). By tirelessly performing a boring, repetitive, but low risk action, a player running a macro can earn a large amount of the game's currency or resources. This effect is even larger when a macro-using player operates multiple accounts simultaneously, or operates the accounts for a large amount of time each day. As this money is generated without human intervention, it can dramatically upset the economy of the game. For this reason, use of macros is a violation of the TOS or EULA of most MMORPGs, and administrators of MMORPGs fight a continual war to identify and punish macro users.
Keyboard and mouse macros that are created using an application's built-in macro features are sometimes called application macros. They are created by carrying out the sequence once and letting the application record the actions. An underlying macro programming language, most commonly a scripting language, with direct access to the features of the application may also exist.
The programmers' text editor, Emacs, (short for "editing macros") follows this idea to a conclusion. In effect, most of the editor is made of macros. Emacs was originally devised as a set of macros in the editing language TECO; it was later ported to dialects of Lisp.
Another programmers' text editor, Vim (a descendant of vi), also has full implementation of macros. It can record into a register (macro) what a person types on the keyboard and it can be replayed or edited just like VBA macros for Microsoft Office. Vim also has a scripting language called Vimscript to create macros.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a programming language included in Microsoft Office from Office 97 through Office 2019 (although it was available in some components of Office prior to Office 97). However, its function has evolved from and replaced the macro languages that were originally included in some of these applications.
XEDIT, running on the Conversational Monitor System (CMS) component of VM, supports macros written in EXEC, EXEC2 and REXX, and some CMS commands were actually wrappers around XEDIT macros. The Hessling Editor (THE), a partial clone of XEDIT, supports Rexx macros using Regina and Open Object REXX (oorexx). Many common applications, and some on PCs, use Rexx as a scripting language.
VBA has access to most Microsoft Windows system calls and executes when documents are opened. This makes it relatively easy to write computer viruses in VBA, commonly known as macro viruses. In the mid-to-late 1990s, this became one of the most common types of computer virus. However, during the late 1990s and to date, Microsoft has been patching and updating their programs. In addition, current anti-virus programs immediately counteract such attacks.
A parameterized macro is a macro that is able to insert given objects into its expansion. This gives the macro some of the power of a function.
As a simple example, in the C programming language, this is a typical macro that is "not" a parameterized macro:
This causes the string "PI" to be replaced with "3.14159" wherever it occurs. It will always be replaced by this string, and the resulting string cannot be modified in any way. An example of a parameterized macro, on the other hand, is this:
What this macro expands to depends on what argument "x" is passed to it. Here are some possible expansions:
Parameterized macros are a useful source-level mechanism for performing in-line expansion, but in languages such as C where they use simple textual substitution, they have a number of severe disadvantages over other mechanisms for performing in-line expansion, such as inline functions.
The parameterized macros used in languages such as Lisp, PL/I and Scheme, on the other hand, are much more powerful, able to make decisions about what code to produce based on their arguments; thus, they can effectively be used to perform run-time code generation.
Languages such as C and some assembly languages have rudimentary macro systems, implemented as preprocessors to the compiler or assembler. C preprocessor macros work by simple textual substitution at the token, rather than the character level. However, the macro facilities of more sophisticated assemblers, e.g., IBM High Level Assembler (HLASM) can't be implemented with a preprocessor; the code for assembling instructions and data is interspersed with the code for assembling macro invocations.
A classic use of macros is in the computer typesetting system TeX and its derivatives, where most of the functionality is based on macros.
MacroML is an experimental system that seeks to reconcile static typing and macro systems. Nemerle has typed syntax macros, and one productive way to think of these syntax macros is as a multi-stage computation.
Other examples:
Some major applications have been written as text macro invoked by other applications, e.g., by XEDIT in CMS.
Some languages, such as PHP, can be embedded in free-format text, or the source code of other languages. The mechanism by which the code fragments are recognised (for instance, being bracketed by codice_1 and codice_2) is similar to a textual macro language, but they are much more powerful, fully featured languages.
Macros in the PL/I language are written in a subset of PL/I itself: the compiler executes "preprocessor statements" at compilation time, and the output of this execution forms part of the code that is compiled. The ability to use a familiar procedural language as the macro language gives power much greater than that of text substitution macros, at the expense of a larger and slower compiler.
Frame technology's frame macros have their own command syntax but can also contain text in any language. Each frame is both a generic component in a hierarchy of nested subassemblies, and a procedure for integrating itself with its subassembly frames (a recursive process that resolves integration conflicts in favor of higher level subassemblies). The outputs are custom documents, typically compilable source modules. Frame technology can avoid the proliferation of similar but subtly different components, an issue that has plagued software development since the invention of macros and subroutines.
Most assembly languages have less powerful procedural macro facilities, for example allowing a block of code to be repeated N times for loop unrolling; but these have a completely different syntax from the actual assembly language.
Macro systems—such as the C preprocessor described earlier—that work at the level of lexical tokens cannot preserve the lexical structure reliably.
Syntactic macro systems work instead at the level of abstract syntax trees, and preserve the lexical structure of the original program. The most widely used implementations of syntactic macro systems are found in Lisp-like languages. These languages are especially suited for this style of macro due to their uniform, parenthesized syntax (known as S-expressions). In particular, uniform syntax makes it easier to determine the invocations of macros. Lisp macros transform the program structure itself, with the full language available to express such transformations. While syntactic macros are often found in Lisp-like languages, they are also available in other languages such as Prolog, Dylan, Scala, Nemerle, Rust, Elixir, Nim, Haxe,, and Julia. They are also available as third-party extensions to JavaScript, C# and Python..
Before Lisp had macros, it had so-called FEXPRs, function-like operators whose inputs were not the values computed by the arguments but rather the syntactic forms of the arguments, and whose output were values to be used in the computation. In other words, FEXPRs were implemented at the same level as EVAL, and provided a window into the meta-evaluation layer. This was generally found to be a difficult model to reason about effectively.
In 1963, Timothy Hart proposed adding macros to Lisp 1.5 in AI Memo 57: MACRO Definitions for LISP.
An anaphoric macro is a type of programming macro that deliberately captures some form supplied to the macro which may be referred to by an anaphor (an expression referring to another). Anaphoric macros first appeared in Paul Graham's On Lisp and their name is a reference to linguistic anaphora—the use of words as a substitute for preceding words.
In the mid-eighties, a number of papers introduced the notion of hygienic macro expansion (codice_3), a pattern-based system where the syntactic environments of the macro definition and the macro use are distinct, allowing macro definers and users not to worry about inadvertent variable capture (cf. referential transparency). Hygienic macros have been standardized for Scheme in the R5RS, R6RS, and R7RS standards. A number of competing implementations of hygienic macros exist such as codice_4, codice_5, explicit renaming, and syntactic closures. Both codice_4 and codice_5 have been standardized in the Scheme standards.
Recently, Racket has combined the notions of hygienic macros with a "tower of evaluators", so that the syntactic expansion time of one macro system is the ordinary runtime of another block of code, and showed how to apply interleaved expansion and parsing in a non-parenthesized language.
A number of languages other than Scheme either implement hygienic macros or implement partially hygienic systems. Examples include Scala, Rust, Elixir, Julia, Dylan, and Nemerle.
Felleisen conjectures that these three categories make up the primary legitimate uses of macros in such a system. Others have proposed alternative uses of macros, such as anaphoric macros in macro systems that are unhygienic or allow selective unhygienic transformation.
The interaction of macros and other language features has been a productive area of research. For example, components and modules are useful for large-scale programming, but the interaction of macros and these other constructs must be defined for their use together. Module and component-systems that can interact with macros have been proposed for Scheme and other languages with macros. For example, the Racket language extends the notion of a macro system to a syntactic tower, where macros can be written in languages including macros, using hygiene to ensure that syntactic layers are distinct and allowing modules to export macros to other modules.
Macros are normally used to map a short string (macro invocation) to a longer sequence of instructions. Another, less common, use of macros is to do the reverse: to map a sequence of instructions to a macro string. This was the approach taken by the STAGE2 Mobile Programming System, which used a rudimentary macro compiler (called SIMCMP) to map the specific instruction set of a given computer to counterpart "machine-independent" macros. Applications (notably compilers) written in these machine-independent macros can then be run without change on any computer equipped with the rudimentary macro compiler. The first application run in such a context is a more sophisticated and powerful macro compiler, written in the machine-independent macro language. This macro compiler is applied to itself, in a bootstrap fashion, to produce a compiled and much more efficient version of itself. The advantage of this approach is that complex applications can be ported from one computer to a very different computer with very little effort (for each target machine architecture, just the writing of the rudimentary macro compiler). The advent of modern programming languages, notably C, for which compilers are available on virtually all computers, has rendered such an approach superfluous. This was, however, one of the first instances (if not the first) of compiler bootstrapping.
While "macro instructions" can be defined by a programmer for any set of native assembler program instructions, typically macros are associated with macro libraries delivered with the operating system allowing access to operating system functions such as
In older operating systems such as those used on IBM mainframes, full operating system functionality was only available to assembler language programs, not to high level language programs (unless assembly language subroutines were used, of course), as the standard macro instructions did not always have counterparts in routines available to high-level languages.
In the mid-1950s, when assembly language programming was commonly used to write programs for digital computers, the use of macro instructions was initiated for two main purposes: to reduce the amount of program coding that had to be written by generating several assembly language statements from one macro instruction and to enforce program writing standards, e.g. specifying input/output commands in standard ways. Macro instructions were effectively a middle step between assembly language programming and the high-level programming languages that followed, such as FORTRAN and COBOL. Two of the earliest programming installations to develop "macro languages" for the IBM 705 computer were at Dow Chemical Corp. in Delaware and the Air Material Command, Ballistics Missile Logistics Office in California. A macro instruction written in the format of the target assembly language would be processed by a macro compiler, which was a pre-processor to the assembler, to generate one or more assembly language instructions to be processed next by the assembler program that would translate the assembly language instructions into machine language instructions.
By the late 1950s the macro language was followed by the Macro Assemblers. This was a combination of both where one program served both functions, that of a macro pre-processor and an assembler in the same package.
In 1959, Douglas E. Eastwood and Douglas McIlroy of Bell Labs introduced conditional and recursive macros into the popular SAP assembler, creating what is known as Macro SAP. McIlroy's 1960 paper was seminal in the area of extending any (including high-level) programming languages through macro processors.
Macro Assemblers allowed assembly language programmers to implement their own macro-language and allowed limited portability of code between two machines running the same CPU but different operating systems, for example, early versions of MSDOS and CPM-86. The macro library would need to be written for each target machine but not the overall assembly language program. Note that more powerful macro assemblers allowed use of conditional assembly constructs in macro instructions that could generate different code on different machines or different operating systems, reducing the need for multiple libraries.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, desktop PCs were only running at a few MHz and assembly language routines were commonly used to speed up programs written in C, Fortran, Pascal and others. These languages, at the time, used different calling conventions. Macros could be used to interface routines written in assembly language to the front end of applications written in almost any language. Again, the basic assembly language code remained the same, only the macro libraries needed to be written for each target language.
In modern operating systems such as Unix and its derivatives, operating system access is provided through subroutines, usually provided by dynamic libraries. High-level languages such as C offer comprehensive access to operating system functions, obviating the need for assembler language programs for such functionality.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20560
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Malleus Maleficarum
The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name "Henricus Institoris") and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. It endorses extermination of witches and for this purpose develops a detailed legal and theological theory. It has been described as the compendium of literature in demonology of the fifteenth century. The top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne condemned the book as recommending unethical and illegal procedures, as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology.
The "Malleus" elevates sorcery to the criminal status of heresy and recommends that secular courts prosecute it as such in order to eliminate witches. The recommended procedures include torture to effectively obtain confessions and the death penalty as the only sure remedy against the evils of witchcraft. At that time, it was typical to burn heretics alive at the stake and the "Malleus" encouraged the same treatment of witches. The book had a strong influence on culture for several centuries.
Jacob Sprenger's name was added as an author beginning in 1519, 33 years after the book's first publication and 24 years after Sprenger's death; but the veracity of this late addition has been questioned by many historians for various reasons.
Kramer wrote the "Malleus" following his expulsion from Innsbruck by the local bishop, due to charges of illegal behavior against Kramer himself, and because of Kramer's obsession with the sexual habits of one of the accused, Helena Scheuberin, which led the other tribunal members to suspend the trial.
It was later used by royal courts during the Renaissance, and contributed to the increasingly brutal prosecution of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Witchcraft had long been forbidden by the Church, whose viewpoint on the subject was explained in the "Canon Episcopi" written in about AD 900. It stated that witchcraft and magic were delusions and that those who believed in such things "had been seduced by the Devil in dreams and visions". However, in the same period supernatural intervention was accepted in the form of ordeals that were later also used during witch trials.
Possessions by the Devil are considered real even in present times by some Christians and it is an element of doctrine that demons may be cast out by appropriate sacramental exorcisms. In the "Malleus", exorcism is, for example, one of the five ways to overcome the attacks of incubi. Prayer and transubstantiation are excluded from the category of magical rites, as they emanate from God.
In 1484 clergyman Heinrich Kramer made one of the first attempts at prosecuting alleged witches in the Tyrol region. It was not a success: he was expelled from the city of Innsbruck and dismissed by the local bishop as "senile and crazy". According to Diarmaid MacCulloch, writing the book was Kramer's act of self-justification and revenge. Ankarloo and Clark claim that Kramer's purpose in writing the book was to explain his own views on witchcraft, systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft did not exist, discredit those who expressed skepticism about its reality, claim that those who practised witchcraft were more often women than men, and to convince magistrates to use Kramer's recommended procedures for finding and convicting witches.
Some scholars have suggested that following the failed efforts in Tyrol, Kramer requested explicit authority from the Pope to prosecute witchcraft. Kramer received a papal bull "Summis desiderantes affectibus" in 1484. It gave full papal approval for the Inquisition to prosecute what was deemed to be witchcraft in general and also gave individual authorizations to Kramer and Dominican Friar Jacob Sprenger specifically. Other scholars have disputed the idea that Sprenger was working with Kramer, arguing that the evidence shows that Sprenger was actually a persistent opponent of Kramer, even going so far as to ban him from Dominican convents within Sprenger's jurisdiction while also banning him from preaching. In the words of Wolfgang Behringer:
Sprenger had tried to suppress Kramer's activities in every possible way. He forbade the convents of his province to host him, he forbade Kramer to preach, and even tried to interfere directly in the affairs of Kramer's Séléstat convent... The same day Sprenger became successor to Jacob Strubach as provincial superior (October 19, 1487), he obtained permission from his general, Joaquino Turriani, to lash out "adversus m[agistrum] Henricum Institoris inquisitorem" ("English": against Master Heinrich Kramer, inquisitor).
The preface also includes an alleged unanimous approbation from the University of Cologne's Faculty of Theology. Nevertheless, many historians have argued that it is well established by sources outside the "Malleus" that the university's theology faculty condemned the book for unethical procedures and for contradicting Catholic theology on a number of important points: "just for good measure Institoris forged a document granting their apparently unanimous approbation."
The book became the handbook for secular courts throughout Renaissance Europe, but was not used by the Inquisition, which "denied any authority to the "Malleus"" in the words of historian Wolfgang Behringer.
In modern times, the book has often been viewed as a typical inquisitorial manual, a perception that many historians have refuted. According to historian Jenny Gibbons:
Before 1400 it was rare for anyone to be persecuted for witchcraft, but the increasingly common persecution of heresy and failure to fully defeat these heretics paved the way for later criminal prosecution of witchcraft. By the 15th century belief in witches was widely accepted in European society. Previously, those convicted of witchcraft typically suffered penalties no more harsh than public penances such as a day in the stocks, but their persecution became more brutal following the publication of the "Malleus Maleficarum", as witchcraft became widely accepted as a real and dangerous phenomenon. The most severe persecutions took place between the years 1560 and 1630, largely ending in Europe around 1780.
Particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries an intense debate on the nature of witches preoccupied demonologists across Europe and they published many printed sermons, books and tracts. The Catholic Church played an important role in shaping of debate on demonology, but the discourse was not much affected by the Reformation. Martin Luther was also convinced about the reality and evil of witches, and facilitated development of Protestant demonology.
Catholic and Protestant demonologies were similar in their basic beliefs about witches and most writers agreed on the severity of the crime of witchcraft. It was accepted by both Catholic and Protestant legislatures and witch-hunting was undeniably sponsored by both Protestant and Catholic governments. Witches became heretics to Christianity and witchcraft became the greatest of crimes and sins. Within continental and Roman Law witchcraft was the "crimen exceptum", a crime so foul that all normal legal procedures were superseded.
During the Age of Enlightenment, belief in the powers of witches to harm began to die out in the West. For the post-Enlightenment Christians, the disbelief was based on a belief in rationalism and empiricism.
The "Malleus Maleficarum" consists of the following parts:
In this part it is briefly explained that prevalence of sorcery which is a method of Satan's final assault motivated authors to write the "Malleus Maleficarum":
[...] [ Lucifer ] attacks through these heresies at that time in particular, when the evening of the world declines towards its setting and the evil of men swells up, since he knows in great anger, as John bears witness in the Book of Apocalypse [12:12], that he has little time remaining. Hence, he has also caused a certain unusual heretical perversity to grow up in the land of the Lord – a Heresy, I say, of Sorceresses, since it is to be designated by the particular gender over which he is known to have power. [...] In the midst of these evils, we Inquisitors, Jacobus Sprenger together with the very dear associate [Institoris] delegated by the Apostolic See for the extermination of so destructive a heresy [...] we will bring everything to the desired conclusion. [...] naming the treatise the "Hammer for Sorceresses," we are undertaking the task of compiling the work for an associate [presumably, an ecclesiastic] [...]
Copies of the "Malleus Maleficarum" contain a reproduction of a papal bull known as "Summis desiderantes affectibus" that is addressed to Heinrich Institoris and Jakob Sprenger. According to it, Pope Innocent VIII acknowledges that sorceresses are real and harmful through their involvement in the acts of Satan. As Mackay writes "It is then noted that "Institoris"'s and Sprenger's efforts to stamp these activities out had met with opposition in the form of technical objections relating to the specific offenses that were covered by their appointment as inquisitors, which the pope then overrides by reiterating and amplifying the terms of the inquisitors' appointment."
According to the date on the document, the papal bull had been issued in 1484, two years before the "Malleus Maleficarum" was finished. Therefore, it is not an endorsement of a specific final text of the "Malleus". Instead, its inclusion implicitly legitimizes the handbook by providing general confirmation of the reality of witchcraft and full authority to Sprenger and Institoris in their preachings and proceedings:
This part of the "Malleus" is titled "The Approbation of The Following Treatise and The Signatures Thereunto of The Doctors of The Illustrious University of Cologne Follows in The Form of A Public Document" and contains unanimous approval of the "Malleus Maleficarum" by all the Doctors of the Theological Faculty of the University of Cologne signed by them personally. The proceedings are attested by notary public Arnold Kolich of Euskirchen, a sworn cleric of Cologne with inclusion of confirmatory testimony by present witnesses Johannes Vorda of Mecheln a sworn beadle, Nicholas Cuper de Venrath the sworn notary of Curia of Cologne and Christian Wintzen of Euskirchen a cleric of the Diocese of Cologne.
Text of approbation mentions that during proceedings Institoris had a letter from Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor which is summarized in the approbation: "[... Maximilian I] takes these Inquisitors under his complete protection, ordering and commanding each and every subject of the Roman Empire to render all favor and assistance to these Inquisitors and otherwise to act in the manner that is more fully contained and included in the letter."
The approbation consists of a preamble and is followed by a resolution in two parts.
It begins with a general statement about circumstances: IN THE NAME OF Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let all those who will read, see or hear the present public document know that in the year since the Birth of Our Lord 1487, in the fifth indiction, on Saturday, the nineteenth day of May, at five in the afternoon or thereabouts, in the third year of the Pontificate of Our Lord, the Most Holy Father in Christ, Lord Innocent VIII, by Divine Providence Pope, in the presence of my notary public and of the witnesses written below who had been specifically summoned and asked for this purpose, the venerable and religious Brother Henricus Institoris, Professor of Holy Theology and member of the Order of Preachers, who was appointed as Inquisitor into Heretical Depravity by the Holy See along with his colleague, the venerable and religious Brother Jacobus Sprenger, also a Professor of Holy Theology and Prior of the Convent of Preachers in Cologne[...]
Then, signatories complain that "Some curates of souls and preachers of the Word of God feel no shame at claiming and affirming in their sermons to the congregation that sorceresses do not exist" and notice that the intention of the authors of the "Malleus Maleficarum" is not primarily to alleviate this ignorance but rather "toil to exterminate the sorceresses by explaining the appropriate methods of sentencing and punishing them in accordance with the text of the aforementioned Bull and the regulations of the Holy Canons, thereby achieving their extermination"; finally, signatories explain why they are providing their expertise: It is consonant with reason that those things that are done on behalf of the common good should also be confirmed through the common approval of the Doctors, and therefore, lest the aforementioned poorly educated curates and preachers think, in their ignorance of Holy Scripture, that the aforesaid treatise, which was composed in the manner mentioned above, is poorly supported by the determinations and pronouncements of the Doctors, they offered it for examination and comparison against Scripture to the illustrious University of Cologne or rather to certain Professors of Holy Theology, in order that if any things were found to be worthy of censure or incompatible with the Catholic Truth, they should be refuted by the judgment of those Professors, and that those things found to be compatible with the Catholic Truth should be approved. This was in fact done in the ways written below.
There are two signings, sometimes also referenced as two approbations. The difference is that four signatories of the first part testify that they have examined the treatises and endorse its text while in the second signing signatories do not assert that they have read the treatises but nonetheless express approval by explicitly restating some general propositions of the treatises and endorsing them instead.
In the first part, the opinion of a "temporary Dean of the Faculty of Holy Theology at Cologne" namely Lambertus de Monte of 's-Heerenberg is expressed and then professors Jacobus Straelen of Noetlinck, Andreas Schermer of Ochsenfurt and Thomas Lyel of Scotland testify that they agree with his opinion. The following is an excerpt from the opinion: [I proclaim] that this three part treatise, which has been examined by me and carefully compared against Scripture with regard to its first two parts, contains nothing, in my humble judgment at least, that is contrary to the pronouncements of the non-erroneous philosophers, or against the Truth of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith, or against the determinations of the Doctors approved or admitted by the Holy Church, and that the third part should certainly be upheld and approved in regard to the punishments of those heretics whom it treats, in that it does not contradict Holy Canons, and also because of the personal experiences described in this treatise, which are believed to be true because of the reputation of such great men, particularly since they are inquisitors. It should be ensured that this treatise will become known to learned and zealous men, who will then, on the basis of it, provide various healthy and appropriate advice for the extermination of sorceresses [...]
The second part is signed by those from the first signing and in addition by professors Ulrich Kridweiss of Esslingen, Konrad Vorn of Kampen, Cornelius Pays of Breda and Dietrich of Balveren (Bummel). Signatories attest that: 1) The Masters of Holy Theology written below commend the Inquisitors into Heretical Depravity appointed by the authority of the Apostolic See in conformity with the Canons, and urge that they think it right to carry out their office zealously.2) The proposition that acts of sorcery can happen with God's permission through sorcerers or sorceresses when the Devil works with them is not contrary to the Catholic Faith, but consonant with the statements of Holy Scripture. Indeed, according to the pronouncements of the Holy Doctors it is necessary to admit that such acts can sometimes happen.3) It is therefore erroneous to preach that acts of sorcery cannot happen, because in this way preachers impede, to the extent that they can, the pious work of the inquisitors, to the prejudice of the salvation of souls. Nonetheless, secrets that are heard at any time by inquisitors should not be revealed to everyone.4) All princes and Catholics should be urged to think it right to assist such pious vows on the part of the Inquisitors in defense of the Holy Catholic Faith.
The "Malleus Maleficarum" asserts that three elements are necessary for witchcraft: the evil intentions of the witch, the help of the Devil, and the permission of God. The treatise is divided into three sections. The first section is aimed at clergy and tries to refute critics who deny the reality of witchcraft, thereby hindering its prosecution.
The second section describes the actual forms of witchcraft and its remedies. The third section is to assist judges confronting and combating witchcraft, and to aid the inquisitors by removing the burden from them. Each of the three sections has the prevailing themes of what is witchcraft and who is a witch.
Section I examines the concept of witchcraft theoretically, from the point of view of natural philosophy and theology. Specifically it addresses the question of whether witchcraft is a real phenomenon or imaginary, perhaps "deluding phantasms of the devil, or simply the fantasies of overwrought human minds". The conclusion drawn is that witchcraft must be real because the Devil is real. Witches entered into a pact with Satan to allow them the power to perform harmful magical acts, thus establishing an essential link between witches and the Devil.
Matters of practice and actual cases are discussed, and the powers of witches and their recruitment strategies. It states that it is mostly witches, as opposed to the Devil, who do the recruiting, by making something go wrong in the life of a respectable matron that makes her consult the knowledge of a witch, or by introducing young maidens to tempting young devils. It details how witches cast spells, and remedies that can be taken to prevent witchcraft, or help those who have been affected by it.
Section III is the legal part of the "Malleus Maleficarum" that describes how to prosecute a witch. The arguments are clearly laid for the lay magistrates prosecuting witches. The section offers a step-by-step guide to the conduct of a witch trial, from the method of initiating the process and assembling accusations, to the interrogation (including torture) of witnesses, and the formal charging of the accused. Women who did not cry during their trial were automatically believed to be witches.
Jakob Sprenger was an appointed inquisitor for the Rhineland, theology professor and a dean at the University of Cologne in Germany. Heinrich Kraemer (Institoris) was an appointed inquisitor of south Germany, a professor of theology at the University of Salzburg, the leading demonologist and witch-hunter in late medieval Germany. Pope Innocent VIII in Papal Bull "Summis desiderantes affectibus" refers to them both as "beloved sons" and "professors of theology"; also authorizes them to extirpate witchcraft.
The "Malleus Maleficarum" was intended to implement Exodus 22:18: "You shall not permit a sorceress to live." and explicitly argues that "Canon Episcopi" does not apply to the new, formerly unknown heresy of "modern witchcraft". Kramer and Sprenger were the first to raise harmful sorcery to the criminal status of heresy. [...] If harmful sorcery is a crime on the order of heresy, Kramer and Sprenger argue, then the secular judges who prosecute it must do so with the same vigor as would the "Inquisition" in prosecuting a heretic. The "Malleus" urges them to adopt torture, leading questions, the admission of denunciation as valid evidence, and other Inquisitorial practices to achieve swift results. Moreover, the authors insist that the death penalty for convicted witches is the only sure remedy against witchcraft. They maintain that the lesser penalty of banishment prescribed by "Canon Episcopi" for those convicted of harmful sorcery does not apply to the new breed of witches, whose unprecedented evil justifies capital punishment.
The treatise often makes references to the Bible and Aristotelian thought, and it is heavily influenced by the philosophical tenets of Neoplatonism. The first section of the book's main text is written using the scholastic methodology of Thomas Aquinas characterized by a mode of "disputed questions" most notably used in his "Summa Theologica". It was a standard mode of argumentation in scholastic discourse with a long tradition. Most of the citations in the "Malleus" come from multiple works of Aquinas, a highly influential author in theology. Aquinas is a main source for Section I but is cited in all sections; "Formicarius" by Johannes Nider is the important source for Section II, and "Directorium Inquisitorum" by Spanish inquisitor Nicholas Eymeric is a crucial source for Section III.
The ancient subjects of astronomy, philosophy, and medicine were being reintroduced to the West at this time, as well as a plethora of ancient texts being rediscovered and studied. The "Malleus" also mentions astrology and astronomy, which had recently been reintroduced to the West through the ancient works of Pythagoras. The "Malleus" is also heavily influenced by the subjects of divination, astrology, and healing rituals the Church inherited from antiquity.
Importantly, Kramer and Sprenger were convinced that God would never permit an innocent person to be convicted of witchcraft.
The "Malleus" recommended not only torture but also deception in order to obtain confessions: "And when the implements of torture have been prepared, the judge, both in person and through other good men zealous in the faith, tries to persuade the prisoner to confess the truth freely; but, if he will not confess, he bid attendants make the prisoner fast to the strappado or some other implement of torture. The attendants obey forthwith, yet with feigned agitation. Then, at the prayer of some of those present, the prisoner is loosed again and is taken aside and once more persuaded to confess, being led to believe that he will in that case not be put to death."
All confessions acquired with the use of torture had to be confirmed: "And note that, if he confesses under the torture, he must afterward be conducted to another place, that he may confirm it and certify that it was not due alone to the force of the torture."
However if there was no confirmation, torture could not be repeated, but it was allowed to continue at a specified day: "But, if the prisoner will not confess the truth satisfactorily, other sorts of tortures must be placed before him, with the statement that unless he will confess the truth, he must endure these also. But, if not even thus he can be brought into terror and to the truth, then the next day or the next but one is to be set for a continuation of the tortures – not a repetition, for it must not be repeated unless new evidences produced. The judge must then address to the prisoners the following sentence: We, the judge, etc., do assign to you, such and such a day for the continuation of the tortures, that from your own mouth the truth may be heard, and that the whole may be recorded by the notary."
The treatise describes how women and men become inclined to practice witchcraft. The text argues that women are more susceptible to demonic temptations through the manifold weaknesses of their gender. It was believed that they were weaker in faith and more carnal than men. Michael Bailey claims that most of the women accused as witches had strong personalities and were known to defy convention by overstepping the lines of proper female decorum. After the publication of the "Malleus", it seems as though about three quarters of those individuals prosecuted as witches were women.
Witches were usually female. The reasons for this is the suggestion that women are "prone to believing and because the demon basically seeks to corrupt the faith, he assails them in particular." They also have a "temperament towards flux" and "loose tongues". They "are defective in all the powers of both soul and body" and are stated to be more lustful than men.
The major reason is that at the foundation of sorcery is denial of faith and "woman, therefore, is evil as a result of nature because she doubts more quickly in the faith." Men could be witches, but were considered rarer, and the reasons were also different. The most common form of male witch mentioned in the book is the sorcerer-archer. The book is rather unclear, but the impetus behind male witches seems to come more from desire for power than from disbelief or lust, as it claims is the case for female witches.
Indeed, the very title of the "Malleus Maleficarum" is feminine, alluding to the idea that it was women who were the villains. Otherwise, it would be the "Malleus Maleficorum" (the masculine form of the Latin noun "maleficus" or "malefica," 'witch'). In Latin, the feminine "maleficarum" would only be used for women, while the masculine "maleficorum" could be used for men alone or for both sexes if together. The "Malleus Maleficarum" accuses male and female witches of infanticide, cannibalism and casting evil spells to harm their enemies as well as having the power to steal a man's penis. It goes on to give accounts of witches committing these crimes.
Arguments favoring discrimination against women are explicit in the handbook. Those arguments are not novel but constitute a selection from the long tradition of Western misogynist writings. However, according to Brauner, they are combined to produce new meanings and result in a comprehensive theory. It mixes elements borrowed from "Formicarius" (1435), "Preceptorium divinae legis" (1475) and "Lectiones super ecclesiastes" (1380).Kramer and Sprenger develop a powerful gender-specific theory of witchcraft based on a hierarchical and dualistic view of the world. Everything exists in pairs of opposites: God and Satan, Mary and Eve, and men (or virgins) and women. Each positive principle in a pair is delineated by its negative pole. Perfection is defined not as the integration or preservation of opposites, but rather as the extermination of the negative element in a polar pair. Because women are the negative counterpart to men, they corrupt male perfection through witchcraft and must be destroyed.
Although authors give many examples of male witchery in the second part of the handbook, those witchcraft trials that are independently confirmed and that were led by Kramer himself are related to persecution of women almost exclusively. They took place in Ravensburg near Constance (1484) and Innsbruck (since 1485). According to Brauner, trial records confirm that Kramer believed that women are by nature corrupt and evil. His position was in harmony with the scholastic theory at the time.
In contrast, Sprenger never conducted a witch trial though he was consulted in a few cases. Kramer and Sprenger use a metaphor of a world turned upside down by women of which concubines are the most wicked, followed by midwives and then by wives who dominate their husbands. Authors warn of imminent arrival of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible and that men risk bewitchment that leads to impotence and sensation of castration. Brauner explains authors' prescription on how a woman can avoid becoming a witch: According to the "Malleus", the only way a woman can avoid succumbing to her passions – and becoming a witch – is to embrace a life of devout chastity in a religious retreat. But the monastic life is reserved to the spiritually gifted few. Therefore, most women are doomed to become witches, who cannot be redeemed; and the only recourse open to the authorities is to ferret out and exterminate all witches.
Strixology in the "Malleus Maleficarum" is characterized by a very specific conception of what a witch is, one that differs dramatically from earlier times. The word used, malefica, carries an explicit condemnation absent in other words referring to women with supernatural powers. The conception of witches and of magic by extension is one of evil. It differs from earlier conceptions of witchcraft that were much more generalized.
This is the point in history where "witchcraft constituted an independent antireligion". The witch lost her powerful position vis-a-vis the deities; the ability to force the deities comply with her wishes was replaced by a total subordination to the devil. In short, "[t]he witch became Satan's puppet." This conception of witches was "part of a conception of magic that is termed by scholars as 'Satanism' or 'diabolism'". In this conception, a witch was a member of "a malevolent society presided over by Satan himself and dedicated to the infliction of malevolent acts of sorcery ("maleficia") on others."
According to Mackay, this concept of sorcery is characterized by the conviction that those guilty engage in six activities:
In the "Malleus" demons are the ones who tempt humans to sorcery and are the main figures in the witches' vows. They interact with witches, usually sexually. The book claims that it is normal for all witches "to perform filthy carnal acts with demons." This is a major part of human-demon interaction and demons do it "not for the sake of pleasure, but for the sake of corrupting."
It is worth noting that not all demons do such things. The book claims that "the nobility of their nature causes certain demons to balk at committing certain actions and filthy deeds." Though the work never gives a list of names or types of demons, like some demonological texts or spellbooks of the era, such as the "Liber Juratus", it does indicate different types of demons. For example, it devotes large sections to incubi and succubi and questions regarding their roles in pregnancies, the submission of witches to incubi, and protections against them.
Joseph Hansen, a historian who was appalled by the witch-craze and those who carried it out, proposed that coauthorship by Sprenger was a falsehood presented by Institoris (Kramer) and that approbation is "partially" a forgery. This had never been proposed before until Joseph Hansen in the nineteenth century.
Christopher Mackay, author of the modern academic translation of the "Malleus" into English offers rebuttals to arguments of proponents of this theory and in an interview gives an accessible summary:
The argument was made in the nineteenth century by a scholar hostile to what the Malleus stood for that the approbation was a forgery by Institoris and that Sprenger had nothing to do with the composition. The evidence for this is in my view very tenuous (and the main argument is clearly invalid). Nonetheless, once the argument was put forward, it took on a life of its own, and people continue to advance arguments in favor of the idea that Sprenger's involvement was a falsification perpetrated by Institoris, despite the fact that this argument was vitiated from the start.
In addition, Mackay points out that allegations raised in support of this theory that supposedly two of the signatories had not in fact signed the approbation are unsubstantiated.
A similar response is offered by the author of the first translation of the "Malleus" into English Montague Summers. In his introduction, he ignores completely the theory that joint authorship or approbation could be a mystification. Nonetheless, he mentions briefly that it was questioned whether Kramer or Sprenger contributed more to the work. He comments that "in the case of such a close collaboration any such inquiry seems singularly superfluous and nugatory".
Broedel, a historian who writes that it is likely that Sprenger's contribution was minimal, nonetheless says that "Sprenger certainly wrote the "Apologia auctoris" which prefaces the "Malleus" and agreed to be a coauthor.
"Encyclopædia Britannica" and "The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca" ignore completely Hansen's theory and list Sprenger and Kramer as co-authors.
Wolfgang Behringer argues that Sprenger's name was only added as an author beginning in 1519, thirty-three years after the book was first published and decades after Sprenger's own death. One of Sprenger's friends who was still alive denounced the addition of Sprenger's name as a forgery, stating that Sprenger had nothing to do with the book. Many historians have also pointed out that Sprenger's actual views in his confirmed writings are often the opposite of the views in the "Malleus", and Sprenger was unlikely to have been a colleague of Kramer since Sprenger in fact banned Kramer from preaching and entering Dominican convents within his jurisdiction, and spoke out against him on many occasions.
The alleged approval from the theologians at Cologne, which Kramer included in the "Malleus" with a list of names of theologians who he claimed approved the book, has also been questioned by many historians, since in 1490 the clergy at Cologne condemned the book and at least two of the clergy listed by Kramer, Thomas de Scotia and Johann von Wörde, publicly denied having approved the "Malleus".
Jacob Sprenger's name was added as an author beginning in 1519, 33 years after the book's first publication and 24 years after Sprenger's death.
Jenny Gibbons, a Neo-Pagan and a historian, writes: "Actually the Inquisition immediately rejected the legal procedures Kramer recommended and censured the inquisitor himself just a few years after the "Malleus" was published. Secular courts, not inquisitorial ones, resorted to the "Malleus"".
The preface also includes an allegedly unanimous approbation from the University of Cologne's Faculty of Theology. Nevertheless, many historians have argued that it is well established by sources outside the "Malleus" that the university's theology faculty condemned the book for unethical procedures and for contradicting Catholic theology on a number of important points : "just for good measure Institoris forged a document granting their apparently unanimous approbation."
In 1484 Heinrich Kramer had made one of the first attempts at prosecuting alleged witches in the Tyrol region. It was not a success and he was asked to leave the city of Innsbruck. According to Diarmaid MacCulloch, writing the book was Kramer's act of self-justification and revenge. Ankarloo and Clark claim that Kramer's purpose in writing the book was to explain his own views on witchcraft, systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft does not exist, discredit those who expressed skepticism about its reality, claim that those who practiced witchcraft were more often women than men, and to convince magistrates to use Kramer's recommended procedures for finding and convicting witches.
Kramer wrote the "Malleus" following his expulsion from Innsbruck by the local bishop, due to charges of illegal behavior against Kramer himself, and because of Kramer's obsession with the sexual habits of one of the accused, Helena Scheuberin, which led the other tribunal members to suspend the trial.
Kramer received a papal bull, "Summis desiderantes affectibus", in 1484. It directed Bishop of Strasburg (then Albert of Palatinate-Mosbach) to accept the authority of Heinrich Kramer as an Inquisitor, although the motivation of the papal bull was likely political. The "Malleus Maleficarum" was finished in 1486 and the papal bull was included as part of its preface, implying papal approval for the work..
Kramer was intensely writing and preaching until his death in Bohemia in 1505. He was asked by Nuremberg council to provide expert consultation on the procedure of witch trial in 1491. His prestige was not fading. In 1495 he was summoned by the Master General of the Order, Joaquin de Torres, O.P. to Venice and gave very popular public lectures and disputations. They were worthy of presence and patronage of Patriarch of Venice.
He also wrote treatises "Several Discourses and Various Sermons upon the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist" (Nuremberg, 1496); "A Tract Confuting the Errors of Master Antonio degli Roselli" (Venice, 1499); followed by "The Shield of Defence of the Holy Roman Church Against the Picards and Waldenses" which were quoted by many authors. He was appointed as papal nuncio and his assignment as inquisitor was changed to Bohemia and Moravia by Pope Alexander VI in 1500.
Sprenger continued his work as Inquisitor Extraordinary for the Provinces of Mainz, Trèves and Cologne. Later, he was elected Provincial Superior of the whole German Province (in 1488). He had enormous responsibilities. He received a letter from Pope Alexander VI praising his enthusiasm and energy in 1495.
Summers observes that 17th century "Dominican chroniclers, such as Quétif and Échard, number Kramer and Sprenger among the glories and heroes of their Order".
Gender-specific theory developed in the "Malleus Maleficarum" laid the foundations for widespread consensus in early modern Germany on the evil nature of women as witches. Later works on witchcraft have not agreed entirely with the "Malleus" but none of them challenged the view that women were more inclined to be witches than men. It was perceived as intuitive and all-accepted so that very few authors saw the need to explain why women are witches. Those who did, attributed female witchery to the weakness of body and mind (the old medieval explanation) and a few to female sexuality.
Some authors argue that the book's publication was not as influential as earlier authors believed. According to MacCulloch, the "Malleus Maleficarum" was one of several key factors contributing to the witch craze, along with popular superstition, and tensions created by the Reformation. However, according to "Encyclopædia Britannica":
Between 1487 and 1520, twenty editions of the "Malleus Maleficarum" were published, and another sixteen between 1574 and 1669. The "Malleus Maleficarum" was able to spread throughout Europe rapidly in the late 15th and at the beginning of the 16th century due to the innovation of the printing press in the middle of the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg. The invention of printing some thirty years before the first publication of the "Malleus Maleficarum" instigated the fervor of witch hunting, and, in the words of Russell, "the swift propagation of the witch hysteria by the press was the first evidence that Gutenberg had not liberated man from original sin."
The late 15th century was also a period of religious turmoil. The "Malleus Maleficarum" and the witch craze that ensued took advantage of the increasing intolerance of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe, where the Protestant and Catholic camps respectively, pitted against one another, each zealously strove to maintain what they each deemed to be the purity of faith.
The Catholic Counter-Reformation would eventually even out this religious turmoil, but until then both the Catholics and Protestants constantly battled for what they believed was right.
The Latin book was firstly translated by into German in 1906; an expanded edition of three volumes was published in 1923. Montague Summers was responsible for the first English translation in 1928.
General
People
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Mandy Patinkin
Mandel Bruce Patinkin (; born November 30, 1952) is an American actor and singer.
Patinkin is well known for his portrayal of Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner's 1987 film "The Princess Bride." His other film credits include Miloš Forman's "Ragtime" (1981), Barbra Streisand's "Yentl" (1983), "Alien Nation" (1988), and Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy" (1990). He has appeared in major roles in television series such as "Chicago Hope", "Dead Like Me", "Criminal Minds", and as Saul Berenson in the Showtime series "Homeland".
He is a noted interpreter of the musical works of Stephen Sondheim and is known for his work in musical theater, originating iconic roles such as Georges Seurat in "Sunday in the Park with George" and Che in the original Broadway production of "Evita".
Patinkin was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 30, 1952, to Doris "Doralee" (née Sinton), a homemaker, and Lester Patinkin, who operated two large Chicago-area metal factories, the People's Iron & Metal Company and the Scrap Corporation of America. His mother wrote "Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Jewish Family Cookbook". Patinkin's cousins include Mark Patinkin, an author and nationally syndicated columnist for "The Providence Journal"; Sheldon Patinkin of Columbia College Chicago's Theater Department, a founder of The Second City; Bonnie Miller Rubin, a "Chicago Tribune" reporter and Laura Patinkin, a New York-based actress.
Patinkin grew up in an upper-middle-class family, descended from Jewish immigrants (from Russia and Poland), and was raised in Conservative Judaism, attending religious school daily "from the age of seven to 13 or 14" and singing in synagogue choirs, as well as attending the Camp Surah in Michigan.
He attended South Shore High School, Harvard St. George School, and Kenwood High School (later renamed Kenwood Academy), and graduated in 1970. He attended the University of Kansas and the Juilliard School (Drama Division "Group 5": 1972–1976). At Juilliard, he was a classmate of Kelsey Grammer. When the producers of the popular American sitcom "Cheers" were holding auditions for the role of Dr. Frasier Crane, Patinkin put Grammer's name forward.
After some television commercial and radio appearances (including the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1974), Patinkin had his first success in musical theater, where he played the part of Che in "Evita" on Broadway in 1979. Patinkin went on to win the 1980 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. He then moved to film, playing parts in movies such as "Yentl" and "Ragtime". He returned to Broadway in 1984 to star in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "Sunday in the Park with George", which saw him earn another Tony Award nomination for Best Actor (Musical).
Patinkin played Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner's 1987 "The Princess Bride", playing the role of the best swordsman in the country, short of the main character. Over the next decade, he continued to appear in movies, such as "Dick Tracy" and "Alien Nation".
On Broadway, Patinkin appeared in the musical "The Secret Garden" in 1991, and was nominated for the 1991 Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actor in a Musical. He also released two solo albums, titled "Mandy Patinkin" (1989) and "Dress Casual" (1990).
In 1994, Patinkin took the role of Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on CBS's "Chicago Hope" for which he won an Emmy Award. However, despite the award and the ratings success of the show, Patinkin left the show during the second season because he was unhappy spending so much time away from his wife and children. He returned to the show in 1999 at the beginning of the sixth season, but it was later canceled in 2000. Since "Chicago Hope", Patinkin has appeared in a number of films. However, he has mostly performed as a singer, releasing three more albums. In 1995, he guest-starred in "The Simpsons" in the episode "Lisa's Wedding" as Hugh Parkfield, Lisa's future English groom.
"Mamaloshen", Patinkin's musical production of songs sung entirely in Yiddish, premiered in 1998. He has performed the show on Broadway and in venues around the United States. The recorded version won a "Deutscher Schallplattenpreis" award in Germany.
In 1999, Patinkin co-starred in the second "Sesame Street" film "The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland" as Huxley, an abusive, childish, sadistic and greedy man with abnormally large eyebrows, who steals whatever he can grab and then claims it as his own. Patinkin returned to Broadway in 2000 in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of John LaChiusa's "The Wild Party", earning another Tony Award nomination for Best Actor (Musical). In 2003-2004 he appeared in the Showtime comedy–drama "Dead Like Me" as Rube Sofer. In 2004 he played a six–week engagement of his one–man concert at the Off-Broadway complex Dodger Stages.
In September 2005, Patinkin debuted in the role of Jason Gideon, an experienced profiler just coming back to work after a series of nervous breakdowns, in the CBS crime drama TV show "Criminal Minds." Patinkin was absent from a table read for "Criminal Minds" and did not return for a third season. The departure from the show was not due to contractual or salary matters, but over creative differences. He left apologetic letters for his fellow cast members explaining his reasons and wishing them luck. Many weeks before his departure, in a videotaped interview carried in the online magazine "Monaco Revue", Patinkin told journalists at the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo that he loathed violence on television and was uncomfortable with certain scenes in "Criminal Minds". He later called his choice to do "Criminal Minds" his "biggest public mistake," and stated that he "thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality, and after that, I didn't think I would get to work in television again."
Patinkin spoke of having planned to tour the world with a musical and wanting to inject more comedy into the entertainment business. In later episodes of "Criminal Minds", during the 2007–08 season, Jason Gideon was written out of the series and replaced by Special Agent David Rossi (played by Joe Mantegna). Gideon was later officially killed off, ending all chances of a guest appearance by Patinkin on the show.
On October 14, 2009, it was announced that Patinkin would be a guest star on an episode of "Three Rivers", which aired on November 15, 2009. He played a patient with Lou Gehrig's disease injured in a car accident who asks the doctors at Three Rivers Hospital to take him off life support so his organs can be donated. He filmed an appearance on "The Whole Truth" that had been scheduled to air December 15, 2010, but ABC pulled the series from its schedule two weeks prior.
He starred in the new musical "Paradise Found", co-directed by Harold Prince and Susan Stroman, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London. The musical played a limited engagement from May 2010 through June 26, 2010.
Patinkin and Patti LuPone performed their concert "An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin" on Broadway for a limited 63-performance run starting November 21, 2011, at the Barrymore Theatre, and which ended on January 13, 2012. This concert marks the first time the pair has performed together on Broadway since they appeared together in "Evita".
He costarred with Claire Danes on the Showtime series "Homeland" which initially began airing in 2011. He portrays counterterrorism operative Saul Berenson, protagonist Carrie Mathison's (Danes) mentor. For his performance, Patinkin has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Explaining what he learned from the character, he stated that "The line between good and evil runs through each one of us."
Patinkin was announced as playing the role of Pierre in the Broadway musical "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812" starting August 15, 2017. He would have a limited run through September 3, replacing former "Hamilton" star Okieriete Onaodowan. The role was originated by Josh Groban. Patinkin later dropped out of the role.
In 2018, Patinkin returned to recorded music with the album "Diary: January 27, 2018" which was produced by pianist Thomas Bartlett.
Patinkin married actress and writer Kathryn Grody on April 15, 1980. They have two sons, Isaac and Gideon. Gideon joined his father onstage in "Dress Casual" in 2011. Patinkin has described himself as "Jewish with a dash of Buddhist" belief. On the Canadian radio program "Q", Patinkin describes himself as a "JewBu" because of this mix of beliefs and "spiritual but not religious."
Patinkin suffered from keratoconus, a degenerative eye condition, in the mid-1990s. This led to two corneal transplants, his right cornea in 1997 and his left in 1998. He was also diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer in 2004. He celebrated his first year of recovery in 2005 by doing a charity bike ride with his son, Isaac – the Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride: Cycling for Peace, Partnership & Environmental Protection.
Patinkin has been involved in a variety of Jewish causes and cultural activities. He sings in Yiddish, often in concert, and on his album "Mamaloshen". He also wrote introductions for two books on Jewish culture, "The Jewish American Family Album", by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, and "Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Holiday Cookbook: A Jewish Family's Celebrations", by his mother, Doralee Patinkin Rubin.
In May 2012, Patinkin delivered the opening speech at the Annual Convention of the Israeli Left, where he recounted his experiences during a visit to the West Bank with members of the Breaking the Silence organization.
Patinkin contributed to the children's book "Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again: A Musical Storybook", inspired by Christopher Reeve. The award-winning book, published in 2005, benefits the Christopher Reeve Foundation and includes an audio CD with Patinkin singing and reading the story as well as Dana Reeve and Bernadette Peters singing.
On December 21, 2015, Patinkin was on "Charlie Rose" on PBS talking about his recent trip to Greece to help refugees from war-torn Syria and his acting role on the television series "Homeland". He stated that he wanted to help "create opportunity and better systems of living and existing, to give freedom, justice and dignity, quality of life to humanity all over the world."
Theatre awards
Film and television awards
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Mel Smith
Melvin Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian and film director. Smith worked on the sketch comedy shows "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Alas Smith and Jones" with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the UK's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.
Smith's father, Kenneth, was born in Tow Law, County Durham, and worked at a coal mine during the Second World War; looking after the pit ponies. After the war ended, he moved to London and married Smith's mother, whose parents owned a greengrocers in Chiswick. When the government legalised high street betting with the Betting and Gaming Act 1960, he turned the shop into the first betting shop in Chiswick.
Smith was born and brought up in Chiswick. He was educated at Hogarth Primary School, Chiswick, and at Latymer Upper School, an independent school in Hammersmith. He went on to study Experimental Psychology at New College, Oxford.
While at Oxford University, Smith produced "The Tempest", and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with the Oxford University Dramatic Society. One year they shared a venue with the Cambridge Footlights, directed by John Lloyd. His extra-curricular activities while at university led to his joining the Royal Court Theatre production team in London, and then Bristol Old Vic. He was also associate director of Sheffield's Crucible Theatre for two years. Later, he directed a theatre production of "Not in Front of the Audience".
John Lloyd later got the opportunity to develop the idea that became the satirical BBC television series "Not the Nine O'clock News". This was followed briefly by "Smith and Goody" (with Bob Goody) and then the comedy sketch series "Alas Smith and Jones", co-starring Griff Rhys Jones, its title being a pun on the name of the American television series "Alias Smith and Jones". In 1982, he starred as the lead role in ITV drama "Muck and Brass "where he played Tom Craig, a ruthless property developer. In 1984, he appeared in the "Minder" episode "A Star Is Gorn" playing the character Cyril Ash, a record producer. He also guest-starred on "The Goodies" episode Animals. At the end of the 1980s, he played the title role in the sitcom "Colin's Sandwich" (1988–90), playing a British Rail employee with aspirations to be a writer.
In 1981, Smith and Griff Rhys Jones founded TalkBack Productions, a company that has produced many of the most significant British comedy shows of the past two decades, including "Smack the Pony", "Da Ali G Show", "I'm Alan Partridge" and "Big Train". In 2000, the company was sold to Pearson for £62 million.
Smith co-wrote and took the lead role in the space comedy "Morons from Outer Space" (1985), but the film failed to make much impact. His next cinema effort was better received as director of "The Tall Guy" (1989), giving Emma Thompson a major screen role. Perhaps his best-known film in America is "Brain Donors", the 1992 update of the Marx Brothers film "A Night at the Opera", starring Smith as a cheeky, opportunistic cab driver turned ballet promoter. Paramount Pictures considered this film the outstanding comedy of the year, but when the producers left Paramount for another studio, Paramount withdrew its support for the film.
In 1987, Smith recorded a single with Kim Wilde for Comic Relief: a cover of the Christmas song Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree with some additional comedy lines written by Smith and Jones. The pairing of Smith and Wilde was a comic allusion to the duo Mel & Kim. The song reached number three in the UK charts. He appeared in "The Princess Bride" as the Albino.
Smith and Jones were reunited in 2005 for a review/revival of their earlier television series in "The Smith And Jones Sketchbook". Smith joked that "Obviously, Griff's got more money than me so he came to work in a Rolls Royce and I came on a bicycle. But it was great fun to do and we are firmly committed to doing something new together, because you don't chuck that sort of chemistry away. Of course, I'll have to pretend I like "Restoration".
In August 2006, Smith returned to the theatre stage after some 20 years, appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in "Allegiance", Irish journalist and author Mary Kenny's play about Churchill's encounter with the Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins in 1921. The play initially caused some controversy, with Smith proposing to flout the Scottish ban on smoking in public places, but the scene was quickly adapted after gaining the required amount of publicity. The play was directed by Brian Gilbert and produced by Daniel Jewel. In 2006, he also appeared in Hustle as Benjamin Frasier, a pub landlord who was scammed by the Hustle team when his on-screen son Joey tried to launch a rap career.
In autumn 2006, Smith starred opposite Belinda Lang in a tour of a new comedy "An Hour and a Half Late" by French playwright Gérald Sibleyras, which was adapted by Smith. He then directed a West End revival of "Charley's Aunt" starring Stephen Tompkinson. From October 2007 to January 2008 he played the role of Wilbur Turnblad in the London production of "Hairspray" at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
Smith was married to Pamela (née Gay-Rees), a former model, who grew up in Easington and Durham. The couple had houses in St John's Wood (backing onto Lord's Cricket Ground), and the hamlet of Little Haseley, Oxfordshire (a Grade II-listed barn conversion, sold in 2011), as well as a property in Barbados.
Smith was hospitalised in 1999 with stomach ulcers, after an accidental overdose of more than 50 Nurofen Plus tablets a day, after previously admitting an addiction to sleeping pills. Smith said at the time that the pressures of film work were a contributing factor, along with a desperate need to ease the pain caused by gout. Partly as a result, he agreed to sell Talkback Productions. On 31 December 2008, Smith appeared on "Celebrity Mastermind" whilst suffering from severe pharyngitis.
On the morning of 19 July 2013, the London Ambulance Service was called to Smith's home in north-west London. Smith was confirmed dead by the ambulance crew, with a later post-mortem confirming death from a heart attack.
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Mesolithic
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, "mesos" "middle"; λίθος, "lithos" "stone") is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and Western Asia, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in Southwest Asia (the Epipalaeolithic Near East) roughly 20,000 to 8,000 BP. The term is less used of areas further east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.
The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broader hunter-gatherer way of life, and the development of more sophisticated and typically smaller lithic tools and weapons than the heavy-chipped equivalents typical of the Paleolithic. Depending on the region, some use of pottery and textiles may be found in sites allocated to the Mesolithic, but generally indications of agriculture are taken as marking transition into the Neolithic. The more permanent settlements tend to be close to the sea or inland waters offering a good supply of food. Mesolithic societies are not seen as very complex, and burials are fairly simple; in contrast, grandiose burial mounds are a mark of the Neolithic.
The terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" were introduced by John Lubbock in his work "Pre-historic Times" in 1865. The additional "Mesolithic" category was added as an intermediate category by Hodder Westropp in 1866. Westropp's suggestion was immediately controversial. A British school led by John Evans denied any need for an intermediate: the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later.
Edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his naming of the Azilian Culture. Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the "Epipaleolithic", suggesting a final phase of the Paleolithic rather than an intermediate age in its own right inserted between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.
By the time of Vere Gordon Childe's work, "The Dawn of Europe" (1947), which affirms the Mesolithic, sufficient data had been collected to determine that a transitional period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic was indeed a useful concept. However, the terms "Mesolithic" and "Epipalaeolitic" remain in competition, with varying conventions of usage. In the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term "Mesolithic" is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term "Epipaleolithic" may be preferred by most authors, or there may be divergences between authors over which term to use or what meaning to assign to each. In the New World, neither term is used (except provisionally in the Arctic).
"Epipaleolithic" is sometimes also used alongside "Mesolithic" for the final end of the Upper Paleolithic immediately followed by the Mesolithic. As "Mesolithic" suggests an intermediate period, followed by the Neolithic, some authors prefer the term "Epipaleolithic" for hunter-gatherer cultures who are not succeeded by agricultural traditions, reserving "Mesolithic" for cultures who are clearly succeeded by the Neolithic Revolution, such as the Natufian culture. Other authors use "Mesolithic" as a generic term for hunter-gatherer cultures after the Last Glacial Maximum, whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not. In addition, terminology appears to differ between archaeological sub-disciplines, with "Mesolithic" being widely used in European archaeology, while "Epipalaeolithic" is more common in Near Eastern archaeology.
The Balkan Mesolithic begins around 15,000 years ago. In Western Europe, the Early Mesolithic, or Azilian, begins about 14,000 years ago, in the Franco-Cantabrian region of northern Spain and southern France. In other parts of Europe, the Mesolithic begins by 11,500 years ago (the beginning Holocene), and it ends with the introduction of farming, depending on the region between c. 8,500 and 5,500 years ago. Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last glacial period ended have a much more apparent Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In northern Europe, for example, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands created by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviors that are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. Such conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until some 5,500 BP in northern Europe.
The type of stone toolkit remains one of the most diagnostic features: the Mesolithic used a microlithic technology – composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools (microliths), while the Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV. In some areas, however, such as Ireland, parts of Portugal, the Isle of Man and the Tyrrhenian Islands, a macrolithic technology was used in the Mesolithic. In the Neolithic, the microlithic technology was replaced by a macrolithic technology, with an increased use of polished stone tools such as stone axes.
There is some evidence for the beginning of construction at sites with a ritual or astronomical significance, including Stonehenge, with a short row of large post holes aligned east–west, and a possible "lunar calendar" at Warren Field in Scotland, with pits of post holes of varying sizes, thought to reflect the lunar phases. Both are dated to before c. 9,000 BP (the 8th millennium BC).
As the "Neolithic package" (including farming, herding, polished stone axes, timber longhouses and pottery) spread into Europe, the Mesolithic way of life was marginalized and eventually disappeared. Mesolithic adaptations such as sedentism, population size and use of plant foods are cited as evidence of the transition to agriculture. In one sample from the Blätterhöhle in Hagen, it seems that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies in the area; such societies may be called "Subneolithic". In north-Eastern Europe, the hunting and fishing lifestyle continued into the Medieval period in regions less suited to agriculture, and in Scandinavia no Mesolithic period may be accepted, with the locally preferred "Older Stone Age" moving into the "Younger Stone Age".
Compared to the preceding Upper Paleolithic and the following Neolithic, there is rather less surviving art from the Mesolithic. The Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, which probably spreads across from the Upper Paleolithic, is a widespread phenomenon, much less well known than the cave-paintings of the Upper Paleolithic, with which it makes an interesting contrast. The sites are now mostly cliff faces in the open air, and the subjects are now mostly human rather than animal, with large groups of small figures; there are 45 figures at Roca dels Moros. Clothing is shown, and scenes of dancing, fighting, hunting and food-gathering. The figures are much smaller than the animals of Paleolithic art, and depicted much more schematically, though often in energetic poses. A few small engraved pendants with suspension holes and simple engraved designs are known, some from northern Europe in amber, and one from Star Carr in Britain in shale. The Elk's Head of Huittinen is a rare Mesolithic animal carving in soapstone from Finland.
The rock art in the Urals appears to show similar changes after the Paleolithic, and the wooden Shigir Idol is a rare survival of what may well have been a very common material for sculpture. It is a plank of larch carved with geometric motifs, but topped with a human head. Now in fragments, it would apparently have been over 5 metres tall when made. The "Ain Sakhri Lovers" from modern Israel, are a Natufian carving in calcite.
In North-Eastern Europe, Siberia, and certain southern European and North African sites, a "ceramic Mesolithic" can be distinguished between c. 9,000 to 5,850 BP. Russian archaeologists prefer to describe such pottery-making cultures as Neolithic, even though farming is absent. This pottery-making Mesolithic culture can be found peripheral to the sedentary Neolithic cultures. It created a distinctive type of pottery, with point or knob base and flared rims, manufactured by methods not used by the Neolithic farmers. Though each area of Mesolithic ceramic developed an individual style, common features suggest a single point of origin. The earliest manifestation of this type of pottery may be in the region around Lake Baikal in Siberia. It appears in the Elshan or Yelshanka or Samara culture on the Volga in Russia 9 ka, and from there spread via the Dnieper-Donets culture to the Narva culture of the Eastern Baltic. Spreading westward along the coastline it is found in the Ertebølle culture of Denmark and Ellerbek of Northern Germany, and the related Swifterbant culture of the Low Countries.
A 2012 publication in the "Science" journal, announced that the earliest pottery yet known anywhere in the world was found in Xianrendong cave in China, dating by radiocarbon to between 20,000 and 19,000 years before present, at the end of the Last Glacial Period. The carbon 14 datation was established by carefully dating surrounding sediments. Many of the pottery fragments had scorch marks, suggesting that the pottery was used for cooking. These early pottery containers were made well before the invention of agriculture (dated to 10,000 to 8,000 BC), by mobile foragers who hunted and gathered their food during the Late Glacial Maximum.
While Paleolithic and Neolithic have been found useful terms and concepts in the archaeology of China, and can be mostly regarded as happily naturalized, Mesolithic was introduced later, mostly after 1945, and does not appear to be a necessary or useful term in the context of China. Chinese sites that have been regarded as Mesolithic are better considered as "Early Neolithic".
In the archaeology of India, the Mesolithic, dated roughly between 12,000 and 8,000 BP, remains a concept in use.
In the archaeology of the Americas, an Archaic or Meso-Indian period, following the Lithic stage, somewhat equates to the Mesolithic.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20568
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Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish Independent politician who served as the seventh President of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997, becoming the first woman to hold this office. She also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002 and a Senator for the University of Dublin from 1969 to 1989. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister and campaigner. She defeated Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan and Fine Gael's Austin Currie in the 1990 presidential election, becoming the first Independent candidate nominated by the Labour Party, the Workers' Party and Independent Senators. She was the first elected President in the office's history not to have had the support of Fianna Fáil.
She is widely regarded as a transformative figure for Ireland, and for the Irish presidency, revitalising and liberalising a previously conservative, low-profile political office. She resigned the presidency two months ahead of the end of her term of office to take up her post in the United Nations. During her UN tenure she visited Tibet (1998), the first High Commissioner to do so; she criticised Ireland's immigrant policy; and criticised the use of capital punishment in the United States. She extended her intended single four-year term by a year to preside over the World Conference against Racism 2001 in Durban, South Africa; the conference proved controversial. Under continuing pressure from the United States, Robinson resigned her post in September 2002.
After leaving the United Nations in 2002, Robinson formed Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, which came to a planned end at the end of 2010. Its core activities were 1) fostering equitable trade and decent work, 2) promoting the right to health and more humane migration policies, and 3) working to strengthen women's leadership and encourage corporate social responsibility. The organisation also supported capacity building and good governance in developing countries. Robinson returned to live in Ireland at the end of 2010, and has set up The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, which aims to be 'a centre for thought leadership, education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those many victims of climate change who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised across the world.'
Robinson is Chairman of the Institute for Human Rights and Business and served as Chancellor of the University of Dublin from 1998 until 2019. Robinson also visits other colleges and universities where she lectures on human rights. Robinson sits on the board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organisation which supports good governance and great leadership in Africa, and is a member of the Foundation's Ibrahim Prize Committee. Robinson is also a B Team Leader, alongside Richard Branson, Jochen Zeitz and a group of leaders from business and civil society as part of The B Team. Robinson is an Extraordinary Professor in the Centre for Human Rights and the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender at the University of Pretoria. Robinson served as Oxfam's honorary president from 2002 until she stepped down in 2012 and is honorary president of the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation EIUC since 2005. She is Chair of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and is also a founding member and chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. Robinson was a member of the European members of the Trilateral Commission.
In 2004, she received Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award for her work in promoting human rights.
Born Mary Therese Winifred Bourke in Ballina, County Mayo, in 1944, she is the daughter of two medical doctors. Her father was Dr. Aubrey Bourke, of Ballina, while her mother was Dr. Tessa Bourke ("née" O'Donnell), of Carndonagh, Inishowen, County Donegal. The Hiberno-Norman Bourkes have lived in Mayo since the thirteenth century. Her family had links with many diverse political strands in Ireland. One ancestor was a leading activist in the Irish National Land League of Mayo and the Irish Republican Brotherhood; an uncle, Sir Paget John Bourke, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, after a career as a judge in the Colonial Service; while another relative was a Catholic nun. Some branches of the family were members of the Anglican Church of Ireland while others were Catholics. More distant relatives included William Liath de Burgh, Tibbot MacWalter Kittagh Bourke, and Charles Bourke. Robinson was therefore born into a family that was a historical mix of rebels against and servants of the British Crown.
Mary Bourke attended Mount Anville Secondary School in Dublin and studied law at Trinity College Dublin (where she was elected a scholar in 1965, the same year as David Norris) graduating in 1967 with first class honours. An outspoken critic of some Catholic church teachings, she delivered her inaugural address as the auditor of the Dublin University Law Society in 1967 in which she advocated removing the prohibition of divorce in the Irish Constitution, eliminating the ban on the use of contraceptives, decriminalising homosexuality and suicide. The invited respondents to her address, Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford H. L. A. Hart and retired Supreme Court judge T. C. Kingsmill Moore, positively received her arguments. She furthered her studies at the King's Inns and was awarded a fellowship to attend Harvard Law School, receiving an LL.M in 1968. She was called to the Irish Bar in 1967 and while still in her twenties was appointed Reid Professor of Law in the college. A subsequent holder of that title was her successor as Irish President, Mary McAleese. She became a member of the Bar of England and Wales in 1973 and a senior counsel in Ireland in 1980.
In 1970, she married Nicholas Robinson, with whom she had a relationship since they were fellow law students and who was then practising as a solicitor. Despite the fact that her family had close links to the Church of Ireland, her marriage to a Protestant caused a rift with her parents, who did not attend her wedding. The rift was eventually overcome in subsequent months. Together they have three children. Her son Aubrey, a photographer and film-maker who is "committed to social justice", received media attention in 2011, when he participated in Occupy Dame Street.
Robinson's early political career included election to Dublin City Council in 1979, where she served until 1983. However, she first hit national headlines as one of University of Dublin's three members of Seanad Éireann to which she was first elected, as an Independent Senator, in 1969. From this body she campaigned on a wide range of liberal issues, including the right of women to sit on juries, the then requirement that all women, upon marriage, resign from the civil service, and the right to the legal availability of contraception. This latter campaign won her many enemies. She was denounced from the pulpit of Ballina Cathedral for her campaigning for family planning rights for women in Ireland, causing distress to her parents. Condoms and other items were regularly sent in the post to the Senator by conservative critics, and a false rumour was spread that the Hayes, Conyngham & Robinson chain of pharmacies was owned by her family (and so therefore that her promotion of contraception was an attempt to benefit members of her family). So unpopular was her campaign among fellow politicians that when she introduced the first bill proposing to liberalise the law on contraception into the Seanad, although two other members 'seconded' the initiative, political leaders did not put it on the agenda for discussion. As a Senator she served on the following parliamentary committees:
For many years Robinson also worked as legal advisor for the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, with future Trinity College Senator David Norris. Coincidentally, just as Mary McAleese replaced Mary Robinson as Reid Professor of Law in Trinity, and would succeed her to the Irish presidency, so Robinson replaced McAleese in the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform.
Robinson initially served in the Irish upper house as an Independent Senator, but in the mid-1970s, she joined the Labour Party. Subsequently, ran for election to Dáil Éireann (the lower house) but her efforts were unsuccessful, as were her efforts to be elected to Dublin Corporation. Robinson, along with hundreds of thousands of other Irish people, clashed with Dublin Corporation when it planned to build its new administrative headquarters on Wood Quay, one of Europe's best preserved Viking sites. Though Robinson and people who in the past might not have espoused her causes, fought a determined battle, Wood Quay was ultimately bulldozed and concreted over, to build the controversial Civic Offices.
In 1982, the Labour Party entered into a coalition government with Fine Gael. When Peter Sutherland was appointed Ireland's European Commissioner, Labour demanded the choice of the next Attorney General. Many expected Robinson to be the choice, but the party leader instead picked senior counsel John Rogers. Rogers was a very close friend of the then leader of the Labour Party, Dick Spring. Rogers and Spring had shared rooms when they had been undergraduates at Trinity College Dublin. Shortly afterward, Robinson resigned from the party in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement that the coalition led by Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald had signed with the British Government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Robinson argued that unionist politicians in Northern Ireland should have been consulted as part of the deal, despite their reluctance to share power.
Robinson remained in the Seanad for four more years, although at this point many of the issues she had campaigned for had been tackled. Contraception had been legalised (although heavily restricted), women were on juries, and the marriage bar on women in the civil service had been revoked. To the surprise of many, she decided not to seek re-election to the Seanad in 1989. One year later, however, Labour approached her about running for President in that year's election. She thought she was being asked her legal advice about the type of policy programme party leader Dick Spring was proposing. However, as she read the briefing notes, she began to realise that the programme was aimed at her. After some consideration, she agreed to become the first Labour nominee for the presidency and the first woman candidate in what was only the second presidential election to be contested by three candidates since 1945.
Few, even in the Labour Party, gave Robinson much chance of winning the presidency, not least because of an internal party row over her nomination. With the Labour Party the first name for a possible candidate was an elderly former Minister for Health, and a hero to the left, Noel Browne. Browne was a household name for having done more than anybody else in Ireland in tackling tuberculosis during the 1950s. However, Browne's relationship with the Labour Party had been stormy. He was critical of its ties with Fine Gael and had co-founded the short-lived Socialist Labour Party in 1977, after leaving the Labour Party. Although he was supported by left-wing members within Labour such as Michael D. Higgins, he had little or no contact with Dick Spring, and therefore had to live in hope of being nominated without the endorsement of the party leadership. The possibility that Browne might be nominated raised the possibility of an internal argument within the party. The fact that Browne was enthusiastic for the candidacy in an election which Labour had never previously contested now acted as pressure for Labour to find a candidate. Spring did not feel that he would be able to control Browne for the duration of the election, given Browne's history of defying party policy to such a degree that he had had to leave several political parties. In these circumstances, the decision to propose Robinson proved to be politically inspired. Robinson had an advantage in being the first candidate nominated for the election (and the first female), in that she could cover more meetings, public addresses and interviews. However, she refused to be drawn on specifics in case she would alienate possible support. Robinson also received the backing of "The Irish Times" newspaper, and this proved hugely advantageous.
Robinson's campaign was boosted by a lack of organisation in Fine Gael, the official opposition party. Fine Gael had previously gambled that former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald would run as its candidate, even though he had insisted for two years that he would not run for office. When it was apparent that FitzGerald would not budge from his refusal, Fine Gael approached another senior figure, Peter Barry, who had previously been willing to run but had run out of patience and was no longer interested. The party ultimately nominated the former civil rights campaigner Austin Currie, a respected new TD and former Minister in Brian Faulkner's power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland from 1973 to 1974. Currie had little experience in the politics of the Republic and was widely seen as the party's last choice, nominated only when no one else was available. Fianna Fáil chose Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Brian Lenihan. In three decades in politics, Lenihan had become very popular, and was widely seen as humorous and intelligent. Like Robinson he had himself delivered liberal policy reform (abolished censorship in the 1960s, for example).
When the campaign began, Lenihan was seen as a near certainty to win the presidency. The only question asked was whether Robinson would beat Currie and come second. However, as the campaign proceeded, it became apparent that Lenihan's victory was by no means a foregone conclusion, and that Robinson was a serious contender. Crucial to her appeal was the deep unpopularity of the then Taoiseach Charles Haughey and the rising popularity of the Labour Party leader Dick Spring. Notwithstanding, Fianna Fáil knew they could count on Lenihan to mount a barnstorming campaign in the last few weeks.
The head start that Robinson attained in the nomination process, and the fact that the Fine Gael candidate was from Northern Ireland, resulted in Robinson attaining second place in the polls. Given that Fine Gael normally received 25% of the election result, and were reduced to third place this was an achievement in itself. She also obtained the backing of the Workers' Party of Ireland which was strong in Dublin and Cork and was considered crucial to getting working class votes. Robinson had proved superior media skills to both alternative candidates, and only now had to compete with the Fianna Fáil party election machine.
At this point, a transfer pact was decided upon between Fine Gael and Labour, as both parties were normally preferred partners for each other in general elections. However, the Fine Gael candidate felt shortchanged by this deal as the media was more interested in the Robinson campaign, and privately he did not like Robinson. Currie later remarked that Lenihan was his personal friend, and that he felt personally sick at being asked to endorse somebody he did not like, for the sake of beating Lenihan. The possibility of transfers increased Robinson's chances if only Lenihan could be further weakened.
It emerged during the campaign that what Lenihan had told friends and insiders in private flatly contradicted his public statements on a controversial effort in 1982, by the then opposition Fianna Fáil to pressure President Hillery, into refusing a parliamentary dissolution to Garret FitzGerald, the Taoiseach at the time; Hillery had resolutely rejected the pressure.
Lenihan denied he had pressured the President but then a tape was produced of an 'on the record' interview he had given to a postgraduate student the previous May, in which he frankly discussed attempting to apply pressure. Lenihan claimed that "on mature recollection" he hadn't pressured the President and had been confused in his interview with the student. However, the issue nearly brought down the government.
Under pressure from the junior coalition partner, the Progressive Democrats, Haughey sacked the "unbeatable candidate" as Tánaiste and Minister for Defense. Lenihan's integrity for the highest office in the land was seriously questioned. Lenihan's role in the event in 1982 seemed to imply that he could be instructed by Haughey in his duties, and that electing Lenihan was in effect empowering the controversial Haughey. In a pointless effort to weaken Robinson a government minister and Haughey ally, Pádraig Flynn launched a controversial personal attack on Mary Robinson "as a wife and mother" and "having a new-found interest in her family". Flynn, even more controversially, also joked privately that Robinson would "turn the Áras into the Red Cow Inn". Flynn's tirade was itself attacked in response as "disgraceful" on live radio by Michael McDowell, a senior member of the Progressive Democrats and up to that point supporting Lenihan's campaign. When Robinson met McDowell later in a restaurant, she quipped, "with enemies like McDowell, who needs friends?" Flynn's attack was a fatal blow to Lenihan's campaign, causing many female supporters of Lenihan to vote for Robinson in a gesture of support.
Lenihan's support evaporated, and Haughey concluded that the election was as good as lost. Haughey distanced himself from Lenihan and sacked him from the cabinet, as he did not want any share in the blame. This had unintended consequences, as disquiet with the Fianna Fáil organisation concerning Haughey's leadership increased dramatically. An episode of an RTÉ current affairs television programme featured Fianna Fáil members in Roscommon openly attacking Haughey's leadership and character. Many canvassers now restarted the campaign to get Lenihan elected. However, Lenihan's personal confidence was shattered and although he recovered somewhat in the polls towards the end of the campaign, it was insufficient. Lenihan won the first count with 44% of the first-preference votes — Robinson attaining 39%. However, transfers from Currie proved critical and the majority of these went as expected against Fianna Fáil. Lenihan became the first Fianna Fáil presidential candidate in the history of the office to lose a presidential election. Robinson now became President, the first woman to hold the office, and the first candidate to be second on first preference votes to win the presidency.
Robinson became the first Labour Party candidate, the first woman and the first non-Fianna-Fáil candidate in the history of contested presidential elections to win the presidency. Famously, RTÉ broadcast her victory speech live rather than The Angelus. Her first television interview as President-elect was on the RTÉ children's television show The Den with Ray D'Arcy, Zig and Zag and Dustin the Turkey.
Robinson was inaugurated as the seventh President of Ireland on 3 December 1990. She proved a remarkably popular President, earning the praise of Brian Lenihan himself who, before his death five years later, said that she was a better President than he ever could have been. She took an office that had a reputation as being little more than a retirement position for prominent politicians and breathed new life into the role. Robinson brought to the presidency legal knowledge, deep intellect and political experience. She reached out to the Irish diaspora (the large number of Irish emigrants and people of Irish descent). She also changed the face of Anglo-Irish relations, when she was the first serving Irish President to visit the United Kingdom and meet Queen Elizabeth II, at Buckingham Palace. She welcomed visits by senior members of the British royal family, most notably Charles, Prince of Wales, to her official residence, Áras an Uachtaráin.
Her political profile changed also. Charles Haughey, Taoiseach when she was elected (and who had had to dismiss her rival, Brian Lenihan when the Progressive Democrats, the smaller party in government, threatened to leave the government unless he was sacked) had a diffident relationship with her, at one stage preventing her from delivering the prestigious BBC Dimbleby Lecture.
In the previous 52 years, only one address to the Oireachtas (parliament) had taken place, by President Éamon de Valera in 1966, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising. Robinson delivered two such addresses. She was also invited to chair a committee to review the workings of the United Nations, but declined when asked to by the Government of Ireland, who feared that her involvement might make it difficult for it to oppose the proposals that would result. Controversially, on one trip to Belfast, she met with Gerry Adams, the MP for Belfast West and President of Sinn Féin.
Foreign Minister Dick Spring, who was leader of the Labour Party, advised her not to meet Adams, whose party was linked with the Provisional IRA. However, the Government refused to formally advise her not to meet with him. She felt it would be wrong, in the absence of such formal advice, for her as head of state not to meet the local Member of Parliament, during her visit, and was photographed publicly shaking his hand. During her various visits to Northern Ireland, she in fact regularly met politicians of all hues, including David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party and John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.
To the surprise of her critics, who had seen her as embodying liberalism that the Catholic Church disapproved of, she had a close working relationship with the Church. She visited Irish nuns and priests abroad regularly, and became the first President to host an Áras reception for the Christian Brothers. When on a working trip to Rome, she requested, and was granted, an audience with Pope John Paul II. The outfit she wore was condemned by a controversial young priest, Fr. David O'Hanlon, in "The Irish Times" for supposedly breaking Vatican dress codes on her visit; the Vatican denied that she had – the Vatican dress codes had been changed early in John Paul's pontificate – an analysis echoed by Ireland's Roman Catholic Bishops who distanced themselves from Fr. O' Hanlon's comments.
In one of her roles as President, the signing into law of Bills passed by the Oireachtas, she was called upon to sign two very significant Bills that she had fought for throughout her political career: a Bill to fully liberalise the law on the availability of contraceptives; and a Bill fully decriminalising homosexuality, and which unlike legislation in much of the world at the time, provided for a fully equal age of consent, treating heterosexuals and LGBT people alike.
She invited groups not normally invited to presidential residences to visit her in Áras an Uachtaráin; from the Christian Brothers, a large religious order who ran schools throughout Ireland, but had never had its leaders invited to the Áras, to G.L.E.N., the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network. She visited Irish nuns and priests abroad, Irish famine relief charities, attended international sports events, met the Pope and, against pressure from the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, not to do so, was the only head of state to meet the 14th Dalai Lama during his tour of Europe. She put a special symbolic light in her kitchen window in Áras an Uachtaráin which was visible to the public as it overlooked the principal public view of the building, as a sign of remembering Irish emigrants around the world (placing a light in a darkened window to guide the way of strangers was an old Irish folk custom). Robinson's symbolic light became an acclaimed symbol of an Ireland thinking about its sons and daughters around the world. She visited Rwanda where she brought world attention to the suffering in that state in the aftermath of its civil war. After her visit, she spoke at a press conference, where she became visibly emotional. As a lawyer trained to be rational, she was furious at her emotion, but it moved many who saw it. One media critic who had slated her presidential ideas in 1990, journalist and "Sunday Tribune" editor Vincent Browne, passed her a note at the end of the press conference saying simply "you were magnificent."
Browne's comments matched the attitudes of Irish people on Robinson's achievements as President, between 1990 and 1997. By halfway through her term of office her popularity rating reached an unprecedented 93 per cent.
On 24 July 1997, Robinson announced her intention to resign as President of Ireland. The Irish Government stated that her announcement "was not unexpected" and wished her "every success". She resigned by addressing a message to the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil and her resignation took effect from 1 p.m. on Friday, 12 September 1997. She resigned to take up appointment as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Upon her resignation as President, the role of President of Ireland was transferred to the Presidential Commission (which comprised the Chief Justice of Ireland, the Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann and the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann) from 12 September to 11 November 1997, when the new President Mary McAleese was sworn in.
Robinson became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 12 September 1997, resigning the presidency a few weeks early to take up the post. Media reports suggested that she had been head-hunted for the post by Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, to assume an advocacy as opposed to an administrative role, in other words to become a public campaigner outlining principles rather than the previous implementational and consensus-building model. The belief was that the post had ceased to be seen as the voice of general principles and had become largely bureaucratic. Robinson's role was to set the human rights agenda within the organisation and internationally, refocusing its appeal.
In November 1997, still new to her post, Robinson delivered the Romanes Lecture in Oxford on the topic of "Realizing Human Rights"; she spoke of the "daunting challenge" ahead of her, and how she intended to set about her task. She concluded the lecture with words from "The Golden Bough": "If fate has called you, the bough will come easily, and of its own accord. Otherwise, no matter how much strength you muster, you never will manage to quell it or cut it down with the toughest of blades."
Robinson was the first High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet, making her trip in 1998. During her tenure, she criticised the Irish system of permits for non-EU immigrants as similar to "bonded labour" and criticised the United States' use of capital punishment.
In 2001, Robinson chaired the Asia Regional Preparatory Meeting for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and related intolerances, which was held in Tehran, Iran. At this meeting, the representatives of neither the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish group, nor the Baha'i International Community were permitted to attend. Robinson wore a headscarf at the meeting, because the Iranians enforced an edict that all women attending the conference must wear a headscarf. Women who did not wear the headscarf were criticised, and Robinson said that it "played into the hands of religious conservatives."
Though she had initially announced her intention to serve a single four-year period, she extended the term by a year following an appeal from Annan, allowing her to preside over the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, as Secretary-General. The conference drew widespread criticism, as did Robinson. Former US Congressman Tom Lantos said, "To many of us present at the events at Durban, it is clear that much of the responsibility for the debacle rests on the shoulders of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, who, in her role as secretary-general of the conference, failed to provide the leadership needed to keep the conference on track."
Robinson's period as High Commissioner ended in 2002, after sustained pressure from the United States led her to declare she was no longer able to continue her work. Robinson had criticised the US for violating human rights in its war on terrorism and the World Conference against Racism was widely condemned in the US for its perceived anti-semitism. Michael Rubin even went so far as to suggest in a tongue-in-cheek article that she be tried for war crimes for presiding over "an intellectual pogrom against Jews and Israel." On 9 November 2006, in Yogyakarta, she attended the International Conference, then she became one of 29 signators of the Yogyakarta Principles, adopted for protection of rights by International Human Rights Law.
On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu convened a group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world's toughest problems. Mandela announced the formation of this new group, The Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday.
Mary Robinson has been active in The Elders' work, participating in a broad range of the group's initiatives. She has travelled with Elders delegations to the Ivory Coast, the Korean Peninsula, Ethiopia, India, South Sudan and the Middle East. In August 2014, she was joined by fellow Elder Jimmy Carter during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, to pen an article in "Foreign Policy", pressing for the inclusion of recognition of Hamas as a legitimate political actor, noting the recent unity deal between Hamas and Fatah when the former agreed with the Palestinian Authority to denounce violence, recognise Israel and adhere to past agreements. Robinson and Carter called on the UN Security Council to act on what they described as the inhumane conditions in Gaza, and mandate an end to the siege.
On 16 October 2014, Mary Robinson attended the One Young World Summit in Dublin. During a session with fellow Elder Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson encouraged 1,300 young leaders from 191 countries to lead on intergenerational issues such as climate change and the need for action to take place now, not tomorrow. Mary Robinson was also the key note speaker at the One Young World Opening Ceremony where she highlighted the need to empower young people to participate in decision-making processes that shape their future.
On 1 November 2018, Robinson was appointed as the Chair of The Elders, succeeding Kofi Annan who had died earlier in the year.
Robinson served as the twenty-fourth, and first female, Chancellor of University of Dublin (i.e. Trinity College). She represented the University in the Seanad, for over twenty years and held the Reid Chair in Law. She was succeeded as Chancellor by Mary McAleese, who had also succeeded her as president of Ireland.
In September 2012, Robinson's memoir "Everybody Matters" was published with Hodder & Stoughton.
In October 2016, it was revealed in the media that Robinson was planning to donate her archive to Mayo County Council, as part of the development of The Mary Robinson Centre, and had applied to have the archive designated under the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997, potentially resulting in a personal tax credit to her worth over €2m, arising from the donation of her personal papers. The house proposed to be used for the centre was to be purchased from the brother of Mary Robinson for €665,000.
The website of the Mary Robinson Centre lists the contents of the proposed archive (valued at €2.5m) as including:
"2,000 books on law and Human Rights 3,800 periodicals; A Master File of the President's engagements from December 1990 to September 1997; The symbolic light in the window of Áras an Uachtaráin from her Presidency; Robinson's personal diaries from 1967 to 1990 and from 1998 to 2001; 325 Archive Cartons..Scrap Books, Cassette Tapes." These papers relate to Robinson's almost 50-year career, spanning her time as a senator and barrister in the 1970s and 80s, her personal papers relating to the presidency and significant papers from the post-presidential period of her career, most notably her time with the United Nations as High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The project as a whole was condemned as an "expensive vanity project" by historian Diarmuid Ferriter. A member of the fund raising committee for the Centre argued that "Ballina is the same distance to Dublin as Dublin is to Ballina." Chief Executive of Mayo County Council, Peter Hynes (who is also on the board of the Mary Robinson Centre) stated that Robinson had a "legacy as a politician" and that the centre is designed to bring significant academic, tourism, education and economic opportunities to Ballina and the West. Hynes also commented that "The west coast town (of Ballina) has considerable pride in her outstanding career and on-going global leadership and sees the proposed centre as a living institution which will focus global attention and, working in collaboration with the National University of Ireland, Galway, will continue the conversation on topics of fundamental importance."
The size of the potential tax windfall available to Robinson, was particularly controversial given her avowed socialist political stance and that she was the Presidential candidate and a member of the Labour Party, which describes itself as ".. a democratic socialist party and, through its membership of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International, is part of the international socialist movement working for equality and to empower citizens, consumers and workers in a world increasingly dominated by big business, greed and selfishness."
Following the reporting of the potential €2m windfall, Robinson announced she would abandon the plan to "gift" the archive to Ballina and instead she said the papers would be "gifted to NUIG, with Mayo County Council having full access to any part of the collection which is required to support the mission of the centre in Ballina". In addition she stated that she would now not avail of the tax credit for the donation.
In March 2013, Robinson was chosen to oversee the implementation of a peace deal to stabilise the troubled central African country of Congo. Appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Robinson was expected to play a key role in supporting implementation of the U.N.-drafted peace deal signed by 11 African countries in late February 2013.
In July 2014, Ban Ki-moon made Robinson his special envoy for Climate Change to interact with global leaders ahead of the 2014 Climate Summit, in New York, at which the secretary-general said he hoped to forge political commitment to finalising an agreement in 2015. In March 2015, she voiced support for fossil fuel divestment commenting "it is almost a due diligence requirement to consider ending investment in dirty energy companies".
In early 2016, Robinson was appointed by Erik Solheim, the Chairman of the Development Assistance Committee, to head a high-level panel on the future of the Development Assistance Committee.
In May 2016, Ban Ki-moon appointed Robinson and Macharia Kamau, as special envoys of the Secretary-General on El Niño and Climate, tasking them with calling attention to the people around the world affected by severe El Niño-linked drought and climate impacts, and mobilising an integrated response that takes preparedness for future climatic events into account.
In September 2016, Robinson was appointed by Ban Ki-moon to serve as member of the lead group of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.
In December 2018, Robinson was criticised by human rights organisations, Detained in Dubai and Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers, for her statements regarding Dubai's Sheikha Latifa's disappearance and escape attempt. After meeting Princess Latifa at a family lunch on invitation of Dubai's royal family, Robinson described Latifa to the BBC as a "troubled young woman" who regretted an earlier video in which she alleged being confined and tortured in Dubai. Detained in Dubai head Radha Stirling expressed astonishment at the former UN commissioner for repeatedly reciting a single statement from Dubai's official version of the events, "loving care of her family", and for dismissing Latifa's alleged attempt to escape from Dubai in February 2018.
Over the course of her career, Robinson has been awarded with numerous honours, including the following:
On 29 September 2010, at a ceremony in Dublin, Robinson received a damehood from the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem. As a former Head of State and in recognition of her significant contribution towards human rights she was awarded the honour of Dame Grand Cross of Merit.
In 1991 and in 2001, Robinson was awarded honorary doctorates by Brown University, University of Cambridge and Lisbon Nova University. On 22 January 2000, she received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Law at Uppsala University, Sweden. In 2004, she was awarded an Honorary Degree by McGill University.
In 2009, Robinson was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Bath, at the 1100th anniversary celebration of the Diocese of Bath and Wells, where she gave a lecture entitled "Realising rights: the role of religion in human rights in the future".
In July 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour awarded by the United States. In presenting the award to Robinson, U.S. President Barack Obama said "Mary Robinson learned early on what it takes to make sure all voices are heard. As a crusader for women and those without a voice in Ireland, Mary Robinson was the first woman elected President of Ireland, before being appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. When she traveled abroad as President, she would place a light in her window that would draw people of Irish descent to pass by below. Today, as an advocate for the hungry and the hunted, the forgotten and the ignored, Mary Robinson has not only shone a light on human suffering, but illuminated a better future for our world."
Amnesty International congratulated Mary Robinson on being named as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "Mary Robinson has long defended the rights of the underdog and has never shirked from speaking truth to power," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International. "As an outspoken, passionate and forceful advocate for human rights and human dignity in all regions of the world, Mary Robinson has helped countless individuals from Sierra Leone to Rwanda to the Balkans to Somalia and to the Middle East," she continued. Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel also congratulated Robinson on her acceptance of the award.
The award was criticised by some American and European Jewish groups, while other groups offered support for the award. Parties opposed to the award included AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, the European Jewish Congress, and John R. Bolton. John R. Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, stated that those in the administration who recommended her either ignored her anti-Israel history, or missed it entirely. On the other hand, a group of Israeli human rights organisations including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bimkom, B'Tselem, Gisha, Hamoked, Physicians for Human Rights and Yesh Din, stated "as leaders of a sector within Israeli civil society that monitors and often criticizes government and military policy for violating human rights, we do not see such actions as plausible reason for denying Mrs. Robinson the award." In response to the protests by some Jewish groups and commentators, Robinson said she was "surprised and dismayed" and that "this is old, recycled, untrue stuff," "I have been very critical of the Palestinian side. My conduct continues to be on the side of tackling anti-Semitism and discrimination," Robinson said. "There's a lot of bullying by certain elements of the Jewish community. They bully people who try to address the severe situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Archbishop Desmond Tutu gets the same criticism," Robinson also said. In an open letter to Robinson, Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, rejected Robinson's claim at being misunderstood or bullied by those who criticise her role in Durban. He said that she failed to confront purveyors of anti-Israel rhetoric. "You may not have been the chief culprit of the Durban debacle, but you will always be its preeminent symbol", he added. When asked about the opposition to the award by AIPAC and other Jewish groups, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs replied "Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland, and she is somebody whom we are honoring as a prominent crusader of women's rights in Ireland and throughout the world."
United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, United States Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, and some other legislators welcomed the presenting of the award to Robinson." Forty-five Republican Congressmen sent a letter to President Obama raised issue with the presentation citing "her failed, biased record as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights".
In a letter to President Obama, Nancy Rubin, a former American ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission, welcomed the award and praised Robinson as a "dedicated crusader for human rights for all people". Oxfam confederation also expressed its strong support for Robinson. The Council of Women World Leaders, the Champalimaud Foundation, and the ImagineNations Group welcomed the presentation of the Medal of Freedom to Robinson.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission congratulated Robinson, saying she "helped advance recognition of the human rights of LGBT people in her capacity as President of Ireland and as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She has been unwavering in her passionate call to end torture, persecution, and discrimination against LGBT people globally."
General
Media coverage in "The Irish Times", "The Irish Independent", "The Examiner" (now renamed the "Irish Examiner"), "The Star", "The Irish Mirror", "The Irish Sun", "The Sunday Tribune", "The Sunday Independent", "The Sunday Times", "The Times", "The Daily Telegraph" and "The Guardian". Also briefing notes issued on various occasions (notably state, official or personal visits by Robinson abroad) supplied by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Buckingham Palace, Áras an Uachtaráin, the Holy See and the press offices of the United Nations (including the text of her Romanes Lecture in November 1997). Some background came via an interview with Robinson.
Specific
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20571
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Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan at the turn of the 20th century. The Princess Theatre musicals (1915–1918) and other smart shows like "Of Thee I Sing" (1931) were artistic steps forward beyond revues and other frothy entertainments of the early 20th century and led to such groundbreaking works as "Show Boat" (1927) and "Oklahoma!" (1943). Some of the most famous musicals through the decades that followed include
"West Side Story" (1957), "The Fantasticks" (1960), "Hair" (1967), "A Chorus Line" (1975), "Les Misérables" (1985), "The Phantom of the Opera" (1986), "Rent" (1996), "The Producers" (2001), "Wicked" (2003) and "Hamilton" (2015).
Musicals are performed around the world. They may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller venues, such as fringe theatre, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, regional theatre, or community theatre productions, or on tour. Musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada and Latin America.
Since the 20th century, the "book musical" has been defined as a musical play where songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals that is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. The three main components of a book musical are its "music", "lyrics" and "book". The book or script of a musical refers to the story, character development and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue and stage directions, but it can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to as the "libretto" (Italian for "little book"). The music and lyrics together form the "score" of a musical and include songs, incidental music and musical scenes, which are "theatrical sequence[s] set to music, often combining song with spoken dialogue." The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its creative team, which includes a director, a musical director, usually a choreographer and sometimes an orchestrator. A musical's production is also creatively characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties (props), lighting and sound. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the original production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the original production, for example, Bob Fosse's choreography in "Chicago".
There is no fixed length for a musical. While it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length (or even a multi-evening presentation), most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one short intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. The first act generally introduces nearly all of the characters and most of the music and often ends with the introduction of a dramatic conflict or plot complication while the second act may introduce a few new songs but usually contains reprises of important musical themes and resolves the conflict or complication. A book musical is usually built around four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show, although it sometimes consists of a series of songs not directly musically related. Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers, although "sung dialogue" or recitative may be used, especially in so-called "sung-through" musicals such as "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Falsettos", "Les Misérables", "Evita" and "Hamilton". Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades.
Moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, "when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance." In a book musical, a song is ideally crafted to suit the character (or characters) and their situation within the story; although there have been times in the history of the musical (e.g. from the 1890s to the 1920s) when this integration between music and story has been tenuous. As "The New York Times" critic Ben Brantley described the ideal of song in theatre when reviewing the 2008 revival of "Gypsy": "There is no separation at all between song and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to be." Typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is less time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length, since a musical usually devotes more time to music than to dialogue. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters and the plot.
The material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels ("Wicked" and "Man of La Mancha"), plays ("Hello, Dolly!" and "Carousel"), classic legends ("Camelot"), historical events ("Evita") or films ("The Producers" and "Billy Elliot"). On the other hand, many successful musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as "West Side Story", "My Fair Lady", "The Sound of Music", "Oliver!" and "Chicago".
Musical theatre is closely related to the theatrical form of opera, but the two are usually distinguished by weighing a number of factors. First, musicals generally have a greater focus on spoken dialogue. Some musicals, however, are entirely accompanied and sung-through, while some operas, such as "Die Zauberflöte", and most operettas, have some unaccompanied dialogue. Second, musicals also usually include more dancing as an essential part of the storytelling, particularly by the principal performers as well as the chorus. Third, musicals often use various genres of popular music or at least popular singing and musical styles.
Finally, musicals usually avoid certain operatic conventions. In particular, a musical is almost always performed in the language of its audience. Musicals produced on Broadway or in the West End, for instance, are invariably sung in English, even if they were originally written in another language. While an opera singer is primarily a singer and only secondarily an actor (and rarely needs to dance), a musical theatre performer is often an actor first but must also be a singer and dancer. Someone who is equally accomplished at all three is referred to as a "triple threat". Composers of music for musicals often consider the vocal demands of roles with musical theatre performers in mind. Today, large theatres that stage musicals generally use microphones and amplification of the actors' singing voices in a way that would generally be disapproved of in an operatic context.
Some works (e.g. by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) have been made into both "musical theatre" and "operatic" productions. Similarly, some older operettas or light operas (such as "The Pirates of Penzance" by Gilbert and Sullivan) have been produced in modern adaptations that treat them as musicals. For some works, production styles are almost as important as the work's musical or dramatic content in defining into which art form the piece falls. Sondheim said, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the expectations of the audience that make it one thing or another." There remains an overlap in form between lighter operatic forms and more musically complex or ambitious musicals. In practice, it is often difficult to distinguish among the various kinds of musical theatre, including "musical play", "musical comedy", "operetta" and "light opera".
Like opera, the singing in musical theatre is generally accompanied by an instrumental ensemble called a pit orchestra, located in a lowered area in front of the stage. While opera typically uses a conventional symphony orchestra, musicals are generally orchestrated for ensembles ranging from 27 players down to only a few players. Rock musicals usually employ a small group of mostly rock instruments, and some musicals may call for only a piano or two instruments. The music in musicals uses a range of "styles and influences including operetta, classical techniques, folk music, jazz [and] local or historical styles [that] are appropriate to the setting." Musicals may begin with an overture played by the orchestra that "weav[es] together excerpts of the score's famous melodies."
There are various Eastern traditions of theatre that include music, such as Chinese opera, Taiwanese opera, Japanese Noh and Indian musical theatre, including Sanskrit drama, Indian classical dance, Parsi theatre and Yakshagana. India has, since the 20th century, produced numerous musical films, referred to as "Bollywood" musicals, and in Japan a series of 2.5D musicals based on popular anime and manga comics has developed in recent decades.
Shorter or simplified "junior" versions of many musicals are available for schools and youth groups, and very short works created or adapted for performance by children are sometimes called minimusicals.
The antecedents of musical theatre in Europe can be traced back to the theatre of ancient Greece, where music and dance were included in stage comedies and tragedies during the 5th century BCE. The music from the ancient forms is lost, however, and they had little influence on later development of musical theatre. In the 12th and 13th centuries, religious dramas taught the liturgy. Groups of actors would use outdoor Pageant wagons (stages on wheels) to tell each part of the story. Poetic forms sometimes alternated with the prose dialogues, and liturgical chants gave way to new melodies.
The European Renaissance saw older forms evolve into two antecedents of musical theatre: commedia dell'arte, where raucous clowns improvised familiar stories, and later, opera buffa. In England, Elizabethan and Jacobean plays frequently included music, and short musical plays began to be included in an evenings' dramatic entertainments. Court masques developed during the Tudor period that involved music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design. These developed into sung plays that are recognizable as English operas, the first usually being thought of as "The Siege of Rhodes" (1656). In France, meanwhile, Molière turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean-Baptiste Lully) and dance in the late 17th century. These influenced a brief period of English opera by composers such as John Blow and Henry Purcell.
From the 18th century, the most popular forms of musical theatre in Britain were ballad operas, like John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera", that included lyrics written to the tunes of popular songs of the day (often spoofing opera), and later pantomime, which developed from commedia dell'arte, and comic opera with mostly romantic plot lines, like Michael Balfe's "The Bohemian Girl" (1845). Meanwhile, on the continent, singspiel, comédie en vaudeville, opéra comique, zarzuela and other forms of light musical entertainment were emerging. "The Beggar's Opera" was the first recorded long-running play of any kind, running for 62 successive performances in 1728. It would take almost a century afterwards before any play broke 100 performances, but the record soon reached 150 in the late 1820s. Other musical theatre forms developed in England by the 19th century, such as music hall, melodrama and burletta, which were popularized partly because most London theatres were licensed only as music halls and not allowed to present plays without music.
Colonial America did not have a significant theatre presence until 1752, when London entrepreneur William Hallam sent a company of actors to the colonies managed by his brother Lewis. In New York in the summer of 1753, they performed ballad-operas, such as "The Beggar's Opera", and ballad-farces. By the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. Other early musical theatre in America consisted of British forms, such as burletta and pantomime, but what a piece was called did not necessarily define what it was. The 1852 Broadway extravaganza "The Magic Deer" advertised itself as "A Serio Comico Tragico Operatical Historical Extravaganzical Burletical Tale of Enchantment." Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown from around 1850, and did not arrive in the Times Square area until the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs lagged far behind those in London, but Laura Keene's "musical burletta" "Seven Sisters" (1860) shattered previous New York musical theatre record, with a run of 253 performances.
Around 1850, the French composer Hervé was experimenting with a form of comic musical theatre he called opérette. The best known composers of operetta were Jacques Offenbach from the 1850s to the 1870s and Johann Strauss II in the 1870s and 1880s. Offenbach's fertile melodies, combined with his librettists' witty satire, formed a model for the musical theatre that followed. Adaptations of the French operettas (played in mostly bad, risqué translations), musical burlesques, music hall, pantomime and burletta dominated the London musical stage into the 1870s.
In America, mid-19th century musical theatre entertainments included crude variety revue, which eventually developed into vaudeville, minstrel shows, which soon crossed the Atlantic to Britain, and Victorian burlesque, first popularized in the US by British troupes. A hugely successful musical that premiered in New York in 1866, "The Black Crook", was an original musical theatre piece that conformed to many of the modern definitions of a musical, including dance and original music that helped to tell the story. The spectacular production, famous for its skimpy costumes, ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, "The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post" was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy." Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 ("The Mulligan Guard Picnic") and 1885. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward towards a more legitimate theatrical form. They starred high quality singers (Lillian Russell, Vivienne Segal and Fay Templeton) instead of the ladies of questionable repute who had starred in earlier musical forms.
As transportation improved, poverty in London and New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays ran longer, leading to better profits and improved production values, and men began to bring their families to the theatre. The first musical theatre piece to exceed 500 consecutive performances was the French operetta "The Chimes of Normandy" in 1878. English comic opera adopted many of the successful ideas of European operetta, none more successfully than the series of more than a dozen long-running Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, including "H.M.S. Pinafore" (1878) and "The Mikado" (1885). These were sensations on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia and helped to raise the standard for what was considered a successful show. These shows were designed for family audiences, a marked contrast from the risqué burlesques, bawdy music hall shows and French operettas that sometimes drew a crowd seeking less wholesome entertainment. Only a few 19th-century musical pieces exceeded the run of "The Mikado", such as "Dorothy", which opened in 1886 and set a new record with a run of 931 performances. Gilbert and Sullivan's influence on later musical theatre was profound, creating examples of how to "integrate" musicals so that the lyrics and dialogue advanced a coherent story. Their works were admired and copied by early authors and composers of musicals in Britain and America.
"A Trip to Chinatown" (1891) was Broadway's long-run champion (until "Irene" in 1919), running for 657 performances, but New York runs continued to be relatively short, with a few exceptions, compared with London runs, until the 1920s. Gilbert and Sullivan were both pirated and imitated in New York by productions such as Reginald De Koven's "Robin Hood" (1891) and John Philip Sousa's "El Capitan" (1896). "A Trip to Coontown" (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans on Broadway (largely inspired by the routines of the minstrel shows), followed by ragtime-tinged shows. Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, composed of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley, including those by George M. Cohan, who worked to create an American style distinct from the Gilbert and Sullivan works. The most successful New York shows were often followed by extensive national tours.
Meanwhile, musicals took over the London stage in the Gay Nineties, led by producer George Edwardes, who perceived that audiences wanted a new alternative to the Savoy-style comic operas and their intellectual, political, absurdist satire. He experimented with a modern-dress, family-friendly musical theatre style, with breezy, popular songs, snappy, romantic banter, and stylish spectacle at the Gaiety and his other theatres. These drew on the traditions of comic opera and used elements of burlesque and of the Harrigan and Hart pieces. He replaced the bawdy women of burlesque with his "respectable" corps of Gaiety Girls to complete the musical and visual fun. The success of the first of these, "In Town" (1892) and "A Gaiety Girl" (1893) set the style for the next three decades. The plots were generally light, romantic "poor maiden loves aristocrat and wins him against all odds" shows, with music by Ivan Caryll, Sidney Jones and Lionel Monckton. These shows were immediately widely copied in America, and Edwardian musical comedy swept away the earlier musical forms of comic opera and operetta. "The Geisha" (1896) was one of the most successful in the 1890s, running for more than two years and achieving great international success.
"The Belle of New York" (1898) became the first American musical to run for over a year in London. The British musical comedy "Florodora" (1899) was a popular success on both sides of the Atlantic, as was "A Chinese Honeymoon" (1901), which ran for a record-setting 1,074 performances in London and 376 in New York. After the turn of the 20th century, Seymour Hicks joined forces with Edwardes and American producer Charles Frohman to create another decade of popular shows. Other enduring Edwardian musical comedy hits included "The Arcadians" (1909) and "The Quaker Girl" (1910).
Virtually eliminated from the English-speaking stage by competition from the ubiquitous Edwardian musical comedies, operettas returned to London and Broadway in 1907 with "The Merry Widow", and adaptations of continental operettas became direct competitors with musicals. Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus composed new operettas that were popular in English until World War I. In America, Victor Herbert produced a string of enduring operettas including "The Fortune Teller" (1898), "Babes in Toyland" (1903), "Mlle. Modiste" (1905), "The Red Mill" (1906) and "Naughty Marietta" (1910).
In the 1910s, the team of P. G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, following in the footsteps of Gilbert and Sullivan, created the "Princess Theatre shows" and paved the way for Kern's later work by showing that a musical could combine light, popular entertainment with continuity between its story and songs. Historian Gerald Bordman wrote:
The theatre-going public needed escapist entertainment during the dark times of World War I, and they flocked to the theatre. The 1919 hit musical "Irene" ran for 670 performances, a Broadway record that held until 1938. The British theatre public supported far longer runs like that of "The Maid of the Mountains" (1,352 performances) and especially "Chu Chin Chow". Its run of 2,238 performances was more than twice as long as any previous musical, setting a record that stood for nearly forty years. Revues like "The Bing Boys Are Here" in Britain, and those of Florenz Ziegfeld and his imitators in America, were also extraordinarily popular.
The musicals of the Roaring Twenties, borrowing from vaudeville, music hall and other light entertainments, tended to emphasize big dance routines and popular songs at the expense of plot. Typical of the decade were lighthearted productions like "Sally", "Lady, Be Good", "No, No, Nanette", "Oh, Kay!" and "Funny Face". Despite forgettable stories, these musicals featured stars such as Marilyn Miller and Fred Astaire and produced dozens of enduring popular songs by Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart. Popular music was dominated by musical theatre standards, such as "Fascinating Rhythm", "Tea for Two" and "Someone to Watch Over Me". Many shows were revues, series of sketches and songs with little or no connection between them. The best-known of these were the annual "Ziegfeld Follies", spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets, elaborate costumes and beautiful chorus girls. These spectacles also raised production values, and mounting a musical generally became more expensive. "Shuffle Along" (1921), an all-African American show was a hit on Broadway. A new generation of composers of operettas also emerged in the 1920s, such as Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg, to create a series of popular Broadway hits.
In London, writer-stars such as Ivor Novello and Noël Coward became popular, but the primacy of British musical theatre from the 19th century through 1920 was gradually replaced by American innovation, especially after World War I, as Kern and other Tin Pan Alley composers began to bring new musical styles such as ragtime and jazz to the theatres, and the Shubert Brothers took control of the Broadway theatres. Musical theatre writer Andrew Lamb notes, "The operatic and theatrical styles of nineteenth-century social structures were replaced by a musical style more aptly suited to twentieth-century society and its vernacular idiom. It was from America that the more direct style emerged, and in America that it was able to flourish in a developing society less hidebound by nineteenth-century tradition." In France, "comédie musicale" was written between in the early decades of the century for such stars as Yvonne Printemps.
Progressing far beyond the comparatively frivolous musicals and sentimental operettas of the decade, Broadway's "Show Boat" (1927), represented an even more complete integration of book and score than the Princess Theatre musicals, with dramatic themes told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement. This was accomplished by combining the lyricism of Kern's music with the skillful libretto of Oscar Hammerstein II. One historian wrote, "Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity."
As the Great Depression set in during the post-Broadway national tour of "Show Boat", the public turned back to mostly light, escapist song-and-dance entertainment. Audiences on both sides of the Atlantic had little money to spend on entertainment, and only a few stage shows anywhere exceeded a run of 500 performances during the decade. The revue "The Band Wagon" (1931) starred dancing partners Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, while Porter's "Anything Goes" (1934) confirmed Ethel Merman's position as the First Lady of musical theatre, a title she maintained for many years. Coward and Novello continued to deliver old fashioned, sentimental musicals, such as "The Dancing Years", while Rodgers and Hart returned from Hollywood to create a series of successful Broadway shows, including "On Your Toes" (1936, with Ray Bolger, the first Broadway musical to make dramatic use of classical dance), "Babes in Arms" (1937) and "The Boys from Syracuse" (1938). Porter added "DuBarry Was a Lady" (1939). The longest-running piece of musical theatre of the 1930s was "Hellzapoppin" (1938), a revue with audience participation, which played for 1,404 performances, setting a new Broadway record.
Still, a few creative teams began to build on "Show Boat"s innovations. "Of Thee I Sing" (1931), a political satire by the Gershwins, was the first musical awarded the Pulitzer Prize. "As Thousands Cheer" (1933), a revue by Irving Berlin and Moss Hart in which each song or sketch was based on a newspaper headline, marked the first Broadway show in which an African-American, Ethel Waters, starred alongside white actors. Waters' numbers included "Supper Time", a woman's lament for her husband who has been lynched. The Gershwins' "Porgy and Bess" (1935) featured an all African-American cast and blended operatic, folk and jazz idioms. "The Cradle Will Rock" (1937), directed by Orson Welles, was a highly political pro-union piece that, despite the controversy surrounding it, ran for 108 performances. Rodgers and Hart's "I'd Rather Be Right" (1937) was a political satire with George M. Cohan as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Kurt Weill's "Knickerbocker Holiday" depicted New York City's early history while good-naturedly satirizing Roosevelt's good intentions.
The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. Silent films had presented only limited competition, but by the end of the 1920s, films like "The Jazz Singer" could be presented with synchronized sound. "Talkie" films at low prices effectively killed off vaudeville by the early 1930s. Despite the economic woes of the 1930s and the competition from film, the musical survived. In fact, it continued to evolve thematically beyond the gags and showgirls musicals of the "Gay Nineties" and "Roaring Twenties" and the sentimental romance of operetta, adding technical expertise and the fast-paced staging and naturalistic dialogue style led by director George Abbott.
The 1940s would begin with more hits from Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Weill and Gershwin, some with runs over 500 performances as the economy rebounded, but artistic change was in the air.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" (1943) completed the revolution begun by "Show Boat", by tightly integrating all the aspects of musical theatre, with a cohesive plot, songs that furthered the action of the story, and featured dream ballets and other dances that advanced the plot and developed the characters, rather than using dance as an excuse to parade scantily clad women across the stage. Rodgers and Hammerstein hired ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille, who used everyday motions to help the characters express their ideas. It defied musical conventions by raising its first act curtain not on a bevy of chorus girls, but rather on a woman churning butter, with an off-stage voice singing the opening lines of "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" unaccompanied. It drew rave reviews, set off a box-office frenzy and received a Pulitzer Prize. Brooks Atkinson wrote in "The New York Times" that the show's opening number changed the history of musical theater: "After a verse like that, sung to a buoyant melody, the banalities of the old musical stage became intolerable." It was the first "blockbuster" Broadway show, running a total of 2,212 performances, and was made into a hit film. It remains one of the most frequently produced of the team's projects. William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this was a "show, that, like "Show Boat", became a milestone, so that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to "Oklahoma!""
"After "Oklahoma!", Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form... The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own". The two collaborators created an extraordinary collection of some of musical theatre's best loved and most enduring classics, including "Carousel" (1945), "South Pacific" (1949), "The King and I" (1951) and "The Sound of Music" (1959). Some of these musicals treat more serious subject matter than most earlier shows: the villain in "Oklahoma!" is a suspected murderer and psychopath with a fondness for lewd post cards; "Carousel" deals with spousal abuse, thievery, suicide and the afterlife; "South Pacific" explores miscegenation even more thoroughly than "Show Boat"; and the hero of "The King and I" dies onstage.
The show's creativity stimulated Rodgers and Hammerstein's contemporaries and ushered in the "Golden Age" of American musical theatre. Americana was displayed on Broadway during the "Golden Age", as the wartime cycle of shows began to arrive. An example of this is "On the Town" (1944), written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, composed by Leonard Bernstein and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. The story is set during wartime and concerns three sailors who are on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, during which each falls in love. The show also gives the impression of a country with an uncertain future, as the sailors and their women also have. Irving Berlin used sharpshooter Annie Oakley's career as a basis for his "Annie Get Your Gun" (1946, 1,147 performances); Burton Lane, E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy combined political satire with Irish whimsy for their fantasy "Finian's Rainbow" (1947, 725 performances); and Cole Porter found inspiration in William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" for "Kiss Me, Kate" (1948, 1,077 performances). The American musicals overwhelmed the old-fashioned British Coward/Novello-style shows, one of the last big successes of which was Novello's "Perchance to Dream" (1945, 1,021 performances). The formula for the Golden Age musicals reflected one or more of four widely held perceptions of the "American dream": That stability and worth derives from a love relationship sanctioned and restricted by Protestant ideals of marriage; that a married couple should make a moral home with children away from the city in a suburb or small town; that the woman's function was as homemaker and mother; and that Americans incorporate an independent and pioneering spirit or that their success is self-made.
The 1950s were crucial to the development of the American musical. Damon Runyon's eclectic characters were at the core of Frank Loesser's and Abe Burrows' "Guys and Dolls", (1950, 1,200 performances); and the Gold Rush was the setting for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's "Paint Your Wagon" (1951). The relatively brief seven-month run of that show didn't discourage Lerner and Loewe from collaborating again, this time on "My Fair Lady" (1956), an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, which at 2,717 performances held the long-run record for many years. Popular Hollywood films were made of all of these musicals. This surpassed the run of two hits by British creators: "The Boy Friend" (1954), which ran for 2,078 performances in London and marked Andrews' American debut, was very briefly the third longest-running musical in West End or Broadway history (after "Chu Chin Chow" and "Oklahoma!"), until "Salad Days" (1954) surpassed its run and became the new long-run record holder, with 2,283 performances.
Another record was set by "The Threepenny Opera", which ran for 2,707 performances, becoming the longest-running off-Broadway musical until "The Fantasticks". The production also broke ground by showing that musicals could be profitable off-Broadway in a small-scale, small orchestra format. This was confirmed in 1959 when a revival of Jerome Kern and P. G. Wodehouse's "Leave It to Jane" ran for more than two years. The 1959–1960 Off-Broadway season included a dozen musicals and revues including "Little Mary Sunshine", "The Fantasticks" and "Ernest in Love", a musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 1895 hit "The Importance of Being Earnest".
"West Side Story" (1957) transported "Romeo and Juliet" to modern day New York City and converted the feuding Montague and Capulet families into opposing ethnic gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The book was adapted by Arthur Laurents, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by newcomer Stephen Sondheim. It was embraced by the critics, but failed to be a popular choice for the "blue-haired matinee ladies", who preferred the small town River City, Iowa of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man" (1957) to the alleys of Manhattan's Upper West Side. Apparently Tony Award voters were of a similar mind, since they favored the former over the latter. "West Side Story" had a respectable run of 732 performances (1,040 in the West End), while "The Music Man" ran nearly twice as long, with 1,375 performances. However, the 1961 film of "West Side Story" was extremely successful. Laurents and Sondheim teamed up again for "" (1959, 702 performances), with Jule Styne providing the music for a backstage story about the most driven stage mother of all-time, stripper Gypsy Rose Lee's mother Rose. The original production ran for 702 performances, and was given four subsequent revivals, with Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone later tackling the role made famous by Ethel Merman.
Although directors and choreographers have had a major influence on musical theatre style since at least the 19th century, George Abbott and his collaborators and successors took a central role in integrating movement and dance fully into musical theatre productions in the Golden Age. Abbott introduced ballet as a story-telling device in "On Your Toes" in 1936, which was followed by Agnes de Mille's ballet and choreography in "Oklahoma!". After Abbott collaborated with Jerome Robbins in "On the Town" and other shows, Robbins combined the roles of director and choreographer, emphasizing the story-telling power of dance in "West Side Story", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1962) and "Fiddler on the Roof" (1964). Bob Fosse choreographed for Abbott in "The Pajama Game" (1956) and "Damn Yankees" (1957), injecting playful sexuality into those hits. He was later the director-choreographer for "Sweet Charity" (1968), "Pippin" (1972) and "Chicago" (1975). Other notable director-choreographers have included Gower Champion, Tommy Tune, Michael Bennett, Gillian Lynne and Susan Stroman. Prominent directors have included Hal Prince, who also got his start with Abbott, and Trevor Nunn.
During the Golden Age, automotive companies and other large corporations began to hire Broadway talent to write corporate musicals, private shows only seen by their employees or customers. The 1950s ended with Rodgers and Hammerstein's last hit, "The Sound of Music", which also became another hit for Mary Martin. It ran for 1,443 performances and shared the Tony Award for Best Musical. Together with its extremely successful 1965 film version, it has become one of the most popular musicals in history.
In 1960, "The Fantasticks" was first produced off-Broadway. This intimate allegorical show would quietly run for over 40 years at the Sullivan Street Theatre in Greenwich Village, becoming by far the longest-running musical in history. Its authors produced other innovative works in the 1960s, such as "Celebration" and "I Do! I Do!", the first two-character Broadway musical. The 1960s would see a number of blockbusters, like "Fiddler on the Roof" (1964; 3,242 performances), "Hello, Dolly!" (1964; 2,844 performances), "Funny Girl" (1964; 1,348 performances) and "Man of La Mancha" (1965; 2,328 performances), and some more risqué pieces like "Cabaret", before ending with the emergence of the rock musical. Two men had considerable impact on musical theatre history beginning in this decade: Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman.
The first project for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics was "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1962, 964 performances), with a book based on the works of Plautus by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, starring Zero Mostel. Sondheim moved the musical beyond its concentration on the romantic plots typical of earlier eras; his work tended to be darker, exploring the grittier sides of life both present and past. Other early Sondheim works include "Anyone Can Whistle" (1964, which ran only nine performances, despite having stars Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury), and the successful "Company" (1970), "Follies" (1971) and "A Little Night Music" (1973). Later, Sondheim found inspiration in unlikely sources: the opening of Japan to Western trade for "Pacific Overtures" (1976), a legendary murderous barber seeking revenge in the Industrial Age of London for "Sweeney Todd" (1979), the paintings of Georges Seurat for "Sunday in the Park with George" (1984), fairy tales for "Into the Woods" (1987), and a collection of presidential assassins in "Assassins" (1990).
While some critics have argued that some of Sondheim's musicals lack commercial appeal, others have praised their lyrical sophistication and musical complexity, as well as the interplay of lyrics and music in his shows. Some of Sondheim's notable innovations include a show presented in reverse ("Merrily We Roll Along") and the above-mentioned "Anyone Can Whistle", in which the first act ends with the cast informing the audience that they are mad.
Jerry Herman played a significant role in American musical theatre, beginning with his first Broadway production, "Milk and Honey" (1961, 563 performances), about the founding of the state of Israel, and continuing with the blockbuster hits "Hello, Dolly!" (1964, 2,844 performances), "Mame" (1966, 1,508 performances), and "La Cage aux Folles" (1983, 1,761 performances). Even his less successful shows like "Dear World" (1969) and "Mack and Mabel" (1974) have had memorable scores ("Mack and Mabel" was later reworked into a London hit). Writing both words and music, many of Herman's show tunes have become popular standards, including "Hello, Dolly!", "We Need a Little Christmas", "I Am What I Am", "Mame", "The Best of Times", "Before the Parade Passes By", "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", "It Only Takes a Moment", "Bosom Buddies" and "I Won't Send Roses", recorded by such artists as Louis Armstrong, Eydie Gormé, Barbra Streisand, Petula Clark and Bernadette Peters. Herman's songbook has been the subject of two popular musical revues, "Jerry's Girls" (Broadway, 1985) and "Showtune" (off-Broadway, 2003).
The musical started to diverge from the relatively narrow confines of the 1950s. Rock music would be used in several Broadway musicals, beginning with "Hair", which featured not only rock music but also nudity and controversial opinions about the Vietnam War, race relations and other social issues.
After "Show Boat" and "Porgy and Bess", and as the struggle in America and elsewhere for minorities' civil rights progressed, Hammerstein, Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg and others were emboldened to write more musicals and operas that aimed to normalize societal toleration of minorities and urged racial harmony. Early Golden Age works that focused on racial tolerance included "Finian's Rainbow" and "South Pacific". Towards the end of the Golden Age, several shows tackled Jewish subjects and issues, such as "Fiddler on the Roof", "Milk and Honey", "Blitz!" and later "Rags". The original concept that became "West Side Story" was set in the Lower East Side during Easter-Passover celebrations; the rival gangs were to be Jewish and Italian Catholic. The creative team later decided that the Polish (white) vs. Puerto Rican conflict was fresher.
Tolerance as an important theme in musicals has continued in recent decades. The final expression of "West Side Story" left a message of racial tolerance. By the end of the 1960s, musicals became racially integrated, with black and white cast members even covering each other's roles, as they did in "Hair". Homosexuality has also been explored in musicals, starting with "Hair", and even more overtly in "La Cage aux Folles", "Falsettos", "Rent", "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and other shows in recent decades. "Parade" is a sensitive exploration of both anti-Semitism and historical American racism, and "Ragtime" similarly explores the experience of immigrants and minorities in America.
After the success of "Hair", rock musicals flourished in the 1970s, with "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Godspell", "The Rocky Horror Show", "Evita" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona". Some of those began as "concept albums" which were then adapted to the stage, most notably "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita". Others had no dialogue or were otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes; these sometimes started as concept albums and were referred to as rock operas. Shows like "Raisin", "Dreamgirls", "Purlie" and "The Wiz" brought a significant African-American influence to Broadway. More varied musical genres and styles were incorporated into musicals both on and especially off-Broadway. At the same time, Stephen Sondheim found success with some of his musicals, as mentioned above.
In 1975, the dance musical "A Chorus Line" emerged from recorded group therapy-style sessions Michael Bennett conducted with "gypsies" – those who sing and dance in support of the leading players – from the Broadway community. From hundreds of hours of tapes, James Kirkwood Jr. and Nick Dante fashioned a book about an audition for a musical, incorporating many real-life stories from the sessions; some who attended the sessions eventually played variations of themselves or each other in the show. With music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, "A Chorus Line" first opened at Joseph Papp's Public Theater in lower Manhattan. What initially had been planned as a limited engagement eventually moved to the Shubert Theatre on Broadway for a run of 6,137 performances, becoming the longest-running production in Broadway history up to that time. The show swept the Tony Awards and won the Pulitzer Prize, and its hit song, "What I Did for Love", became a standard.
Broadway audiences welcomed musicals that varied from the golden age style and substance. John Kander and Fred Ebb explored the rise of Nazism in Germany in "Cabaret", and murder and the media in Prohibition-era "Chicago", which relied on old vaudeville techniques. "Pippin", by Stephen Schwartz, was set in the days of Charlemagne. Federico Fellini's autobiographical film "8½" became Maury Yeston's "Nine". At the end of the decade, "Evita" and "Sweeney Todd" were precursors of the darker, big budget musicals of the 1980s that depended on dramatic stories, sweeping scores and spectacular effects. At the same time, old-fashioned values were still embraced in such hits as "Annie", "42nd Street", "My One and Only", and popular revivals of "No, No, Nanette" and "Irene". Although many film versions of musicals were made in the 1970s, few were critical or box office successes, with the notable exceptions of "Fiddler on the Roof", "Cabaret" and "Grease".
The 1980s saw the influence of European "megamusicals" on Broadway, in the West End and elsewhere. These typically feature a pop-influenced score, large casts and spectacular sets and special effects – a falling chandelier (in "The Phantom of the Opera"); a helicopter landing on stage (in "Miss Saigon") – and big budgets. Some were based on novels or other works of literature. The British team of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh started the megamusical phenomenon with their 1981 musical "Cats", based on the poems of T. S. Eliot, which overtook "A Chorus Line" to become the longest-running Broadway show. Lloyd Webber followed up with "Starlight Express" (1984), performed on roller skates; "The Phantom of the Opera" (1986; also with Mackintosh), derived from the novel of the same name; and "Sunset Boulevard" (1993), from the 1950 film of the same name. "Phantom" would surpass "Cats" to become the longest-running show in Broadway history, a record it still holds. The French team of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil wrote "Les Misérables", based on the novel of the same name, whose 1985 London production was produced by Mackintosh and became, and still is, the longest-running musical in West End and Broadway history. The team produced another hit with "Miss Saigon" (1989), which was inspired by the Puccini opera "Madama Butterfly".
The megamusicals' huge budgets redefined expectations for financial success on Broadway and in the West End. In earlier years, it was possible for a show to be considered a hit after a run of several hundred performances, but with multimillion-dollar production costs, a show must run for years simply to turn a profit. Megamusicals were also reproduced in productions around the world, multiplying their profit potential while expanding the global audience for musical theatre.
In the 1990s, a new generation of theatrical composers emerged, including Jason Robert Brown and Michael John LaChiusa, who began with productions Off-Broadway. The most conspicuous success of these artists was Jonathan Larson's show "Rent" (1996), a rock musical (based on the opera "La bohème") about a struggling community of artists in Manhattan. While the cost of tickets to Broadway and West End musicals was escalating beyond the budget of many theatregoers, "Rent" was marketed to increase the popularity of musicals among a younger audience. It featured a young cast and a heavily rock-influenced score; the musical became a hit. Its young fans, many of them students, calling themselves RENTheads], camped out at the Nederlander Theatre in hopes of winning the lottery for $20 front row tickets, and some saw the show dozens of times. Other shows on Broadway followed "Rent"'s lead by offering heavily discounted day-of-performance or standing-room tickets, although often the discounts are offered only to students.
The 1990s also saw the influence of large corporations on the production of musicals. The most important has been Disney Theatrical Productions, which began adapting some of Disney's animated film musicals for the stage, starting with "Beauty and the Beast" (1994), "The Lion King" (1997) and "Aida" (2000), the latter two with music by Elton John. "The Lion King" is the highest-grossing musical in Broadway history. "The Who's Tommy" (1993), a theatrical adaptation of the rock opera "Tommy", achieved a healthy run of 899 performances but was criticized for sanitizing the story and "musical theatre-izing" the rock music.
Despite the growing number of large-scale musicals in the 1980s and 1990s, a number of lower-budget, smaller-scale musicals managed to find critical and financial success, such as "Falsettoland" and "Little Shop of Horrors", "" and "Blood Brothers". The topics of these pieces vary widely, and the music ranges from rock to pop, but they often are produced off-Broadway, or for smaller London theatres, and some of these stagings have been regarded as imaginative and innovative.
In the new century, familiarity has been embraced by producers and investors anxious to guarantee that they recoup their considerable investments. Some took (usually modest-budget) chances on new and creative material, such as "Urinetown" (2001), "Avenue Q" (2003), "The Light in the Piazza" (2005), "Spring Awakening" (2006), "In the Heights" (2007), "Next to Normal" (2009), "American Idiot" (2010) and "The Book of Mormon" (2011). "Hamilton" (2015), transformed "under-dramatized American history" into an unusual hip-hop inflected hit. In 2011, Sondheim argued that of all forms of "contemporary pop music", rap was "the closest to traditional musical theatre" and was "one pathway to the future."
However, most major-market 21st-century productions have taken a safe route, with revivals of familiar fare, such as "Fiddler on the Roof", "A Chorus Line", "South Pacific", "Gypsy", "Hair", "West Side Story" and "Grease", or with adaptations of other proven material, such as literature ("The Scarlet Pimpernel", "Wicked" and "Fun Home"), hoping that the shows would have a built-in audience as a result. This trend is especially persistent with film adaptations, including ("The Producers", "Spamalot", "Hairspray", "Legally Blonde", "The Color Purple", "Xanadu", "Billy Elliot", "Shrek", "Waitress" and "Groundhog Day"). Some critics have argued that the reuse of film plots, especially those from Disney (such as "Mary Poppins" and "The Little Mermaid"), equate the Broadway and West End musical to a tourist attraction, rather than a creative outlet.
Today, it is less likely that a sole producer, such as David Merrick or Cameron Mackintosh, backs a production. Corporate sponsors dominate Broadway, and often alliances are formed to stage musicals, which require an investment of $10 million or more. In 2002, the credits for "Thoroughly Modern Millie" listed ten producers, and among those names were entities composed of several individuals. Typically, off-Broadway and regional theatres tend to produce smaller and therefore less expensive musicals, and development of new musicals has increasingly taken place outside of New York and London or in smaller venues. For example, "Spring Awakening", "Fun Home" and "Hamilton" were developed Off-Broadway before being launched on Broadway.
Several musicals returned to the spectacle format that was so successful in the 1980s, recalling extravaganzas that have been presented at times, throughout theatre history, since the ancient Romans staged mock sea battles. Examples include the musical adaptations of "Lord of the Rings" (2007), "Gone with the Wind" (2008) and "" (2011). These musicals involved songwriters with little theatrical experience, and the expensive productions generally lost money. Conversely, "The Drowsy Chaperone", "Avenue Q", "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", "Xanadu" and "Fun Home", among others, have been presented in smaller-scale productions, mostly uninterrupted by an intermission, with short running times, and enjoyed financial success. In 2013, "Time" magazine reported that a trend Off-Broadway has been "immersive" theatre, citing shows such as "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812" (2012) and "Here Lies Love" (2013) in which the staging takes place around and within the audience. The shows set a joint record, each receiving 11 nominations for Lucille Lortel Awards, and feature contemporary scores.
In 2013, Cyndi Lauper was the "first female composer to win the [Tony for] Best Score without a male collaborator" for writing the music and lyrics for "Kinky Boots". In 2015, for the first time, an all-female writing team, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, won the Tony Award for Best Original Score (and Best Book for Kron) for "Fun Home", although work by male songwriters continues to be produced more often.
Another trend has been to create a minimal plot to fit a collection of songs that have already been hits. Following the earlier success of "Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story", these have included "Movin' Out" (2002, based on the tunes of Billy Joel), "Jersey Boys" (2006, The Four Seasons), "Rock of Ages" (2009, featuring classic rock of the 1980s) and many others. This style is often referred to as the "jukebox musical". Similar but more plot-driven musicals have been built around the canon of a particular pop group including "Mamma Mia!" (1999, based on the songs of ABBA), "Our House" (2002, based on the songs of Madness) and "We Will Rock You" (2002, based on the songs of Queen).
Live-action film musicals were nearly dead in the 1980s and early 1990s, with exceptions of "Victor/Victoria", "Little Shop of Horrors" and the 1996 film of "Evita". In the new century, Baz Luhrmann began a revival of the film musical with "Moulin Rouge!" (2001). This was followed by "Chicago" (2002); "Phantom of the Opera" (2004); "Rent" (2005); "Dreamgirls" (2006); "Hairspray", "Enchanted" and "" (all in 2007); "Mamma Mia!" (2008); "Nine" (2009); "Les Misérables" and "Pitch Perfect" (both in 2012), "Into The Woods" and "The Last Five Years" (2014) and "La La Land" (2016), among others. Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (2000) and "The Cat in the Hat" (2003), turned children's books into live-action film musicals. After the immense success of Disney and other houses with animated film musicals beginning with "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and running throughout the 1990s (including some more adult-themed films, like "" (1999)), fewer animated film musicals were released in the first decade of the 21st century. The genre made a comeback beginning in 2010 with "Tangled" (2010), "Rio" (2011) and "Frozen" (2013). In Asia, India continues to produce numerous "Bollywood" film musicals, and Japan produces "Anime" and "Manga" film musicals.
Made for TV musical films were popular in the 1990s, such as "Gypsy" (1993), "Cinderella" (1997) and "Annie" (1999). Several made for TV musicals in the first decade of the 21st century were adaptations of the stage version, such as "South Pacific" (2001), "The Music Man" (2003) and "Once Upon a Mattress" (2005), and a televised version of the stage musical "Legally Blonde" in 2007. Additionally, several musicals were filmed on stage and broadcast on Public Television, for example "Contact" in 2002 and "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Oklahoma!" in 2003. The made-for-TV musical "High School Musical" (2006), and its several sequels, enjoyed particular success and were adapted for stage musicals and other media.
In 2013, NBC began a series of live television broadcasts of musicals with "The Sound of Music Live!" Although the production received mixed reviews, it was a ratings success. Further broadcasts have included "Peter Pan Live!" (NBC 2014), "The Wiz Live!" (NBC 2015), a UK broadcast, "The Sound of Music Live" (ITV 2015) "" (Fox 2016), "Hairspray Live!" (NBC, 2016), "A Christmas Story Live!" (Fox, 2017), and "" (Fox 2019).
Some television shows have set episodes as a musical. Examples include episodes of "Ally McBeal", "" ("The Bitter Suite" and "Lyre, Lyre, Heart's On Fire"), "Psych" (""), "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" ("Once More, with Feeling"), "That's So Raven", "Daria", "Dexter's Laboratory", "The Powerpuff Girls", "The Flash", "Once Upon a Time", "Oz", "Scrubs" (one episode was written by the creators of "Avenue Q"), "" () and "That '70s Show" (the 100th episode, "That '70s Musical"). Others have included scenes where characters suddenly begin singing and dancing in a musical-theatre style during an episode, such as in several episodes of "The Simpsons", "30 Rock", "Hannah Montana", "South Park", "Bob's Burgers" and "Family Guy". The television series "Cop Rock" extensively used the musical format, as do the series "Flight of the Conchords", "Glee", "Smash" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend".
There have also been musicals made for the internet, including "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," about a low-rent super-villain played by Neil Patrick Harris. It was written during the WGA writer's strike. Since 2006, reality TV shows have been used to help market musical revivals by holding a talent competition to cast (usually female) leads. Examples of these are "How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?", "," "Any Dream Will Do," "," "I'd Do Anything" and "Over the Rainbow."
The U.S. and Britain were the most active sources of book musicals from the 19th century through much of the 20th century (although Europe produced various forms of popular light opera and operetta, for example Spanish Zarzuela, during that period and even earlier). However, the light musical stage in other countries has become more active in recent decades.
Musicals from other English-speaking countries (notably Australia and Canada) often do well locally and occasionally even reach Broadway or the West End (e.g., "The Boy from Oz" and "The Drowsy Chaperone"). South Africa has an active musical theatre scene, with revues like "African Footprint" and "Umoja" and book musicals, such as "Kat and the Kings" and "Sarafina!" touring internationally. Locally, musicals like "Vere", "Love and Green Onions", "Over the Rainbow: the all-new all-gay... extravaganza" and "Bangbroek Mountain" and "In Briefs – a queer little Musical" have been produced successfully.
Successful musicals from continental Europe include shows from (among other countries) Germany ("Elixier" and "Ludwig II"), Austria ("Tanz der Vampire", "Elisabeth", "Mozart!" and "Rebecca"), Czech Republic ("Dracula"), France ("Notre-Dame de Paris", "Les Misérables", "Roméo et Juliette" and "Mozart, l'opéra rock") and Spain ("Hoy no me puedo levantar" and "The Musical Sancho Panza").
Japan has recently seen the growth of an indigenous form of musical theatre, both animated and live action, mostly based on Anime and Manga, such as "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Tenimyu". The popular "Sailor Moon" metaseries has had twenty-nine Sailor Moon musicals, spanning thirteen years. Beginning in 1914, a series of popular revues have been performed by the all-female Takarazuka Revue, which currently fields five performing troupes. Elsewhere in Asia, the Indian Bollywood musical, mostly in the form of motion pictures, is tremendously successful.
Beginning with a 2002 tour of "Les Misérables", various Western musicals have been imported to mainland China and staged in English. Attempts at localizing Western productions in China began in 2008 when "Fame" was produced in Mandarin with a full Chinese cast at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Since then, other western productions have been staged in China in Mandarin with a Chinese cast. The first Chinese production in the style of Western musical theatre was "The Gold Sand" in 2005. In addition, Li Dun, a well-known Chinese producer, produced "Butterflies", based on a classic Chinese love tragedy, in 2007 as well as "Love U Teresa" in 2011.
Musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. Although amateur theatre has existed for centuries, even in the New World, François Cellier and Cunningham Bridgeman wrote, in 1914, that prior to the late 19th century, amateur actors were treated with contempt by professionals. After the formation of amateur Gilbert and Sullivan companies licensed to perform the Savoy operas, professionals recognized that the amateur societies "support the culture of music and the drama. They are now accepted as useful training schools for the legitimate stage, and from the volunteer ranks have sprung many present-day favourites." The National Operatic and Dramatic Association was founded in the UK in 1899. It reported, in 1914, that nearly 200 amateur dramatic societies were producing Gilbert and Sullivan works in Britain that year. Similarly, more than 100 community theatres were founded in the US in the early 20th century. This number has grown to an estimated 18,000 in the US. The Educational Theater Association in the US has nearly 5,000 member schools.
The Broadway League announced that in the 2007–08 season, 12.27 million tickets were purchased for Broadway shows for a gross sale amount of almost a billion dollars. The League further reported that during the 2006–07 season, approximately 65% of Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists, and that foreign tourists were 16% of attendees. The Society of London Theatre reported that 2007 set a record for attendance in London. Total attendees in the major commercial and grant-aided theatres in Central London were 13.6 million, and total ticket revenues were £469.7 million. Also, the international musicals scene has been particularly active in recent years. Stephen Sondheim commented in the year 2000:
However, noting the success in recent decades of original material, and creative re-imaginings of film, plays and literature, theatre historian John Kenrick countered:
Is the Musical dead? ... Absolutely not! Changing? Always! The musical has been changing ever since Offenbach did his first rewrite in the 1850s. And change is the clearest sign that the musical is still a living, growing genre. Will we ever return to the so-called 'golden age', with musicals at the center of popular culture? Probably not. Public taste has undergone fundamental changes, and the commercial arts can only flow where the paying public allows.
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Motion
In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position over time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and time. The motion of a body is observed by attaching a frame of reference to an observer and measuring the change in position of the body relative to that frame with change in time.
If an object is not changing relatively to a given frame of reference, the object is said to be "at rest", "motionless", "immobile", "stationary", or to have a constant or time-invariant position with reference to its surroundings. As there is no absolute frame of reference, "absolute motion" cannot be determined. Thus, everything in the universe can be considered to be in motion.
Motion applies to various physical systems: to objects, bodies, matter particles, matter fields, radiation, radiation fields, radiation particles, curvature and space-time. One can also speak of motion of images, shapes and boundaries. So, the term motion, in general, signifies a continuous change in the positions or configuration of a physical system in space. For example, one can talk about motion of a wave or about motion of a quantum particle, where the configuration consists of probabilities of occupying specific positions.
The main quantity that measures the motion of a body is momentum. An object's momentum increases with the object's mass and with its velocity. The total momentum of all objects in an isolated system (one not affected by external forces) does not change with time, as described by the law of conservation of momentum. An object's motion, and thus its momentum, cannot change unless a force acts on the body.
In physics, motion of massive bodies is described through two related sets of laws of mechanics. Motions of all large-scale and familiar objects in the universe (such as cars, projectiles, planets, cells, and humans) are described by classical mechanics, whereas the motion of very small atomic and sub-atomic objects is described by quantum mechanics. Historically, Newton and Euler formulated three laws of classical mechanics:
Classical mechanics is used for describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, as well as astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. It produces very accurate results within these domains, and is one of the oldest and largest in science, engineering, and technology.
Classical mechanics is fundamentally based on Newton's laws of motion. These laws describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and the motion of that body. They were first compiled by Sir Isaac Newton in his work "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica", first published on July 5, 1687. Newton's three laws are:
1. A body either is at rest or moves with constant velocity, until and unless an outer force is applied to it.
2. The force applied on a body is in direct proportion with the rate of change of momentum of a body, which takes place in the direction of the acting force.
Mathematical formulation of Second Law of Motion
Assuming that a body is having mass m, and is moving along a straight line with an initial velocity u, and is bein' uniformly accelerated to its final velocity v, by the application of a constant force throughout the time, t, then the initial and final momentum will be p1=mu and p2=mv, respectively.
The change in momentum
Rate of change of momentum= m(v-u)/t
According to Newton's Second Law of Motion
Here, k is proportionality constant which is equal to 1.
3. Whenever one body exerts a force F onto a second body, (in some cases, which is standing still) the second body exerts the force −F on the first body. F and −F are equal in magnitude and opposite in sense. So, the body which exerts F will go backwards.
Newton's three laws of motion were the first to accurately provide a mathematical model for understanding orbiting bodies in outer space. This explanation unified the motion of celestial bodies and motion of objects on earth.
Uniform Motion:
When an object moves with a constant speed at a particular direction at regular intervals of time it is known as the "uniform motion." For example: a bike moving in a straight line with a constant speed.
Equations of Uniform Motion:
If formula_1 = final and initial velocity, formula_2 = time, and formula_3 = displacement, then:
Modern kinematics developed with study of electromagnetism and refers all velocities "v" to their ratio to speed of light "c". Velocity is then interpreted as rapidity, the hyperbolic angle φ for which the hyperbolic tangent function tanh φ = "v"/"c". Acceleration, the change of velocity, then changes rapidity according to Lorentz transformations. This part of mechanics is special relativity. Efforts to incorporate gravity into relativistic mechanics were made by W. K. Clifford and Albert Einstein. The development used differential geometry to describe a curved universe with gravity; the study is called general relativity.
Quantum mechanics is a set of principles describing physical reality at the atomic level of matter (molecules and atoms) and the subatomic particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, and even smaller elementary particles such as quarks). These descriptions include the simultaneous wave-like and particle-like behavior of both matter and radiation energy as described in the wave–particle duality.
In classical mechanics, accurate measurements and predictions of the state of objects can be calculated, such as location and velocity. In quantum mechanics, due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the complete state of a subatomic particle, such as its location and velocity, cannot be simultaneously determined.
In addition to describing the motion of atomic level phenomena, quantum mechanics is useful in understanding some large-scale phenomenon such as superfluidity, superconductivity, and biological systems, including the function of smell receptors and the structures of protein.
Third law of the Newtonian motion states that "For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction".
Humans, like all known things in the universe, are in constant motion; however, aside from obvious movements of the various external body parts and locomotion, humans are in motion in a variety of ways which are more difficult to perceive. Many of these "imperceptible motions" are only perceivable with the help of special tools and careful observation. The larger scales of imperceptible motions are difficult for humans to perceive for two reasons: Newton's laws of motion (particularly the third) which prevents the feeling of motion on a mass to which the observer is connected, and the lack of an obvious frame of reference which would allow individuals to easily see that they are moving. The smaller scales of these motions are too small to be detected conventionally with human senses.
Spacetime (the fabric of the universe) is expanding meaning everything in the universe is stretching like a rubber band. This motion is the most obscure as it is not physical motion as such, but rather a change in the very nature of the universe. The primary source of verification of this expansion was provided by Edwin Hubble who demonstrated that all galaxies and distant astronomical objects were moving away from Earth, known as Hubble's law, predicted by a universal expansion.
The Milky Way Galaxy is moving through space and many astronomers believe the velocity of this motion to be approximately relative to the observed locations of other nearby galaxies. Another reference frame is provided by the Cosmic microwave background. This frame of reference indicates that the Milky Way is moving at around .
The Milky Way is rotating around its dense galactic center, thus the sun is moving in a circle within the galaxy's gravity. Away from the central bulge, or outer rim, the typical stellar velocity is between . All planets and their moons move with the sun. Thus, the solar system is moving.
The Earth is rotating or spinning around its axis. This is evidenced by day and night, at the equator the earth has an eastward velocity of . The Earth is also orbiting around the Sun in an orbital revolution. A complete orbit around the sun takes one year, or about 365 days; it averages a speed of about .
The Theory of Plate tectonics tells us that the continents are drifting on convection currents within the mantle causing them to move across the surface of the planet at the slow speed of approximately per year. However, the velocities of plates range widely. The fastest-moving plates are the oceanic plates, with the Cocos Plate advancing at a rate of per year and the Pacific Plate moving per year. At the other extreme, the slowest-moving plate is the Eurasian Plate, progressing at a typical rate of about per year.
The human heart is constantly contracting to move blood throughout the body. Through larger veins and arteries in the body, blood has been found to travel at approximately 0.33 m/s. Though considerable variation exists, and peak flows in the venae cavae have been found between . additionally, the smooth muscles of hollow internal organs are moving. The most familiar would be the occurrence of peristalsis which is where digested food is forced throughout the digestive tract. Though different foods travel through the body at different rates, an average speed through the human small intestine is . The human lymphatic system is also constantly causing movements of excess fluids, lipids, and immune system related products around the body. The lymph fluid has been found to move through a lymph capillary of the skin at approximately 0.0000097 m/s.
The cells of the human body have many structures which move throughout them. Cytoplasmic streaming is a way which cells move molecular substances throughout the cytoplasm, various motor proteins work as molecular motors within a cell and move along the surface of various cellular substrates such as microtubules, and motor proteins are typically powered by the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and convert chemical energy into mechanical work. Vesicles propelled by motor proteins have been found to have a velocity of approximately 0.00000152 m/s.
According to the laws of thermodynamics, all particles of matter are in constant random motion as long as the temperature is above absolute zero. Thus the molecules and atoms which make up the human body are vibrating, colliding, and moving. This motion can be detected as temperature; higher temperatures, which represent greater kinetic energy in the particles, feel warm to humans who sense the thermal energy transferring from the object being touched to their nerves. Similarly, when lower temperature objects are touched, the senses perceive the transfer of heat away from the body as feeling cold.
Within each atom, electrons exist in a region around the nucleus. This region is called the electron cloud. According to Bohr's model of the atom, electrons have a high velocity, and the larger the nucleus they are orbiting the faster they would need to move. If electrons 'move' about the electron cloud in strict paths the same way planets orbit the sun, then electrons would be required to do so at speeds which far exceed the speed of light. However, there is no reason that one must confine one's self to this strict conceptualization, that electrons move in paths the same way macroscopic objects do. Rather one can conceptualize electrons to be 'particles' that capriciously exist within the bounds of the electron cloud. Inside the atomic nucleus, the protons and neutrons are also probably moving around due to the electrical repulsion of the protons and the presence of angular momentum of both particles.
Light moves at a speed of 299,792,458 m/s, or , in a vacuum. The speed of light in vacuum (or "c") is also the speed of all massless particles and associated fields in a vacuum, and it is the upper limit on the speed at which energy, matter, information or causation can travel. The speed of light in vacuum is thus the upper limit for speed for all physical systems.
In addition, the speed of light is an invariant quantity: it has the same value, irrespective of the position or speed of the observer. This property makes the speed of light "c" a natural measurement unit for speed and fundamental constant of nature.
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Malpractice
In the law of torts, malpractice, also known as professional negligence, is an "instance of negligence or incompetence on the part of a professional".
Professionals who may become the subject of malpractice actions include:
Professional negligence actions require a professional relationship between the professional and the person claiming to have been injured by malpractice. For example, in order to sue a lawyer for malpractice the person bringing the claim must have had an attorney-client relationship with the lawyer.
To succeed in a malpractice action under typical malpractice law, the person making a malpractice claim must prove both that the professional committed an act of culpable negligence and that the person suffered injury as a result of the professional's error.
Medical malpractice is a highly complex area of law, with laws that differ significantly between jurisdictions.
In Australia, medical malpractice and the rise in incidences of claims against individual and institutional providers has led to the evolution of patient advocates.
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Mediation
Mediation is a dynamic, structured, interactive process where an impartial third party assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are encouraged to actively participate in the process. Mediation is a "party-centered" process in that it is focused primarily upon the needs, rights, and interests of the parties. The mediator uses a wide variety of techniques to guide the process in a constructive direction and to help the parties find their optimal solution. A mediator is facilitative in that she/he manages the interaction between parties and facilitates open communication. Mediation is also evaluative in that the mediator analyzes issues and relevant norms ("reality-testing"), while refraining from providing prescriptive advice to the parties (e.g., "You should do... .").
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution resolving disputes between two or more parties with concrete effects. Typically, a third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate a settlement. Disputants may mediate disputes in a variety of domains, such as commercial, legal, diplomatic, workplace, community, and family matters.
The term "mediation" broadly refers to any instance in which a third party helps others reach an agreement. More specifically, mediation has a structure, timetable, and dynamics that "ordinary" negotiation lacks. The process is private and confidential, possibly enforced by law. Participation is typically voluntary. The mediator acts as a neutral third party and facilitates rather than directs the process. Mediation is becoming a more peaceful and internationally accepted solution to end the conflict. Mediation can be used to resolve disputes of any magnitude.
The term "mediation," however, due to language as well as national legal standards and regulations is not identical in content in all countries but rather has specific connotations, and there are some differences between Anglo-Saxon definitions and other countries, especially countries with a civil, statutory law tradition.
Mediators use various techniques to open, or improve, dialogue and empathy between disputants, aiming to help the parties reach an agreement. Much depends on the mediator's skill and training. As the practice gained popularity, training programs, certifications, and licensing followed, which produced trained and professional mediators committed to the discipline.
The history of mediation goes back to Ancient Greece, where village elders used to mediate local disputes between the villagers. The activity of mediation appeared in very ancient times. The practice developed in Ancient Greece (which knew the non-marital mediator as a "proxenetas"), then in Roman civilization. (Roman law, starting from Justinian's "Digest" of 530–533 CE) recognized mediation. The Romans called mediators by a variety of names, including "internuncius", "medium", "intercessor", "philantropus", "interpolator", "conciliator", "interlocutor", "interpres", and finally "mediator".
Now mediation is a form a professional service, and mediators are professionally trained for mediation.
In the UK mediation has seen a rise as a service since the Children and Families Act 2014 made it compulsory for separating couples to go through a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) before hearing in the Court.
There are some important statistics provided regarding the growth of the UK commercial mediation market increased by 20% from 2016 to 2018; this refers to commercial mediations rather than those relating to small claims. There was also increased scheme-related activity, this included activity from NHS Resolution and the Court of Appeal, which meant scheme related activity made up to be 37.5% of all mediation activities (HSFNotes, 2018).
The statistics in 2018 also refer to increased success rates in mediation with 74% achieving settlement on the day of the mediation session, reflecting the speedy nature of mediation once again.
The benefits of mediation include:
In addition to dispute resolution, mediation can function as a means of dispute prevention, such as facilitating the process of contract negotiation. Governments can use mediation to inform and to seek input from stakeholders in formulation or fact-seeking aspects of policy-making.
Mediation is applicable to disputes in many areas:
Within business and commercial mediation, frequently a distinction is made between business-to-business (B2B), business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) situations.
ADR, Alternative Dispute Resolution, began in industrial relations in Australia long before the arrival of the modern ADR movement. One of the first statutes passed by the Commonwealth parliament was the Conciliation
and Arbitration Act 1904 (Cth). This allowed the Federal Government to pass laws on conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one state. Conciliation has been the most prominently used form of ADR, and is generally far removed from modern mediation.
Significant changes in state policy took place from 1996 to 2007. The 1996 Workplace Relations Act (Cth) sought to shift the industrial system away from a collectivist approach, where unions and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) had strong roles, to a more decentralized system of individual bargaining between employers and employees. The Act diminished the traditional role of the AIRC by placing the responsibility of resolving disputes at the enterprise level. This allowed mediation to be used to resolve industrial relations disputes instead of traditional conciliation.
In industrial relations under the 2006 WorkChoices amendments to the Workplace Relations Act. Examples of this use of mediation can be seen in recent enterprise bargaining negotiations.
The Australian government claimed the benefits of mediation to include the following:
The implementation of human resource management (HRM) policies and practices has evolved to focus on the individual worker, and rejects all other third parties such as unions and AIRC. HRM together with the political and economic changes undertaken by Australia's Howard government created an environment where private ADR can be fostered in the workplace.
The decline of unionism and the rise of the individual encouraged the growth of mediation. This is demonstrated in the industries with the lowest unionization rates such as in the private business sector having the greatest growth of mediation.
The 2006 Work Choices Act made further legislative changes to deregulate industrial relations. A key element of the new changes was to weaken the AIRC by encouraging competition with private mediation.
A great variety of disputes occur in the workplace, including disputes between staff members, allegations of harassment, contractual disputes and workers compensation claims. At large, workplace disputes are between people who have an ongoing working relationship within a closed system, which indicate that mediation or a workplace investigation would be appropriate as dispute resolution processes. However the complexity of relationships, involving hierarchy, job security and competitiveness can complicate mediation.
Party-directed mediation (PDM) is an emerging mediation approach particularly suited for disputes between co-workers, colleagues or peers, especially deep-seated interpersonal conflict, multicultural or multiethnic disputes. The mediator listens to each party separately in a pre-caucus or pre-mediation before ever bringing them into a joint session. Part of the pre-caucus also includes coaching and role plays. The idea is that the parties learn how to converse directly with their adversary in the joint session. Some unique challenges arise when organizational disputes involve supervisors and subordinates. The negotiated performance appraisal (NPA) is a tool for improving communication between supervisors and subordinates and is particularly useful as an alternate mediation model because it preserves the hierarchical power of supervisors while encouraging dialogue and dealing with differences in opinion.
Disputes involving neighbors often have no official resolution mechanism. Community mediation centers generally focus on neighborhood conflict, with trained local volunteers serving as mediators. Such organizations often serve populations that cannot afford to utilize the courts or professional ADR-providers. Community programs typically provide mediation for disputes between landlords and tenants, members of homeowners associations and small businesses and consumers. Many community programs offer their services for free or at a nominal fee.
Experimental community mediation programs using volunteer mediators began in the early 1970s in several major U.S. cities. These proved to be so successful that hundreds of programs were founded throughout the country in the following two decades. In some jurisdictions, such as California, the parties have the option of making their agreement enforceable in court.
In Australia mediation was incorporated extensively into family law Family Law Act 1975 and the 2006 Amendments Mandatory, subject to certain exceptions, Family Dispute Resolution Mediation is required before courts will consider disputed parenting arrangements. The Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners who provide this service are accredited by the Attorney-General's Department.
A peer mediator is one who resembles the disputants, such as being of similar age, attending the same school or having similar status in a business. Purportedly, peers can better relate to the disputants than an outsider.
Peer mediation promotes social cohesion and aids development of protective factors that create positive school climates. The National Healthy School Standard (Department for Education and Skills, 2004) highlighted the significance of this approach to reducing bullying and promoting pupil achievement. Schools adopting this process recruit and train interested students to prepare them.
Peace Pals is an empirically validated peer mediation program. It was studied over a 5-year period and revealed several positive outcomes including a reduction in elementary school violence and enhanced social skills, while creating a more positive, peaceful school climate.
Peer mediation helped reduce crime in schools, saved counselor and administrator time, enhanced self-esteem, improved attendance and encouraged development of leadership and problem-solving skills among students. Such conflict resolution programs increased in U.S. schools 40% between 1991 and 1999.
"Peace Pals" was studied in a diverse, suburban elementary school. Peer mediation was available to all students (N = 825). Significant and long-term reductions in school-wide violence over a five-year period occurred. The reductions included both verbal and physical conflict. Mediator knowledge made significant gains pertaining to conflict, conflict resolution and mediation, which was maintained at 3-month follow-up. Additionally, mediators and participants viewed the "Peace Pals" program as effective and valuable, and all mediation sessions resulted in successful resolution.
The commercial domain remains the most common application of mediation, as measured by number of mediators and the total exchanged value. The result of business mediation is typically a bilateral contract.
Commercial mediation includes work in finance, insurance, ship-brokering, procurement and real estate. In some areas, mediators have specialized designations and typically operate under special laws. Generally, mediators cannot themselves practice commerce in markets for goods in which they work as mediators.
Procurement mediation comprises disputes between a public body and a private body. In common law jurisdictions only regulatory stipulations on creation of supply contracts that derive from the fields of State Aids (EU Law and domestic application) or general administrative guidelines extend ordinary laws of commerce. The general law of contract applies in the UK accordingly. Procurement mediation occurs in circumstances after creation of the contract where a dispute arises in regard to the performance or payments. A Procurement mediator in the UK may choose to specialise in this type of contract or a public body may appoint an individual to a specific mediation panel.
In response to the Mabo decision, the Australian Government sought to engage the population and industry on Mabo's implications for land tenure and use by enacting the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth), which required mediation as a mechanism to determine future native title rights. The process incorporated the Federal Court and the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT). Mediation can occur in parallel with legal challenges, such as occurred in Perth.
Some features of native title mediation that distinguish it from other forms include lengthy time frames, the number of parties (ranging on occasion into the hundreds) and that statutory and case law prescriptions constrain some aspects of the negotiations.
Mediation's effectiveness in trans-border disputes has been questioned, but an understanding of fundamental mediation principles points to the unlimited potential of mediation in such disputes. Mediators explicitly address and manage cultural and language differences in detail during the process. Voluntary referral to mediation is not required—much mediation to reach the table through binding contractual provisions, statutes, treaties, or international agreements and accords. The principle of voluntariness applies to the right of parties to self-determination once they are in the mediation—not to the mechanism for initiating the mediation process. Much mediation also results form mutual consent because they are non-binding and they encourage the exploration of interests and mutual benefits of an agreement. Because the parties, themselves, create the terms of agreement, compliance with mediated settlement agreements is relatively high. Any compliance or implementation issues can be addressed by follow-up mediation, regular compliance monitoring, and other processes.
Since the early 1980s a number of institutions in South Africa have championed mediation. The Independent Mediation Service of South Africa (IMSSA) was established in 1984. It trained mediators who then worked through Local Dispute Resolution Committees set up as part of the National Peace Accord. Initial training was undertaken by the UK's ACAS. IMSSA covers mediation within unionised environments. The more recently created Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) was formed as result of the Labour Relation Act No 66 1995, and replaced the Industrial Courts in handling large areas of employment disputes.
Informal processes that engage a community in more holistic solution-finding are growing.
After 1995, the country established a legal right to take an employment dispute to conciliation/mediation. Mediation agreements are binding in law. The process has grown from generally covering collective agreements such as for wages or terms and conditions, to encompass more individual matters including dismissal.
The mediator's primary role is to act as a neutral third party who facilitates discussions between the parties. In addition, a mediator serves in an evaluative role when they analyze, assess the issues, and engage in reality-testing. A mediator is neutral and they are not the agent of any party. In their role, mediators do not offer prescriptive advice (e.g., "You should settle this case," or, "Your next offer should be X."). Mediators also manage the interaction between the parties and encourage constructive communication through the use of specialized communication techniques.
Finally, the mediator should restrict pressure, aggression and intimidation, demonstrate how to communicate through employing good speaking and listening skills, and paying attention to non-verbal messages and other signals emanating from the context of the mediation and possibly contributing expertise and experience. The mediator should direct the parties to focus on issues and stay away from personal attacks.
The role of the parties varies according to their motivations and skills, the role of legal advisers, the model of mediation, the style of mediator and the culture in which the mediation takes place. Legal requirements may also affect their roles. Party-directed mediation (PDM) is an emerging approach involving a pre-caucus between the mediator and each of the parties before going into the joint session. The idea is to help the parties improve their interpersonal negotiation skills so that in the joint session they can address each other with little mediator interference.
One of the general requirements for successful mediation is that those representing the respective parties have full authority to negotiate and settle the dispute. If this is not the case, then there is what Spencer and Brogan refer to as the "empty chair" phenomenon, that is, the person who ought to be discussing the problem is simply not present.
The parties' first role is to consent to mediation, possibly before preparatory activities commence. Parties then prepare in much the same way they would for other varieties of negotiations. Parties may provide position statements, valuation reports and risk assessment analysis. The mediator may supervise/facilitate their preparation and may require certain preparations.
Agreements to mediate, mediation rules, and court-based referral orders may have disclosure requirements. Mediators may have express or implied powers to direct parties to produce documents, reports and other material. In court-referred mediations parties usually exchange with each other all material which would be available through discovery or disclosure rules were the matter to proceed to hearing, including witness statements, valuations and statement accounts.
Mediation requires direct input from the parties. Parties must attend and participate in the mediation meeting. Some mediation rules require parties to attend in person. Participation at one stage may compensate for absence at another stage.
Choose an appropriate mediator, considering experience, skills, credibility, cost, etc. The criteria for mediator competence is under dispute. Competence certainly includes the ability to remain neutral and to move parties though various impasse-points in a dispute. The dispute is over whether expertise in the subject matter of the dispute should be considered or is actually detrimental to the mediator's objectivity.
Preparatory steps for mediation can vary according to legal and other requirements, not least gaining the willingness of the parties to participate.
In some court-connected mediation programs, courts require disputants to prepare for mediation by making a statement or summary of the subject of the dispute and then bringing the summary to the mediation. In other cases, determining the matter(s) at issue can become part of the mediation itself.
Consider having the mediator meet the disputants prior to the mediation meeting. This can reduce anxiety, improve settlement odds and increase satisfaction with the mediation process.
Ensure that all participants are ready to discuss the dispute in a reasonably objective fashion. Readiness is improved when disputants consider the viability of various outcomes.
Provide reasonable estimates of loss and/or damage.
Identify other participants. In addition to the disputants and the mediator, the process may benefit from the presence of counsel, subject-matter experts, interpreters, family, etc.
Secure a venue for each mediation session. The venue must foster the discussion, address any special needs, protect privacy and allow ample discussion time.
Ensure that supporting information such as pictures, documents, corporate records, pay-stubs, rent-rolls, receipts, medical reports, bank-statements, etc., are available.
Have parties sign a contract that addresses procedural decisions, including confidentiality, mediator payment, communication technique, etc.
The typical mediation has no formal compulsory elements, although some elements usually occur:
Individual mediators vary these steps to match specific circumstances, given that the law does not ordinarily govern mediators' methods.
Ratification and review provide safeguards for mediating parties. They also provide an opportunity for persons not privy to the mediation to undermine the result.
Some mediated agreements require ratification by an external body—such as a board, council or cabinet. In some situations the sanctions of a court or other external authority must explicitly endorse a mediation agreement. Thus if a grandparent or other non-parent is granted residence rights in a family dispute, a court counselor will be required to furnish a report to the court on merits of the proposed agreement to aid the court's ultimate disposition of the case.
In other situations it may be agreed to have agreements reviewed by lawyers, accountants or other professional advisers.
The implementation of mediated agreements must comply with the statues and regulations of the governing jurisdiction.
Parties to a private mediation may also wish to obtain court sanction for their decisions. Under the Queensland regulatory scheme on court connected mediation, mediators are required to file with a registrar a certificate about the mediation in a form prescribed in the regulations. A party may subsequently apply to a relevant court an order giving effect to the agreement reached. Where court sanction is not obtained, mediated settlements have the same status as any other agreements.
Mediators may at their discretion refer one or more parties to psychologists, accountants, social workers or others for post-mediation professional assistance.
In some situations, a post-mediation debriefing and feedback session is conducted between co-mediators or between mediators and supervisors. It involves a reflective analysis and evaluation of the process. In many community mediation services debriefing is compulsory and mediators are paid for the debriefing session.
Mediation recognised that in addition to the fact of reaching a settlement, party satisfaction and mediator competence could be measured. Surveys of mediation parties reveal strong levels of satisfaction with the process. Of course, if parties are generally satisfied post-settlement, then such measures may not be particularly explanatory.
The educational requirements for accreditation as a mediator differ between accrediting groups and from country to country. In some cases legislation mandates requirements; in others professional bodies impose accreditation standards. Many US universities offer graduate studies in mediation, such as the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
In Australia, for example, professionals wanting to practice in the area of family law must have tertiary qualifications in law or in social science, undertake 5 days training in mediation and engage in 10 hours of supervised mediation. Furthermore, they must also undertake 12 hours of education or training every 12 months.
Other institutions offer units in mediation across a number of disciplines such as law, social science, business and the humanities. Not all kinds of mediation-work require academic qualifications, as some deal more with practical skills than with theoretical knowledge. Membership organizations provide training courses. Internationally a similar approach to the training of mediators is taken by organizations such as the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, CEDR. Based in London, it has trained over 5000 CEDR mediators from different countries to date.
No legislated national standards on the level of education apply to all practitioners' organizations. However, organizations such as the National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (NADRAC) advocate for a wide scope on such issues. Other systems apply in other jurisdictions such as Germany, which advocates a higher level of educational qualification for practitioners of mediation.
Common elements of codes of conduct include:
In Australia mediation codes of conduct include those developed by the Law Societies of South Australia and Western Australia and those developed by organisations such as Institute of Arbitrators & Mediators Australia (IAMA) and LEADR. The CPR/Georgetown Ethics Commission, the Mediation Forum of the Union International des Avocats, and the European Commission have promulgated codes of conduct for mediators.
In Canada codes of conduct for mediators are set by professional organizations. In Ontario three distinct professional organizations maintain codes of conduct for mediators. The Family Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario and the Ontario Association of Family Mediators set standards for their members who mediate family matters and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario who sets standards for their members.
The Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario, a regional affiliate of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada, uses the code of conduct from the federal organization to regulate the conduct of its members. The Code's three objectives are to provide guiding principles for the conduct of mediators; to promote confidence in mediation as a process for resolving disputes; and to provide protection for members of the public who use mediators who are members of the institute.
In France, professional mediators have created an organization to develop a rational approach to conflict resolution. This approach is based on a "scientific" definition of a person and a conflict. These definitions help to develop a structured mediation process. Mediators have adopted a code of ethics which guarantees professionalism.
In Germany, due to the Mediation Act of 2012, mediation as a process and the responsibilities of a mediator are legally defined. Based on the German language and the specific codification (so-called "funktionaler Mediator") one has to take into account, that all persons who "mediate" in a conflict (defined as facilitation without evaluation and proposals for solution!) are tied to the provisions of the Mediation Act even if they call their approach/process not mediation but facilitation (Prozessbegleitung), conciliation (Schlichtung), conflict counseling (Konflikt-Beratung), consulting (Organisationsberatung), conflict coaching or whatever else.
For example, according to sec. 2 and sec. 3 of the German Mediation Act, the mediator has certain information and disclosure obligations as well as limittions of practice. In particular, a person who has been in any form of (legal, social, financial, etc.) counseling role to a party in this matter is not allowed to act as a mediator in the case (sec. 3 par. 3 and 4 German Mediation ACT – so called "Vorbefassungsverbot").
A range of organizations within Australia accredit mediators. Standards vary according to the specific mediation and the level of specificity that is desired. Standards apply to particular ADR processes.
The National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS) commenced operation on 1 January 2008. It is an industry-based scheme which relies on voluntary compliance by mediator organisations that agree to accredit mediators in accordance with the requisite standards.
Mediator organizations have varying ideals of what makes a good mediator which reflect the training and accreditation of that particular organization. Australia did not adopt a national accreditation system, which may lead to suboptimal choice of mediators.
According to sec. 6 German Mediation Act the German government on June 21, 2016 has released the German regulation about education and training of the so-called (legal term) "certified mediators" which from Sept. 1, 2017 postulates a minimum of 120 hours of initial specialized mediator training as well as case supervision and further ongoing training of 40 hours within 4 years. Beyond this basic qualification, the leading mediation associations (BAFM, BM, BMWA and DGM) have agreed on quality standards higher than the minimum standards of the national regulation to certify their mediators. To become an accredited mediator of these associations one has to complete an accredited mediation training program of a minimum of 200 hours incl. 30 hours of supervision as well as ongoing training (30–40 hours within three years)."
Mediator selection is of practical significance given varying models of mediation, mediators' discretion in structuring the process and the impact of the mediator's professional background and personal style on the result.
In community mediation programs the director generally assigns mediators. In New South Wales, for example, when the parties cannot agree on a mediator, the registrar contacts a nominating entity, such as the Bar Association which supplies the name of a qualified and experienced mediator.
As of 2006, formal mechanisms for objecting to the appointment of a particular mediator had not been established. Parties could ask the mediator to withdraw for reasons of conflict of interest. In some cases, legislation establishes criteria for mediators. In New South Wales, for example, the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) proscribes qualifications for mediators.
The following are useful criteria for selecting a mediator:
Contracts that specify mediation may also specify a third party to suggest or impose an individual. Some third parties simply maintain a list of approved individuals, while others train mediators. Lists may be "open" (any person willing and suitably qualified can join) or a "closed" panel (invitation only).
In the UK and internationally, lists are generally open, such as The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution. Alternatively, private panels co-exist and compete for appointments e.g., Savills Mediation.
Legal liability may stem from a mediation. For example, a mediator could be liable for misleading the parties or for even inadvertently breaching confidentiality. Despite such risks, follow-on court action is quite uncommon. Only one case reached that stage in Australia as of 2006. Damage awards are generally compensatory in nature. Proper training is mediators' best protection.
Liability can arise for the mediator from Liability in Contract; Liability in Tort; and Liability for Breach of Fiduciary Obligations.
Liability in Contract arises if a mediator breaches (written or verbal) contract with one or more parties. The two forms of breach are "failure to perform" and "anticipatory breach". Limitations on liability include the requirement to show actual causation.
Liability in Tort arises if a mediator influences a party in any way (compromising the integrity of the decision), defames a party, breaches confidentiality, or most commonly, is negligent. To be awarded damages, the party must show actual damage, and must show that the mediator's actions (and not the party's actions) were the actual cause of the damage.
Liability for Breach of Fiduciary Obligations can occur if parties misconceive their relationship with a mediator as something other than neutrality. Since such liability relies on a misconception, court action is unlikely to succeed.
As of 2008 Tapoohi v Lewenberg was the only case in Australia that set a precedent for mediators' liability.
The case involved two sisters who settled an estate via mediation. Only one sister attended the mediation in person: the other participated via telephone with her lawyers present. An agreement was executed. At the time it was orally expressed that before the final settlement, taxation advice should be sought as such a large transfer of property would trigger capital gains taxes.
Tapoohi paid Lewenberg $1.4 million in exchange for land. One year later, when Tapoohi realized that taxes were owed, she sued her sister, lawyers and the mediator based on the fact that the agreement was subject to further taxation advice.
The original agreement was verbal, without any formal agreement. Tapoohi, a lawyer herself, alleged that the mediator breached his contractual duty, given the lack of any formal agreement; and further alleged tortious breaches of his duty of care.
Although the court dismissed the summary judgment request, the case established that mediators owe a duty of care to parties and that parties can hold them liable for breaching that duty of care. Habersberger J held it "not beyond argument" that the mediator could be in breach of contractual and tortious duties. Such claims were required to be assessed at a trial court hearing.
This case emphasized the need for formal mediation agreements, including clauses that limit mediators' liability.
Within the United States, the laws governing mediation vary by state. Some states have clear expectations for certification, ethical standards and confidentiality. Some also exempt mediators from testifying in cases they've worked on. However, such laws only cover activity within the court system. Community and commercial mediators practising outside the court system may not have such legal protections. State laws regarding lawyers may differ widely from those that cover mediators. Professional mediators often consider the option of liability insurance.
Evaluative mediation is focused on providing the parties with an evaluation of their case and directing them toward settlement. During an evaluative mediation process, when the parties agree that the mediator should do so, the mediator will express a view on what might be a fair or reasonable settlement. The Evaluative mediator has somewhat of an advisory role in that s/he evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each side's argument and makes some predictions about what would happen should they go to court. Facilitative and transformative mediators do not evaluate arguments or direct the parties to a particular settlement.
In Germany, due to national regulation "evaluative mediation" is seen as an oxymoron and not allowed by the German mediation Act. Therefore, in Germany mediation is purly facilitative. In Australia, the industry accepted definition of mediation involves a mediator adopting a non advisory and non determinative approach. However, there is also provision under the National Mediator Accreditation Standards for mediators to offer a 'blended' approach provided that participants consent to such a process in writing, the mediator is appropriately insured and has the expertise required.
Facilitative mediators typically do not evaluate a case or direct the parties to a particular settlement. Instead, the Facilitative mediator facilitates the conversation. These mediators act as guardian of the process, not the content or the outcome. During a facilitative mediation session the parties in dispute control both what will be discussed and how their issues will be resolved. Unlike the transformative mediator, the facilitative mediator is focused on helping the parties find a resolution to their dispute and to that end, the facilitative mediator provides a structure and agenda for the discussion.
Transformative mediation looks at conflict as a crisis in communication. Success is not measured by settlement but by the parties shifts toward (a) personal strength, (b) interpersonal responsiveness, (c) constructive interaction, (d) new understandings of themselves and their situation, (e) critically examining the possibilities, (f) feeling better about each other, and (g) making their own decisions. Those decisions can include settlement agreements or not. Transformative mediation practice is focused on supporting empowerment and recognition shifts, by allowing and encouraging deliberation, decision-making, and perspective-taking. A competent transformative mediator practices with a microfocus on communication, identifying opportunities for empowerment and recognition as those opportunities appear in the parties' own conversations, and responding in ways that provide an opening for parties to choose what, if anything, to do with them.
The narrative approach to mediation shares with narrative therapy an emphasis on constructing stories as a basic human activity in understanding our lives and conflict. This approach emphasizes the sociological/psychological nature of conflict-saturated narratives, and values human creativity in acting and reacting to these narratives. "The narrative metaphor draws attention to the ways in which we use stories to make sense of our lives and our relationship." Narrative mediation advocates changing the way we speak about conflicts. In objectifying the conflict narrative, participants become less attached to the problem and more creative in seeking solutions. "The person is not the problem; the problem is the problem" according to narrative mediation.
Mediation has sometimes been utilized to good effect when coupled with arbitration, particularly binding arbitration, in a process called 'mediation/arbitration'. The process begins as a standard mediation, but if mediation fails, the mediator becomes an arbiter.
This process is more appropriate in civil matters where rules of evidence or jurisdiction are not in dispute. It resembles, in some respects, criminal plea-bargaining and Confucian judicial procedure, wherein the judge also plays the role of prosecutor—rendering what, in Western European court procedures, would be considered an arbitral (even 'arbitrary') decision.
Mediation/arbitration hybrids can pose significant ethical and process problems for mediators. Many of the options and successes of mediation relate to the mediator's unique role as someone who wields no coercive power over the parties or the outcome. The parties awareness that the mediator might later act in the role of judge could distort the process. Using a different individual as the arbiter addresses this concern.
Online mediation employs online technology to provide disputants access to mediators and each other despite geographic distance, disability or other barriers to direct meeting. Online approaches also facilitate mediation when the value of the dispute does not justify the cost of face-to-face contact. Online mediation can also combine with face-to-face mediation—to allow mediation to begin sooner and/or to conduct preliminary discussions.
Neutral mediators enter into a conflict with the main intention in ending a conflict. This goal tends to hasten a mediator to reach a conclusion. Biased mediators enter into a conflict with specific biases in favor of one party or another. Biased mediators look to protect their parties interest thus leading to a better, more lasting resolution.
Mediation is one of several approaches to resolving disputes. It differs from adversarial resolution processes by virtue of its simplicity, informality, flexibility, and economy. Mediation provides the opportunity for parties to agree terms and resolve issues by themselves, without the need for legal representation or court hearings.
Not all disputes lend themselves well to mediation. Success is unlikely unless:
"Conciliation" sometimes serves as an umbrella term that covers mediation and facilitative and advisory dispute-resolution processes. Neither process determines an outcome, and both share many similarities. For example, both processes involve a neutral third-party who has no enforcing powers.
One significant difference between conciliation and mediation lies in the fact that conciliators possess expert knowledge of the domain in which they conciliate. The conciliator can make suggestions for settlement terms and can give advice on the subject-matter. Conciliators may also use their role to actively encourage the parties to come to a resolution. In certain types of dispute the conciliator has a duty to provide legal information. This helps ensure that agreements comply with relevant statutory frameworks. Therefore, conciliation may include an advisory aspect.
Mediation is purely facilitative: the mediator has no advisory role. Instead, a mediator seeks to help parties to develop a shared understanding of the conflict and to work toward building a practical and lasting resolution.
Both mediation and conciliation work to identify the disputed issues and to generate options that help disputants reach a mutually satisfactory resolution. They both offer relatively flexible processes. Any settlement reached generally must have the agreement of all parties. This contrasts with litigation, which normally settles the dispute in favour of the party with the strongest legal argument. In-between the two operates collaborative law, which uses a facilitative process where each party has counsel.
A counsellor generally uses therapeutic techniques. Some—such as a particular line of questioning—may be useful in mediation. But the role of the counsellor differs from the role of the mediator. The list below is not exhaustive but it gives an indication of important distinctions:
The technique of "early neutral evaluation" (ENE) have focus on market ineterships, and—based on that focus—offers a basis for sensible case-management or a suggested resolution of the entire case in its very early stages.
In early neutral evaluation, an evaluator acts as a neutral person to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each of the parties and to discuss the same with parties jointly or in caucuses, so that parties gain awareness (via independent evaluation) of the merits of their case.
Parties generally call on a senior counsel or on a panel with expertise and experience in the subject-matter under dispute in order to conduct ENE.
Binding Arbitration is a more direct substitute for the formal process of a court. Binding Arbitration is typically conducted in front of one or three arbitrators. The process is much like a mini trial with rules of evidence, etc. Arbitration typically proceeds faster than court and typically at a lower cost. The Arbiter makes the ultimate decision rather than the parties. Arbiters' decisions are typically final and appeals are rarely successful even if the decision appears to one party to be completely unreasonable.
In litigation, courts impose their thoughts to both parties Courts in some cases refer litigants to mediation. Mediation is typically less costly, less formal and less complex. Unlike courts, mediation does not ensure binding agreements and the mediator does not decide the outcome.
While mediation implies bringing disputing parties face-to-face with each other, the strategy of "shuttle diplomacy", where the mediator serves as a liaison between disputing parties, also sometimes occurs as an alternative.
Mediation can anticipate difficulties between parties before conflict emerges. Complaint handling and management is a conflict prevention mechanism designed to handle a complaint effectively at first contact, minimising the possibility of a dispute. One term for this role is "dispute preventer".
One of the hallmarks of mediation is that the process is strictly confidential. Two competing principles affect confidentiality. One principle encourages confidentiality to encourage people to participate, while the second principle states that all related facts should be available to courts.
The mediator must inform the parties of their responsibility for confidentiality.
Steps put in place during mediation to help ensure this privacy include:
Confidentiality is a powerful and attractive feature of mediation. It lowers the risk to participants of disclosing information and emotions and encourages realism by eliminating the benefits of posturing. In general, information discussed in mediation cannot be used as evidence in the event that the matter proceeds to court, in accord with the mediation agreement and common law.
Few mediations succeed unless the parties can communicate fully and openly without fear of compromising a potential court case. The promise of confidentiality mitigates such concerns. Organisations often see confidentiality as a reason to use mediation in lieu of litigation, particularly in sensitive areas. This contrasts with the public nature of courts and other tribunals. However mediation need not be private and confidential. In some circumstances the parties agree to open the mediation in part or whole. Laws may limit confidentiality. For example, mediators must disclose allegations of physical or other abuse to authorities. The more parties in a mediation, the less likely that perfect confidentiality will be maintained. Some parties may even be required to give an account of the mediation to outside constituents or authorities.
Most countries respect mediator confidentiality.
The without-prejudice privilege in common law denotes that in honest attempts to reach settlement, any offers or admissions cannot be used in court when the subject matter is the same. This applies to the mediation process. The rule comes with exceptions.
The without-prejudice privilege does not apply if it was excluded by either party or if the privilege was waived in proceedings. Although mediation is private and confidential, the disclosure of privileged information in the presence of a mediator does not represent a waiver of the privilege.
Parties who enter into mediation do not forfeit legal rights or remedies. If mediation does not result in settlement, each side can continue to enforce their rights through appropriate court or tribunal procedures. However, if mediation produces a settlement, legal rights and obligations are affected in differing degrees. In some situations, the parties may accept a memorandum or moral force agreement; these are often found in community mediations. In other instances, a more comprehensive deed of agreement, when registered with a court, is legally binding. It is advisable to have a lawyer draft or provide legal advice about the proposed terms.
"Court systems are eager to introduce mandatory mediation as a means to meet their needs to reduce case loads and adversarial litigation, and participants who understand the empowerment of mediation to self-determine their own agreements are equally as eager to embrace mediation as an alternative to costly and potentially harmful litigation."
Principles of mediation include non-adversarialism, responsiveness, self-determination and party autonomy.
Non-adversarialism is based on the actual process of mediation. It treats the parties as collaborating in the construction of an agreement. By contrast, litigation is explicitly adversarial in that each party attempts to subject the other to its views. Mediation is designed to conclude with an agreement rather than a winner and loser.
Responsiveness reflects the intent to allow the parties to craft a resolution outside of the strict rules of the legal system. A responsive mediation process also is informal, flexible and collaborative.
Self-determination and party autonomy allow and require parties to choose the area of agreement, rather than ceding the decision to an outside decision-maker such as a judge. This turns the responsibility for the outcome onto the parties themselves.
In the United States, mediator codes-of-conduct emphasize "client-directed" solutions rather than imposed solutions. This has become a common, definitive feature of mediation in the US and UK.
Theorists, notably Rushworth Kidder, who founded the Institute for Global Ethics in 1980, claimed that mediation is the foundation of a 'postmodern' ethics—and that it sidesteps traditional ethical issues with pre-defined limits of morality.
Mediation can also be seen as a form of harm reduction or de-escalation, especially in its large-scale application in peace and similar negotiations, or the bottom-up way it is performed in the peace movement where it is often called mindful mediation. This form derived from methods of Quakers in particular.
Society perceives conflict as something that one should resolve as quickly as possible. Mediators see conflict as a fact of life that when properly managed can benefit the parties. The benefits of conflict include the opportunity to renew relationships and make positive changes for the future.
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Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour in British English) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions (also known as minor, petty, or summary offences) and regulatory offences. Many misdemeanors are punished with monetary fines.
A misdemeanor is considered a crime of lesser seriousness, and a felony one of greater seriousness. The maximum punishment for a misdemeanor is less than that for a felony under the principle that the punishment should fit the crime. One standard for measurement is the degree to which a crime affects others or society. Measurements of the degree of seriousness of a crime have been developed.
In the United States, the federal government generally considers a crime punishable with incarceration for not more than one year, or lesser penalty, to be a misdemeanor. All other crimes are considered felonies. Many states also employ the same or a similar distinction.
The distinction between felonies and misdemeanors has been abolished by several common law jurisdictions, notably the UK and Australia. These jurisdictions have generally adopted some other classification (in the UK the substance of the original distinction remains, only slightly altered): in the Commonwealth nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, the crimes are divided into summary offences and indictable offences. The Republic of Ireland, a former member of the Commonwealth, also uses these divisions.
In the United States, even if a criminal charge for the defendant's conduct is normally a misdemeanor, sometimes a repeat offender will be charged with a felony offense. For example, the first time a person commits certain crimes, such as spousal assault, it is normally a misdemeanor, but the second time it may become a felony. Other misdemeanors may be upgraded to felonies based on context. For example, in some jurisdictions the crime of indecent exposure might normally be classified as a misdemeanor, but be charged as a felony when committed in front of a minor.
In some jurisdictions, those who are convicted of a misdemeanor are known as misdemeanants (as contrasted with those convicted of a felony who are known as "felons"). Depending on the jurisdiction, examples of misdemeanors may include: petty theft, prostitution, public intoxication, simple assault, disorderly conduct, trespass, vandalism, reckless driving, streaking,discharging a firearm within city limits, possession of cannabis and in some jurisdictions first-time possession of certain other drugs, and other similar crimes.
Misdemeanors usually do not result in the restriction of civil rights, but may result in loss of privileges, such as professional licenses, public offices, or public employment. Such effects are known as the collateral consequences of criminal charges. This is more common when the misdemeanor is related to the privilege in question (such as the loss of a taxi driver's license after a conviction for reckless driving), or when the misdemeanor is deemed to involve moral turpitude—and in general is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
In the United States, misdemeanors are typically crimes with a maximum punishment of 12 months of incarceration, typically in a local jail as contrasted with felons, who are typically incarcerated in a prison. Jurisdictions such as Massachusetts are a notable exception; the maximum punishment of some misdemeanors there is up to 2.5 years. People who are convicted of misdemeanors are often punished with probation, community service, short jail term, or part-time incarceration such as a sentence that may be served on the weekends.
The United States Constitution provides that the President may be impeached and subsequently removed from office if found guilty by Congress for "high crimes and misdemeanors". As used in the Constitution, the term "misdemeanor" refers broadly to criminal acts as opposed to employing the felony-misdemeanor distinction used in modern criminal codes. The definition of what constitutes "high crimes and misdemeanors" for purposes of impeachment is left to the judgment of Congress.
In Singapore, misdemeanors generally are sentenced to months of jail sentence but with individual crimes suspects are sentenced to a harsher sentence. The penalty of vandalism is a fine not exceeding S$2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding three years, and also corporal punishment of not less than three strokes and not more than eight strokes of the cane.
Depending on the jurisdiction, several classes of misdemeanors may exist; the forms of punishment can vary widely between those classes. For example, the federal and some state governments in the United States divide misdemeanors into several classes, with certain classes punishable by jail time and others carrying only a fine. In New York law, a Class A Misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of one year of imprisonment, while a Class B Misdemeanor "shall not exceed three months".
In the United States, when a statute does not specify the class of a misdemeanor, it may be referred to as an "unclassified misdemeanor". Legislators usually enact such laws when they wish to impose penalties that fall outside the framework specified by each class. For example, Virginia has four classes of misdemeanors, with Class 1 and Class 2 misdemeanors being punishable by twelve-month and six-month jail sentences, respectively, and Class 3 and Class 4 misdemeanors being non-jail offenses payable by fines. First-time cannabis possession is an unclassified misdemeanor in Virginia punishable by up to 30 days in jail rather than the normal fines and jail sentences of the four classes. New York has three classes of misdemeanor: A, B, and Unclassified.
All distinctions between felony and misdemeanour were abolished by section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1967.
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Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor and film narrator. Freeman won an Academy Award in 2005 for Best Supporting Actor with "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) and has received Oscar nominations for his performances in "Street Smart" (1987), "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) and "Invictus" (2009). He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Freeman has appeared in many other box office hits, including "Glory" (1989), "" (1991), "Seven" (1995), "Deep Impact" (1998), "The Sum of All Fears" (2002), "Bruce Almighty" (2003), "The Dark Knight Trilogy" (2005–2012), "Wanted" (2008), "Red" (2010), "Now You See Me" (2013), "The Lego Movie" (2014), and "Lucy" (2014). He rose to fame as part of the cast of the 1970s children's program "The Electric Company". Noted for his deep voice, Freeman has served as a narrator, commentator, and voice actor for numerous programs, series and television shows.
Morgan Freeman was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the son of Mayme Edna (née Revere; 1912–2000), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman (July 6, 1915 – April 27, 1961), a barber, who died of cirrhosis in 1961. He has three older siblings. According to a DNA analysis, some of his ancestors were from Niger. In 2008, a DNA test suggested that among all of his African ancestors, a little over one-quarter came from the area that stretches from present-day Senegal to Liberia and three-quarters came from the Congo-Angola region. Freeman was sent as an infant to his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi. He moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois. When Freeman was 16 years old, he almost died of pneumonia.
Freeman made his acting debut at age nine, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, a building which serves today as Threadgill Elementary School, in Greenwood, Mississippi. At age 12, he won a statewide drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Broad Street, but turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to enlist in the United States Air Force and served as an Automatic Tracking Radar Repairman, rising to the rank of Airman 1st Class.
After four years in the military, he moved to Los Angeles, California, took acting lessons at the Pasadena Playhouse and dancing lessons in San Francisco in the early 1960s, and worked as a transcript clerk at Los Angeles City College.
During the early 1960s, Freeman worked as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair and was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group in San Francisco. He acted in a touring company version of "The Royal Hunt of the Sun," and also appeared as an extra in the 1965 film "The Pawnbroker." Freeman made his Off-Broadway debut in 1967, opposite Viveca Lindfors in "The Nigger Lovers" (about the Freedom Riders during the American Civil Rights Movement), before debuting on Broadway in 1968's all-black version of "Hello, Dolly!" which also starred Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway.
Although his first credited film appearance was in 1971's "Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow!", Freeman first became known in the American media through roles on the soap opera "Another World" and the PBS kids' show "The Electric Company" (notably as Easy Reader, Mel Mounds the DJ, and Vincent the Vegetable Vampire[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c99NfY7S1aA [clip]]).
Joan Ganz Cooney claims that Freeman hated doing "The Electric Company", saying "it was a very unhappy period in his life." Freeman himself admitted in an interview that he never thinks about his tenure with the show, but he acknowledged that, contrary to Cooney's claims, he was glad to have been a part of it. Since then, Freeman has considered his "Street Smart" (1987) character Fast Black, rather than any of the characters he played in "The Electric Company", to be his breakthrough role.
Freeman continued to be involved in theater work and received the Obie Award in 1980 for the title role in "Coriolanus". In 1984, he received his second Obie Award for his role as the preacher in "The Gospel at Colonus". Freeman also won a Drama Desk Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his role as a wino in "The Mighty Gents". He received his third Obie Award for his role as a chauffeur for a Jewish widow in "Driving Miss Daisy", which was adapted for the screen in 1989.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, Freeman began playing prominent supporting roles in feature films, earning him a reputation for depicting wise, fatherly characters. As he gained fame, he went on to bigger roles in films such as the chauffeur Hoke in "Driving Miss Daisy", and Sergeant Major Rawlins in "Glory" (both in 1989). In 1994, he portrayed Red, the redeemed convict in the acclaimed "The Shawshank Redemption". In the same year he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.
He also starred in such films as "", "Unforgiven", "Seven", and "Deep Impact". In 1997, Freeman, together with Lori McCreary, founded the film production company Revelations Entertainment, and the two co-head its sister online film distribution company ClickStar. Freeman also hosts the channel "Our Space" on ClickStar, with specially crafted film clips in which he shares his love for the sciences, especially space exploration and aeronautics.
After three previous nominations – a Best Supporting Actor nomination for "Street Smart", and Best Actor nominations for "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Shawshank Redemption"—he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Million Dollar Baby" at the 77th Academy Awards. Freeman is recognized for his distinctive voice, making him a frequent choice for narration. In 2005 alone, he provided narration for two films, "War of the Worlds" and the Academy Award-winning documentary film "March of the Penguins".
Freeman appeared as God in the hit film "Bruce Almighty" and its sequel "Evan Almighty". He appeared in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy – "Batman Begins" (2005) and its sequels "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012) – as Lucius Fox. He starred in Rob Reiner's 2007 film "The Bucket List", opposite Jack Nicholson. He teamed with Christopher Walken and William H. Macy for the comedy "The Maiden Heist", which was released direct to video due to financial problems with the distribution company. In 2008, Freeman returned to Broadway to co-star with Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher for a limited engagement of Clifford Odets' play, "The Country Girl", directed by Mike Nichols.
Freeman wanted to do a film based on Nelson Mandela for some time. At first he tried to get Mandela's autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" adapted into a finished script, but it was not finalized. In 2007, he purchased the film rights to a book by John Carlin, "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation". Clint Eastwood directed the Nelson Mandela bio-pic titled "Invictus", starring Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar.
In 2010, Freeman co-starred alongside Bruce Willis in "Red".
In 2011, Freeman was featured with John Lithgow in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black's play, "8", a staged reenactment of "Perry v. Brown", the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. Freeman played Attorney David Boies. The production was held at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.
In 2013, Freeman appeared in the action-thriller "Olympus Has Fallen", the science fiction drama "Oblivion", and the comedy "Last Vegas". In 2014, he co-starred in the action film "Lucy". In 2015, Freeman played the Chief Justice of the United States in the season two premiere of "Madam Secretary" (Freeman is also one of the series' executive producers). He also appeared in "London Has Fallen", the 2016 sequel of "Olympus Has Fallen".
Freeman made his directorial debut in 1993 with "Bopha!" for Paramount Pictures.
In July 2009, Freeman was one of the presenters at the 46664 Concert celebrating Nelson Mandela's birthday at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Effective January 4, 2010, Freeman replaced Walter Cronkite as the voiceover introduction to the "CBS Evening News" featuring Katie Couric as news anchor. CBS cited the need for consistency in introductions for regular news broadcasts and special reports as the basis for the change. , Freeman is the host and narrator of the Discovery Channel television show, focused on physics outreach, "Through the Wormhole". He was featured on the opening track to B.o.B's second album "Strange Clouds". The track "Bombs Away" features a prologue and epilogue (which leads into a musical outro) spoken by Freeman.
In 2015, Freeman directed "The Show Must Go On", the season two premiere of "Madam Secretary". In 2017, he hosted "The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman".
Up until May 2018, Freeman also served as the narrator of a series of Visa commercials.
From his early life, Freeman has two extramarital children; one of them is Alfonso Freeman.
Freeman was married to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from October 22, 1967 until November 18, 1979.
Freeman married Myrna Colley-Lee on June 16, 1984. The couple separated in December 2007 and divorced on September 15, 2010. Freeman and Colley-Lee adopted Freeman's stepgranddaughter from his first marriage, E'dena Hines, and raised her together. On August 16, 2015, Hines was murdered in New York City at age 33.
In 2008, the TV series "African American Lives 2" revealed that some of Freeman's great-great-grandparents were slaves who migrated from North Carolina to Mississippi. Freeman discovered that his Caucasian maternal great-great-grandfather had lived with, and was buried beside, Freeman's African-American great-great-grandmother (in the segregated South, the two could not marry legally at the time). A DNA test on the series stated that he is descended in part from the Songhai and Tuareg peoples of Niger.
After becoming concerned with the decline of honeybees, Freeman decided to turn his 124-acre ranch into a sanctuary for them in July 2014, starting with 26 bee hives.
At age 65, Freeman earned a private pilot's license. He owns or has owned at least three private aircraft, including a Cessna Citation 501 jet and a Cessna 414 twin-engine prop. In 2007, he purchased an Emivest SJ30 long-range private jet and took delivery in December 2009. He is certified to fly all of them.
Freeman was injured in an automobile accident near Ruleville, Mississippi, on the night of August 3, 2008. The vehicle in which he was traveling, a 1997 Nissan Maxima, left the highway and flipped over several times. He and a female passenger, Demaris Meyer, were rescued from the vehicle using the "Jaws of Life". Freeman was taken via medical helicopter to The Regional Medical Center (The Med) hospital in Memphis. Police ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash. Freeman was coherent following the crash, as he joked with a photographer about taking his picture at the scene. His left shoulder, arm, and elbow were broken in the crash, and he had surgery on August 5, 2008. Doctors operated for four hours to repair nerve damage in his shoulder and arm. On CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" he stated that he is left handed but cannot move the fingers of his left hand. He wears a compression glove to protect against blood pooling due to non-movement. His publicist announced he was expected to make a full recovery. Meyer, his passenger, sued him for negligence, claiming that he was drinking the night of the accident. Subsequently, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
In an interview with Esquire on July 2012, Freeman revealed that he suffers from the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia.
Freeman lives in Charleston, Mississippi, and New York City. He owns and operates Ground Zero, a blues club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He formerly co-owned Madidi, a fine dining restaurant, also in Clarksdale.
In a 2012 interview with TheWrap, Freeman was asked if he considered himself atheist or agnostic. He replied, "It's a hard question because as I said at the start, I think we invented God. So if I believe in God, and I do, it's because I think I'm God." Freeman later said that his experience working on "The Story of God with Morgan Freeman" did not change his views on religion.
On May 24, 2018, CNN reported the results of an investigation during which eight women accused Freeman of sexually harassing them, and eight other people said they witnessed his inappropriate behavior on the set of movies, while promoting his movies, or at his production company. After the CNN story broke, Freeman issued an apology, stating "Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy. I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected—that was never my intent." CNN also made several requests to the spokesperson for Lori McCreary, Freeman's business partner, but no comment was given.
As a result of the sexual harassment allegations, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) reviewed what action, if any, to take against Freeman, as Freeman was recognized with a lifetime achievement award by SAG. In September 2018, SAG confirmed that Freeman could retain his award.
Following the announcement of the allegations, Visa suspended its marketing campaign with Freeman and stopped airing commercials that featured his voice.
In 2004, Freeman and others formed the Grenada Relief Fund to aid people affected by Hurricane Ivan on the island of Grenada. The fund has since become PLANIT NOW, an organization that seeks to provide preparedness resources for people living in areas afflicted by hurricanes and severe storms. Freeman has worked on narrating small clips for global organizations, such as One Earth, whose goals include raising awareness of environmental issues. He has narrated the clip "Why Are We Here”, which can be viewed on One Earth's website. Freeman has donated money to the Mississippi Horse Park in Starkville, Mississippi. The park is part of Mississippi State University and Freeman has several horses that he takes there.
In 2005, Freeman criticized the celebration of Black History Month, saying, "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history." He opined that the only way to end racism is to stop talking about it, and he noted that there is no "white history month." Freeman once said in an interview with "60 Minutes"s Mike Wallace, "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man." Freeman supported the defeated proposal to change the Mississippi state flag, which incorporated the Confederate battle flag at the time. Freeman sparked controversy in 2011 when, on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight", he accused the Tea Party movement of racism.
In reaction to the death of Freddie Gray and the 2015 Baltimore protests, Freeman said he was "absolutely" supportive of the protesters. "That unrest [in Baltimore] has nothing to do with terrorism at all, except the terrorism we suffer from the police. [...] Because of the technology—everybody has a smartphone—now we can see what the police are doing. We can show the world, Look, this is what happened in that situation. So why are so many people dying in police custody? And why are they all black? And why are all the police killing them white? What is that? The police have always said, 'I feared for my safety.' Well, now we know. OK. You feared for your safety while a guy was running away from you, right?"
Freeman endorsed Barack Obama's candidacy for the 2008 presidential election, although he stated that he would not join Obama's campaign. He narrated for The Hall of Presidents with Obama, when he was added to the exhibit. The Hall of Presidents re-opened on July 4, 2009, at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Freeman joined President Bill Clinton, USA Bid Committee Chairman Sunil Gulati, and USMNT midfielder Landon Donovan on December 1, 2010, in Zurich for the U.S. bid committee's final presentation to FIFA for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. On day four of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Morgan Freeman provided the voiceover for the video introduction of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
On September 19, 2017, Freeman featured in a video by the Committee to Investigate Russia group. In the video, Freeman declared "we are at war" with Russia. In April 2018, Freeman met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
Morgan Freeman has been nominated for an Academy Award "and" the Golden Globe Award five different times, each time for the same film for each award. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on "Million Dollar Baby", and the Golden Globe for Best Actor with "Driving Miss Daisy". Likewise, he has four Screen Actors Guild Award (SAG) nominations, and one win for "Million Dollar Baby".
On October 28, 2006, Freeman was honored at the first Mississippi's Best Awards in Jackson, Mississippi, with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his works on and off the big screen. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts and Letters from Delta State University during the school's commencement exercises on May 13, 2006. In 2013, Boston University presented him with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. On November 12, 2014, he was bestowed the honor of Freedom of the City by the City of London.
In August 2017, he was named the 54th recipient of the SAG Life Achievement award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.
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Mathematical model
A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are used in the natural sciences (such as physics, biology, earth science, chemistry) and engineering disciplines (such as computer science, electrical engineering), as well as in the social sciences (such as economics, psychology, sociology, political science).
A model may help to explain a system and to study the effects of different components, and to make predictions about behaviour.
Mathematical models can take many forms, including dynamical systems, statistical models, differential equations, or game theoretic models. These and other types of models can overlap, with a given model involving a variety of abstract structures. In general, mathematical models may include logical models. In many cases, the quality of a scientific field depends on how well the mathematical models developed on the theoretical side agree with results of repeatable experiments. Lack of agreement between theoretical mathematical models and experimental measurements often leads to important advances as better theories are developed.
In the physical sciences, a traditional mathematical model contains most of the following elements:
Mathematical models are usually composed of relationships and "variables". Relationships can be described by "operators", such as algebraic operators, functions, differential operators, etc. Variables are abstractions of system parameters of interest, that can be quantified. Several classification criteria can be used for mathematical models according to their structure:
In business and engineering, mathematical models may be used to maximize a certain output. The system under consideration will require certain inputs. The system relating inputs to outputs depends on other variables too: decision variables, state variables, exogenous variables, and random variables.
Decision variables are sometimes known as independent variables. Exogenous variables are sometimes known as parameters or constants.
The variables are not independent of each other as the state variables are dependent on the decision, input, random, and exogenous variables. Furthermore, the output variables are dependent on the state of the system (represented by the state variables).
Objectives and constraints of the system and its users can be represented as functions of the output variables or state variables. The objective functions will depend on the perspective of the model's user. Depending on the context, an objective function is also known as an "index of performance", as it is some measure of interest to the user. Although there is no limit to the number of objective functions and constraints a model can have, using or optimizing the model becomes more involved (computationally) as the number increases.
For example, economists often apply linear algebra when using input-output models. Complicated mathematical models that have many variables may be consolidated by use of vectors where one symbol represents several variables.
Mathematical modeling problems are often classified into black box or white box models, according to how much a priori information on the system is available. A black-box model is a system of which there is no a priori information available. A white-box model (also called glass box or clear box) is a system where all necessary information is available. Practically all systems are somewhere between the black-box and white-box models, so this concept is useful only as an intuitive guide for deciding which approach to take.
Usually it is preferable to use as much a priori information as possible to make the model more accurate. Therefore, the white-box models are usually considered easier, because if you have used the information correctly, then the model will behave correctly. Often the a priori information comes in forms of knowing the type of functions relating different variables. For example, if we make a model of how a medicine works in a human system, we know that usually the amount of medicine in the blood is an exponentially decaying function. But we are still left with several unknown parameters; how rapidly does the medicine amount decay, and what is the initial amount of medicine in blood? This example is therefore not a completely white-box model. These parameters have to be estimated through some means before one can use the model.
In black-box models one tries to estimate both the functional form of relations between variables and the numerical parameters in those functions. Using a priori information we could end up, for example, with a set of functions that probably could describe the system adequately. If there is no a priori information we would try to use functions as general as possible to cover all different models. An often used approach for black-box models are neural networks which usually do not make assumptions about incoming data. Alternatively the NARMAX (Nonlinear AutoRegressive Moving Average model with eXogenous inputs) algorithms which were developed as part of nonlinear system identification can be used to select the model terms, determine the model structure, and estimate the unknown parameters in the presence of correlated and nonlinear noise. The advantage of NARMAX models compared to neural networks is that NARMAX produces models that can be written down and related to the underlying process, whereas neural networks produce an approximation that is opaque.
Sometimes it is useful to incorporate subjective information into a mathematical model. This can be done based on intuition, experience, or expert opinion, or based on convenience of mathematical form. Bayesian statistics provides a theoretical framework for incorporating such subjectivity into a rigorous analysis: we specify a prior probability distribution (which can be subjective), and then update this distribution based on empirical data.
An example of when such approach would be necessary is a situation in which an experimenter bends a coin slightly and tosses it once, recording whether it comes up heads, and is then given the task of predicting the probability that the next flip comes up heads. After bending the coin, the true probability that the coin will come up heads is unknown; so the experimenter would need to make a decision (perhaps by looking at the shape of the coin) about what prior distribution to use. Incorporation of such subjective information might be important to get an accurate estimate of the probability.
In general, model complexity involves a trade-off between simplicity and accuracy of the model. Occam's razor is a principle particularly relevant to modeling, its essential idea being that among models with roughly equal predictive power, the simplest one is the most desirable. While added complexity usually improves the realism of a model, it can make the model difficult to understand and analyze, and can also pose computational problems, including numerical instability. Thomas Kuhn argues that as science progresses, explanations tend to become more complex before a paradigm shift offers radical simplification.
For example, when modeling the flight of an aircraft, we could embed each mechanical part of the aircraft into our model and would thus acquire an almost white-box model of the system. However, the computational cost of adding such a huge amount of detail would effectively inhibit the usage of such a model. Additionally, the uncertainty would increase due to an overly complex system, because each separate part induces some amount of variance into the model. It is therefore usually appropriate to make some approximations to reduce the model to a sensible size. Engineers often can accept some approximations in order to get a more robust and simple model. For example, Newton's classical mechanics is an approximated model of the real world. Still, Newton's model is quite sufficient for most ordinary-life situations, that is, as long as particle speeds are well below the speed of light, and we study macro-particles only.
Any model which is not pure white-box contains some parameters that can be used to fit the model to the system it is intended to describe. If the modeling is done by an artificial neural network or other machine learning, the optimization of parameters is called "training", while the optimization of model hyperparameters is called "tuning" and often uses cross-validation. In more conventional modeling through explicitly given mathematical functions, parameters are often determined by "curve fitting".
A crucial part of the modeling process is the evaluation of whether or not a given mathematical model describes a system accurately. This question can be difficult to answer as it involves several different types of evaluation.
Usually, the easiest part of model evaluation is checking whether a model fits experimental measurements or other empirical data. In models with parameters, a common approach to test this fit is to split the data into two disjoint subsets: training data and verification data. The training data are used to estimate the model parameters. An accurate model will closely match the verification data even though these data were not used to set the model's parameters. This practice is referred to as cross-validation in statistics.
Defining a metric to measure distances between observed and predicted data is a useful tool for assessing model fit. In statistics, decision theory, and some economic models, a loss function plays a similar role.
While it is rather straightforward to test the appropriateness of parameters, it can be more difficult to test the validity of the general mathematical form of a model. In general, more mathematical tools have been developed to test the fit of statistical models than models involving differential equations. Tools from nonparametric statistics can sometimes be used to evaluate how well the data fit a known distribution or to come up with a general model that makes only minimal assumptions about the model's mathematical form.
Assessing the scope of a model, that is, determining what situations the model is applicable to, can be less straightforward. If the model was constructed based on a set of data, one must determine for which systems or situations the known data is a "typical" set of data.
The question of whether the model describes well the properties of the system between data points is called interpolation, and the same question for events or data points outside the observed data is called extrapolation.
As an example of the typical limitations of the scope of a model, in evaluating Newtonian classical mechanics, we can note that Newton made his measurements without advanced equipment, so he could not measure properties of particles travelling at speeds close to the speed of light. Likewise, he did not measure the movements of molecules and other small particles, but macro particles only. It is then not surprising that his model does not extrapolate well into these domains, even though his model is quite sufficient for ordinary life physics.
Many types of modeling implicitly involve claims about causality. This is usually (but not always) true of models involving differential equations. As the purpose of modeling is to increase our understanding of the world, the validity of a model rests not only on its fit to empirical observations, but also on its ability to extrapolate to situations or data beyond those originally described in the model. One can think of this as the differentiation between qualitative and quantitative predictions. One can also argue that a model is worthless unless it provides some insight which goes beyond what is already known from direct investigation of the phenomenon being studied.
An example of such criticism is the argument that the mathematical models of optimal foraging theory do not offer insight that goes beyond the common-sense conclusions of evolution and other basic principles of ecology.
Mathematical models are of great importance in the natural sciences, particularly in physics. Physical theories are almost invariably expressed using mathematical models.
Throughout history, more and more accurate mathematical models have been developed. Newton's laws accurately describe many everyday phenomena, but at certain limits theory of relativity and quantum mechanics must be used.
It is common to use idealized models in physics to simplify things. Massless ropes, point particles, ideal gases and the particle in a box are among the many simplified models used in physics. The laws of physics are represented with simple equations such as Newton's laws, Maxwell's equations and the Schrödinger equation. These laws are a basis for making mathematical models of real situations. Many real situations are very complex and thus modeled approximate on a computer, a model that is computationally feasible to compute is made from the basic laws or from approximate models made from the basic laws. For example, molecules can be modeled by molecular orbital models that are approximate solutions to the Schrödinger equation. In engineering, physics models are often made by mathematical methods such as finite element analysis.
Different mathematical models use different geometries that are not necessarily accurate descriptions of the geometry of the universe. Euclidean geometry is much used in classical physics, while special relativity and general relativity are examples of theories that use geometries which are not Euclidean.
Since prehistorical times simple models such as maps and diagrams have been used.
Often when engineers analyze a system to be controlled or optimized, they use a mathematical model. In analysis, engineers can build a descriptive model of the system as a hypothesis of how the system could work, or try to estimate how an unforeseeable event could affect the system. Similarly, in control of a system, engineers can try out different control approaches in simulations.
A mathematical model usually describes a system by a set of variables and a set of equations that establish relationships between the variables. Variables may be of many types; real or integer numbers, boolean values or strings, for example. The variables represent some properties of the system, for example, measured system outputs often in the form of signals, timing data, counters, and event occurrence (yes/no). The actual model is the set of functions that describe the relations between the different variables.
"M" = ("Q", Σ, δ, "q"0, "F") where
The state "S"1 represents that there has been an even number of 0s in the input so far, while "S"2 signifies an odd number. A 1 in the input does not change the state of the automaton. When the input ends, the state will show whether the input contained an even number of 0s or not. If the input did contain an even number of 0s, "M" will finish in state "S"1, an accepting state, so the input string will be accepted.
The language recognized by "M" is the regular language given by the regular expression 1*( 0 (1*) 0 (1*) )*, where "*" is the Kleene star, e.g., 1* denotes any non-negative number (possibly zero) of symbols "1".
that can be written also as:
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Lesser Poland Voivodeship
Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in ), also known as Małopolska, is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,267,731 (2006).
It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Kraków, Tarnów, Nowy Sącz and parts of Bielsko-Biała, Katowice, Kielce and Krosno Voivodeships, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The province's name recalls the traditional name of a historic Polish region, Lesser Poland, or in Polish: Małopolska. Current Lesser Poland Voivodeship, however, covers only a small part of the broader ancient Małopolska region which, together with Greater Poland ("Wielkopolska") and Silesia ("Śląsk"), formed the early medieval Polish state. Historic Lesser Poland is much larger than the current province. It stretches far north, to Radom, and Siedlce, also including such cities, as Stalowa Wola, Lublin, Kielce, Częstochowa, and Sosnowiec.
The province is bounded on the north by the Świętokrzyskie Mountains ("Góry Świętokrzyskie"), on the west by "Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska" (a broad range of hills stretching from Kraków to Częstochowa), and on the south by the Tatra,
Pieniny and Beskidy Mountains. Politically it is bordered by Silesian Voivodeship to the west, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship to the north, Subcarpathian Voivodeship to the east, and Slovakia (Prešov Region and Žilina Regions) to the south.
Almost all of Lesser Poland lies in the Vistula River catchment area. The city of Kraków was one of the European Cities of Culture in 2000. Kraków has railway and road connections with Katowice (expressway), Warsaw, Wrocław and Rzeszów. It lies at the crossroads of major international routes linking Dresden with Kiev, and Gdańsk with Budapest. Located here is the second largest international airport in Poland (after Warsaw's), the John Paul II International Airport.
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was 40.4 billion € in 2018, accounting for 8.1% of the Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 19,700 € or 65% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 72% of the EU average.
The region's economy includes high technology, banking, chemical and metallurgical industries, coal, ore, food processing, and spirit and tobacco industries. The most industrialized city of the voivodeship is Kraków. The largest regional enterprise operates here, the Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks in Nowa Huta, employing 17,500 people. Another major industrial center is located in the west, in the neighborhood of Chrzanów (chiefly the production of railway engines) and Oświęcim (chemical works). Kraków Park Technologiczny, a Special Economic Zone, has been established within the voivodeship. There are almost 210,000 registered economic entities operating in the voivodeship, mostly small and medium-sized, of which 234 belong to the state-owned sector. Foreign investment, growing in the region, reached approximately US$18.3 billion by the end of 2006.
130,000 students attend fifteen Kraków institutions of higher learning. The Jagiellonian University, the largest university in the city (44,200 students), was founded in 1364 as Cracow Academy. Nicolaus Copernicus and Karol Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II) graduated from it. The AGH University of Science and Technology (29,800 students) is considered to be the best technical university in Poland. The Academy of Economics, the Pedagogical University, the Kraków University of Technology and the Agricultural Academy are also very highly regarded. There are also the Fine Arts Academy, the State Theatre University and the Musical Academy. Nowy Sącz has become a major educational center in the region thanks to its Higher School of Business and Administration, with an American curriculum, founded in 1992. The school has 4,500 students. There are also two private higher schools in Tarnów.
Located in Southern Poland, Lesser Poland is the warmest place in Poland with average summer temperatures between and during the day, often reaching to in July and August, the two warmest months of the year. The city of Tarnów, which is located in Lesser Poland, is the hottest place in Poland all year round, average temperatures being around during the day in the three summer months and during the day in the three winter months. In the winter the weather patterns alter each year; usually winters are mildly cold with temperatures ranging from to , but the winter season changes often to a more humid and warmer winter, or more continental and cold, depending on the many various wind patterns that affect Poland from different regions of the world. Błędów Desert, the only desert in Poland, is located in Lesser Poland, where temperatures can often reach in the summer.
Four national parks and numerous reserves have been established in the voivodeship to protect the environment of Lesser Poland. The region has areas for tourism and recreation, including Zakopane (Poland's most popular winter resort) and the Tatra, Pieniny and Beskidy Mountains. The natural landscape features many historic sites. The salt mine at Wieliczka, the pilgrimage town of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, and Kraków's Old Town are ranked by UNESCO among the most precious sites of world heritage. At Wadowice, birthplace of John Paul II (50 kilometers southwest of Kraków) is a museum dedicated to the late Pope's childhood. The area of Oświęcim, with the former Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz-I and Auschwitz-II-Birkenau, is visited annually by a million people. Another tourist destination is the town of Bochnia with its salt mine, Europe's oldest.
The voivodeship contains 61 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2006 ):
Smaller Poland Voivodeship is divided into 22 counties (powiats): 3 city counties and 19 land counties. These are further divided into 182 gminas.
The counties are listed in the following table (ordering within categories is by decreasing population).
Protected areas in Lesser Poland Voivodeship include six National Parks and 11 Landscape Parks. These are listed below.
Lesser Poland Voivodeship's symbols can be blazoned as follows:
Coat of arms:
"A traditional Iberian shield gules, an eagle argent displayed armed, legged, beaked, langued and crowned Or."
Flag:
"Per fess argent and gules, a narrow fess Or."
The Lesser Poland Voivodeships has partnerships with the following regions:
In February 2020, the French region of Centre-Val de Loire suspended its partnership with the Lesser Poland Voivodeship as a response to the anti-LGBT resolution passed by the voivodeship's authorities.
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Man'yōshū
The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese "waka" (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although numerous other theories have been proposed. The chronologically last datable poem in the collection is from AD 759 ( 4516). It contains many poems from much earlier, many of them anonymous or misattributed (usually to well-known poets), but the bulk of the collection represents the period between AD 600 and 759. The precise significance of the title is not known with certainty.
The collection is divided into twenty parts or books; this number was followed in most later collections. The collection contains 265 "chōka" (long poems), 4,207 "tanka" (short poems), one "tan-renga" (short connecting poem), one "bussokusekika" (a poem in the form 5-7-5-7-7-7; named for the poems inscribed on the Buddha's footprints at Yakushi-ji in Nara), four "kanshi" (Chinese poems), and 22 Chinese prose passages. Unlike later collections, such as the "Kokin Wakashū", there is no preface.
The "Man'yōshū" is widely regarded as being a particularly unique Japanese work. This does not mean that the poems and passages of the collection differed starkly from the scholarly standard (in Yakamochi's time) of Chinese literature and poetics. Certainly many entries of the "Man'yōshū" have a continental tone, earlier poems having Confucian or Taoist themes and later poems reflecting on Buddhist teachings. Yet, the "Man'yōshū" is singular, even in comparison with later works, in choosing primarily Ancient Japanese themes, extolling "Shintō" virtues of and virility "(masuraoburi)". In addition, the language of many entries of the "Man'yōshū" exerts a powerful sentimental appeal to readers:
[T]his early collection has something of the freshness of dawn. [...] There are irregularities not tolerated later, such as hypometric lines; there are evocative place names and "makurakotoba"; and there are evocative exclamations such as "kamo", whose appeal is genuine even if incommunicable. In other words, the collection contains the appeal of an art at its pristine source with a romantic sense of venerable age and therefore of an ideal order since lost.
The literal translation of the kanji that make up the title "Man'yōshū" (万 — 葉 — 集) is "ten thousand — leaves — collection".
The principal interpretations, according to the twentieth-century scholar , are (i) a book that collects a great many poems, (ii) a book for all generations, and (iii) a poetry collection that uses a large volume of paper.
Of these, supporters of (i) can be further divided into (a) those who interpret the middle character as "words" ("koto no ha", lit. "leaves of speech"), thus giving "ten thousand words", i.e. "many "waka"", including Sengaku, , Kada no Azumamaro and Kamo no Mabuchi, and (b) those who interpret the middle character as literally referring to leaves of a tree, but as a metaphor for poems, including Ueda Akinari, , Masayuki Okada (岡田正之), , and Susumu Nakanishi.
Furthermore, (ii) can be divided into: (a) it was meant to express the intention that the work should last for all time (proposed by Keichū, and supported by , , Yoshio Yamada, and ); (b) it was meant to wish for long life for the emperor and empress (Shinobu Origuchi); and (c) it was meant to indicate that the collection included poems from all ages (proposed by Yamada).
(iii) was proposed by Yūkichi Takeda in his "Man'yōshū Shinkai jō" (萬葉集新解上), but Takeda also accepted (ii); his theory that the title refers to the large volume of paper used in the collection has also not gained much traction among other scholars.
The collection is customarily divided into four periods. The earliest dates to prehistoric or legendary pasts, from the time of Emperor Yūryaku ( – ) to those of the little documented Emperor Yōmei (r. 585–587), Saimei (r. 594–661), and finally Tenji (r. 668–671) during the Taika Reforms and the time of Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669). The second period covers the end of the seventh century, coinciding with the popularity of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, one of Japan's greatest poets. The third period spans 700 – and covers the works of such poets as Yamabe no Akahito, Ōtomo no Tabito and Yamanoue no Okura. The fourth period spans 730–760 and includes the work of the last great poet of this collection, the compiler Ōtomo no Yakamochi himself, who not only wrote many original poems but also edited, updated and refashioned an unknown number of ancient poems.
The vast majority of the poems of the "Man'yōshū" were composed over a period of roughly a century, with scholars assigning the major poets of the collection to one or another of the four "periods" discussed above. Princess Nukata's poetry is included in that of the first period (645–672), while the second period (673–701) is represented by the poetry of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, generally regarded as the greatest of "Man'yōshū" poets and one of the most important poets in Japanese history. The third period (702–729) includes the poems of Takechi no Kurohito, whom Donald Keene called "[t]he only new poet of importance" of the early part of this period, when Fujiwara no Fuhito promoted the composition of "kanshi" (poetry in classical Chinese). Other "third period" poets include: Yamabe no Akahito, a poet who was once paired with Hitomaro but whose reputation has suffered in modern times; Takahashi no Mushimaro, one of the last great "chōka" poets, who recorded a number of Japanese legends such as that of Ura no Shimako; and Kasa no Kanamura, a high-ranking courtier who also composed "chōka" but not as well as Hitomaro or Mushimaro. But the most prominent and important poets of the third period were Ōtomo no Tabito, Yakamochi's father and the head of a poetic circle in the Dazaifu, and Tabito's friend Yamanoue no Okura, possibly an immigrant from the Korean kingdom of Paekche, whose poetry is highly idiosyncratic in both its language and subject matter and has been highly praised in modern times. Yakamochi himself was a poet of the fourth period (730–759), and according to Keene he "dominated" this period. He composed the last dated poem of the anthology in 759.
In addition to its artistic merits the "Man'yōshū" is important for using one of the earliest Japanese writing systems, the cumbersome "man'yōgana". Though it was not the first use of this writing system, which was also used in the earlier "Kojiki" (712), it was influential enough to give the writing system its name: "the kana of the "Man'yōshū"". This system uses Chinese characters in a variety of functions: their usual logographic sense; to represent Japanese syllables phonetically; and sometimes in a combination of these functions. The use of Chinese characters to represent Japanese syllables was in fact the genesis of the modern syllabic kana writing systems, being simplified forms ("hiragana") or fragments ("katakana") of the "man'yōgana".
The collection, particularly volumes 14 and 20, is also highly valued by historical linguists for the information it provides on early Old Japanese dialects.
Julius Klaproth produced some early, severely flawed translations of "Man'yōshū" poetry. Donald Keene explained in a preface to the Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkō Kai edition of the "Man'yōshū:"
In 1940, Columbia University Press published a translation created by a committee of Japanese scholars and revised by the English poet, Ralph Hodgson. This translation was accepted in the Japanese Translation Series of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In premodern Japan, officials used wooden slips or tablets of various sizes, known as "mokkan", for recording memoranda, simple correspondence, and official dispatches. Three "mokkan" that have been excavated contain text from the "Man'yōshū". A "mokkan" excavated from an archaeological site in Kizugawa, Kyoto, contains the first 11 characters of poem 2205 in volume 10, written in Man'yōgana. It is dated between 750 and 780, and its size is . Inspection with an infrared camera revealed other characters, suggesting that the "mokkan" was used for writing practice. Another "mokkan", excavated in 1997 from the Miyamachi archaeological site in Kōka, Shiga, contains poem 3807 in volume 16. It is dated to the middle of the 8th century, and is 2 cm wide by 1 mm thick. Lastly, a "mokkan" excavated at the Ishigami archaeological site in Asuka, Nara, contains the first 14 characters of poem 1391, in volume 7, written in "Man'yōgana". Its size is , and it is dated to the late 7th century, making it the oldest of the three.
More than 150 species of grasses and trees are mentioned in approximately 1,500 entries of the "Man'yōshū". A is a botanical garden that attempts to contain every species and variety of plant mentioned in the anthology. There are dozens of these gardens around Japan. The first "Man'yō shokubutsu-en" opened in Kasuga Shrine in 1932.
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Mieszko II Lambert
Mieszko II Lambert (; c. 990 – 10/11 May 1034) was King of Poland from 1025–1031, and Duke from 1032 until his death.
He was the second son of Bolesław I the Brave, but the eldest born from his third wife Emnilda of Lusatia. He was probably named after his paternal grandfather, Mieszko I. His second name, Lambert, sometimes erroneously considered to be a nickname, was given to him as a reference to Saint Lambert. Also, it is probable that this name Lambert was chosen after Bolesław's half-brother Lambert. It is thought that the choice of this name for his son was an expression of warming relations between Bolesław I and his stepmother Oda.
He organized two devastating invasions of Saxony in 1028 and 1030. Then, Mieszko II ran a defensive war against Germany, Bohemia and the Kievan princes. Mieszko II was forced to escape from the country in 1031 after an attack by Yaroslav I the Wise, who installed Mieszko's older half-brother Bezprym onto the Polish throne. Mieszko II took refuge in Bohemia, where he was imprisoned by the Duke Oldrich. In 1032 he regained power in one of the three districts, then united the country, making good use of the remaining power structures. At this time, several Polish territorial acquisitions of his father were lost: Upper Lusatia (also known as "Milsko"), part of Lower Lusatia, Red Ruthenia, the western and central parts of Upper Hungary (now Slovakia), and probably Moravia.
Mieszko II was very well educated for the period. He was able to read and write, and knew both Greek and Latin. He is unjustly known as Mieszko II "Gnuśny" (the "Lazy," "Stagnant" or "Slothful"). He received that epithet due to the unfortunate way his reign ended; but in the beginning he acted as a skillful and talented ruler.
Mieszko was a son of King Bolesław the Brave. Since Mieszko II was politically active before his father's death, Bolesław appointed him as his successor. He participated mainly in German politics, both as a representative of his father and the commander of the Polish troops.
In 1013, Mieszko II went to Magdeburg, where he paid homage to Emperor Henry II. A few months later, Bolesław I paid homage in person. The real purpose of Mieszko II's visit is unclear, especially since soon afterwards, his father paid homage to the Holy Roman Empire. Presumably, the young prince paid homage to Milsko, Lusatia and Moravia. The relevant treaty stipulated that it was only a personal tribute, not entailing any legal obligations. Another hypothesis assumes that the territories were transferred by Bolesław to him, and as a result made Mieszko II a vassal of the Empire.
The position of the young prince, at both the Polish and Imperial courts, became stronger in 1013 when he married Richeza, daughter of Count Palatine Ezzo of Lotharingia and niece of Emperor Otto III. Ezzo was a prince of considerable influence as a great leader of the opposition against Henry II. Through marriage with his daughter, Mieszko II entered the circle of the Imperial family and became a person equal to, if not higher than the Emperor himself. Probably after the wedding, and in accordance with prevailing custom, Bolesław I the Brave gave a separate district to Mieszko II to rule: Kraków. One of his towns, Wawel (now part of the city), was chosen by the prince as his residence.
In the year 1014, Mieszko II was sent by his father to Bohemia as an emissary. He had to persuade Duke Oldřich to make an alliance against Emperor Henry II. The mission failed as Oldřich imprisoned Mieszko II. He was released only after the intervention of the Emperor, who, despite the planned betrayal of Bolesław I, loyally acted on behalf of his vassal. As a result, Mieszko II was sent to the Imperial court in Merseburg as a hostage. Henry II probably wanted to force the presence of Bolesław I in Merseburg and make him explain his actions. The plan failed however, because, under pressure from his relatives, the Emperor soon agreed to release Mieszko II.
A year later, Mieszko II stood at the head of Polish troops in the next war against the Emperor. The campaign was not favorable to Henry. His army needed over a month to reach the line of the Oder River, and once there, his troops encountered strong resistance led by Mieszko II and his father. Henry II sent a delegation to the Polish rulers, in an effort to induce them to conclude a peace settlement. Mieszko II refused, and after the Emperor's failure to defeat his troops in battle, Henry decided to begin retreating to Dziadoszyce. The Polish prince went in pursuit, and inflicted heavy losses on the German army. When the Polish army advanced to Meissen, Mieszko II unsuccessfully tried to besiege the castle of his brother-in-law, Margrave Herman I (husband of his sister Regelinda). The fighting stopped in autumn and was resumed only in 1017 after the failure of peace talks. Imperial forces bypassed the main defensive site near Krosno Odrzańskie and besieged Niemcza. At the same time, at the head of ten legions, Mieszko II went to Moravia and planned an allied attack together with Bohemia against the Emperor. This action forced the Emperor to give up on any plan of a frontal attack. A year later, the Peace of Bautzen (30 January 1018) was concluded, with terms extremely favorable to the Polish side.
Beginning in 1028, Mieszko II successfully waged war against the Holy Roman Empire. He was able to repel its invading army, and later even invaded Saxony. He allied Poland with Hungary, resulting in a temporary Hungarian occupation of Vienna. This war was probably prompted by family connections of Mieszko II's in Germany who opposed Emperor Conrad II.
Due to the death of Thietmar of Merseburg, the principal chronicler of that period, there is little information about Mieszko II's life from 1018 until 1025, when he finally took over the government of Poland. Only Gallus Anonymus mentions the then Prince on the occasion of the description of his father's trip to Rus in 1018: "due to the fact that his son (...) Mieszko wasn't considered yet capable of taking the government by himself, he established a regent among his family during his trip to Rus". This statement was probably the result of the complete ignorance of the chronicler, since in 1018, Mieszko II was 28 years old and was already fully able to exercise power by himself.
King Bolesław died on 17 June 1025. Six months later, on Christmas Day, Mieszko II Lambert was crowned king of Poland by the archbishop of Gniezno, Hipolit, in the Gniezno Cathedral. Contemporary German chroniclers considered this to be an abuse of power on the part of the Archbishop, which was made necessary by the existing political situation. After his father's death, Mieszko II inherited a vast territory, which in addition to Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Silesia and Gdansk Pomerania, also included Lusatia, Red Ruthenia and the territory of present-day Slovakia. Whether Moravia was still under his reign or was lost earlier is disputed. Once his solo reign had begun, as an important Central European ruler, he was now very important to the Holy Roman Empire.
Later developments during his reign had their source in dynastic and familial issues. His older half-brother Bezprym was the son of the Hungarian princess Judith, Bolesław's second wife. Mieszko II also had a younger full-brother, Otto. According to Slavonic custom, a father was expected to divide his legacy among all his sons. However, since Bolesław I did not wish to break up the kingdom, Mieszko II's brothers received nothing from their father's legacy.
As Bezprym was the oldest son, there were some who felt that he should have succeeded his father as king. Bezprym had, however, always been disliked by his father, as indicated by his name (the Piasts tended to give names such as "Bolesław", "Mieszko" and later "Kazimierz", "Władysław" and emperors' names, such as "Otto", "Konrad" (Conrad), and "Henryk" (Heinrich). "Bezprym" was rather a commoner's name, which implied that Bolesław did not wish Bezprym to succeed him). For that reason, Bezprym was sent to a monastery.
According to some chroniclers, Mieszko II expelled his two brothers from the country. Otto took refuge in Germany and Bezprym escaped to the Kievan Rus.
In 1026, King Conrad II of Germany went to Italy for his Imperial coronation. His absence increased the activity of the opposition centered around Dukes Ernest II of Swabia and Frederick II of Upper Lorraine. Conrad II's opponents conspired to acquire Mieszko's favor. Historical evidence of these efforts is in the prayer book sent to Mieszko by Frederick's wife, Matilda of Swabia, around 1027. The volume is entitled: . In it, a miniature showed the Duchess presenting the Book to Mieszko II while sitting on a throne. The gift was accompanied by a letter, wherein Matilda named him a distinguished king and a model for the spread of Christianity. Also written was praise of the merits of Mieszko II in the building of new churches, as well his knowledge of Latin, very unusual in those times when Greek was more widely used. In this book are found the earliest records of the Kingdom of Poland: neumes at the margins of the sequence "Ad célèbres rex celica". The gift caused the expected effect, and Mieszko II promised to take military action. The preparations for the war began in the autumn of 1027. In the middle of that year, Conrad II returned to Germany and began to fight the rebels. Soon, he defeated Duke Ernest II, depriving him of his lands. Only when the rebel fight was nearly lost did Mieszko II arrive to their aid. In 1028, Polish troops invaded Saxony and took a number of prisoners. The devastation was so great that, according to Saxon sources: "where Mieszko II's troops put their feet grass never thence grew". The Emperor accused the Polish ruler of an illegal coronation as King and declared him a usurper. This invasion involved the lands of the Lutici tribe. In October 1028, the Emperor's opportunity came as the Lutici district of Pöhlde asked the Emperor to defend against the attacks of Mieszko II, promising support in the fight against the Polish ruler.
Despite the treaty which secured peace between Poland and Germany, the Emperor soon armed a retaliatory expedition against Mieszko II. Conrad II's army arrived to Lusatia in the autumn of 1029 and began the siege of Bautzen; but the German troops did not receive the promised support of the Lutici tribe and the expedition failed. Threatened by the Hungarians, the Emperor was forced to retreat.
Probably in this same year, the son of Oldřich, Bretislaus I, attacked and took Moravia.
In 1030, Mieszko II secured an alliance with Hungary and once again invaded Saxony. In the meanwhile, his southern ally attacked Bavaria and temporarily occupied Vienna.
In response, the Emperor organized another expedition against the Polish king, this time by organizing a coalition against Mieszko II. Already in 1030, Yaroslav I the Wise began the offensive and conquered Red Ruthenia and some Bełz castles.
In 1031, the Emperor concluded a peace with the Kingdom of Hungary. Probably in exchange for his support, Conrad II gave to King Stephen I the territories between the Leitha and Fischa Rivers, ceding them to Hungary. Now that the Emperor was less concerned about an attack from the south, in the autumn of 1031, he went on the offensive against Poland and besieged Milsko. The offensive ended with a complete success, and Mieszko II was forced to surrender some lands. As a result, the Polish King lost portions of the lands taken by his father, who warred often against Emperor Henry II.
Historians estimate that the reason for the rapid capitulation of Mieszko II was the bad internal situation in the country. Bolesław left an unstable kingdom to his son, who had to defend his autonomy and position amongst neighboring rulers. Also, the cost of Mieszko II's extensive war against Emperor Conrad II caused his popularity to decline among his subjects, despite the fact that during the invasion of Saxony the King only defended their territory. Furthermore, the final loss of the war against the Holy Roman Empire weakened the position of the King, who had to face several rebellions from the opposition, who claimed that the previous war did not produce the expected benefits. An additional problem was a dynastic crisis: Mieszko II's brothers continued their attempts to gain power with the help of foreign forces.
The brother who caused the first problems to Mieszko II was most likely Bezprym, who allegedly won the alliance of Kiev in order to take power with the support of Otto. When Mieszko II was busy defending Lusatia from the troops of Conrad II, the Kievan expedition came from the east with Yaroslav I the Wise as the leader. In 1031, Poland was invaded and then Bezprym was settled on the throne. Mieszko II and his family were forced to flee the country. Queen Richeza and her children found refuge in Germany. The King could not escape to Hungary because, during his travel, he was stopped by Rus' troops. King Stephen I of Hungary was not favorable to accepting him in his country. Without alternatives, Mieszko II went to Bohemia. Duke Oldřich once again imprisoned him. This time, the King could not count on Imperial support. Mieszko II was not only imprisoned but also castrated, which was to be a punishment to Bolesław I the Brave, who blinded Duke Boleslaus III the Red (Oldřich's brother) thirty years before. Mieszko II and his wife never reunited again; according to some sources, they were either officially divorced, or only separated.
Bezprym probably made bloody persecutions against the followers of Mieszko II. At the time, power was exercised in the face of mutiny by the people, an event known as the "Pagan Reaction". Having degraded the structure of power, the Duke's authority collapsed, and he was forced to send the Polish regalia to the Emperor. After only one year of reign, Bezprym was murdered (1032), probably at the instigation of his brothers.
After the death of Bezprym, the Polish throne remained vacant. Mieszko II was still imprisoned in Bohemia and Otto probably in Germany. German sources report that the Emperor organized an expedition in order to invade Poland. It is unknown what happened after this, but certainly Mieszko II was released by Duke Oldřich and he could return to the country. After his recent opponent had regained power, the Emperor immediately reacted and began the preparations for the expedition against Poland. Mieszko II was not prepared for the confrontation, so he used his influence in the German court in order to resolve the conflict.
On 7 July 1032, in Merseburg, a meeting took place between Conrad II and the surviving heirs of the Piast dynasty. Without alternatives, Mieszko II was forced to surrender the crown and agreed to the division of Poland between him and the other two competitors: his brother Otto and a certain Dytryk () —his cousin, grandson of Duke Mieszko I and his third wife, Oda von Haldensleben. Mieszko II probably received Lesser Poland and Masovia, Otto obtained Silesia, and Dytryk took Greater Poland. According to another hypothesis, Mieszko II received Greater Poland, and other neighborhoods were given to Otto and Dytryk. Although the distribution was uncertain, this division was short-lived: in 1033, Otto was killed by one of his own men, and Mieszko II took his domains. Shortly afterwards, he likely had Dytryk expelled and thus was able to reunite the whole country in his hands. Mieszko II regained full power, but he still had to fight against the nobility and his own subjects. In Poland, his renunciation of the crown was disregarded, and after 1032, he was still called king in the chronicles.
Mieszko II died suddenly on either 10 or 11 May 1034, probably in Poznań. The Polish chronicles clearly stated that he died of natural causes; the information given by the chronicles of Gottfried of Viterbo that he was murdered by the sword-bearer (Miecznik) refers in fact to Bezprym. However, historians now think that he was killed in a plot hatched by the aristocracy. He was buried in the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul.
After Mieszko II's death, Poland's peasants revolted in a "pagan reaction." The exact reasons and date are unknown. Mieszko II's only son and heir, Casimir I, was either expelled by this insurrection, or the insurrection was caused by the aristocracy's expulsion of him. Some modern historians argue that the insurrection was caused more by economic than by religious issues, such as new taxes for the Church and the militarization of the early Polish polity. Priests, monks and knights were killed; cities, churches and monasteries were burned. The chaos became still greater when, unexpectedly, the Czechs invaded Silesia and Greater Poland from the south (1039). The land became divided among local rulers, one of whom is known by name: Miecław, ruler of Masovia. Greater Poland was so devastated that it ceased to be the core of the Polish Kingdom. The capital was moved to Kraków, in Lesser Poland.
In Merseburg ca. 1013, Mieszko II married with Richeza (b. bef. 1000 – d. Saalfeld, 21 March 1063), daughter of Count Palatine Ezzo of Lotharingia. They had at least three children, possibly four:
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Mieszko I of Poland
Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was the ruler of Poland from about 960 until his death in 992 AD. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was a son of Siemomysł, and a grandson of Lestek. He was the father of Bolesław I the Brave (the first crowned king of Poland) and of Gunhild of Wenden. Most sources make Mieszko I the father of Sigrid the Haughty, a Scandinavian queen, though one source identifies her father as Skoglar Toste, and the grandfather of Canute the Great (Gundhild's son), and the great-grandfather of Gunhilda of Denmark, Canute the Great's daughter and wife of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor.
While he was the first Christian ruler of Poland, he continued the policies of both his father and grandfather, who initiated the process of creation of the Polish state. Through both alliances and the use of military force, Mieszko extended ongoing Polish conquests and early in his reign subjugated Kuyavia and probably Gdańsk Pomerania and Masovia. For most of his reign, Mieszko I was involved in warfare for the control of Western Pomerania, eventually conquering it up to the vicinity of the lower Oder river. During the last years of his life, he fought the Bohemian state, winning Silesia and probably Lesser Poland.
Mieszko I's alliance with the Czech prince, Boleslaus I the Cruel, strengthened by his marriage in 965 to the Czech Přemyslid princess Dobrawa, and his baptism in 966 put him and his country in the cultural sphere of Western Christianity. Apart from the great conquests accomplished during his reign (which proved to be fundamental for the future of Poland) Mieszko I was renowned for his internal reforms, aimed at expanding and improving the so-called war monarchy system.
According to existing sources, Mieszko I was a wise politician, a talented military leader, and a charismatic ruler. He successfully used diplomacy, concluding alliances, first with Bohemia, then Sweden, and the Holy Roman Empire. In foreign policy, he placed the interests of his country foremost, even entering into agreements with his former enemies. On his death, he left to his sons a country with greatly expanded territories, and a well-established position in Europe.
Mieszko I also enigmatically appeared as "Dagome" in a papal document dating to about 1085, called "Dagome iudex", which mentions a gift or dedication of Mieszko's land to the Pope (the act took place almost a hundred years earlier).
It is roughly his borders that Poland was returned to in 1945.
There is no certain information on Mieszko I's life before he took control over his lands. Only the "Lesser Poland Chronicle" gives the date of his birth as somewhere between the years 920–931 (depending on the version of the manuscript), however, modern researchers do not recognize the Chronicle as a reliable source. Several historians on the basis of their investigations postulated the date of Mieszko I's birth to have been between 922–945; the activity of the Duke in his final years of life puts the date of his birth closer to the latter year.
Mieszko's name has traditionally been thought to be a diminutive of Mieczysław but this is refuted by the majority of modern historians. According to a legend first described by Gallus Anonymus, Mieszko was blind during his first seven years of life. This typical medieval allegory referred to his paganism rather than an actual disability. Another name of Mieszko, Dagome, appears in "Dagome iudex". It may have been a corruption of the name Dagomer or Dagomir.
Mieszko I took over the tribal rule after his father's death ca. 950–960, probably closer to the latter date. Due to the lack of sources it is not possible to determine exactly which lands he inherited. Certainly among them were the areas inhabited by the Polans and Goplans, as well as the Sieradz-Łęczyca lands and Kuyavia. It is possible that this state included also Masovia and Gdańsk Pomerania. Soon the new ruler had faced the task of integrating the relatively large, ethnically and culturally heterogeneous territory. Although the residents of areas controlled by Mieszko spoke mostly one language, had similar beliefs and reached a similar level of economic and general development, they were socially connected primarily by tribal structures. It appears that the elders cooperating with the Duke first felt the need for super-tribal unity, as expansion allowed them to broaden their influence.
Mieszko and his people were described around 966 by Abraham ben Jacob, a Sephardi Jewish traveller, who at that time visited the Prague court of Duke Boleslav I the Cruel. Abraham presented Mieszko I as one of the four Slavic "kings", reigning over a vast "northern" area, with a highly regarded and substantial military force at his disposal. More precise contemporary records regarding Mieszko were compiled by Widukind of Corvey, and half a century later, by Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg.
By the time Mieszko I took over from his father, the Polans' tribal federation of Greater Poland had for some time been actively expanding. Continuing this process, perhaps in the first years of Mieszko's reign, if it had not been done already by his father, Mieszko I conquered Masovia. Likely also during that period or earlier, at least partially Gdańsk Pomerania was obtained. Mieszko's interests were then concentrated mainly on areas occupied by the eastern (near the Oder River) branches of the Polabian Slavs; some of them became soon subordinated by him. As Widukind of Corvey wrote, Mieszko ruled over the tribe called the "Licicaviki", now commonly identified with the Polabian Lubusz Land. Having the control over those more western (in respect to the original homeland of the Polans) tribes, Mieszko had entered the German sphere of influence.
In 963 Margrave Gero of Meissen conquered territories occupied by the Polabian Lusatian and Słupian tribes, and as a result came into direct contact with the Polish state. At the same time (about 960) Mieszko I began his expansion against the Velunzani and Lutici tribes. The war was recorded by the chronicler Abraham ben Jacob. According to him, Mieszko I had fought against the Weltaba tribe, commonly identified with the Veleti. Wichmann the Younger, a Saxon nobleman who was then a leader of a band of Polabian Slavs, defeated Mieszko twice, and around 963 a brother of Mieszko, whose name is unknown, was killed in the fighting. The frontiers at the mouth of the Oder River were also desired by the German margraves. In addition, the Veleti Bohemia, which at that time possessed Silesia and Lesser Poland regions, constituted a danger for the young state of the Polans.
The chronicle of Thietmar poses some problems of interpretation of the information regarding the attack of Margrave Gero on the Slavic tribes, as a result of which he purportedly "subordinated to the authority of the Emperor Lusatia and the Selpuli" (meaning the Słupian tribes) "and also Mieszko with his subjects". According to the majority of modern historians, Thietmar made an error summarizing the chronicle of Widukind, placing the Gero raid there instead of the fighting that Mieszko conducted at that time against Wichmann the Younger. Other sources make no mention of such conquest and of putting the Polans state on the same footing with the Polabian Slavs. On the other hand, the supporters of the Gero's invasion theory believe that the Margrave did actually carry out a successful invasion, as a result of which Mieszko I was forced to pay tribute to the Emperor and also was compelled to adopt Catholicism through the German Church. The thesis that proposes the introduction of Catholicism as a result of this war finds no confirmation in German sources.
The homage is then a separate issue, since, according to the chronicle of Thietmar, Mieszko actually paid tribute to the Emperor from the lands "usque in Vurta fluvium" (up to the Warta River). In all probability Mieszko decided to pay tribute in order to avoid an invasion similar to the one that Lusatia had suffered. This homage would take place in 965, or in 966 at the latest. Very likely the tribute applied only to the Lubusz land, which was in the German sphere of influence. This understanding of the tribute issue explains why already in 967 Mieszko I was described in the Saxon chronicles as the Emperor's friend (or ally, supporter, Latin: "amicus imperatoris").
Probably in 964 Mieszko began negotiations with the Bohemian ruler Boleslav I the Cruel. As a result, in 965 Mieszko I married his daughter Dobrawa (also named "Dobrava", "Doubravka" or "Dąbrówka"). This political Polish-Bohemian alliance is likely to have been initiated by the Polish ruler. It is probable that the marriage was officially arranged in February 965.
The next step was the baptism of Mieszko. There are different hypotheses concerning this event. Most often it is assumed that it was a political decision, intended to bring Mieszko's state closer to the Czechs and to facilitate his activities in the Polabian Slavs area. At the same time, the baptism decreased the likelihood of future attacks by German margraves and deprived them of the opportunity to attempt Christianization of Mieszko's lands by force. An additional reason could be Mieszko's desire to remove from power the influential pagan priest class, who may have been blocking his efforts to establish a more centralized rule.
A different hypothesis is linked with the above-mentioned acceptance of the veracity of Gero's invasion of Poland. According to it, it was the attack of the Margrave that forced the Catholicization, which was to be an act of subordination to the Emperor, done without the mediation of the Pope.
Still other motives were responsible according to Gallus Anonymus, who claimed that it was Dobrawa who convinced her husband to change his religion. Likewise chronicler Thietmar attributes Mieszko's conversion to Dobrawa's influence. There are no reasons to negate Dobrawa's role in Mieszko's acceptance of Roman Catholicism; however crediting rulers' wives with positive influence over their husbands' actions was a common convention at that time.
It is generally recognized that the baptism of Mieszko I took place in 966. The place is unknown; it could have had happened in any of the cities of the Empire (possibly Regensburg), but also in one of the Polish towns like Gniezno or Ostrów Lednicki. The belief that the baptism was accomplished through the Czechs in order to avoid the dependence on Germany and the German Church is incorrect, because Bohemia would not have its own church organization until 973. At the time of the baptism of Mieszko the existing Bohemian church establishment was a part of the Regensburg diocese. Thus, if the Polish ruler accepted the baptism through Prague's mediation, it had to be sanctioned in Regensburg. However, the religious vocabulary (words like baptism, sermon, prayer, church, apostle, bishop or confirmation) were adopted from the Czech language and had to come from Dobrawa's entourage and the church elements that arrived with her. Perhaps with her also came the first Polish bishop, Jordan. It could be that the reason for the Czech preference of Mieszko was the existence in Bohemia of a mission which followed the precepts of the Byzantine Greek brothers and later saints Cyril and Methodius, who developed and performed the liturgy in the Slavic rite, more readily understood by Mieszko and his subjects. The Slavic rite church branch had survived in Bohemia for another hundred years after Mieszko's baptism.
After the normalization of relations with the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia, Mieszko I returned to his plans of conquest of the western part of Pomerania. On 21 September 967 the Polish-Bohemian troops prevailed in the decisive battle against the Wolinians led by Wichmann the Younger, which gave Mieszko the control over the mouth of the Odra River. The German margraves had not opposed Mieszko's activities in Pomerania, perhaps even supported them; the death of the rebellious Wichmann, who succumbed to his wounds soon after the battle, may have been in line with their interests. A telling incident took place after the battle, a testimony to Mieszko's high standing among the Empire's dignitaries, just one year after his baptism: Widukind of Corvey reported that the dying Wichmann asked Mieszko to hand over Wichmann's weapons to Emperor Otto I, to whom Wichmann was related. For Mieszko the victory had to be a satisfying experience, especially in light of his past defeats inflicted by Wichmann.
The exact result of Mieszko's fighting in the west of Pomerania is not known. Subsequent loss of the region by Mieszko's son Bolesław suggests that the conquest was difficult and the hold over that territory rather tenuous. In one version of the legend of St. Wojciech it is written that Mieszko I had his daughter married to a Pomeranian prince, who previously voluntarily "was washed with the holy water of the baptism" in Poland. The above information, as well as the fact that Bolesław lost Western Pomerania, suggest that the region was not truly incorporated into the Polish state, but only became a fief. This conjecture seems to be confirmed in the introduction of the first volume of the chronicles of Gallus Anonymus concerning the Pomeranians: "Although often the leaders of the forces defeated by the Polish duke sought salvation in baptism, as soon as they regained their strength, they repudiated the 'Christian' (that is, Roman Catholic) faith and started the war against Christian anew".
In 972 Poland suffered the attack of Odo I, Margrave of the Saxon Ostmark. According to the chronicles of Thietmar, this attack was an arbitrary action, without the consent of the Emperor:
There are different hypotheses concerning the reasons for this invasion. Possibly Margrave Odo wanted to stop the growing power of the Polish state. Very likely Odo wanted to protect the Wolinian state, which he considered his zone of influence, from the Polish take-over. Possibly the Wolinians themselves called the Margrave and asked his help. In any event, Odo's forces moved in and on 24 June 972 twice engaged Mieszko's army at the village of "Cidini", commonly identified with Cedynia. At first, the Margrave defeated Mieszko's forces; subsequently the Duke's brother Czcibor defeated the Germans in the decisive stage, inflicting great losses among their troops. It may be that Mieszko intentionally staged the retreat, which was followed by a surprise attack on the flank of the German pursuing troops. After this battle, Mieszko and Odo were called to the Imperial Diet in Quedlinburg in 973 to explain and justify their conduct. The exact judgment of the Emperor is unknown, but it's certain that the sentence wasn't carried out because he died a few weeks after the Diet. It is commonly assumed that the sentence was unfavorable to the Polish ruler. The "Annals of Altaich" indicates that Mieszko was not present in Quedlinburg during the gathering; instead, he had to send his son Bolesław as a hostage.
Mieszko's conflict with Odo I was a surprising event because, according to Thietmar, Mieszko respected the Margrave highly. Thietmar wrote the following:
It is believed that in practical terms the victory at Cedynia sealed Western Pomerania's fate as Mieszko' dependency.
According to archaeological research, during the 970s the Sandomierz region and the Przemyśl area inhabited by the Lendians became incorporated into the Polish state. None of it is certain for the lack of written sources. It is possible that especially the Przemyśl area, inhabited by the Lendians and the White Croats, belonged at that time to Bohemia, which supposedly extended up to the Bug River and Styr River. The Primary Chronicle states that in 981 Vladimir of the Rurik Dynasty "went towards the Lachy and took their towns: Przemyśl, Czerwień and other strongholds (...)". The exact interpretation of this passage is uncertain, because the Ruthenian word "Lachy" meant both the Poles in general and the southeastern Lendians tribe. Mieszko's conquest of Sandomierz could also have taken place later, together with the take-over of the Vistulans (western and central Lesser Poland).
Some historians suggest that the regions of Sandomierz, Lublin and Czerwień (western Red Ruthenia) were indeed annexed by Mieszko's state in the 970s, as lands valuable for trade reasons and as a starting point for a future attack against what was to become Lesser Poland, then in the hands of Bohemia. Sandomierz under this scenario was the central hub of the area, with Czerwień, Przemyśl and Chełm assuming the function of defensive borderland strongholds.
After the death of Emperor Otto I in 973 Mieszko, like his brother-in-law, Duke Boleslav II of Bohemia, joined the German opposition in support of the attempted imperial succession of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria. Mieszko may have been motivated by revenge because of the (presumably) negative verdict of the Quedlinburg summit, but, more importantly, he may have wanted more favorable terms for his cooperation with Germany. The participation of Mieszko in the conspiracy against Otto II was documented in only one source, the chronicles of the monastery in Altaich in its entry for the year 974. The Duke of Bavaria was defeated, and Emperor Otto II regained full power. Shortly afterwards, the young emperor waged a retaliatory expedition against Bohemia, in 978 forcing Duke Boleslav into submission.
In 977 Mieszko's wife, Dobrawa, died. At first there were no apparent repercussions, as the Polish ruler had maintained his alliance with Bohemia.
In 979 Otto II supposedly attacked Poland. Mention of this event can be found in the "Chronicle of the Bishops of Cambrai" from the 11th century. The effects of this expedition are unknown, but it is suspected that the Emperor did not succeed. Due to bad weather, the Emperor was back at the border of Thuringia and Saxony in December of that year. It is uncertain whether the invasion actually took place. The chronicle only stated that it was an expedition "against the Slavs". Archaeological discoveries appear to support the thesis of Otto II's invasion. In the last quarter of the 10th century there had been a radical expansion of the fortifications at Gniezno and Ostrów Lednicki, which may be associated with the Polish-German war, or the expectation of such. The duration of the expedition suggests that it may have reached as far east as the vicinity of Poznań.
The Polish-German agreement was concluded in the spring or possibly summer of 980, because in November of that year Otto II left his country and went to Italy. It appears that during this time Mieszko I married Oda, daughter of Dietrich of Haldensleben, Margrave of the Northern March, after abducting her from the monastery of Kalbe. Chronicler Thietmar described the event as follows:
Although Thietmar made no mention of warfare that possibly took place on this occasion, the information on the return of the accord, acting for the good of the country and release of prisoners indicate that a conflict actually did occur.
The marriage with Oda considerably affected the position and prestige of Mieszko, who entered the world of Saxon aristocracy. As a son-in-law of Margrave Dietrich, he gained an ally in one of the most influential politicians of the Holy Roman Empire. As the Margrave was a distant relative of the Emperor, Mieszko became a member of the circle connected to the imperial ruling house.
Probably in the early 980s Mieszko allied his country with Sweden against Denmark. The alliance was sealed with the marriage of Mieszko's daughter Świętosława with the Swedish king Erik. The content of the treaty is known from the not entirely reliable, but originating directly from the Danish court tradition account given by Adam of Bremen. In this text, probably as a result of confusion, he gives instead of Mieszko's name the name of his son Bolesław:
Mieszko decided on the alliance with Sweden probably in order to help protect his possessions in Pomerania from the Danish King Harald Bluetooth and his son Sweyn. They may have acted in cooperation with the Wolinian autonomous entity. The Danish were defeated ca. 991 and their ruler was expelled. The dynastic alliance with Sweden had probably affected the equipment and composition of Mieszko's troops. Perhaps at that time the Varangian warriors were recruited; their presence is indicated by archaeological excavations in the vicinity of Poznań.
In 982 Emperor Otto II suffered a disastrous defeat against the Emirate of Sicily. The resulting weakness of the imperial power was exploited by the Lutici, who initiated a great uprising of the Polabian Slavs in 983. The German authority in the area ceased to exist and the Polabian tribes began to threaten the Empire. The death of Otto II at the end of that year contributed further to the unrest. Ultimately the Lutici and the Obotrites were able to liberate themselves from the German rule for the next two centuries.
The Emperor left a minor successor, Otto III. The right to care for him and the regency powers were claimed by Henry II of Bavaria. Like in 973, Mieszko and the Czech duke Boleslav II took the side of the Bavarian duke. This fact is confirmed in the chronicle of Thietmar:
In 984 the Czechs took over Meissen, but in the same year Henry II gave up his pretension to the German throne.
The role played by Mieszko I in the subsequent struggles is unclear because the contemporary sources are scarce and not in agreement. Probably in 985 the Polish ruler ended his support for the Bavarian duke and moved to the side of the Emperor. It is believed that Mieszko's motivation was the threat posed to his interests by the Polabian Slavs uprising. The upheaval was a problem for both Poland and Germany, but not for Bohemia. In the "Chronicle of Hildesheim", in the entry for the year 985 it is noted that Mieszko came to help the Saxons in their fight against some Slavic forces, presumably the Polabians.
One year later, the Polish ruler had a personal meeting with the Emperor, an event mentioned in the "Annals of Hersfeld":
According to Thietmar and other contemporary chronicles the gift given by Mieszko to the Emperor was a camel. The meeting consolidated the Polish-German alliance, with Mieszko joining Otto's expedition against a Slavic land, which "together they wholly devastated (...) with fire and tremendous depopulation". It is not clear which Slavic territory was invaded. Perhaps another raid against the Polabians took place. But there are indications that it was an expedition against the Czechs, Mieszko's first against his southern neighbors. Possibly on this occasion the Duke of the Polans accomplished the most significant expansion of his state, the take-over of Lesser Poland.
Thietmar's narrative, however, raises doubts as to whether the joined military operation actually happened. The chronicler claims that a settlement was then concluded between the Emperor and the Bohemian ruler Boleslav II the Pious, which is not mentioned in any other source and is contrary to the realities of the political situation at that time.
Another debatable point is Thietmar's claim that Mieszko "subordinated himself to the King". Most historians believe that it was only a matter of recognition of Otto's royal authority. Some suggest that a fealty relationship could in fact be involved.
Whether or not the German-Polish invasion of Bohemia actually happened, the friendly relations between the Czechs and the Poles came to an end. Bohemia resumed its earlier alliance with the Lutici, which caused in 990 a war with Mieszko, who was supported by Empress Theophanu. Duke Boleslav II was probably the first one to attack. As a result of the conflict Silesia was taken over by Poland. However, the annexation of Silesia possibly took place around 985, because during this year the major Piast strongholds in Wrocław, Opole and Głogów were already being built.
The issue of the incorporation of Lesser Poland is also not completely resolved. Possibly Mieszko took the region before 990, which is indicated by the vague remark of Thietmar, who wrote of a country taken by Mieszko from Boleslav. In light of this theory, the conquest of Lesser Poland could be a reason for the war, or its first stage. Many historians suggested that the Czech rule over Lesser Poland was only nominal and likely limited to the indirect control of Kraków and perhaps a few other important centers. This theory is based on the lack of archaeological discoveries, which would indicate major building investments undertaken by the Bohemian state.
Lesser Poland supposedly after its incorporation had become the partition of the country assigned to Mieszko's oldest son, Bolesław, which is indirectly indicated in the chronicle of Thietmar.
Some historians, on the basis of the chronicle of Cosmas of Prague, believe that the conquest of the lands around the lower Vistula River took place after Mieszko's death, specifically in 999. There is also a theory according to which during this transition period Lesser Poland was governed by Bolesław, whose authority was granted to him by the Bohemian duke.
At the end of his life (ca. 991-92), Mieszko I, together with his wife Oda and their sons, issued a document called "Dagome iudex", where the Polish ruler placed his lands under the protection of the pope and described their borders. Only a later imprecise summary of the document has been preserved.
There are two main theories concerning reasons behind the issuing of "Dagome iudex":
"Dagome iudex" is of capital importance for Polish history because it gives a general description of the Polish state's geographical location at the end of Mieszko's reign.
During his last years of life Mieszko remained loyal to the alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. In 991 he arrived at a gathering in Quedlinburg, where he participated in the customary exchange of gifts with Otto III and Empress Theophanu. In the same year he took part in a joint expedition with the young king to Brandenburg.
Mieszko died on 25 May 992. Sources give no reasons to believe that his death occurred from causes other than natural. According to Thietmar the Polish ruler died "in an old age, overcame with fever". Probably he was buried in the Poznań Cathedral. The remains of the first historical ruler of Poland have never been found and the place of his burial is not known with certainty. In 1836–1837 a cenotaph was built for Mieszko I and his successor Bolesław I the Brave in the Golden Chapel () at the Poznań Cathedral, where the damaged remains found in the 14th century tomb of Bolesław were placed.
According to Thietmar Mieszko I divided his state before his death among a number of princes. They were probably his sons: Bolesław I the Brave, Mieszko and Lambert.
In 1999 the archeologist Hanna Kóčka-Krenz located what's left of Mieszko's palace-chapel complex in Poznań.
Mieszko is chiefly credited with the unification of Polish lands. His state was the first state that could be called Poland. He is often considered the founder, the principal creator and builder of the Polish state. His acceptance of Roman Catholicism led to the inclusion of Poland in the mainstream civilization and political structures of Roman Catholic Europe. He sponsored the erection of churches. The Gniezno Cathedral was constructed during Mieszko's rule. It is very likely the Duke also founded the church at Ostrów Tumski and the Poznań Cathedral. Possibly during Mieszko I's reign Poland began minting its own coin, the denarius, though according to S. Suchodolski, the monetary system was installed by Mieszko I's grandson and namesake, Mieszko II Lambert.
At the end of his rule, Mieszko I left to his sons a territory at least twice as large as what he inherited from his father. The most significant were the additions of Silesia, Western Pomerania, and probably Lesser Poland including Kraków. He was the first ruler to conduct efficient foreign policy, which included agreements with Germany, Bohemia and Sweden, and prudently used his military resources.
According to Gallus Anonymus, before becoming a Christian Mieszko had seven pagan wives, whom he was required to relinquish, leaving Dobrawa as his only spouse. Nothing is known of the fates of any possible children from these relationships. In 965, before his baptism, Mieszko married Dobrawa (b. 940/45 – d. 977), daughter of Duke Boleslav I the Cruel of Bohemia. They had two children:
According to one hypothesis there was another daughter of Mieszko, married to a Pomeranian Slavic prince; she could be a daughter of Dobrawa or of one of the previous pagan wives. According to one theory, this unnamed daughter of Mieszko I and her Pomeranian husband were the parents of Zemuzil, Duke of Pomerania. Also, a theory exists (apparently based on Thietmar and supported by Oswald Balzer in 1895) that Vladivoj, who ruled as Duke of Bohemia in 1002–1003, was a son of Mieszko and Dobrawa. Although most modern historians reject this claim, Bohemian historiography supported the Piast parentage of Vladivoj.
In 978/79, Mieszko married Oda of Haldensleben (b. 955/60 – d. 1023), daughter of Dietrich of Haldensleben, Margrave of the Northern March. She was abducted by her future husband from the monastery of Kalbe. They had three sons:
After a struggle for power between Bolesław I and Oda with her minor sons (Bolesław's half-brothers), the eldest son of Mieszko I took control over all of his father's state and expelled his stepmother and her sons from Poland.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20597
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Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, reigned over Scotland from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567.
Mary, the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland, was six days old when her father died and she acceded to the throne. She spent most of her childhood in France while Scotland was ruled by regents, and in 1558, she married the Dauphin of France, Francis. Mary was queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561. Four years later, she married her half-cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and in June 1566 they had a son, James.
In February 1567, Darnley's residence was destroyed by an explosion, and he was found murdered in the garden. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was acquitted of the charge in April 1567, and the following month he married Mary. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. On 24 July 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southward seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Mary had once claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving Mary as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen and a half years in custody, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586, and was beheaded the following year at Fotheringhay Castle.
Mary was born on 8 December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, to King James V and his French second wife, Mary of Guise. She was said to have been born prematurely and was the only legitimate child of James to survive him. She was the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England, as her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor, was Henry VIII's sister. On 14 December, six days after her birth, she became Queen of Scotland when her father died, perhaps from the effects of a nervous collapse following the Battle of Solway Moss or from drinking contaminated water while on campaign.
A popular tale, first recorded by John Knox, states that James, upon hearing on his deathbed that his wife had given birth to a daughter, ruefully exclaimed, "It cam wi' a lass and it will gang wi' a lass!" His House of Stuart had gained the throne of Scotland in the 14th century via the marriage of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce, to Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland. The crown had come to his family through a woman, and would be lost from his family through a woman. This legendary statement came true much later—not through Mary, but through her descendant Anne, Queen of Great Britain.
Mary was christened at the nearby Church of St Michael shortly after she was born. Rumours spread that she was weak and frail, but an English diplomat, Ralph Sadler, saw the infant at Linlithgow Palace in March 1543, unwrapped by her nurse, and wrote, "it is as goodly a child as I have seen of her age, and as like to live."
As Mary was an infant when she inherited the throne, Scotland was ruled by regents until she became an adult. From the outset, there were two claims to the regency: one from the Catholic Cardinal Beaton, and the other from the Protestant Earl of Arran, who was next in line to the throne. Beaton's claim was based on a version of the king's will that his opponents dismissed as a forgery. Arran, with the support of his friends and relations, became the regent until 1554 when Mary's mother managed to remove and succeed him.
King Henry VIII of England took the opportunity of the regency to propose marriage between Mary and his own son and heir, Edward, hoping for a union of Scotland and England. On 1 July 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaty of Greenwich was signed, which promised that, at the age of ten, Mary would marry Edward and move to England, where Henry could oversee her upbringing. The treaty provided that the two countries would remain legally separate and, if the couple should fail to have children, the temporary union would dissolve. Cardinal Beaton rose to power again and began to push a pro-Catholic pro-French agenda, angering Henry, who wanted to break the Scottish alliance with France.
Beaton wanted to move Mary away from the coast to the safety of Stirling Castle. Regent Arran resisted the move, but backed down when Beaton's armed supporters gathered at Linlithgow. The Earl of Lennox escorted Mary and her mother to Stirling on 27 July 1543 with 3,500 armed men. Mary was crowned in the castle chapel on 9 September 1543, with "such solemnity as they do use in this country, which is not very costly", according to the report of Ralph Sadler and Henry Ray.
Shortly before Mary's coronation, Henry arrested Scottish merchants headed for France and impounded their goods. The arrests caused anger in Scotland, and Arran joined Beaton and became a Catholic. The Treaty of Greenwich was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland in December. The rejection of the marriage treaty and the renewal of the alliance between France and Scotland prompted Henry's "Rough Wooing", a military campaign designed to impose the marriage of Mary to his son. English forces mounted a series of raids on Scottish and French territory. In May 1544, the English Earl of Hertford (later Duke of Somerset) raided Edinburgh, and the Scots took Mary to Dunkeld for safety.
In May 1546, Beaton was murdered by Protestant lairds, and on 10 September 1547, nine months after the death of Henry VIII, the Scots suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Pinkie. Mary's guardians, fearful for her safety, sent her to Inchmahome Priory for no more than three weeks, and turned to the French for help.
King Henry II of France proposed to unite France and Scotland by marrying the young queen to his three-year-old son, the Dauphin Francis. On the promise of French military help and a French dukedom for himself, Arran agreed to the marriage. In February 1548, Mary was moved, again for her safety, to Dumbarton Castle. The English left a trail of devastation behind them once more and seized the strategic town of Haddington. In June, the much awaited French help arrived at Leith to besiege and ultimately take Haddington. On 7 July 1548, a Scottish Parliament held at a nunnery near the town agreed to the French marriage treaty.
With her marriage agreement in place, five-year-old Mary was sent to France to spend the next thirteen years at the French court. The French fleet sent by Henry II, commanded by Nicolas de Villegagnon, sailed with Mary from Dumbarton on 7 August 1548 and arrived a week or more later at Roscoff or Saint-Pol-de-Léon in Brittany.
Mary was accompanied by her own court including two illegitimate half-brothers, and the "four Marys" (four girls her own age, all named Mary), who were the daughters of some of the noblest families in Scotland: Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston. Janet, Lady Fleming, who was Mary Fleming's mother and James V's half-sister, was appointed governess. When Lady Fleming left France in 1551, she was succeeded by a French governess, Françoise de Paroy.
Vivacious, beautiful, and clever (according to contemporary accounts), Mary had a promising childhood. At the French court, she was a favourite with everyone, except Henry II's wife Catherine de' Medici. Mary learned to play lute and virginals, was competent in prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry, and needlework, and was taught French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Greek, in addition to speaking her native Scots. Her future sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Valois, became a close friend of whom Mary "retained nostalgic memories in later life". Mary's maternal grandmother, Antoinette de Bourbon, was another strong influence on her childhood and acted as one of her principal advisors.
Portraits of Mary show that she had a small, oval-shaped head, a long, graceful neck, bright auburn hair, hazel-brown eyes, under heavy lowered eyelids and finely arched brows, smooth pale skin, a high forehead, and regular, firm features. She was considered a pretty child and later, as a woman, strikingly attractive. At some point in her infancy or childhood, she caught smallpox, but it did not mark her features.
Mary was eloquent and especially tall, even by modern standards (she attained an adult height of ,) while Henry II's son and heir, Francis, stuttered and was unusually short. Henry commented: "from the very first day they met, my son and she got on as well together as if they had known each other for a long time". On 4 April 1558, Mary signed a secret agreement bequeathing Scotland and her claim to England to the French crown if she died without issue. Twenty days later, she married the Dauphin at Notre Dame de Paris, and he became king consort of Scotland.
In November 1558, Henry VIII's elder daughter, Mary I of England, was succeeded by her only surviving sibling, Elizabeth I. Under the Third Succession Act, passed in 1543 by the Parliament of England, Elizabeth was recognised as her sister's heir, and Henry VIII's last will and testament had excluded the Stuarts from succeeding to the English throne. Yet, in the eyes of many Catholics, Elizabeth was illegitimate and Mary Stuart was the rightful queen of England, as the senior surviving legitimate descendant of Henry VII through her grandmother, Margaret Tudor. Henry II of France proclaimed his eldest son and daughter-in-law king and queen of England. In France the royal arms of England were quartered with those of Francis and Mary. Mary's claim to the English throne was a perennial sticking point between herself and Elizabeth.
When Henry II died on 10 July 1559, from injuries sustained in a joust, fifteen-year-old Francis and sixteen-year-old Mary became king and queen of France. Two of the Queen's uncles, the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine, were now dominant in French politics, enjoying an ascendancy called by some historians "la tyrannie Guisienne".
In Scotland, the power of the Protestant Lords of the Congregation was rising at the expense of Mary's mother, who maintained effective control only through the use of French troops. In early 1560, the Protestant Lords invited English troops into Scotland in an attempt to secure Protestantism. A Huguenot uprising in France, the Tumult of Amboise, made it impossible for the French to send further support. Instead, the Guise brothers sent ambassadors to negotiate a settlement. On 11 June 1560, their sister, Mary's mother, died, and so the question of future Franco-Scots relations was a pressing one. Under the terms of the Treaty of Edinburgh, signed by Mary's representatives on 6 July 1560, France and England undertook to withdraw troops from Scotland. France recognised Elizabeth's right to rule England, but the seventeen-year-old Mary, still in France and grieving for her mother, refused to ratify the treaty.
King Francis II died on 5 December 1560, of a middle ear infection that led to an abscess in his brain. Mary was grief-stricken. Her mother-in-law, Catherine de' Medici, became regent for the late king's ten-year-old brother Charles IX, who inherited the French throne. Mary returned to Scotland nine months later, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561. Having lived in France since the age of five, Mary had little direct experience of the dangerous and complex political situation in Scotland. As a devout Catholic, she was regarded with suspicion by many of her subjects, as well as by the Queen of England. Scotland was torn between Catholic and Protestant factions. Mary's illegitimate half-brother, the Earl of Moray, was a leader of the Protestants. The Protestant reformer John Knox preached against Mary, condemning her for hearing Mass, dancing, and dressing too elaborately. She summoned him to her presence to remonstrate with him but was unsuccessful. She later charged him with treason but he was acquitted and released.
To the surprise and dismay of the Catholic party, Mary tolerated the newly established Protestant ascendancy, and kept her half-brother Moray as her chief advisor. Her privy council of 16 men, appointed on 6 September 1561, retained those who already held the offices of state. The council was dominated by the Protestant leaders from the reformation crisis of 1559–1560: the Earls of Argyll, Glencairn, and Moray. Only four of the councillors were Catholic: the Earls of Atholl, Erroll, Montrose, and Huntly, who was Lord Chancellor. Modern historian Jenny Wormald found this remarkable and suggested that Mary's failure to appoint a council sympathetic to Catholic and French interests was an indication of her focus on the English throne, over the internal problems of Scotland. Even the one significant later addition to the council, Lord Ruthven in December 1563, was another Protestant whom Mary personally disliked. In this, she was acknowledging her lack of effective military power in the face of the Protestant lords, while also following a policy that strengthened her links with England. She joined with Moray in the destruction of Scotland's leading Catholic magnate, Lord Huntly, in 1562, after he led a rebellion against her in the Highlands.
Mary sent William Maitland of Lethington as an ambassador to the English court to put the case for Mary as the heir presumptive to the English throne. Elizabeth refused to name a potential heir, fearing that would invite conspiracy to displace her with the nominated successor. However, she assured Maitland that she knew no one with a better claim than Mary. In late 1561 and early 1562, arrangements were made for the two queens to meet in England at York or Nottingham in August or September 1562. In July, Elizabeth sent Sir Henry Sidney to cancel Mary's visit because of the civil war in France.
Mary then turned her attention to finding a new husband from the royalty of Europe. When her uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, began negotiations with Archduke Charles of Austria without her consent, she angrily objected and the negotiations foundered. Her own attempt to negotiate a marriage to Don Carlos, the mentally unstable heir apparent of King Philip II of Spain, was rebuffed by Philip. Elizabeth attempted to neutralise Mary by suggesting that she marry English Protestant Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Dudley was Sir Henry Sidney's brother-in-law and the English queen's own favourite, whom Elizabeth trusted and thought she could control. She sent an ambassador, Thomas Randolph, to tell Mary that if she married an English nobleman, Elizabeth would "proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next cousin and heir". The proposal came to nothing, not least because the intended bridegroom was unwilling.
In contrast, a French poet at Mary's court, Pierre de Boscosel de Chastelard, was apparently besotted with Mary. In early 1563, he was discovered during a security search hidden underneath her bed, apparently planning to surprise her when she was alone and declare his love for her. Mary was horrified and banished him from Scotland. He ignored the edict. Two days later, he forced his way into her chamber as she was about to disrobe. She reacted with fury and fear. When Moray rushed into the room after hearing her cries for help, she shouted, "Thrust your dagger into the villain!" Moray refused, as Chastelard was already under restraint. Chastelard was tried for treason and beheaded. Maitland claimed that Chastelard's ardour was feigned and that he was part of a Huguenot plot to discredit Mary by tarnishing her reputation.
Mary had briefly met her English-born half-cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in February 1561 when she was in mourning for Francis. Darnley's parents, the Earl and Countess of Lennox, were Scottish aristocrats as well as English landowners. They sent him to France ostensibly to extend their condolences, while hoping for a potential match between their son and Mary. Both Mary and Darnley were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, and patrilineal descendants of the High Stewards of Scotland.
Darnley shared a more recent Stewart lineage with the Hamilton family as a descendant of Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran, a daughter of James II of Scotland. They next met on Saturday 17 February 1565 at Wemyss Castle in Scotland. Mary fell in love with the "long lad", as Queen Elizabeth called him since he was over six feet tall. They married at Holyrood Palace on 29 July 1565, even though both were Catholic and a papal dispensation for the marriage of first cousins had not been obtained.
English statesmen William Cecil and the Earl of Leicester had worked to obtain Darnley's licence to travel to Scotland from his home in England. Although her advisors had brought the couple together, Elizabeth felt threatened by the marriage because as descendants of her aunt, both Mary and Darnley were claimants to the English throne. Their children, if any, would inherit an even stronger, combined claim. Mary's insistence on the marriage seems to have stemmed from passion rather than calculation; the English ambassador Nicholas Throckmorton stated "the saying is that surely she [Queen Mary] is bewitched", adding that the marriage could only be averted "by violence". The union infuriated Elizabeth, who felt the marriage should not have gone ahead without her permission, as Darnley was both her cousin and an English subject.
Mary's marriage to a leading Catholic precipitated Mary's half-brother, the Earl of Moray, to join with other Protestant lords, including Lords Argyll and Glencairn, in open rebellion. Mary set out from Edinburgh on 26 August 1565 to confront them. On the 30th, Moray entered Edinburgh but left soon afterward, having failed to take the castle. Mary returned to Edinburgh the following month to raise more troops. In what became known as the Chaseabout Raid, Mary and her forces and Moray and the rebellious lords roamed around Scotland without ever engaging in direct combat. Mary's numbers were boosted by the release and restoration to favour of Lord Huntly's son and the return of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, from exile in France. Unable to muster sufficient support, Moray left Scotland in October for asylum in England. Mary broadened her privy council, bringing in both Catholics (Bishop of Ross John Lesley and provost of Edinburgh Simon Preston of Craigmillar) and Protestants (the new Lord Huntly, Bishop of Galloway Alexander Gordon, John Maxwell of Terregles and Sir James Balfour).
Before long, Darnley grew arrogant. Not content with his position as king consort, he demanded the Crown Matrimonial, which would have made him a co-sovereign of Scotland with the right to keep the Scottish throne for himself, if he outlived his wife. Mary refused his request and their marriage grew strained, although they conceived by October 1565. He was jealous of her friendship with her Catholic private secretary, David Rizzio, who was rumoured to be the father of her child. By March 1566, Darnley had entered into a secret conspiracy with Protestant lords, including the nobles who had rebelled against Mary in the Chaseabout Raid. On 9 March, a group of the conspirators accompanied by Darnley murdered Rizzio in front of the pregnant Mary at a dinner party in Holyrood Palace. Over the next two days, a disillusioned Darnley switched sides and Mary received Moray at Holyrood. On the night of 11–12 March, Darnley and Mary escaped from the palace. They took temporary refuge in Dunbar Castle before returning to Edinburgh on 18 March. The former rebels Lords Moray, Argyll and Glencairn were restored to the council.
Mary's son by Darnley, James, was born on 19 June 1566 in Edinburgh Castle. However, the murder of Rizzio led inevitably to the breakdown of her marriage. In October 1566, while staying at Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, Mary made a journey on horseback of at least four hours each way to visit the Earl of Bothwell at Hermitage Castle, where he lay ill from wounds sustained in a skirmish with border reivers. The ride was later used as evidence by Mary's enemies that the two were lovers, though no suspicions were voiced at the time and Mary had been accompanied by her councillors and guards.
Immediately after her return to Jedburgh, she suffered a serious illness that included frequent vomiting, loss of sight, loss of speech, convulsions and periods of unconsciousness. She was thought to be dying. Her recovery from 25 October onwards was credited to the skill of her French physicians. The cause of her illness is unknown. Potential diagnoses include physical exhaustion and mental stress, haemorrhage of a gastric ulcer and porphyria.
At Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh, at the end of November 1566, Mary and leading nobles held a meeting to discuss the "problem of Darnley". Divorce was discussed, but a bond was probably sworn between the lords present to remove Darnley by other means: "It was thought expedient and most profitable for the common wealth ... that such a young fool and proud tyrant should not reign or bear rule over them; ... that he should be put off by one way or another; and whosoever should take the deed in hand or do it, they should defend." Darnley feared for his safety, and after the baptism of his son at Stirling and shortly before Christmas, he went to Glasgow to stay on his father's estates. At the start of the journey, he was afflicted by a fever—possibly smallpox, syphilis or the result of poison. He remained ill for some weeks.
In late January 1567, Mary prompted her husband to return to Edinburgh. He recuperated from his illness in a house belonging to the brother of Sir James Balfour at the former abbey of Kirk o' Field, just within the city wall. Mary visited him daily, so that it appeared a reconciliation was in progress. On the night of 9–10 February 1567, Mary visited her husband in the early evening and then attended the wedding celebrations of a member of her household, Bastian Pagez. In the early hours of the morning, an explosion devastated Kirk o' Field. Darnley was found dead in the garden, apparently smothered. There were no visible marks of strangulation or violence on the body. Bothwell, Moray, Secretary Maitland, the Earl of Morton and Mary herself were among those who came under suspicion. Elizabeth wrote to Mary of the rumours:
By the end of February, Bothwell was generally believed to be guilty of Darnley's assassination. Lennox, Darnley's father, demanded that Bothwell be tried before the Estates of Parliament, to which Mary agreed, but Lennox's request for a delay to gather evidence was denied. In the absence of Lennox and with no evidence presented, Bothwell was acquitted after a seven-hour trial on 12 April. A week later, Bothwell managed to convince more than two dozen lords and bishops to sign the Ainslie Tavern Bond, in which they agreed to support his aim to marry the queen.
Between 21 and 23 April 1567, Mary visited her son at Stirling for the last time. On her way back to Edinburgh on 24 April, Mary was abducted, willingly or not, by Lord Bothwell and his men and taken to Dunbar Castle, where he may have raped her. On 6 May, Mary and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh. On 15 May, at either Holyrood Palace or Holyrood Abbey, they were married according to Protestant rites. Bothwell and his first wife, Jean Gordon, who was the sister of Lord Huntly, had divorced twelve days previously.
Originally, Mary believed that many nobles supported her marriage, but relations quickly soured between the newly elevated Bothwell (created Duke of Orkney) and his former peers and the marriage proved to be deeply unpopular. Catholics considered the marriage unlawful, since they did not recognise Bothwell's divorce or the validity of the Protestant service. Both Protestants and Catholics were shocked that Mary should marry the man accused of murdering her husband. The marriage was tempestuous, and Mary became despondent.
Twenty-six Scottish peers, known as the confederate lords, turned against Mary and Bothwell and raised their own army. Mary and Bothwell confronted the lords at Carberry Hill on 15 June, but there was no battle, as Mary's forces dwindled away through desertion during negotiations. Bothwell was given safe passage from the field. The lords took Mary to Edinburgh, where crowds of spectators denounced her as an adulteress and murderer. The following night, she was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle on an island in the middle of Loch Leven. Between 20 and 23 July, Mary miscarried twins. On 24 July, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son James. Moray was made regent, while Bothwell was driven into exile. He was imprisoned in Denmark, became insane and died in 1578.
On 2 May 1568, Mary escaped from Loch Leven Castle with the aid of George Douglas, brother of Sir William Douglas, the castle's owner. Managing to raise an army of 6,000 men, she met Moray's smaller forces at the Battle of Langside on 13 May. Defeated, she fled south. After spending the night at Dundrennan Abbey, she crossed the Solway Firth into England by fishing boat on 16 May. She landed at Workington in Cumberland in the north of England and stayed overnight at Workington Hall. On 18 May, local officials took her into protective custody at Carlisle Castle.
Mary apparently expected Elizabeth to help her regain her throne. Elizabeth was cautious, ordering an inquiry into the conduct of the confederate lords and the question of whether Mary was guilty of Darnley's murder. In mid-July 1568, English authorities moved Mary to Bolton Castle, because it was further from the Scottish border but not too close to London. Mary's clothes, sent from Lochleven Castle, arrived on 20 July. A commission of inquiry, or conference, as it was known, was held in York and later Westminster between October 1568 and January 1569. In Scotland, her supporters fought a civil war against Regent Moray and his successors.
As an anointed queen, Mary refused to acknowledge the power of any court to try her. She refused to attend the inquiry at York personally but sent representatives. Elizabeth forbade her attendance anyway. As evidence against Mary, Moray presented the so-called casket letters—eight unsigned letters purportedly from Mary to Bothwell, two marriage contracts, and a love sonnet or sonnets. All were said to have been found in a silver-gilt casket just less than one foot (30 cm) long and decorated with the monogram of King Francis II. Mary denied writing them and insisted they were forgeries, arguing that her handwriting was not difficult to imitate. They are widely believed to be crucial as to whether Mary shares the guilt for Darnley's murder. The chair of the commission of inquiry, the Duke of Norfolk, described them as horrible letters and diverse fond ballads. He sent copies to Elizabeth, saying that if they were genuine, they might prove Mary's guilt.
The authenticity of the casket letters has been the source of much controversy among historians. It is impossible now to prove either way. The originals, written in French, were possibly destroyed in 1584 by Mary's son. The surviving copies, in French or translated into English, do not form a complete set. There are incomplete printed transcriptions in English, Scots, French, and Latin from the 1570s. Other documents scrutinised included Bothwell's divorce from Jean Gordon. Moray had sent a messenger in September to Dunbar to get a copy of the proceedings from the town's registers.
Mary's biographers, such as Antonia Fraser, Alison Weir, and John Guy, have come to the conclusion that either the documents were complete forgeries, or incriminating passages were inserted into genuine letters, or the letters were written to Bothwell by a different person or written by Mary to a different person. Guy points out that the letters are disjointed and that the French language and grammar employed in the sonnets are too poor for a writer with Mary's education. But certain phrases of the letters, including verses in the style of Ronsard, and some characteristics of style are compatible with known writings by Mary.
The casket letters did not appear publicly until the Conference of 1568, although the Scottish privy council had seen them by December 1567. Mary had been forced to abdicate and held captive for the better part of a year in Scotland. The letters were never made public to support her imprisonment and forced abdication. Historian Jenny Wormald believes this reluctance on the part of the Scots to produce the letters and their destruction in 1584, whatever their content, constitute proof that they contained real evidence against Mary. In contrast, Weir thinks it demonstrates that the lords required time to fabricate them. At least some of Mary's contemporaries who saw the letters had no doubt that they were genuine. Among them was the Duke of Norfolk, who secretly conspired to marry Mary in the course of the commission, although he denied it when Elizabeth alluded to his marriage plans, saying "he meant never to marry with a person, where he could not be sure of his pillow".
The majority of the commissioners accepted the casket letters as genuine after a study of their contents and comparison of the penmanship with examples of Mary's handwriting. Elizabeth, as she had wished, concluded the inquiry with a verdict that nothing was proven against either the confederate lords or Mary. For overriding political reasons, Elizabeth wished neither to convict nor to acquit Mary of murder. There was never any intention to proceed judicially; the conference was intended as a political exercise. In the end, Moray returned to Scotland as regent and Mary remained in custody in England. Elizabeth had succeeded in maintaining a Protestant government in Scotland, without either condemning or releasing her fellow sovereign. In Fraser's opinion, it was one of the strangest "trials" in legal history, ending with no finding of guilt against either party, one of whom was allowed to return home to Scotland while the other remained in custody.
On 26 January 1569, Mary was moved to Tutbury Castle and placed in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury and his formidable wife Bess of Hardwick. Elizabeth considered Mary's designs on the English throne to be a serious threat and so confined her to Shrewsbury's properties, including Tutbury, Sheffield Castle, Sheffield Manor Lodge, Wingfield Manor, and Chatsworth House, all located in the interior of England, halfway between Scotland and London and distant from the sea.
Mary was permitted her own domestic staff, which never numbered fewer than sixteen. She needed 30 carts to transport her belongings from house to house. Her chambers were decorated with fine tapestries and carpets, as well as her cloth of state on which she had the French phrase, "En ma fin est mon commencement" ("In my end lies my beginning"), embroidered. Her bedlinen was changed daily, and her own chefs prepared meals with a choice of 32 dishes served on silver plates. She was occasionally allowed outside under strict supervision, spent seven summers at the spa town of Buxton, and spent much of her time doing embroidery. Her health declined, perhaps through porphyria or lack of exercise. By the 1580s, she had severe rheumatism in her limbs, rendering her lame.
In May 1569, Elizabeth attempted to mediate the restoration of Mary in return for guarantees of the Protestant religion, but convention held at Perth rejected the deal overwhelmingly. Norfolk continued to scheme for a marriage with Mary, and Elizabeth imprisoned him in the Tower of London between October 1569 and August 1570. Early the following year, Moray was assassinated. His death coincided with a rebellion in the North of England, led by Catholic earls, which persuaded Elizabeth that Mary was a threat. English troops intervened in the Scottish civil war, consolidating the power of the anti-Marian forces. Elizabeth's principal secretaries, Sir Francis Walsingham and William Cecil, Lord Burghley, watched Mary carefully with the aid of spies placed in her household.
In 1571, Cecil and Walsingham uncovered the Ridolfi Plot, a plan to replace Elizabeth with Mary by the help of Spanish troops and the Duke of Norfolk. Norfolk was executed and the English Parliament introduced a bill barring Mary from the throne, to which Elizabeth refused to give royal assent. To discredit Mary, the casket letters were published in London. Plots centred on Mary continued. Pope Gregory XIII endorsed one plan in the latter half of the 1570s to marry her to the governor of the Low Countries and illegitimate half-brother of Philip II of Spain, John of Austria, who was supposed to organise the invasion of England from the Spanish Netherlands. After the Throckmorton Plot of 1583, Walsingham introduced the Bond of Association and the Act for the Queen's Safety, which sanctioned the killing of anyone who plotted against Elizabeth and aimed to prevent a putative successor from profiting from her murder.
In 1584, Mary proposed an "association" with her son, James. She announced that she was ready to stay in England, to renounce the Pope's bull of excommunication, and to retire, abandoning her pretensions to the English Crown. She also offered to join an offensive league against France. For Scotland, she proposed a general amnesty, agreed that James should marry with Elizabeth's knowledge, and accepted that there should be no change in religion. Her only condition was the immediate alleviation of the conditions of her captivity. James went along with the idea for a while, but eventually rejected it and signed an alliance treaty with Elizabeth, abandoning his mother. Elizabeth also rejected the association because she did not trust Mary to cease plotting against her during the negotiations.
In February 1585, William Parry was convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth, without Mary's knowledge, although her agent Thomas Morgan was implicated. In April, Mary was placed in the stricter custody of Sir Amias Paulet. At Christmas, she was moved to a moated manor house at Chartley.
On 11 August 1586, after being implicated in the Babington Plot, Mary was arrested while out riding and taken to Tixall. In a successful attempt to entrap her, Walsingham had deliberately arranged for Mary's letters to be smuggled out of Chartley. Mary was misled into thinking her letters were secure, while in reality they were deciphered and read by Walsingham. From these letters it was clear that Mary had sanctioned the attempted assassination of Elizabeth.
Mary was moved to Fotheringhay Castle in a four-day journey ending on 25 September. In October, she was put on trial for treason under the Act for the Queen's Safety before a court of 36 noblemen, including Cecil, Shrewsbury, and Walsingham. Spirited in her defence, Mary denied the charges. She told her triers, "Look to your consciences and remember that the theatre of the whole world is wider than the kingdom of England". She protested that she had been denied the opportunity to review the evidence, that her papers had been removed from her, that she was denied access to legal counsel and that as a foreign anointed queen she had never been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason.
She was convicted on 25 October and sentenced to death with only one commissioner, Lord Zouche, expressing any form of dissent. Nevertheless, Elizabeth hesitated to order her execution, even in the face of pressure from the English Parliament to carry out the sentence. She was concerned that the killing of a queen set a discreditable precedent and was fearful of the consequences, especially if, in retaliation, Mary's son, James, formed an alliance with the Catholic powers and invaded England.
Elizabeth asked Paulet, Mary's final custodian, if he would contrive a clandestine way to "shorten the life" of Mary, which he refused to do on the grounds that he would not make "a shipwreck of my conscience, or leave so great a blot on my poor posterity". On 1 February 1587, Elizabeth signed the death warrant, and entrusted it to William Davison, a privy councillor. On 3 February, ten members of the Privy Council of England, having been summoned by Cecil without Elizabeth's knowledge, decided to carry out the sentence at once.
At Fotheringhay, on the evening of 7 February 1587, Mary was told she was to be executed the next morning. She spent the last hours of her life in prayer, distributing her belongings to her household, and writing her will and a letter to the King of France. The scaffold that was erected in the Great Hall was draped in black cloth. It was reached by two or three steps, and furnished with the block, a cushion for her to kneel on, and three stools for her and the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were there to witness the execution.
The executioner Bull and his assistant knelt before her and asked forgiveness, as it was typical for the executioner to request the pardon of the one being put to death. Mary replied, "I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles." Her servants, Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle, and the executioners helped Mary remove her outer garments, revealing a velvet petticoat and a pair of sleeves in crimson brown, the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church, with a black satin bodice and black trimmings. As she disrobed Mary smiled and said she "never had such grooms before ... nor ever put off her clothes before such a company". She was blindfolded by Kennedy with a white veil embroidered in gold, knelt down on the cushion in front of the block on which she positioned her head, and stretched out her arms. Her last words were, "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum" ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit").
Mary was not beheaded with a single strike. The first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head. The second blow severed the neck, except for a small bit of sinew, which the executioner cut through using the axe. Afterwards, he held her head aloft and declared, "God save the Queen." At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had very short, grey hair. Cecil's nephew, who was present at the execution, reported to his uncle that after her death "Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off" and that a small dog owned by the queen emerged from hiding among her skirts—though eye-witness Emanuel Tomascon does not include those details in his "exhaustive report". Items supposedly worn or carried by Mary at her execution are of doubtful provenance; contemporary accounts state that all her clothing, the block, and everything touched by her blood was burnt in the fireplace of the Great Hall to obstruct relic hunters.
When the news of the execution reached Elizabeth, she became indignant and asserted that Davison had disobeyed her instructions not to part with the warrant and that the Privy Council had acted without her authority. Elizabeth's vacillation and deliberately vague instructions gave her plausible deniability to attempt to avoid the direct stain of Mary's blood. Davison was arrested, thrown into the Tower of London, and found guilty of misprision. He was released nineteen months later, after Cecil and Walsingham interceded on his behalf.
Mary's request to be buried in France was refused by Elizabeth. Her body was embalmed and left in a secure lead coffin until her burial in a Protestant service at Peterborough Cathedral in late July 1587. Her entrails, removed as part of the embalming process, were buried secretly within Fotheringhay Castle. Her body was exhumed in 1612 when her son, King James VI and I, ordered that she be reinterred in Westminster Abbey in a chapel opposite the tomb of Elizabeth. In 1867, her tomb was opened in an attempt to ascertain the resting place of James I. He was ultimately found with Henry VII. Many of her other descendants, including Elizabeth of Bohemia, Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the children of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, were interred in her vault.
Assessments of Mary in the sixteenth century divided between Protestant reformers such as George Buchanan and John Knox, who vilified her mercilessly, and Catholic apologists such as Adam Blackwood, who praised, defended and eulogised her. After the accession of James I in England, historian William Camden wrote an officially sanctioned biography that drew from original documents. It condemned Buchanan's work as an invention, and "emphasized Mary's evil fortunes rather than her evil character". Differing interpretations persisted into the eighteenth century: William Robertson and David Hume argued that the casket letters were genuine and that Mary was guilty of adultery and murder, while William Tytler argued the reverse. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the work of Antonia Fraser was acclaimed as "more objective ... free from the excesses of adulation or attack" that had characterised older biographies, and her contemporaries Gordon Donaldson and Ian B. Cowan also produced more balanced works.
Historian Jenny Wormald concluded that Mary was a tragic failure, who was unable to cope with the demands placed on her, but hers was a rare dissenting view in a post-Fraser tradition that Mary was a pawn in the hands of scheming noblemen. There is no concrete proof of her complicity in Darnley's murder or of a conspiracy with Bothwell. Such accusations rest on assumptions, and Buchanan's biography is today discredited as "almost complete fantasy". Mary's courage at her execution helped establish her popular image as the heroic victim in a dramatic tragedy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20603
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Macbeth, King of Scotland
Macbeth (Medieval Gaelic: "Mac Bethad mac Findlaích"; Modern Gaelic: "MacBheatha mac Fhionnlaigh"; English: "Macbeth son of Findlay" nicknamed "", "the Red King"; – 15 August 1057) was King of Scots from 1040 until his death. He ruled over only a portion of present-day Scotland.
Little is known about Macbeth's early life, although he was the son of Findláech of Moray and may have been a grandson of Malcolm II. He became Mormaer of Moray – a semi-autonomous lordship – in 1032, and was probably responsible for the death of the previous mormaer, Gille Coemgáin. He subsequently married Gille Coemgáin's widow, Gruoch, although they had no children together.
In 1040, Duncan I launched an attack into Moray and was killed in action by Macbeth's troops. Macbeth succeeded him as King of Alba, apparently with little opposition. His 17-year reign was mostly peaceful, although in 1054 he was faced with an English invasion, led by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, on behalf of Edward the Confessor. Macbeth was killed at the Battle of Lumphanan in 1057 by forces loyal to the future Malcolm III. He was buried on Iona, the traditional resting place of Scottish kings.
Macbeth was initially succeeded by his stepson Lulach, but Lulach ruled for only a few months before also being killed by Malcolm III, whose descendants would rule Scotland until the late 13th century. Macbeth is today best known as the main character of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" and the many works it has inspired. However, Shakespeare's Macbeth is based on "Holinshed's Chronicles" (published in 1577) and is not historically accurate.
Macbeth's full name in Medieval Gaelic was '. This is realised as ' in Modern Gaelic, and anglicised as Macbeth MacFinlay (also spelled Findlay, Findley, or Finley). The name "Mac Bethad", from which the anglicised "MacBeth" is derived, means "son of life". Although it has the appearance of a Gaelic patronymic it does not have any meaning of filiation but instead carries an implication of "righteous man" or "religious man". An alternative proposed derivation is that it is a corruption of "macc-bethad" meaning "one of the elect".
Some sources make Macbeth a grandson of King Malcolm II and thus a cousin to Duncan I, whom he succeeded. He was possibly also a cousin to Thorfinn the Mighty, Earl of Orkney and Caithness. Nigel Tranter, in his novel "Macbeth the King", went so far as to portray Macbeth as Thorfinn's half-brother, and Dorothy Dunnett portrays Macbeth and Thorfinn as a single individual (Macbeth being a baptismal name) in the novel ""King Hereafter". However, this is speculation arising from the lack of historical certainty regarding the number of daughters Malcolm had.
When Cnut the Great came north in 1031 to accept the submission of King Malcolm II, Macbeth too submitted to him:
Malcolm II's grandson Duncan (Donnchad mac Crínáin), later King Duncan I, was acclaimed as king of Alba on 30 November 1034, apparently without opposition. Duncan appears to have been "tánaise ríg", the king in waiting, so that far from being an abandonment of tanistry, as has sometimes been argued, his kingship was a vindication of the practice. Previous successions had involved strife between various "rígdomna" men of royal blood. Far from being the aged King Duncan of Shakespeare's play, the real King Duncan was a young man in 1034, and even at his death in 1040 his youthfulness is remarked upon.
Duncan's early reign was apparently uneventful. His later reign, in line with his description as "the man of many sorrows" in the "Prophecy of Berchán", was not successful. In 1039, Strathclyde was attacked by the Northumbrians, and a retaliatory raid led by Duncan against Durham turned into a disaster. Duncan survived the defeat, but the following year he led an army north into Moray, Macbeth's domain, apparently on a punitive expedition against Moray. There he was killed in action, at Bothnagowan, now Pitgaveny, near Elgin, by the men of Moray led by Macbeth, probably on 14 August 1040.
On Duncan's death, Macbeth became king. No resistance is known at that time, but it would have been entirely normal if his reign were not universally accepted. In 1045, Duncan's father Crínán of Dunkeld (a scion of the Scottish branch of the Cenél Conaill and Hereditary Abbot of Iona) was killed in a battle between two Scottish armies.
John of Fordun wrote that Duncan's wife fled Scotland, taking her children, including the future kings Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) and Donald III (Domnall Bán mac Donnchada, or Donalbane) with her. On the basis of the author's beliefs as to whom Duncan married, various places of exile, Northumbria and Orkney among them, have been proposed. However, E. William Robertson proposes the safest place for Duncan's widow and her children would be with her or Duncan's kin and supporters in Atholl.
After the defeat of Crínán, Macbeth was evidently unchallenged. Marianus Scotus tells how the king made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050, where, Marianus says, he gave money to the poor as if it were seed.
The "Orkneyinga Saga" says that a dispute between Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, and Karl Hundason began when Karl Hundason became "King of Scots" and claimed Caithness. The identity of Karl Hundason, unknown to Scots and Irish sources, has long been a matter of dispute, and it is far from clear that the matter is settled. The most common assumption is that Karl Hundason was an insulting byname (Old Norse for "Churl, son of a Dog") given to Macbeth by his enemies. William Forbes Skene's suggestion that he was Duncan I of Scotland has been revived in recent years. Lastly, the idea that the whole affair is a poetic invention has been raised.
According to the "Orkneyinga Saga", in the war which followed, Thorfinn defeated Karl in a sea-battle off Deerness at the east end of the Orkney Mainland. Then Karl's nephew Mutatan or Muddan, appointed to rule Caithness for him, was killed at Thurso by Thorkel the Fosterer. Finally, a great battle at Tarbat Ness on the south side of the Dornoch Firth ended with Karl defeated and fugitive or dead. Thorfinn, the saga says, then marched south through Scotland as far as Fife, burning and plundering as he passed. A later note in the saga claims that Thorfinn won nine Scottish earldoms.
Whoever Karl Hundason may have been, it appears that the saga is reporting a local conflict with a Scots ruler of Moray or Ross:
In 1052, Macbeth was involved indirectly in the strife in the Kingdom of England between Godwin, Earl of Wessex and Edward the Confessor when he received a number of Norman exiles from England in his court, perhaps becoming the first king of Scots to introduce feudalism to Scotland. In 1054, Edward's Earl of Northumbria, Siward, led a very large invasion of Scotland (Duncan's widow and Malcolm's mother, Suthed, was Northumbrian-born; it is probable but not proven that there was a family tie between Siward and Malcolm). The campaign led to a bloody battle in which the "Annals of Ulster" reported 3,000 Scots and 1,500 English dead, which can be taken as meaning very many on both sides, and one of Siward's sons and a son-in-law were among the dead. The result of the invasion was that one Máel Coluim, "son of the king of the Cumbrians" (not to be confused with Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, the future Malcolm III of Scotland) was restored to his throne, i.e., as ruler of the kingdom of Strathclyde. It may be that the events of 1054 are responsible for the idea, which appears in Shakespeare's play, that Malcolm III was put in power by the English.
Macbeth did not survive the English invasion for long, for he was defeated and mortally wounded or killed by the future Malcolm III ("King Malcolm "Ceann-mor"", son of Duncan I) on the north side of the Mounth in 1057, after retreating with his men over the Cairnamounth Pass to take his last stand at the battle at Lumphanan. "The Prophecy of Berchán" has it that he was wounded and died at Scone, sixty miles to the south, some days later. Macbeth's stepson Lulach was installed as king soon after.
Unlike later writers, no near contemporary source remarks on Macbeth as a tyrant. The "Duan Albanach," which survives in a form dating to the reign of Malcolm III, calls him "Mac Bethad the renowned". "The Prophecy of Berchán", a verse history which purports to be a prophecy, describes him as "the generous king of Fortriu", and says:
Macbeth's life, like that of King Duncan I, had progressed far towards legend by the end of the 14th century, when John of Fordun and Andrew of Wyntoun wrote their histories. Hector Boece, Walter Bower, and George Buchanan all contributed to the legend.
In Shakespeare's play, which is based mainly upon Raphael Holinshed's account, Macbeth is initially a valorous and loyal general to the elderly King Duncan. After being manipulated by Three Witches and his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth murders Duncan and usurps the throne. Ultimately, however, the prophecies of the witches prove misleading, and Macbeth becomes a murderous tyrant. Duncan's son Malcolm stages a revolt against Macbeth, during which a guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth commits suicide. During battle, Macbeth encounters Macduff, a refugee nobleman whose wife and children had earlier been murdered by Macbeth's death squads. Upon realizing that he will die if he duels Macduff, Macbeth at first refuses to do so. But when Macduff explains that if Macbeth surrenders he will be subjected to ridicule by his former subjects, Macbeth vows, "I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, to be baited by a rabble's curse." He chooses instead to fight Macduff to the death. Macduff kills and beheads Macbeth, and the play ends with Prince Malcolm becoming king.
The likely reason for Shakespeare's unflattering depiction of Macbeth is that King James VI and I was descended from Malcolm III via the House of Bruce and his own House of Stewart, whereas Macbeth's line died out with the death of Lulach six months after his step-father. King James was also thought to be a descendant of Banquo through Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland.
In a 1959 essay, Boris Pasternak compared Shakespeare's characterization of Macbeth to Raskolnikov, the protagonist of "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Pasternak explained that neither character begins as a murderer, but becomes one by a set of faulty rationalizations and a belief that he is above the law.
Lady Macbeth has also become famous in her own right. In his 1865 novel "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", Nikolai Leskov updated "The Tragedy of Macbeth" so that it takes place among the Imperial Russian merchant class. In an ironic twist, however, Leskov reverses the gender roles – the woman is the murderer and the man is the instigator. Leskov's novel was the basis for Dmitri Shostakovich's 1936 opera of the same name.
In modern times, Dorothy Dunnett's novel "King Hereafter" aims to portray a historical Macbeth, but proposes that Macbeth and his rival and sometime ally Thorfinn of Orkney are one and the same (Thorfinn is his birth name and Macbeth his baptismal name). John Cargill Thompson's play "Macbeth Speaks 1997", a reworking of his earlier "Macbeth Speaks", is a monologue delivered by the historical Macbeth, aware of what Shakespeare and posterity have done to him. Scottish author Nigel Tranter based one of his historical novels, "MacBeth the King", on the historical figure. David Greig's 2010 play "Dunsinane" takes Macbeth's downfall at Dunsinane as its starting point, with his just-ended reign portrayed as long and stable in contrast to Malcolm's. British Touring Shakespeare also produced in 2010 "A Season Before the Tragedy of Macbeth" by dramatist Gloria Carreño describing events from the murder of "Lord Gillecomgain", Gruoch Macbeth's first husband, to the fateful letter in the first act of Shakespeare's tragedy
Macbeth appears as a character in the television series "Gargoyles" with the Gargoyle Demona playing a crucial role in both his rise and fall as King of Scotland. He was voiced by John Rhys-Davies.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20604
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Millbridge, Plymouth
Millbridge is a small neighbourhood of Plymouth, on the boundary of what used to be the towns of Plymouth and Devonport, in the English county of Devon.
What was originally a self-standing village (which has now been subsumed within the city) lies to the north of the toll bridge, originally built by Sir Piers Edgcumbe in 1525, that crossed what used to be the Deadlake or Stonehouse Creek, to the west of Pennycomequick, the south of Stoke village and to the east of Stoke Church. It derives its name from the old toll bridge (adjacent to a naval saw mill) across the creek between Eldad Hill and Molesworth Road, at one time the principal link between Plymouth and Devonport. The creek to the east of the bridge was filled in with material from the quarries at Cattedown and Oreston during the late 1890s and the ground created became a municipal park, Victoria Park, which was officially opened in 1903. The remainder of the creek to the west of Millbridge, up to Stonehouse Bridge and Pool, was filled in and by 1972 the whole area had been developed as rugby pitches. These pitches are often used by Devonport High School for Boys and the Old Boys RFC.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20606
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ML (programming language)
ML ("Meta Language") is a general-purpose functional programming language. It has roots in Lisp, and has been characterized as "Lisp with types". ML is a statically-scoped functional programming language like Scheme. It is known for its use of the polymorphic Hindley–Milner type system, which automatically assigns the types of most expressions without requiring explicit type annotations, and ensures type safetythere is a formal proof that a well-typed ML program does not cause runtime type errors. ML provides pattern matching for function arguments, garbage collection, imperative programming, call-by-value and currying. It is used heavily in programming language research and is one of the few languages to be completely specified and verified using formal semantics. Its types and pattern matching make it well-suited and commonly used to operate on other formal languages, such as in compiler writing, automated theorem proving, and formal verification.
Features of ML include a call-by-value evaluation strategy, first-class functions, automatic memory management through garbage collection, parametric polymorphism, static typing, type inference, algebraic data types, pattern matching, and exception handling. ML uses static scoping rules.
ML can be referred to as an "impure" functional language, because although it encourages functional programming, it does allow side-effects (like languages such as Lisp, but unlike a purely functional language such as Haskell). Like most programming languages, ML uses eager evaluation, meaning that all subexpressions are always evaluated, though lazy evaluation can be achieved through the use of closures. Thus one can create and use infinite streams as in Haskell, but their expression is indirect.
ML's strengths are mostly applied in language design and manipulation (compilers, analyzers, theorem provers), but it is a general-purpose language also used in bioinformatics, and financial systems.
ML was developed by Robin Milner and others in the early 1970s at the University of Edinburgh, whose syntax is inspired by ISWIM. Historically, ML was conceived to develop proof tactics in the LCF theorem prover (whose language, "pplambda", a combination of the first-order predicate calculus and the simply-typed polymorphic lambda calculus, had ML as its metalanguage).
Today there are several languages in the ML family; the three most prominent are Standard ML (SML), OCaml and F#. Ideas from ML have influenced numerous other languages, like Haskell, Cyclone, Nemerle, ATS, and Elm.
The following examples use the syntax of Standard ML. Other ML dialects such as OCaml and F# differ in small ways.
The factorial function expressed as pure ML:
fun fac (0 : int) : int = 1
This describes the factorial as a recursive function, with a single terminating base case. It is similar to the descriptions of factorials found in mathematics textbooks. Much of ML code is similar to mathematics in facility and syntax.
Part of the definition shown is optional, and describes the "types" of this function. The notation E : t can be read as "expression E has type t". For instance, the argument n is assigned type "integer" (int), and fac (n : int), the result of applying fac to the integer n, also has type integer. The function fac as a whole then has type "function from integer to integer" (int -> int), that is, fac accepts an integer as an argument and returns an integer result. Thanks to type inference, the type annotations can be omitted and will be derived by the compiler. Rewritten without the type annotations, the example looks like:
fun fac 0 = 1
The function also relies on pattern matching, an important part of ML programming. Note that parameters of a function are not necessarily in parentheses but separated by spaces. When the function's argument is 0 (zero) it will return the integer 1 (one). For all other cases the second line is tried. This is the recursion, and executes the function again until the base case is reached.
This implementation of the factorial function is not guaranteed to terminate, since a negative argument causes an infinite descending chain of recursive calls. A more robust implementation would check for a nonnegative argument before recursing, as follows:
fun fact n = let
The problematic case (when n is negative) demonstrates a use of ML's exception system.
The function can be improved further by writing its inner loop in a tail-recursive style, such that the call stack need not grow in proportion to the number of function calls. This is achieved by adding an extra, "accumulator", parameter to the inner function. At last, we arrive at
fun fact n = let
The following function "reverses" the elements in a list. More precisely, it returns a new list whose elements are in reverse order compared to the given list.
fun reverse [] = []
This implementation of reverse, while correct and clear, is inefficient, requiring quadratic time for execution. The function can be rewritten to execute in linear time in the following more efficient, though less easy-to-read, style:
fun reverse xs = let
in
end
Notably, this function is an example of parametric polymorphism. That is, it can consume lists whose elements have any type, and return lists of the same type.
Modules are ML's system for structuring large projects and libraries. A module consists of a signature file and one or more structure files. The signature file specifies the API to be implemented (like a C header file, or Java interface file). The structure implements the signature (like a C source file or Java class file). For example, the following define an Arithmetic signature and an implementation of it using Rational numbers:
signature ARITH =
sig
end
structure Rational : ARITH =
struct
end
These are imported into the interpreter by the 'use' command. Interaction with the implementation is only allowed via the signature functions, for example it is not possible to create a 'Rat' data object directly via this code. The 'structure' block hides all the implementation detail from outside.
ML's standard libraries are implemented as modules in this way.
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Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement.
He was widely noticed for his technique of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface ('drip technique'), enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was also called 'action painting', since he used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided the critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects. In 2016, Pollock's painting titled "Number 17A" was reported to have fetched US$200 million in a private purchase.
A reclusive and volatile personality, Pollock struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related single-car accident when he was driving. In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming, in 1912, the youngest of five sons. His parents, Stella May (née McClure) and LeRoy Pollock, were born and grew up in Tingley, Iowa, and were educated at Tingley High School. Pollock's mother is interred at Tingley Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa. His father had been born with the surname McCoy, but took the surname of his adoptive parents, neighbors who adopted him after his own parents had died within a year of each other. Stella and LeRoy Pollock were Presbyterian; they were of Irish and Scots-Irish descent, respectively. LeRoy Pollock was a farmer and later a land surveyor for the government, moving for different jobs. Stella, proud of her family's heritage as weavers, made and sold dresses as a teenager. In November 1912, Stella took her sons to San Diego; Jackson was just 10 months old and would never return to Cody. He subsequently grew up in Arizona and Chico, California.
While living in the Vermont Square neighborhood of Los Angeles, he enrolled at Manual Arts High School, from which he was expelled. He had already been expelled in 1928 from another high school. During his early life, Pollock explored Native American culture while on surveying trips with his father. He was also heavily influenced by Mexican muralists, particularly José Clemente Orozco, whose fresco "Prometheus" he would later call "the greatest painting in North America".
In 1930, following his older brother Charles Pollock, he moved to New York City, where they both studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. Benton's rural American subject matter had little influence on Pollock's work, but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting. In the early 1930s, Pollock spent a summer touring the Western United States together with Glen Rounds, a fellow art student, and Benton, their teacher.
Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 at an experimental workshop in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I." After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor and he developed what was later called his "drip" technique.
From 1938 to 1942 Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. During this time Pollock was trying to deal with his established alcoholism; from 1938 through 1941 he underwent Jungian psychotherapy with Dr. Joseph Henderson and later with Dr. Violet Staub de Laszlo in 1941–42. Henderson engaged him through his art, encouraging Pollock to make drawings. Jungian concepts and archetypes were expressed in his paintings. Some historians have hypothesized that Pollock might have had bipolar disorder.
Pollock signed a gallery contract with Peggy Guggenheim in July 1943. He received the commission to create the "Mural" (1943) for the entry to her new townhouse. At the suggestion of her friend and advisor Marcel Duchamp, Pollock painted the work on canvas, rather than the wall, so that it would be portable. After seeing the big mural, the art critic Clement Greenberg wrote: "I took one look at it and I thought, 'Now that's great art,' and I knew Jackson was the greatest painter this country had produced." The catalog introducing his first exhibition described Pollock's talent as "volcanic. It has fire. It is unpredictable. It is undisciplined. It spills out of itself in a mineral prodigality, not yet crystallized."
Pollock's most famous paintings were made during the "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He became famous following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in "Life" magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" Thanks to the mediation of Alfonso Ossorio, a close friend of Pollock and the art historian Michel Tapié, the young gallery owner Paul Facchetti, from March 7, 1952, managed to realize the first exhibition of Pollock's works from 1948 to 1951 in his Studio Paul Facchetti in Paris and in Europe. At the peak of his fame, Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style.
Pollock's work after 1951 was darker in color, including a collection painted in black on unprimed canvases. These paintings have been referred to as his 'Black pourings' and when he exhibited them at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, none of them sold. Parsons later sold one to a friend at half the price. These works show Pollock attempting to find a balance between abstraction and depictions of the figure.
He later returned to using color and continued with figurative elements. During this period, Pollock had moved to the Sidney Janis Gallery, a more commercial gallery; the demand for his work from collectors was great. In response to this pressure, along with personal frustration, his alcoholism deepened.
The two artists met while they both exhibited at the McMillen Gallery in 1942. Krasner was unfamiliar, yet intrigued with Pollock's work and went to his apartment, unannounced, to meet him following the gallery exhibition. In October 1945, Pollock and Lee Krasner were married in a church with two witnesses present for the event. In November, they moved out of the city to the Springs area of East Hampton on the south shore of Long Island. With the help of a down-payment loan from Peggy Guggenheim, they bought a wood-frame house and barn at 830 Springs Fireplace Road. Pollock converted the barn into a studio. In that space, he perfected his big "drip" technique of working with paint, with which he would become permanently identified. When the couple found themselves free from work they enjoyed spending their time together cooking and baking, working on the house and garden, and entertaining friends.
Krasner's influence on her husband's art was something critics began to reassess by the latter half of the 1960s due to the rise of feminism at the time. Krasner's extensive knowledge and training in modern art and techniques helped her bring Pollock up to date with what contemporary art should be. Krasner is often considered to have taught her husband in the dominant tenets of modernistic painting. Pollock was then able to change his style to fit a more organized and cosmopolitan genre of modern art, and Krasner became the one judge he could trust. At the beginning of the two artists' marriage, Pollock would trust his counterpart's opinions on what worked and what did not in his pieces. Krasner was also responsible for introducing him to many collectors, critics, and artists, including Herbert Matter, who would help further his career as an emerging artist. John Bernard Myers, a noted art dealer, was once quoted as saying, "there would never have been a Jackson Pollock without a Lee Pollock", whereas fellow painter Fritz Bultman referred to Pollock as Krasner's "creation, her Frankenstein", both men recognizing the immense impact Krasner had on Pollock's career.
Jackson Pollock's influence on his wife's artwork is often discussed by art historians. Many people thought that Krasner began to reproduce and reinterpret her husband's chaotic paint splatters in her own work. There are several accounts where Krasner intended to use her own intuition, as a way to move towards Pollock's "I am nature" technique in order to reproduce nature in her art. Krasner's largest challenge as an artist was to establish a separation between herself and her husband that was not strictly the otherness of a woman.
In 1955, Pollock painted "Scent" and "Search," his last two paintings. He did not paint at all in 1956, but was making sculptures at Tony Smith's home: constructions of wire, gauze, and plaster. Shaped by sand-casting, they have heavily textured surfaces similar to what Pollock often created in his paintings.
Pollock and Krasner's relationship began to crumble by 1956, owing to Pollock's continuing alcoholism and infidelity involving Ruth Kligman. On August 11, 1956, at 10:15 pm, Pollock died in a single-car crash in his Oldsmobile convertible while driving under the influence of alcohol. At the time Krasner was visiting friends in Europe and she abruptly returned on hearing the news from a friend. One of the passengers, Edith Metzger, was also killed in the accident, which occurred less than a mile from Pollock's home. The other passenger, Ruth Kligman, an artist and Pollock's mistress, survived. In December 1956, four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.
For the rest of her life, his widow Lee Krasner managed his estate and ensured that Pollock's reputation remained strong despite changing art world trends. The couple are buried in Green River Cemetery in Springs with a large boulder marking his grave and a smaller one marking hers.
The work of Thomas Hart Benton, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró influenced Pollock.
Pollock started using synthetic resin-based paints called alkyd enamels, which at that time was a novel medium. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist's paints, as "a natural growth out of a need". He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.
One definitive influence on Pollock was the work of the Ukrainian American artist Janet Sobel (1894–1968) (born Jennie Lechovsky). Peggy Guggenheim included Sobel's work in her "The Art of This Century Gallery" in 1945. Jackson Pollock and art critic Clement Greenberg saw Sobel's work there in 1946 and later Greenberg noted that Sobel was "a direct influence on Jackson Pollock's drip painting technique." In his essay "American-Type Painting," Greenberg noted those works were the first of all-over painting he had seen, and said, "Pollock admitted that these pictures had made an impression on him".
While painting this way, Pollock moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush. He used the force of his whole body to paint, which was expressed on the large canvases. In 1956, "Time" magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" due to his painting style.
Pollock observed American Indian sandpainting demonstrations in the 1940s. Referring to his style of painting on the floor, Pollock stated, "I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk round it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the methods of the Indian sand painters of the West." Other influences on his drip technique include the Mexican muralists and Surrealist automatism. Pollock denied reliance on "the accident"; he usually had an idea of how he wanted a particular work to appear. His technique combined the movement of his body, over which he had control, the viscous flow of paint, the force of gravity, and the absorption of paint into the canvas. It was a mixture of controllable and uncontrollable factors. Flinging, dripping, pouring, and spattering, he would move energetically around the canvas, almost as if in a dance, and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see.
Austrian artist Wolfgang Paalen's article on totem art of the indigenous people of British Columbia, in which the concept of space in totemist art is considered from an artist's point of view, influenced Pollock as well; Pollock owned a signed and dedicated copy of the Amerindian Number of Paalen's magazine (DYN 4–5, 1943). He had also seen Paalen's surrealist paintings in an exhibition of in 1940. Another strong influence must have been Paalen's surrealist "fumage" technique, which appealed to painters looking for new ways to depict what was called the "unseen" or the "possible". The technique was once demonstrated in Matta's workshop, about which Steven Naifeh reports, "Once, when Matta was demonstrating the Surrealist technique [Paalen's] Fumage, Jackson [Pollock] turned to (Peter) Busa and said in a stage whisper: 'I can do that without the smoke.'" Pollock's painter friend Fritz Bultman even stated, "It was Wolfgang Paalen who started it all."
In 1950, Hans Namuth, a young photographer, wanted to take pictures (both stills and moving) of Pollock at work. Pollock promised to start a new painting especially for the photographic session, but when Namuth arrived, Pollock apologized and told him the painting was finished.
Namuth said that when he entered the studio:
Continuing to evade the viewer's search for figurative elements in his paintings, Pollock abandoned titles and started numbering his works. He said about this, "[L]ook passively and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for." His wife said, "He used to give his pictures conventional titles ... but now he simply numbers them. Numbers are neutral. They make people look at a picture for what it is—pure painting."
Pollock's work has been the subject of important critical debates. The critic Robert Coates once derided a number of Pollock's works as "mere unorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless."
Jean Helion the French abstract painter, on the other hand, on first seeing a "Pollock," remarked, "It filled out space going on and on because it did not have a start or end to it."
In a 1952 article in "ARTnews", Harold Rosenberg coined the term "action painting" and wrote that "what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. The big moment came when it was decided to paint 'just to paint.' The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value—political, aesthetic, moral." Many people assumed that he had modeled his "action painter" paradigm on Pollock.
Clement Greenberg supported Pollock's work on formalistic grounds. It fit well with Greenberg's view of art history as a progressive purification in form and elimination of historical content. He considered Pollock's work to be the best painting of its day and the culmination of the Western tradition via Cubism and Cézanne to Manet.
"Reynold's News", in a 1959 headline, said, "This is not art—it's a joke in bad taste."
The Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization to promote American culture and values, backed by the CIA, sponsored exhibitions of Pollock's work. Certain left-wing scholars, most prominently Eva Cockcroft, have argued that the U.S. government and wealthy elite embraced Pollock and abstract expressionism to place the United States in the forefront of global art and devalue socialist realism. Cockcroft wrote that Pollock became a "weapon of the Cold War".
Pollock himself described his art as "motion made visible memories, arrested in space."
Pollock's staining into raw canvas was adapted by the Color Field painters Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis. Frank Stella made "all-over composition" a hallmark of his works of the 1960s. The Happenings artist Allan Kaprow, sculptors Richard Serra and Eva Hesse, and many contemporary artists have retained Pollock's emphasis on the process of creation; they were influenced by his approach to process, rather than the look of his work.
In 2004, "One: Number 31, 1950" was ranked the eighth-most influential piece of modern art in a poll of 500 artists, curators, critics, and dealers.
In 1960, Ornette Coleman's album "" featured a Pollock painting, "The White Light", as its cover artwork.
John Squire, guitarist in British indie band The Stone Roses, created the band's album and single covers, and was heavily influenced by Pollock; his cover artwork was often a conscious replication of Pollock's style, starting in 1989 with the album "The Stone Roses".
In the early 1990s, three groups of movie makers were developing Pollock biographical projects, each based on a different source. The project that at first seemed most advanced was a joint venture between Barbra Streisand's Barwood Films and Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions (De Niro's parents were friends of Krasner and Pollock). The script, by Christopher Cleveland, was to be based on Jeffrey Potter's 1985 oral biography, "To a Violent Grave," a collection of reminiscences by Pollock's friends. Streisand was to play the role of Lee Krasner, and De Niro was to portray Pollock. A second was to be based on "Love Affair" (1974), a memoir by Ruth Kligman, who was Pollock's lover in the six months before his death. This was to be directed by Harold Becker, with Al Pacino playing Pollock.
In 2000, the biographical film "Pollock", based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, "", directed by and starring Ed Harris, was released. Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lee Krasner. The movie was the project of Ed Harris, who portrayed Pollock. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Harris himself painted the works seen in the film. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation did not authorize or collaborate with any production.
In September 2009, the art historian Henry Adams claimed in "Smithsonian" magazine that Pollock had written his name in his famous painting "Mural" (1943). The painting is now insured for US$140 million. In 2011, the Republican Iowa State Representative Scott Raecker introduced a bill to force the sale of the artwork, held by the University of Iowa, to fund scholarships, but his bill created such controversy that it was quickly withdrawn.
In the British comedy series Red Dwarf, the character Dave Lister comments how he once vomited from the top of the Eiffel Tower and a pavement artist sold the resulting mess to a Texan tourist as a genuine Jackson Pollock.
Pollock is mentioned many times throughout the 2009 play "Red", by John Logan. The play's main character, Mark Rothko, was a fellow abstract expressionist of his era. In the play, Rothko speaks to his assistant, Ken, about Pollock's works and his death.
A fictional Pollock painting is shown throughout the 2016 movie "The Accountant", by Bill Dubuque. The movie's main character, played by Ben Affleck, gains the painting through his career. He gifts it to the character played by Anna Kendrick at the end of the film.
In the 2014 movie "Guardians of the Galaxy", a character remarks that Peter Quill's ship is filthy, to which he replies "Oh, she has no idea. If I had a black light, the place would look like a Jackson Pollock painting". Director James Gunn was surprised that Disney didn't ask him to cut the scene.
In 1973, "Number 11, 1952" (also known as "Blue Poles") was purchased by the Australian Whitlam government for the National Gallery of Australia for US$2 million (A$1.3 million at the time of payment). At the time, this was the highest price ever paid for a modern painting. The painting is now one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery. It was a centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Art's 1998 retrospective in New York, the first time the painting had been shown in America since its purchase.
In November 2006, Pollock's "No. 5, 1948" became the world's most expensive painting, when it was sold privately to an undisclosed buyer for the sum of US$140 million. Another artist record was established in 2004, when "No. 12" (1949), a medium-sized drip painting that had been shown in the United States Pavilion at the 1950 Venice Biennale, fetched US$11.7 million at Christie's, New York. In 2012, "Number 28, 1951," one of the artist's combinations of drip and brushwork in shades of silvery gray with red, yellow, and shots of blue and white, also sold at Christie's, New York, for US$20.5 million— US$23 million with fees—within its estimated range of US$20 million to US$30 million.
In 2013, Pollock's "Number 19" (1948) was sold by Christie's for a reported US$58,363,750 during an auction that ultimately reached US$495 million total sales in one night which Christie's reports as a record to date as the most expensive auction of contemporary art.
In February 2016, Bloomberg News reported that Kenneth C. Griffin had purchased Jackson Pollock's 1948 painting "Number 17A" for US$200 million, from David Geffen.
The Pollock-Krasner Authentication Board was created by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 1990 to evaluate newly found works for an upcoming supplement to the 1978 catalogue. In the past, however, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation has declined to be involved in authentication cases.
In 2006, a documentary, "Who the *$&% Is Jackson Pollock?" was made concerning Teri Horton, a truck driver who in 1992 bought an abstract painting for five dollars at a thrift store in California. This work may be a lost Pollock painting, but its authenticity is debated.
"Untitled 1950", which the New York-based Knoedler Gallery had sold in 2007 for US$17 million to Pierre Lagrange, a London hedge-fund multimillionaire, was subject to an authenticity suit before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Done in the painter's classic drip-and-splash style and signed "J. Pollock", the modest-sized painting (15 by 28 1/2 in) was found to contain yellow paint pigments not commercially available until about 1970. The suit was settled in a confidential agreement in 2012.
In 1999, physicist-artist Richard Taylor used computer analysis to show similarities between Pollock's painted patterns and fractals (patterns that recur on multiple size scales) found in natural scenery, reflecting Pollock's own words "I am Nature". His research team labelled Pollock's style Fractal Expressionism.
In 2003, 24 Pollockesque paintings and drawings were found in a locker in Wainscott, New York. In 2005, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation requested a fractal analysis to be used for the first time in an authenticity dispute stirring controversy by researchers at the University of Oregon, which identified differences between the patterns in the 6 disputed paintings analyzed and those in 14 established Pollocks. Pigment analysis of the paintings by researchers at Harvard University showed the presence in one painting of a synthetic pigment that was not patented until the 1980s, and materials in two others that were not available in Pollock's lifetime.
In 2007, a traveling museum exhibition of the paintings was mounted and was accompanied by a comprehensive book, "Pollock Matters", written by Ellen G. Landau, one of the four sitting scholars from the former Pollock Krasner Foundation authentication panel from the 1990s, and Claude Cernuschi, a scholar in Abstract Expressionism. In the book, Ellen Landau demonstrates the many connections between the family who owns the paintings and Jackson Pollock during his lifetime to place the paintings in what she believes to be their proper historic context. Landau also presents the forensic findings of Harvard University and presents possible explanations for the forensic inconsistencies that were found in three of the 24 paintings. However, the scientist who invented one of the modern pigments dismissed the possibility that Pollock used this paint as being "unlikely to the point of fantasy."
Subsequently, over 10 scientific groups have performed fractal analysis on over 50 of Pollock's works. A recent study which used fractal analysis as one of its techniques achieved a 93% success rate distinguishing real from fake Pollocks. Current research of Fractal Expressionism focuses on human response to viewing fractals. Cognitive neuroscientists have shown that Pollock's fractals induce the same stress-reduction in observers as computer-generated fractals and Nature's fractals.
Lee Krasner donated Pollock's papers in 1983 to the Archives of American Art. They were later archived with her own papers. The Archives of American Art also houses the Charles Pollock papers, which include correspondence, photographs, and other files relating to his brother Jackson.
A separate organization, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, was established in 1985. The foundation functions as the official estate for both Pollock and his widow, but also under the terms of Krasner's will, serves "to assist individual working artists of merit with financial need". The U.S. copyright representative for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation is the Artists Rights Society.
The Pollock-Krasner House and Studio is owned and administered by the Stony Brook Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of Stony Brook University. Regular tours of the house and studio occur from May through October.
Museum links
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16307
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Jet Li
Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, martial artist, and retired Wushu champion who was born in Beijing. He is a naturalized Singaporean citizen.
After three years of training with acclaimed Wushu teacher Wu Bin, Li won his first national championship for the Beijing Wushu Team. After retiring from competitive Wushu at age 19, he went on to win great acclaim in China as an actor, making his debut with the film "Shaolin Temple" (1982). He went on to star in many critically acclaimed martial arts epic films, most notably as the lead in Zhang Yimou's "Hero" (2002), "Fist of Legend" (1994), and the first three films in the "Once Upon a Time in China" series (1991–1993), in which he portrayed folk hero Wong Fei-hung.
Li's first role in a non-Chinese film was as a villain in "Lethal Weapon 4" (1998), and his first leading role in a Hollywood film was as Han Sing in "Romeo Must Die" (2000). He has gone on to star in many international action films, including in French cinema with the Luc Besson-produced films "Kiss of the Dragon" (2001) and "Unleashed" (2005). He co-starred in "The One" (2001) and "War" (2007) with Jason Statham, "The Forbidden Kingdom" (2008) with Jackie Chan, all three of "The Expendables" films with Sylvester Stallone, and as the title character villain in "" (2008).
Li was born in Beijing, China and was the youngest of two boys and two girls. When he was two years old, his father died and his family then lived in poverty.
Li was eight when his talent for Wushu was noticed as he practiced at a school summer course. He then attended a non-sparring wushu event, followed by joining the Beijing Wushu Team which did a martial art display at the All China Games. Renowned coaches Li Junfeng and Wu Bin, made extra efforts to help the talented boy develop. Wu Bin even bought food for Li's family because they could not afford to buy meat, which was essential for an athlete's physical condition. A very young Li competed against adults, in the Chinese Wushu Championships and won fifteen gold medals and one silver medal.
According to Li, once, as a child, when the Chinese National Wushu Team went to perform for President Richard Nixon in the United States, he was asked by Nixon to be his personal bodyguard. Li replied, "I don't want to protect any individual. When I grow up, I want to defend my one billion Chinese countrymen!"
Li is a master of several styles of wushu, especially Chángquán (Northern Longfist Style) and Fānziquán (Tumbling Fist). He has also studied other arts including Baguazhang (Eight Trigram Palm), Taijiquan (Supreme Ultimate Fist), Xing Yi Quan (Shape Intent Fist), Zui Quan (Drunken Fist), Ying Zhao Quan (Eagle Claw Fist) and Tanglangquan (Praying Mantis Fist). He did not learn Nanquan (Southern Fist), because his training focused only in the Northern Shaolin Styles. He has also mastered wushu's main weapons, such as Sanjiegun (Three Section Staff), Gùn, Dao (Broadsword), Jian (Straight Sword). Jet Li's martial arts prowess contributed to his domestic and international fame.
The fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce. They likened his career to an aircraft, which likewise "takes-off" as quickly, so they placed the name Jet Li on the movie posters. Soon everybody was calling him by this new name, which was also based on the nickname, "Jet," given to him as a young student, due to his speed and grace when training with the Beijing Wushu team. He made his debut with the 1982 film "Shaolin Temple". Some of his more famous Chinese films include:
Li starred in the 1995 film "High Risk", where Jet Li plays a Captain who becomes disillusioned after his wife is murdered by crime lords. Along the way, he pairs up with a wacky sell-out actor, Frankie (played by Jacky Cheung), and proceeds to engage in a series of violent battles in a high-rise building. The setting is similar to that of "Die Hard" and both their Chinese film titles. This movie is notable in that director Wong Jing had such a terrible experience working with Jackie Chan in Jing's previous film "City Hunter" that he chose to make Cheung's character a biting satire of Chan. Jet Li would later publicly apologise to Chan for taking part in it.
Li had two wuxia feature films released in 2011, "The Sorcerer and the White Snake" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate"; the latter was helmed by Tsui Hark.
To promote tai chi, in 2012 Jet Li starred in a film titled "Tai Chi" and co-produced the movie with Chen Kuo-Fu. Li portrayed Tai Chi master Yang Luchan.
In 1998, he made his American film debut in "Lethal Weapon 4" which also marked the first time he had ever played a villain in a film. He agreed to do "Lethal Weapon 4" after the producer Joel Silver promised to give him the leading role in his next film, "Romeo Must Die" (2000), alongside late singer Aaliyah. The film became a box office hit. Though Li spoke very little English at the time of production, his performance as Chinese mafia hitman Wah Sing Ku was praised.
Li turned down Chow Yun-fat's role in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) because he promised his wife that he would not make any films during her pregnancy. He also turned down the role of Seraph in "The Matrix" trilogy, based on his belief that the role was not one which required his skills and that the films were iconic and stunning enough without adding his name to the cast list. Li was also cast as Kato in "The Green Hornet" when the film was still in development in 2000. In 2001, it was moved to another studio. When the film was moved on again and released in 2011, the role of Kato was portrayed by Jay Chou.
In 2001, he appeared in two more films: "The One", which was the first of his films with Jason Statham, and "Kiss of the Dragon" opposite Bridget Fonda which did moderately well at the box office. In July 2001, Li agreed to produce and star in an action film with Jackie Chan which was to be released in 2002 or 2003, but no further news of their collaboration surfaced until 2006. In 2002, the period martial arts epic film "Hero" was released in the Chinese market. This film was both a commercial and critical success and became the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese film history at the time. In 2003 he reunited with producer Joel Silver for the action thriller film "Cradle 2 the Grave" where he starred alongside rapper DMX and fellow martial artist Mark Dacascos. In 2004, Li lent his likeness, voice and provided motion capture work for the video game "".
Li was presented the Visionary Award by East West Players, the oldest Asian American theatre in the United States, in 2002 by contemporary John Woo. The award recognizes "artists who have raised the visibility of the Asian Pacific American community through theater, film and television." He delivered his acceptance speech in his native language of Mandarin.
Li took on a more serious role in the 2005 film, "Unleashed" (a.k.a. "Danny the Dog"), where he portrayed an adult with the mentality of a child who has been raised like an animal. Although his martial arts skills were used extensively, it was a somber film with more depth than had been previously seen in Li's films, and co-starred dramatic actors Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman.
In 2006, the martial arts film epic "Fearless", was released worldwide. Although he will continue to make martial arts films, "Fearless" is his last wushu epic. In "Fearless", he played Huo Yuanjia, the real-life founder of Chin Woo Athletic Association, who reportedly defeated foreign boxers and Japanese martial artists in publicised events at a time when China's power was seen as eroding. Together with the film "Fist of Legend", Li has portrayed both Chen Jun, the student and avenger of Huo Yuanjia (a.k.a. Fok Yun Gap), as well as Huo Yuanjia himself. "Fearless" was released on 26 January 2006 in Hong Kong, followed by a 22 September 2006 release in the United States where it reached second place in its first weekend.
Li has stated in an interview with the "Shenzhen Daily" newspaper that this will be his last martial arts epic, which is also stated in the film's television promotions. However, he plans to continue his film career in other genres. Specifically, he plans to continue acting in epic action and martial arts films dealing more with religious and philosophical issues.
Li's 2007 Hollywood film, "War", was released in August of that year, and re-teamed him with actor Jason Statham, who previously starred with him in "The One", and action choreographer Corey Yuen. "War" raked in a disappointing at the box office, becoming one of Li's lowest grossers in America; however, it was a hit on video, accumulating nearly in rental revenue, more than doubling its box office take. With the exception of "Romeo Must Die" and the worldwide release of "Hero", most of Li's American/Western films have been only modest hits like "Kiss of the Dragon", "The One", "Unleashed", "Cradle 2 the Grave", and the worldwide release of "Fearless".
In late 2007, Li returned again to China to participate in the China/Hong Kong co-production of the period war film "The Warlords" with Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. This film, with its focus on dramatics rather than martial arts, netted Li the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor.
Li and fellow martial arts veteran Jackie Chan finally appeared together onscreen for the first time in "The Forbidden Kingdom", which began filming in May 2007 and was released to critical and commercial success on 18 April 2008. The film was based on the legend of the Monkey King from the Chinese folk novel "Journey to the West". Li also starred as the lead villain in the fantasy action film "" with actors Brendan Fraser, Isabella Leong and Michelle Yeoh.
After a one-year hiatus from filmmaking, Jet Li returned to acting in 2010, portraying a mercenary in the film "The Expendables", teaming up with action stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture. It was the third time he had teamed up with Statham. In 2012, he reprised his role briefly in the sequel "The Expendables 2" and returned for the third film "The Expendables 3" in 2014. Li was initially stated to be appearing with Vin Diesel in "", but according to a Facebook post by Diesel, Li was replaced by Donnie Yen.
Li was cast as the Emperor of China for the 2020 live action movie, "Mulan".
Li is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. His master is Lho Kunsang.
In 1987, Li married Beijing Wushu Team member and "Kids from Shaolin" co-star Huang Qiuyan, with whom he has two daughters, Si and Taimi. They divorced in 1990. In 1999, Li married Nina Li Chi (born Li Zhi), a Shanghai-born, Hong Kong-based actress. He has two daughters with her, Jane (born 2000) and Jada (born 2002).
He was in the Maldives when a tsunami hit during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Although it was widely reported at the time that he had died during the disaster, he only suffered a minor foot injury, caused by a piece of floating furniture while he was guiding his 4-year-old daughter Jane and the nanny holding his 1-year-old daughter Jada to safety of higher ground amid dangerously rising ocean water. The four of them were by the pool and slightly above the beach when the wave came ashore, barely escaping to the upper floors of a hotel building.
In 2009, Li, who previously had US citizenship after years working in the United States, renounced his US citizenship. He was thought to have taken up Singaporean citizenship, although Singaporean authorities did not initially provide any confirmation of this. On 28 July 2009, the chairman of One Foundation (the charity fund of Li) announced that Jet Li had indeed become a Singaporean citizen. He was said to have chosen Singapore for its education system for his two younger daughters.
In 2009, he launched his own fitness program, Wuji. The programme consists of elements of martial arts, yoga and pilates; Adidas launched a special clothing line for it that bears the initials of "JL".
In 2013, Li revealed that he suffers from hyperthyroidism and has been dealing with the issue for the past three years. In 2016, he stated that he had recovered from his illness and that accepting fewer film offers was due to his charity work and not because of his health conditions.
In his free time he likes to play badminton and table tennis, ride his bicycle, read and meditate. He collects rare Tibetan beads. He says he is never bored in his free time.
Li, as a Buddhist, believes that the difficulties of everyday life can be overcome with the help of religious philosophies. He thinks that fame is not something he can control; therefore, he does not care about it.
According to Li, everything he has ever wanted to tell the world can be found in three of his films: the message of "Hero" is that the suffering of one person can never be as significant as the suffering of a nation; "Unleashed" shows that violence is never a solution; and "Fearless" tells that the biggest enemy of a person is himself. Li thinks that the greatest weapon is a smile and the largest power is love.
About Wushu, he said that he believes the essence of martial arts is not power or speed but inner harmony, and considers it a sad development that today's Wushu championships place greater emphasis on form than on the essence of being a martial artist. He believes Wushu now lacks individuality and competitors move like machines, whereas according to his views Wushu should not be considered a race where the fastest athlete wins. He would like to see Wushu as a form of art, where artists have a distinctive style. Li blames the new competition rules that, according to him, place limitations on martial artists.
Li believes that Wushu is not primarily for self-defense and instead of trying to play the hero people should think about peaceful resolutions of conflicts and call the police if necessary: "A gun outdoes years of martial arts training in a split second. Like I've said many times before, it is important to differentiate between movies and reality. The hero in movies may be able to knock the gun off his opponent and save the day, but in real life – probably that is not the case." He has also stated that he has never had to use his martial arts skills in a real-life fight and he does not wish to, either.
Li has been a "philanthropic ambassador" of the Red Cross Society of China since January 2006. He contributed 500,000 yuan () of box office revenues from his film "Fearless" to the Red Cross' psychological sunshine project, which promotes mental health.
In April 2007, touched by his life-shaking experience in the Maldives when he was close to dying during the 2004 tsunami, Li formed his own non-profit foundation called The One Foundation. The One Foundation supports international disaster relief efforts in conjunction with the Red Cross as well as other efforts, including mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Since the starting of the foundation, Li has been involved with recovery efforts in seven disasters, including the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan. In the 2013 Lushan earthquake in Ya'an, Sichuan, Li and other members of the entertainment sector were the first to appeal for donations of money, goods and materials to help the victims of the disaster. Wu Jing was a One Foundation volunteer and helped in the effort.
Li discussed his commitment to philanthropy in an interview with the December 2009 issue of "Alliance" magazine, stating that "grassroots non-government organizations can help the government in its blind spots. Government relief is not always detail-oriented. Grassroots NGOs can't be as big as a government effort, but they need to be flexible and independent."
In September 2010, he was appointed by the International Red Cross as the first Good Will Ambassador. He posted online, saying: "Today I signed a deal with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – IFRC – to become the FIRST goodwill ambassador in the history of this humanitarian organization. I am very honored! At the same time, I will not pause to celebrate, but instead keep pushing forward and do my best to help the world! Thank you all once again for your support and belief in me!"
It was also announced in September 2010, when Li was attending his wax unveiling ceremony in Hong Kong Madame Tussauds, that Li would be meeting Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to talk about charity work. "Three days ago, I received an email from Gates, hoping I could make time because he and Buffett hoped I could go for a 30-minute chat before the dinner about the future we face as human beings, so I will go," Li said.
He founded Taiji Zen in 2011, along with co-founder Executive chairman Jack Ma. Taiji Zen is a lifestyle company with the mission of spreading "Health and Happiness for All" through a balance of physical wellness and mental fitness. Taiji Zen combined the martial art of Taijiquan (a.k.a. T'ai Chi Chuan) with mindfulness-based practices such as meditation. It packaged these art forms into several different classes and online programs.
By US box office statistics, the most successful Jet Li film as of August 2010 is "Lethal Weapon 4", which grossed over $130 million domestically, while the second is "The Expendables" with over $103 million. "Hero" is the third most successful foreign language film in the US, and one of the most critically acclaimed Li movies. "Fearless" is the seventh most successful foreign language film of all time in the US. From an aggregated critical point of view, the best acclaimed Li movie is "Fist of Legend" (Rotten Tomatoes: 100%) and the worst is "War" (Rotten Tomatoes: 14%).
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Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet (; October 4, 1814 – January 20, 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. Toward the end of his career he became increasingly interested in painting pure landscapes. He is known best for his oil paintings but is also noted for his pastels, conte crayon drawings, and etchings.
Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aimée-Henriette-Adélaïde Henry Millet, members of the farming community in the village of Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague (Normandy), close to the coast. Under the guidance of two village priests—one of them was vicar Jean Lebrisseux—Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern authors. But soon he had to help his father with the farm-work; because Millet was the eldest of the sons. So all the farmer's work was familiar to him: to mow, make hay, bind the sheaves, thresh, winnow, spread manure, plow, sow, etc. All these motifs would return in his later art.
In 1833 his father sent him to Cherbourg to study with a portrait painter named Bon Du Mouchel. By 1835 he was studying with , a pupil of Baron Gros, in Cherbourg. A stipend provided by Langlois and others enabled Millet to move to Paris in 1837, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts with Paul Delaroche. In 1839 his scholarship was terminated, and his first submission to the Salon, "Saint Anne Instructing the Virgin", was rejected by the jury.
After his first painting, a portrait, was accepted at the Salon of 1840, Millet returned to Cherbourg to begin a career as a portrait painter. However, the following year he married Pauline-Virginie Ono, and they moved to Paris. After rejections at the Salon of 1843 and Pauline's death by consumption in April 1844, Millet returned again to Cherbourg. In 1845 Millet moved to Le Havre with Catherine Lemaire, whom he would marry in a civil ceremony in 1853; they would have nine children and remain together for the rest of Millet's life. In Le Havre he painted portraits and small genre pieces for several months, before moving back to Paris.
It was in Paris in the middle 1840s that Millet befriended Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz, Charles Jacque, and Théodore Rousseau, artists who, like Millet, would become associated with the Barbizon school; Honoré Daumier, whose figure draftsmanship would influence Millet's subsequent rendering of peasant subjects; and , a government bureaucrat who would become a lifelong supporter and eventually the artist's biographer. In 1847 his first Salon success came with the exhibition of a painting "Oedipus Taken down from the Tree", and in 1848 his "Winnower" was bought by the government.
"The Captivity of the Jews in Babylon", Millet's most ambitious work at the time, was unveiled at the Salon of 1848, but was scorned by art critics and the public alike. The painting eventually disappeared shortly thereafter, leading historians to believe that Millet destroyed it. In 1984, scientists at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston x-rayed Millet's 1870 painting "The Young Shepherdess" looking for minor changes, and discovered that it was painted over "Captivity". It is now believed that Millet reused the canvas when materials were in short supply during the Franco-Prussian War.
In 1849, Millet painted "Harvesters", a commission for the state. In the Salon of that year, he exhibited "Shepherdess Sitting at the Edge of the Forest", a very small oil painting which marked a turning away from previous idealized pastoral subjects, in favor of a more realistic and personal approach. In June of that year, he settled in Barbizon with Catherine and their children.
In 1850 Millet entered into an arrangement with Sensier, who provided the artist with materials and money in return for drawings and paintings, while Millet simultaneously was free to continue selling work to other buyers as well. At that year's Salon, he exhibited "Haymakers" and "The Sower", his first major masterpiece and the earliest of the iconic trio of paintings that would include "The Gleaners" and "The Angelus".
From 1850 to 1853, Millet worked on "Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz)", a painting he would consider his most important, and on which he worked the longest. Conceived to rival his heroes Michelangelo and Poussin, it was also the painting that marked his transition from the depiction of symbolic imagery of peasant life to that of contemporary social conditions. It was the only painting he ever dated, and was the first work to garner him official recognition, a second-class medal at the 1853 salon.
In the mid-1850s, Millet produced a small number of etchings of peasant subjects, such as "Man with a Wheelbarrow" (1855) and "Woman Carding Wool" (1855–1857).
This is one of the most well known of Millet's paintings, "The Gleaners" (1857). While Millet was walking the fields around Barbizon, one theme returned to his pencil and brush for seven years—gleaning—the centuries-old right of poor women and children to remove the bits of grain left in the fields following the harvest. He found the theme an eternal one, linked to stories from the Old Testament. In 1857, he submitted the painting "The Gleaners" to the Salon to an unenthusiastic, even hostile, public.
A warm golden light suggests something sacred and eternal in this daily scene where the struggle to survive takes place. During his years of preparatory studies, Millet contemplated how best to convey the sense of repetition and fatigue in the peasants' daily lives. Lines traced over each woman's back lead to the ground and then back up in a repetitive motion identical to their unending, backbreaking labor. Along the horizon, the setting sun silhouettes the farm with its abundant stacks of grain, in contrast to the large shadowy figures in the foreground. The dark homespun dresses of the gleaners cut robust forms against the golden field, giving each woman a noble, monumental strength.
The painting was commissioned by Thomas Gold Appleton, an American art collector based in Boston, Massachusetts. Appleton previously studied with Millet's friend, the Barbizon painter Constant Troyon. It was completed during the summer of 1857. Millet added a steeple and changed the initial title of the work, "Prayer for the Potato Crop" to "The Angelus" when the purchaser failed to take possession of it in 1859. Displayed to the public for the first time in 1865, the painting changed hands several times, increasing only modestly in value, since some considered the artist's political sympathies suspect. Upon Millet's death a decade later, a bidding war between the US and France ensued, ending some years later with a price tag of 800,000 gold francs.
The disparity between the apparent value of the painting and the poor estate of Millet's surviving family was a major impetus in the invention of the droit de suite, intended to compensate artists or their heirs when works are resold.
Despite mixed reviews of the paintings he exhibited at the Salon, Millet's reputation and success grew through the 1860s. At the beginning of the decade, he contracted to paint 25 works in return for a monthly stipend for the next three years and in 1865, another patron, Emile Gavet, began commissioning pastels for a collection that would eventually include 90 works. In 1867, the Exposition Universelle hosted a major showing of his work, with the "Gleaners", "Angelus", and "Potato Planters" among the paintings exhibited. The following year, Frédéric Hartmann commissioned "Four Seasons" for 25,000 francs, and Millet was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.
In 1870, Millet was elected to the Salon jury. Later that year, he and his family fled the Franco-Prussian War, moving to Cherbourg and Gréville, and did not return to Barbizon until late in 1871. His last years were marked by financial success and increased official recognition, but he was unable to fulfill government commissions due to failing health. On January 3, 1875, he married Catherine in a religious ceremony. Millet died on January 20, 1875.
Millet was an important source of inspiration for Vincent van Gogh, particularly during his early period. Millet and his work are mentioned many times in Vincent's letters to his brother Theo. Millet's late landscapes would serve as influential points of reference to Claude Monet's paintings of the coast of Normandy; his structural and symbolic content influenced Georges Seurat as well.
Millet is the main protagonist of Mark Twain's play "Is He Dead?" (1898), in which he is depicted as a struggling young artist who fakes his death to score fame and fortune. Most of the details about Millet in the play are fictional.
Millet's painting "L'homme à la houe" inspired the famous poem "The Man With the Hoe" (1898) by Edwin Markham. His poems also served as the inspiration for American poet David Middleton's collection "The Habitual Peacefulness of Gruchy: Poems After Pictures by Jean-François Millet" (2005).
The "Angelus" was reproduced frequently in the 19th and 20th centuries. Salvador Dalí was fascinated by this work, and wrote an analysis of it, "The Tragic Myth of The Angelus of Millet". Rather than seeing it as a work of spiritual peace, Dalí believed it held messages of repressed sexual aggression. Dalí was also of the opinion that the two figures were praying over their buried child, rather than to the Angelus. Dalí was so insistent on this fact that eventually an X-ray was done of the canvas, confirming his suspicions: the painting contains a painted-over geometric shape strikingly similar to a coffin. However, it is unclear whether Millet changed his mind on the meaning of the painting, or even if the shape actually is a coffin.
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Jacques Callot
Jacques Callot (; – 1635) was a baroque printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine (an independent state on the north-eastern border of France, southwestern border of Germany and overlapping the southern Netherlands). He is an important person in the development of the old master print. He made more than 1,400 etchings that chronicled the life of his period, featuring soldiers, clowns, drunkards, Gypsies, beggars, as well as court life. He also etched many religious and military images, and many prints featured extensive landscapes in their background.
Callot was born and died in Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, now in France. He came from an important family (his father was master of ceremonies at the court of the Duke), and he often describes himself as having noble status in the inscriptions to his prints. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, but soon afterward travelled to Rome where he learned engraving from an expatriate Frenchman, . He probably then studied etching with Antonio Tempesta in Florence, where he lived from 1612 to 1621. More than 2,000 preparatory drawings and studies for prints survive, but no paintings by him are known, and he probably never trained as a painter.
During his period in Florence he became an independent master, and worked often for the Medici court. After the death of Cosimo II de' Medici during 1621, he returned to Nancy where he lived for the rest of his life, visiting Paris and the Netherlands later during the decade. He was commissioned by the courts of Lorraine, France and Spain, and by publishers, mostly in Paris. Although he remained in Nancy, his prints were distributed widely through Europe; Rembrandt was a keen collector of them.
His technique was exceptional, and was helped by important technical advances he made. He developed the échoppe, a type of etching-needle with a slanting oval section at the end, which enabled etchers to create a swelling line, as engravers were able to do.
He also seems to have been responsible for an improved recipe for the etching ground that coated the plate and was removed to form the image, using lute-makers varnish rather than a wax-based formula. This enabled lines to be etched more deeply, prolonging the life of the plate in printing, and also greatly reducing the risk of "foul-biting", such that acid gets through the ground to the plate where it is not intended to, producing spots or blotches on the image. Previously the risk of foul-biting had always been present, preventing an engraver from investing too much time on a single plate that risked being ruined by foul-biting. Now etchers could do the very detailed work that was previously the monopoly of engravers, and Callot made good use of the new possibilities.
He also made more extensive and sophisticated use of multiple "stoppings-out" than previous etchers had done. This is the technique of letting the acid dissolve lightly over the whole plate, then stopping-out those parts of the work which the artist wishes to keep shallow by covering them with ground before bathing the plate in acid again. He achieved unprecedented subtlety in effects of distance and light and shade by careful control of this process. Most of his prints were relatively small – as much as about six inches or 15 cm on their longest dimension.
One of his devotees, the Parisian Abraham Bosse spread Callot's innovations all over Europe with the first published manual of etching, which was translated into Italian, Dutch, German and English.
His most famous prints are his two series of prints each on "the Miseries and Misfortunes of War". These are known as "Les Grandes Misères de la guerre", consisting of 18 prints published during 1633, and the earlier and incomplete "Les Petites Misères" – referring to their sizes, large and small (though even the large set are only about 8 x 13 cm). These images show soldiers pillaging and burning their way through towns, country and convents, before being variously arrested and executed by their superiors, lynched by peasants, or surviving to live as crippled beggars. At the end the generals are rewarded by their monarch. During 1633, the year the larger set was published, Lorraine had been invaded by the French during the Thirty Years' War and Callot's artwork is still noted with Francisco Goya's "Los Desastres de la Guerra" ("The Disasters of War"), which was influenced by Callot – (Goya owned a series of the prints), as among the most powerful artistic statements of the inhumanity of war.
Callot's series of "Grotesque Dwarves" were to inspire Derby porcelain and other companies to create pottery figures known as "Mansion House Dwarves" or "Grotesque Dwarves". The former title comes from a father and son who were paid to wander around the Mansion House in London wearing oversized hats that contained advertisements.
Varie Figure Gobbi – Series of 21 etchings, 1616
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Joseph Campbell
Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.
Since the publication of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", Campbell's theories have been applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. His philosophy has been summarized by his own often repeated phrase: "Follow your bliss." He gained recognition in Hollywood when George Lucas credited Campbell's work as influencing his "Star Wars" saga.
Campbell's approach to folklore topics such as myth and his influence on popular culture has been the subject of criticism, including from folklorists, academics in folklore studies.
Joseph Campbell was born in White Plains, New York, on March 26, 1904, the elder son of hosiery importer and wholesaler Charles William Campbell, from Waltham, Massachusetts, and Josephine (née Lynch), from New York. Campbell was raised in an upper-middle-class Irish Catholic family; he related that his paternal grandfather Charles had been "a peasant" who came to Boston from County Mayo in Ireland, and became the gardener and caretaker at the Lyman estate at Waltham, where his son Charles William Campbell grew up and became a successful salesman at a department store prior to establishing his hosiery business. During his childhood, he moved with his family to nearby New Rochelle, New York. In 1919, a fire destroyed the family home in New Rochelle, killing his maternal grandmother and injuring his father, who tried to save her.
In 1921, Campbell graduated from the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. While at Dartmouth College he studied biology and mathematics, but decided that he preferred the humanities. He transferred to Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1925 and a Master of Arts degree in medieval literature in 1927. At Dartmouth he had joined Delta Tau Delta. An accomplished athlete, he received awards in track and field events, and, for a time, was among the fastest half-mile runners in the world.
In 1924, Campbell traveled to Europe with his family. On the ship during his return trip he encountered the messiah elect of the Theosophical Society, Jiddu Krishnamurti; they discussed Indian philosophy, sparking in Campbell an interest in Hindu and Indian thought. In 1927, he received a fellowship from Columbia University to study in Europe. Campbell studied Old French, Provençal, and Sanskrit at the University of Paris and the University of Munich. He learned to read and speak French and German.
On his return to Columbia University in 1929, Campbell expressed a desire to pursue the study of Sanskrit and modern art in addition to medieval literature. Lacking faculty approval, Campbell withdrew from graduate studies. Later in life he jested that it is a sign of incompetence to have a PhD in the liberal arts, the discipline covering his work.
With the arrival of the Great Depression, Campbell spent the next five years (1929–1934) living in a rented shack in Woodstock, New York. There, he contemplated the next course of his life while engaged in intensive and rigorous independent study. He later said that he "would divide the day into four three-hour periods, of which I would be reading in three of the three-hour periods, and free one of them ... I would get nine hours of sheer reading done a day. And this went on for five years straight."
Campbell traveled to California for a year (1931–1932), continuing his independent studies and becoming close friends with the budding writer John Steinbeck and his wife Carol. Campbell was introduced to the Steinbecks by author and early nutritionist Adelle Davis whom he met and developed a close relationship with on a cruise to the Caribbean with his father in December 1929. On the Monterey Peninsula, Campbell, like John Steinbeck, fell under the spell of the marine biologist Ed Ricketts (the model for "Doc" in Steinbeck's novel "Cannery Row" as well as central characters in several other novels). Campbell lived for a while next door to Ricketts, participated in professional and social activities at his neighbor's, and accompanied him, along with Xenia and Sasha Kashevaroff, on a 1932 journey to Juneau, Alaska on the "Grampus". Campbell began writing a novel centered on Ricketts as a hero but, unlike Steinbeck, did not complete his book.
Bruce Robison writes that
Campbell continued his independent reading while teaching for a year in 1933 at the Canterbury School, during which time he also attempted to publish works of fiction. While teaching at the Canterbury School, Campbell sold his first short story "Strictly Platonic" to "Liberty" magazine.
In 1934, Campbell accepted a position as Professor of Literature at Sarah Lawrence College. In 1938, he married one of his former students, the dancer-choreographer Jean Erdman. For most of their 49 years of marriage they shared a two-room apartment in Greenwich Village in New York City. In the 1980s they also purchased an apartment in Honolulu and divided their time between the two cities. They did not have any children.
Early in World War II, Campbell attended a lecture by the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer; the two men became good friends. After Zimmer's death, Campbell was given the task of editing and posthumously publishing Zimmer's papers, which he would do over the following decade.
In 1955–1956, as the last volume of Zimmer's posthumous ("The Art of Indian Asia, Its Mythology and Transformations") was finally about to be published, Campbell took a sabbatical from Sarah Lawrence College and traveled, for the first time, to Asia. He spent six months in southern Asia (mostly India) and another six in East Asia (mostly Japan). This year had a profound influence on his thinking about Asian religion and myth, and also on the necessity for teaching comparative mythology to a larger, non-academic audience.
In 1972, Campbell retired from Sarah Lawrence College, after having taught there for 38 years.
Campbell attended a Grateful Dead concert in 1986, and marveled that "Everyone has just lost themselves in everybody else here!" With the Dead, Campbell put on a conference called "Ritual and Rapture from Dionysus to the Grateful Dead".
Campbell died at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, on October 30, 1987, from complications of esophageal cancer. Before his death he had completed filming the series of interviews with Bill Moyers that aired the following spring as "The Power of Myth". He is buried in O'ahu Cemetery, Honolulu.
Campbell often referred to the work of modern writers James Joyce and Thomas Mann in his lectures and writings, as well as to the art of Pablo Picasso. He was introduced to their work during his stay as a graduate student in Paris. Campbell eventually corresponded with Mann.
The "follow your bliss" philosophy attributed to Campbell following the original broadcast of "The Power of Myth" (see below) derives from the Hindu Upanishads; however, Campbell was possibly also influenced by the 1922 Sinclair Lewis novel "Babbitt". In "The Power of Myth," Campbell quotes from the novel:
The anthropologist Leo Frobenius and his disciple Adolf Ellegard Jensen were important to Campbell's view of cultural history. Campbell was also influenced by the psychological work of Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof.
Campbell's ideas regarding myth and its relation to the human psyche are dependent in part on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, but in particular on the work of Jung, whose studies of human psychology greatly influenced Campbell. Campbell's conception of myth is closely related to the Jungian method of dream interpretation, which is heavily reliant on symbolic interpretation. Jung's insights into archetypes were heavily influenced by the "Bardo Thodol" (also known as "The Tibetan Book of the Dead"). In his book "The Mythic Image", Campbell quotes Jung's statement about the "Bardo Thodol", that it
Campbell's concept of "monomyth" (one myth) refers to the theory that sees all mythic narratives as variations of a single great story. The theory is based on the observation that a common pattern exists beneath the narrative elements of most great myths, regardless of their origin or time of creation. Campbell often referred to the ideas of Adolf Bastian and his distinction between what he called "folk" and "elementary" ideas, the latter referring to the prime matter of monomyth while the former to the multitude of local forms the myth takes in order to remain an up-to-date carrier of sacred meanings. The central pattern most studied by Campbell is often referred to as "the hero's journey" and was first described in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949). An enthusiast of novelist James Joyce, Campbell borrowed the term "monomyth" from Joyce's "Finnegans Wake". Campbell also made heavy use of Carl Jung's theories on the structure of the human psyche, and he often used terms such as "anima"/"animus" and "ego consciousness".
As a strong believer in the psychic unity of mankind and its poetic expression through mythology, Campbell made use of the concept to express the idea that the whole of the human race can be seen as engaged in the effort of making the world ""transparent to transcendence"" by showing that underneath the world of phenomena lies an eternal source which is constantly pouring its energies into this world of time, suffering, and ultimately death. To achieve this task one needs to speak about things that existed before and beyond words, a seemingly impossible task, the solution to which lies in the metaphors found in myths. These metaphors are statements that point beyond themselves into the transcendent. The Hero's Journey was the story of the man or woman who, through great suffering, reached an experience of the eternal source and returned with gifts powerful enough to set their society free.
As this story spread through space and evolved through time, it was broken down into various local forms (masks), depending on the social structures and environmental pressures that existed for the culture that interpreted it. The basic structure, however, has remained relatively unchanged and can be classified using the various stages of a hero's adventure through the story, stages such as "the Call to Adventure, Receiving Supernatural Aid, Meeting with the Goddess/Atonement with the Father" and "Return". These stages, as well as the symbols one encounters throughout the story, provide the necessary metaphors to express the spiritual truths the story is trying to convey. Metaphor for Campbell, in contrast with "comparisons" which make use of the word "like", pretend to a literal interpretation of what they are referring to, as in the sentence "Jesus is the Son of God" rather than "the relationship of man to God is "like" that of a son to a father".
In the 2000 documentary "Joseph Campbell: A Hero's Journey", he explains God in terms of a metaphor:
God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being. Those are categories of thought. I mean it's as simple as that. So it depends on how much you want to think about it. Whether it's doing you any good. Whether it is putting you in touch with the mystery that's the ground of your own being. If it isn't, well, it's a lie. So half the people in the world are religious people who think that their metaphors are facts. Those are what we call theists. The other half are people who know that the metaphors are not facts. And so, they're lies. Those are the atheists.
Some scholars have disagreed with the concept of the "monomyth" because of its oversimplification of different cultures. According to Robert Ellwood, "A tendency to think in generic terms of people, races ... is undoubtedly the profoundest flaw in mythological thinking."
Campbell often described mythology as having a fourfold function within human society. These appear at the end of his work "The Masks of God: Creative Mythology", as well as various lectures.
Campbell's view of mythology was by no means static and his books describe in detail how mythologies evolved through time, reflecting the realities in which each society had to adjust. Various stages of cultural development have different yet identifiable mythological systems. In brief these are:
In 1991, Campbell's widow, choreographer Jean Erdman, worked with Campbell's longtime friend and editor, Robert Walter, to create the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
Initiatives undertaken by the JCF include: "The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell", a series of books and recordings that aims to pull together Campbell's myriad-minded work; the Erdman Campbell Award; the Mythological RoundTables, a network of local groups around the globe that explore the subjects of comparative mythology, psychology, religion and culture; and the collection of Campbell's library and papers housed at the OPUS Archives and Research Center.
George Lucas was the first Hollywood filmmaker to credit Campbell's influence. Lucas stated, following the release of the first "Star Wars" film in 1977, that its story was shaped, in part, by ideas described in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and other works of Campbell's. The linkage between "Star Wars" and Campbell was further reinforced when later reprints of Campbell's book used the image of Luke Skywalker on the cover. Lucas discusses this influence at great length in the authorized biography of Joseph Campbell, "A Fire in the Mind":
I came to the conclusion after "American Graffiti" that what's valuable for me is to set standards, not to show people the world the way it is...around the period of this realization...it came to me that there really was no modern use of mythology...The Western was possibly the last generically American fairy tale, telling us about our values. And once the Western disappeared, nothing has ever taken its place. In literature we were going off into science fiction...so that's when I started doing more strenuous research on fairy tales, folklore, and mythology, and I started reading Joe's books. Before that I hadn't read any of Joe's books...It was very eerie because in reading "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" I began to realize that my first draft of "Star Wars" was following classic motifs... So I modified my next draft according to what I'd been learning about classical motifs and made it a little bit more consistent...I went on to read 'The Masks of God' and many other books.
It was not until after the completion of the original "Star Wars" trilogy in 1983, however, that Lucas met Campbell or heard any of his lectures. In 1984, Campbell gave a lecture at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, with Lucas in the audience, who was introduced through their mutual friend Barbara McClintock. A few years later, Lucas invited Campbell to watch the entire "Star Wars" trilogy at Skywalker Ranch, which Campbell called "real art". This meeting led to the filming of the 1988 documentary "The Power of Myth" at Skywalker Ranch. In his interviews with Bill Moyers, Campbell discusses the way in which Lucas used "The Hero's Journey" in the "Star Wars" films (IV, V, and VI) to re-invent the mythology for the contemporary viewer. Moyers and Lucas filmed an interview 12 years later in 1999 called the "Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers" to further discuss the impact of Campbell's work on Lucas' films. In addition, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution sponsored an exhibit during the late 1990s called "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth", which discussed the ways in which Campbell's work shaped the "Star Wars" films.
Many filmmakers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have acknowledged the influence of Campbell's work on their own craft. Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood screenwriter, created a seven-page company memo based on Campbell's work, "A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces", which led to the development of Disney's 1994 film "The Lion King". Among films that many viewers have recognized as closely following the pattern of the monomyth are "The Matrix" series, the Batman series and the "Indiana Jones" series. Dan Harmon, the creator of the TV show "Community", often references Campbell as a major influence. According to him, he uses a "story circle" to formulate every story he writes, in a formulation of Campbell's work.
After the explosion of popularity brought on by the "Star Wars" films and "The Power of Myth", creative artists in many media recognized the potential to use Campbell's theories to try to unlock human responses to narrative patterns. Novelists, songwriters, video game designers have studied Campbell's work in order to better understand mythology – in particular, the monomyth – and its impact.
The novelist Richard Adams acknowledges a debt to Campbell's work and specifically to the concept of the monomyth. In his best known work, "Watership Down", Adams uses extracts from "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" as chapter epigrams.
Dan Brown mentioned in a "New York Times" interview that Joseph Campbell's works, particularly "The Power of Myth" and "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", inspired him to create the character of Robert Langdon.
One of Campbell's most identifiable, most quoted and arguably most misunderstood sayings was his admonition to "follow your bliss". He derived this idea from the Upanishads:
Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat-Chit-Ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked.
He saw this not merely as a mantra, but as a helpful guide to the individual along the hero journey that each of us walks through life:
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.
Campbell began sharing this idea with students during his lectures in the 1970s. By the time that "The Power of Myth" was aired in 1988, six months following Campbell's death, "Follow your bliss" was a philosophy that resonated deeply with the American public—both religious and secular.
During his later years, when some students took him to be encouraging hedonism, Campbell is reported to have grumbled, "I should have said, 'Follow your "blisters".'"
Campbell's approach to myth, a genre of folklore, has been the subject of criticism from folklorists, academics who specialize in folklore studies. American folklorist Barre Toelken notes that few psychologists have taken the time to become familiar with the complexities of folklore, and that, historically, Jung-influenced psychologists and authors have tended to build complex theories around single versions of a tale that supports a theory or a proposal. To illustrate his point, Toelken employs Clarissa Pinkola Estés's (1992) "Women Who Run with the Wolves", citing its inaccurate representation of the folklore record, and Campbell's "monomyth" approach as another. Regarding Campbell, Toelken writes, "Campbell could construct a monomyth of the hero only by citing those stories that fit his preconceived mold, and leaving out equally valid stories ... which did not fit the pattern". Toelken traces the influence of Campbell's monomyth theory into other then-contemporary popular works, such as Robert Bly's "" (1990), which he says suffers from similar source selection bias.
Similarly, American folklorist Alan Dundes is highly criticial of both Campbell's approach to folklore, designating him as a "non-expert" and outlining various examples of source bias in Campbell's theories, as well as media representation of Campbell as an expert on the subject of myth in popular culture. Dundes writes, "Folklorists have had some success in publicising the results of our efforts in the past two centuries such that members of other disciplines have, after a minimum of reading, believe they are qualified to speak authoritively of folkloristic matters. It seems that the world is full of self-proclaimed experts in folklore, and a few, such as Campbell, have been accepted as such by the general public (and public television, in the case of Campbell)". According to Dundes, "there is no single idea promulgated by amateurs that has done more harm to serious folklore study than the notion of archetype".
According to anthropologist Raymond Scupin, "Joseph Campbell's theories have not been well received in anthropology because of his overgeneralizations, as well as other problems."
Campbell's Sanskrit scholarship has been questioned. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, a former Sanskrit professor at the University of Toronto, said that he once met Campbell, and that the two "hated each other at sight", commenting that, "When I met Campbell at a public gathering, he was quoting Sanskrit verses. He had no clue as to what he was talking about; he had the most superficial knowledge of India but he could use it for his own aggrandizement. I remember thinking: this man is corrupt. I know that he was simply "lying" about his understanding". According to Richard Buchen, librarian of the Joseph Campbell Collection at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Campbell could not translate Sanskrit well. However, Buchen adds that Campbell worked closely with three scholars who did translate Sanskrit well.
Ellwood observes that "The Masks of God" series "impressed literate laity more than specialists"; he quotes Stephen P. Dunn as remarking that in "Occidental Mythology" Campbell "writes in a curiously archaic style – full of rhetorical questions, exclamations of wonder and delight, and expostulations directed at the reader, or perhaps at the author's other self – which is charming about a third of the time and rather annoying the rest." Ellwood notes that "Campbell was not really a social scientist, and those in the latter camp could tell" and records a concern about Campbell's "oversimpification of historical matters and tendency to make myth mean whatever he wanted it to mean". The critic Camille Paglia, writing in "Sexual Personae" (1990), expressed disagreement with Campbell's "negative critique of fifth-century Athens" in "Occidental Mythology", arguing that Campbell missed the "visionary and exalted" androgyny in Greek statues of nude boys. Paglia has written that while Campbell is "a seminal figure for many American feminists", she loathes him for his "mawkishness and bad research." Paglia has called Campbell "mushy" and a "false teacher", and described his work as a "fanciful, showy mishmash".
Campbell has also been accused of antisemitism by some authors. In a 1989 "New York Review of Books" article, Brendan Gill accused Campbell of both antisemitism and prejudice against blacks. Gill's article resulted in a series of letters to the editor, some supporting the charge of antisemitism or accusing Campbell of having various right-wing biases, others defending him. However, according to Robert Ellwood, Gill relied on "scraps of evidence, largely anecdotal" to support his charges. In 1991, Masson also accused Campbell of "hidden anti-Semitism" and "fascination with conservative, semifascistic views". Contrarily, the "fascist undercurrents" in Campbell's work and especially its influence on "Star Wars" have been called "a reminder of how easily totalitarianism can knock at any society's door."
The religious studies scholar Russell T. McCutcheon characterized the "following [of] the bliss of self-realization" in Campbell's work as "spiritual and psychological legitimation" for Reaganomics.
The first published work that bore Campbell's name was "Where the Two Came to Their Father" (1943), an account of a Navajo ceremony that was performed by singer (medicine man) Jeff King and recorded by artist and ethnologist Maud Oakes, recounting the story of two young heroes who go to the hogan of their father, the Sun, and return with the power to destroy the monsters that are plaguing their people. Campbell provided a commentary. He would use this tale through the rest of his career to illustrate both the universal symbols and structures of human myths and the particulars ("folk ideas") of Native American stories.
As noted above, James Joyce was an important influence on Campbell. Campbell's first important book (with Henry Morton Robinson), "A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake" (1944), is a critical analysis of Joyce's final text "Finnegans Wake". In addition, Campbell's seminal work, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949), discusses what Campbell called the "monomyth" – the cycle of the journey of the hero – a term that he borrowed directly from Joyce's "Finnegans Wake".
From his days in college through the 1940s, Joseph Campbell turned his hand to writing fiction. In many of his later stories (published in the posthumous collection "Mythic Imagination") he began to explore the mythological themes that he was discussing in his Sarah Lawrence classes. These ideas turned him eventually from fiction to non-fiction.
Originally titled "How to Read a Myth", and based on the introductory class on mythology that he had been teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" was published in 1949 as Campbell's first foray as a solo author; it established his name outside of scholarly circles and remains, arguably, his most influential work to this day. The book argues that hero stories such as Krishna, Buddha, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus all share a similar mythological basis. Not only did it introduce the concept of the hero's journey to popular thinking, but it also began to popularize the very idea of comparative mythology itself—the study of the human impulse to create stories and images that, though they are clothed in the motifs of a particular time and place, draw nonetheless on universal, eternal themes. Campbell asserted:
Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed. The living images become only remote facts of a distant time or sky. Furthermore, it is never difficult to demonstrate that as science and history, mythology is absurd. When a civilization begins to reinterpret its mythology in this way, the life goes out of it, temples become museums, and the link between the two perspectives becomes dissolved.
Published between 1959 and 1968, Campbell's four-volume work "The Masks of God" covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" focused on the commonality of mythology (the "elementary ideas"), the " Masks of God" books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the "folk ideas"). In other words, where "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" draws perhaps more from psychology, the " Masks of God" books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of "Masks of God" are as follows: "Primitive Mythology", "Oriental Mythology", "Occidental Mythology", and "Creative Mythology".
The book is quoted by proponents of the Christ myth theory. Campbell writes, "It is clear that, whether accurate or not as to biographical detail, the moving legend of the Crucified and Risen Christ was fit to bring a new warmth, immediacy, and humanity, to the old motifs of the beloved Tammuz, Adonis, and Osiris cycles."
At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working on a large-format, lavishly illustrated series titled "Historical Atlas of World Mythology". This series was to build on Campbell's idea, first presented in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", that myth evolves over time through four stages:
Only the first volume was completed at the time of Campbell's death. Campbell's editor Robert Walter completed the publication of the first three of five parts of the second volume after Campbell's death. The works are now out of print. , Joseph Campbell Foundation is currently undertaking to create a new, ebook edition.
Campbell's widest popular recognition followed his collaboration with Bill Moyers on the PBS series "The Power of Myth", which was first broadcast in 1988, the year following Campbell's death. The series discusses mythological, religious, and psychological archetypes. A book, "The Power of Myth", containing expanded transcripts of their conversations, was released shortly after the original broadcast.
The "Collected Works of Joseph Campbell" series is a project initiated by the Joseph Campbell Foundation to release new, authoritative editions of Campbell's published and unpublished writing, as well as audio and video recordings of his lectures. Working with New World Library and Acorn Media UK, as well as publishing audio recordings and ebooks under its own banner, the project has produced over seventy-five titles. The series's executive editor is Robert Walter, and the managing editor is David Kudler.
Books
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16315
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John Dowland
John Dowland (1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe" and "In darkness let me dwell", but his instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and with the 20th century's early music revival, has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists.
Very little is known of John Dowland's early life, but it is generally thought he was born in London; some sources even put his birth year as 1562. Irish historian W. H. Grattan Flood claimed that he was born in Dalkey, near Dublin, but no corroborating evidence has ever been found either for that or for Thomas Fuller's claim that he was born in Westminster. There is, however, one very clear piece of evidence pointing to Dublin as his place of origin: he dedicated the song "From Silent Night" to 'my loving countryman Mr. John Forster the younger, merchant of Dublin in Ireland'. The Forsters were a prominent Dublin family at the time, providing several Lord Mayors to the city.
In 1580 Dowland went to Paris, where he was in service to Sir Henry Cobham, the ambassador to the French court, and his successor Sir Edward Stafford. He became a Roman Catholic at this time. In 1584, Dowland moved back to England and married. In 1588 he was admitted Mus. Bac. from Christ Church, Oxford. In 1594 a vacancy for a lutenist came up at the English court, but Dowland's application was unsuccessful – he claimed his religion led to his not being offered a post at Elizabeth I's Protestant court. However, his conversion was not publicised, and being Catholic did not prevent some other important musicians (such as William Byrd) from a court career.
From 1598 Dowland worked at the court of Christian IV of Denmark, though he continued to publish in London. King Christian was very interested in music and paid Dowland astronomical sums; his salary was 500 daler a year, making him one of the highest-paid servants of the Danish court. Though Dowland was highly regarded by King Christian, he was not the ideal servant, often overstaying his leave when he went to England on publishing business or for other reasons. Dowland was dismissed in 1606 and returned to England; in early 1612 he secured a post as one of James I's lutenists. There are few compositions dating from the moment of his royal appointment until his death in London in 1626. While the date of his death is not known, "Dowland's last payment from the court was on 20 January 1626, and he was buried at St Ann's, Blackfriars, London, on 20 February 1626."
Two major influences on Dowland's music were the popular consort songs, and the dance music of the day. Most of Dowland's music is for his own instrument, the lute. It includes several books of solo lute works, lute songs (for one voice and lute), part-songs with lute accompaniment, and several pieces for viol consort with lute. The poet Richard Barnfield wrote that Dowland's "heavenly touch upon the lute doth ravish human sense."
One of his better known works is the lute song "Flow my tears", the first verse of which runs:
He later wrote what is probably his best known instrumental work, "Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans", a set of seven pavanes for five viols and lute, each based on the theme derived from the lute song "Flow my tears". It became one of the best known collections of consort music in his time. His pavane, "Lachrymae antiquae", was also popular in the seventeenth century, and was arranged and used as a theme for variations by many composers. He wrote a lute version of the popular ballad "My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home".
Dowland's music often displays the melancholia that was so fashionable in music at that time. He wrote a consort piece with the punning title ""Semper Dowland, semper dolens"" (always Dowland, always doleful), which may be said to sum up much of his work.
Richard Barnfield, Dowland's contemporary, refers to him in poem VIII of "The Passionate Pilgrim" (1598), a Shakespearean sonnet:
Only one comprehensive monograph of Dowland's life and works is available in print. The fullest list is that compiled by Diana Poulton in her "The collected Lute Music of John Dowland". "P" numbers are therefore sometimes used to designate individual pieces.
Published by Thomas Est in 1592, "The Whole Booke of Psalmes" contained works by 10 composers, including 6 pieces by Dowland.
The "New Booke of Tabliture" was published by William Barley in 1596. It contains seven solo lute pieces by Dowland.
Written for the professional choir of Westminster Abbey.
Of uncertain attribution are:
Dowland in London in 1597 published his "First Booke of Songes or Ayres", a set of 21 lute-songs and one of the most influential collections in the history of the lute. It is set out in a way that allows performance by a soloist with lute accompaniment or by various other combinations of singers and instrumentalists. The lute-songs are listed below. After them, at the end of the collection, comes "My Lord Chamberlaine, His Galliard", a piece for two people to play on one lute.
Dowland published his "Second Booke of Songs or Ayres" in 1600. It has 22 lute songs:
"The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Aires was published in 1603.
The 21 songs are:
The "Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares" was published in 1604. It contains the seven pavans of Lachrimae itself and 14 others, including the famous "Semper Dowland semper Dolens".
Dowland published a translation of the "Micrologus" of Andreas Ornithoparcus in 1609, originally printed in Leipzig in 1517.
This was published by Dowland's son Robert in 1610 and contains solo lute works by his father.
This was likewise published by Dowland's son that year. It contains three songs by his father:
Dowland's last work "A Pilgrimes Solace", was published in 1612, and seems to have been conceived more as a collection of contrapuntal music than as solo works.
Many of Dowland's works survive only in manuscript form.
Dowland performed a number of espionage assignments for Sir Robert Cecil in France and Denmark; despite his high rate of pay, Dowland seems to have been only a court musician. However, we have in his own words the fact that he was for a time embroiled in treasonous Catholic intrigue in Italy, whither he had travelled in the hopes of meeting and studying with Luca Marenzio, a famed madrigal composer. Whatever his religion, however, he was still intensely loyal to the Queen, though he seems to have had something of a grudge against her for her remark that he, Dowland, "was a man to serve any prince in the world, but [he] was an obstinate Papist." But in spite of this, and though the plotters offered him a large sum of money from the Pope, as well as safe passage for his wife and children to come to him from England, in the end he declined to have anything further to do with their plans and begged pardon from Sir Robert Cecil and from the Queen.
John Dowland was married and had children, as referenced in his letter to Sir Robert Cecil. However, he had long periods of separation from his family, as his wife stayed in England while he worked on the Continent.
His son Robert Dowland (c. 1591 – 1641) was also a musician, working for some time in the service of the first Earl of Devonshire, and taking over his father's position of lutenist at court when John died.
Dowland's melancholic lyrics and music have often been described as his attempts to develop an "artistic persona" in spite of actually being a cheerful person, but many of his own personal complaints, and the tone of bitterness in many of his comments, suggest that much of his music and his melancholy truly did come from his own personality and frustration.
One of the first 20th-century musicians who successfully helped reclaim Dowland from the history books was the singer-songwriter Frederick Keel. Keel included fifteen Dowland pieces in his two sets of "Elizabethan love songs" published in 1909 and 1913, which achieved popularity in their day. These free arrangements for piano and low or high voice were intended to fit the tastes and musical practices associated with art songs of the time.
In 1935, Australian-born composer Percy Grainger, who also had a deep interest in music made before Bach, arranged Dowland's "Now, O now I needs must part" for piano. Some years later, in 1953, Grainger wrote a work titled "Bell Piece (Ramble on John Dowland's 'Now, O now I needs must part')", which was a version scored for voice and wind band, based on his previously mentioned transcription.
In 1951 Alfred Deller, the famous counter-tenor (1912–1979), recorded songs by Dowland, Thomas Campion, and Philip Rosseter with the label HMV (His Master's Voice) HMV C.4178 and another HMV C.4236 of Dowland's "Flow my Tears". In 1977, Harmonia Mundi also published two records of Deller singing Dowland's Lute songs (HM 244&245-H244/246).
Dowland's song "Come Heavy Sleepe, the Image of True Death" was the inspiration for Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal after John Dowland", written in 1963 for the guitarist Julian Bream. It consists of eight variations, all based on musical themes drawn from the song or its lute accompaniment, finally resolving into a guitar setting of the song itself.
Dowland's music became part of the repertoire of the early music revival with lutenist Julian Bream and tenor Peter Pears, and later with Christopher Hogwood and David Munrow and the Early Music Consort in the late 1960s and later with the Academy of Ancient Music from the early 1970s.
Jan Akkerman, guitarist of the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, recorded "Tabernakel" in 1973 (though released in 1974), an album of John Dowland songs and some original material, performed on lute.
The complete works of John Dowland were recorded by the Consort of Musicke, and released on the L'Oiseau Lyre label, though they recorded some of the songs as vocal consort music; the "Third Book of Songs" and "A Pilgrim's Solace" have yet to be recorded in their entirety as collections of solo songs.
The 1999 ECM New Series recording "In Darkness Let Me Dwell" features new interpretations of Dowland songs performed by tenor John Potter, lutenist Stephen Stubbs, and baroque violinist Maya Homburger in collaboration with English jazz musicians John Surman and Barry Guy.
Nigel North recorded Dowland's complete works for solo lute on four CDs between 2004 and 2007, on Naxos records.
Paul O'Dette recorded the complete lute works for Harmonia Mundi on five CDs issued from 1995 to 1997.
Elvis Costello included a recording (with Fretwork and the Composers Ensemble) of Dowland's "Can she excuse my wrongs" as a bonus track on the 2006 re-release of his "The Juliet Letters".
In October 2006, Sting, who says he has been fascinated by the music of John Dowland for 25 years, released an album featuring Dowland's songs titled "Songs from the Labyrinth", on Deutsche Grammophon, in collaboration with Edin Karamazov on lute and archlute. They described their treatment of Dowland's work in a "Great Performances" appearance. To give some idea of the tone and intrigues of life in late Elizabethan England, Sting also recites throughout the album portions of a 1593 letter written by Dowland to Sir Robert Cecil. The letter describes Dowland's travels to various points of Western Europe, then breaks into a detailed account of his activities in Italy, along with a heartfelt denial of the charges of treason whispered against him by unknown persons. Dowland most likely was suspected of this for travelling to the courts of various Catholic monarchs and accepting payment from them greater than what a musician of the time would normally have received for performing.
SF writer Philip K. Dick referred to Dowland in many of his works, even using pseudonym "Jack Dowland" once.
"The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland", with lute tablature and keyboard notation, was transcribed and edited by Diana Poulton and Basil Lam, Faber Music Limited, London 1974.
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John James Audubon
John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoral record of all the bird species of North America. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled "The Birds of America" (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon is also known for having identified 25 new species.
Audubon was born in Les Cayes in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) on his father's sugarcane plantation. He was the son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, a French naval officer (and privateer) from the south of Brittany, and his mistress, Jeanne Rabine, a 27-year-old chambermaid from Les Touches, Brittany (now in the modern region Pays de la Loire). They named him Jean Rabin. Another 1887 biographer has stated that his mother was a lady from a Louisiana plantation. His mother died when he was a few months old, as she had suffered from tropical disease since arriving on the island. His father already had an unknown number of mixed-race children (among them a daughter named Marie-Madeleine), some by his mixed race housekeeper, Catherine "Sanitte" Bouffard (described as a quadroon, meaning she was three-quarters European in ancestry). Following Jeanne Rabin's death, Audubon renewed his relationship with Sanitte Bouffard and had a daughter by her, named Muguet. Bouffard also took care of the infant boy Jean.
The senior Audubon had commanded ships. During the American Revolution, he had been imprisoned by Britain. After his release, he helped the American cause. He had long worked to save money and secure his family's future with real estate. Due to slave unrest in the Caribbean, in 1789 he sold part of his plantation in Saint-Domingue and purchased a 284-acre farm called Mill Grove, 20 miles from Philadelphia, to diversify his investments. Increasing tension in Saint-Domingue between the colonists and the African slaves, who greatly outnumbered them, convinced Jean Audubon to return to France, where he became a member of the Republican Guard. In 1791 he arranged for his natural children, Jean and Muguet, who were majority-white in ancestry, to be transported and delivered to him in France.
The children were raised in Couëron, near Nantes, France, by Audubon and his French wife, Anne Moynet Audubon, whom he had married years before his time in Saint-Domingue. In 1794 they formally adopted both his natural children to regularize their legal status in France. They renamed the boy Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon and the girl Rose. When Audubon, at age 18, boarded ship in 1803 to immigrate to the United States, he changed his name to an anglicized form: John James Audubon.
From his earliest days, Audubon had an affinity for birds. "I felt an intimacy with them...bordering on frenzy [that] must accompany my steps through life." His father encouraged his interest in nature:
He would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and the beauty and softness of their plumage. He called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons.
In France during the chaotic years of the French Revolution and its aftermath, the younger Audubon grew up to be a handsome and gregarious man. He played flute and violin, and learned to ride, fence, and dance. A great walker, he loved roaming in the woods, often returning with natural curiosities, including birds' eggs and nests, of which he made crude drawings. His father planned to make a seaman of his son. At twelve, Audubon went to military school and became a cabin boy. He quickly found out that he was susceptible to seasickness and not fond of mathematics or navigation. After failing the officer's qualification test, Audubon ended his incipient naval career. He was cheerfully back on solid ground and exploring the fields again, focusing on birds.
In 1803, his father obtained a false passport so that Audubon could go to the United States to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic Wars. Jean Audubon and Claude Rozier arranged a business partnership for their sons to pursue in Pennsylvania. It was based on Claude Rozier's buying half of Jean Audubon's share of a plantation in Haiti, and lending money to the partnership as secured by half interest in lead mining at Audubon's property of Mill Grove.
Audubon caught yellow fever upon arrival in New York City. The ship's captain placed him in a boarding house run by Quaker women. They nursed Audubon to recovery and taught him English, including the Quaker form of using "thee" and "thou", otherwise then archaic. He traveled with the family's Quaker lawyer to the Audubon family farm Mill Grove. The homestead is located on the Perkiomen Creek a few miles from Valley Forge.
Audubon lived with the tenants in the two-story stone house, in an area that he considered a paradise. "Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment; cares I knew not, and cared naught about them." Studying his surroundings, Audubon quickly learned the ornithologist's rule, which he wrote down as, "The nature of the place—whether high or low, moist or dry, whether sloping north or south, or bearing tall trees or low shrubs—generally gives hint as to its inhabitants."
His father hoped that the lead mines on the property could be commercially developed, as lead was an essential component of bullets. This could provide his son with a profitable occupation. At Mill Grove, Audubon met the owner of the nearby estate Fatland Ford, William Bakewell, and his daughter Lucy Bakewell Audubon. He was married to Lucy five years later. The two young people shared many common interests, and early on began to spend time together, exploring the natural world around them.
Audubon set about to study American birds, determined to illustrate his findings in a more realistic manner than most artists did then. He began conducting the first known bird-banding on the continent: he tied yarn to the legs of eastern phoebes and determined that they returned to the same nesting spots year after year. He also began drawing and painting birds, and recording their behavior. After an accidental fall into a creek, Audubon contracted a severe fever. He was nursed and recovered at Fatland Ford, with Lucy at his side.
Risking conscription in France, Audubon returned in 1805 to see his father and ask permission to marry. He also needed to discuss family business plans. While there, he met the naturalist and physician Charles-Marie D'Orbigny, who improved Audubon's taxidermy skills and taught him scientific methods of research. Although his return ship was overtaken by an English privateer, Audubon and his hidden gold coins survived the encounter.
Audubon resumed his bird studies and created his own nature museum, perhaps inspired by the great museum of natural history created by Charles Willson Peale in Philadelphia. Peale's bird exhibits were considered scientifically advanced. Audubon's room was brimming with birds' eggs, stuffed raccoons and opossums, fish, snakes, and other creatures. He had become proficient at specimen preparation and taxidermy.
Deeming the mining venture too risky, with his father's approval Audubon sold part of the Mill Grove farm, including the house and mine. He retained some land for investment. He went to New York to learn the import-export trade, hoping to find a business to support his marriage to Lucy. The protective Mr. Bakewell wanted to see the young Frenchman established in a solid career before releasing his daughter to him.
In 1808, Audubon moved to Kentucky, which was rapidly being settled. Six months later, he married Lucy Bakewell. Though their finances were tenuous, the Audubons started a family. They had two sons: Victor Gifford (1809–1860) and John Woodhouse Audubon (1812–1862); and two daughters who died while still young: Lucy at two years (1815–1817) and Rose at nine months (1819–1820). Both sons would eventually help publish their father's works. John W. Audubon became a naturalist, writer, and painter in his own right.
Audubon and Jean Ferdinand Rozier moved their merchant business partnership west at various stages, ending ultimately in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, a former French colonial settlement west of the Mississippi River and south of St. Louis. Shipping goods ahead, Audubon and Rozier started a general store in Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River; the city had an increasingly important slave market and was the most important port between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Soon he was drawing bird specimens again. He regularly burned his earlier efforts to force continuous improvement. He also took detailed field notes to document his drawings.
Due to rising tensions with the British, President Jefferson ordered an embargo on British trade in 1808, adversely affecting Audubon's trading business. In 1810, Audubon moved his business further west to the less competitive Henderson, Kentucky, area. He and his small family took over an abandoned log cabin. In the fields and forests, Audubon wore typical frontier clothes and moccasins, having "a ball pouch, a buffalo horn filled with gunpowder, a butcher knife, and a tomahawk on his belt."
He frequently turned to hunting and fishing to feed his family, as business was slow. On a prospecting trip down the Ohio River with a load of goods, Audubon joined up with Shawnee and Osage hunting parties, learning their methods, drawing specimens by the bonfire, and finally parting "like brethren." Audubon had great respect for Native Americans: "Whenever I meet Indians, I feel the greatness of our Creator in all its splendor, for there I see the man naked from His hand and yet free from acquired sorrow." Audubon also admired the skill of Kentucky riflemen and the "regulators", citizen lawmen who created a kind of justice on the Kentucky frontier. In his travel notes, he claims to have encountered Daniel Boone.
Audubon and Rozier mutually agreed to end their partnership at Ste. Genevieve on April 6, 1811. Audubon had decided to work at ornithology and art, and wanted to return to Lucy and their son in Kentucky. Rozier agreed to pay Audubon $3,000 (), with $1,000 in cash and the balance to be paid over time.
The terms of the dissolution of the partnership include those by Audubon:
Audubon was working in Missouri and out riding when the 1811 New Madrid earthquake struck. When Audubon reached his house, he was relieved to find no major damage, but the area was shaken by aftershocks for months. The quake is estimated by scholars to have ranked from 8.4 to 8.8 on today's Richter Scale of severity, stronger than the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 which is estimated at 7.8. Audubon writes that while on horseback, he first believed the distant rumbling to be the sound of a tornado,
but the animal knew better than I what was forthcoming, and instead of going faster, so nearly stopped that I remarked he placed one foot after another on the ground with as much precaution as if walking on a smooth piece of ice. I thought he had suddenly foundered, and, speaking to him, was on point of dismounting and leading him, when he all of a sudden fell a-groaning pieteously, hung his head, spread out his forelegs, as if to save himself from falling, and stood stock still, continuing to groan. I thought my horse was about to die, and would have sprung from his back had a minute more elapsed; but as that instant all the shrubs and trees began to move from their very roots, the ground rose and fell in successive furrows, like the ruffled water of a lake, and I became bewildered in my ideas, as I too plainly discovered, that all this awful commotion was the result of an earthquake. I had never witnessed anything of the kind before, although like every person, I knew earthquakes by description. But what is description compared to reality! Who can tell the sensations which I experienced when I found myself rocking, as it were, upon my horse, and with him moving to and fro like a child in a cradle, with the most imminent danger around me.
He noted that as the earthquake retreated, "the air was filled with an extremely disagreeable sulphurous odor."
During a visit to Philadelphia in 1812 following Congress' declaration of war against Great Britain, Audubon became an American citizen and had to give up his French citizenship. After his return to Kentucky, he found that rats had eaten his entire collection of more than 200 drawings. After weeks of depression, he took to the field again, determined to re-do his drawings to an even higher standard.
The War of 1812 upset Audubon's plans to move his business to New Orleans. He formed a partnership with Lucy's brother and built up their trade in Henderson. Between 1812 and the Panic of 1819, times were good. Audubon bought land and slaves, founded a flour mill, and enjoyed his growing family. After 1819, Audubon went bankrupt and was thrown into jail for debt. The little money he earned was from drawing portraits, particularly death-bed sketches, greatly esteemed by country folk before photography. He wrote, "[M]y heart was sorely heavy, for scarcely had I enough to keep my dear ones alive; and yet through these dark days I was being led to the development of the talents I loved."
Audubon worked for a brief time as the first paid employee of the Western History Society, now known as The Museum of Natural History at The Cincinnati Museum Center . He then traveled south on the Mississippi with his gun, paintbox, and assistant Joseph Mason, who stayed with him from October 1820 to August 1822 and painted the plant life backgrounds of many of Audubon's bird studies. He was committed to find and paint all the birds of North America for eventual publication. His goal was to surpass the earlier ornithological work of poet-naturalist Alexander Wilson. Though he could not afford to buy Wilson's work, Audubon used it to guide him when he had access to a copy.
In 1818, Rafinesque visited Kentucky and the Ohio River valley to study fishes and was a guest of Audubon. In the middle of the night, Rafinesque noticed a bat in his room and thought it was a new species. He happened to grab Audubon's favourite violin in an effort to knock the bat down, resulting in the destruction of the violin. Audubon reportedly took revenge by showing drawings and describing some fictitious fishes and rodents to Rafinesque; Rafinesque gave scientific names to some of these fishes in his "Ichthyologia Ohiensis".
On October 12, 1820, Audubon traveled into Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida in search of ornithological specimens. He traveled with George Lehman, a professional Swiss landscape artist. The following summer, he moved upriver to the Oakley Plantation in Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, where he taught drawing to Eliza Pirrie, the young daughter of the owners. Though low-paying, the job was ideal, as it afforded him much time to roam and paint in the woods. (The plantation has been preserved as the Audubon State Historic Site, and is located at 11788 Highway 965, between Jackson and St. Francisville.)
Audubon called his future work "The Birds of America". He attempted to paint one page each day. Painting with newly discovered technique, he decided his earlier works were inferior and re-did them. He hired hunters to gather specimens for him. Audubon realized the ambitious project would take him away from his family for months at a time.
Audubon sometimes used his drawing talent to trade for goods or sell small works to raise cash. He made charcoal portraits on demand at $5 each and gave drawing lessons. In 1823 Audubon took lessons in oil painting technique from John Steen, a teacher of American landscape, and history painter Thomas Cole. Though he did not use oils much for his bird work, Audubon earned good money painting oil portraits for patrons along the Mississippi. (Audubon's account reveals that he learned oil painting in December 1822 from Jacob Stein, an itinerant portrait artist. After they had enjoyed all the portrait patronage to be expected in Natchez, Mississippi, during January–March 1823, they resolved to travel together as perambulating portrait-artists.) During this period (1822–1823), Audubon also worked as an instructor at Jefferson College in Washington, Mississippi.
Lucy became the steady breadwinner for the couple and their two young sons. Trained as a teacher, she conducted classes for children in their home. Later she was hired as a local teacher in Louisiana. She boarded with their children at the home of a wealthy plantation owner, as was often the custom of the time.
In 1824, Audubon returned to Philadelphia to seek a publisher for his bird drawings. Though he met Thomas Sully, one of the most famous portrait painters of the time and a valuable ally, Audubon was rebuffed for publication. He had earned the enmity of some of the city's leading scientists at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He took oil painting lessons from Sully and met Charles Bonaparte, who admired his work and recommended he go to Europe to have his bird drawings engraved. Bonaparte also recommended Audubon for membership in the Academy of Natural Sciences, which failed partly because of opposition by ornithologist George Ord who disliked Audubon's dramatic bird poses and considered him to be a "a back-country upstart who romanticized his subject matter," according to the Audubon Galleries.
With his wife's support, in 1826 at age 41, Audubon took his growing collection of work to England. He sailed from New Orleans to Liverpool on the cotton hauling ship "Delos", reaching England in the autumn of 1826 with his portfolio of over 300 drawings. With letters of introduction to prominent Englishmen, Audubon gained their quick attention. "I have been received here in a manner not to be expected during my highest enthusiastic hopes."
The British could not get enough of Audubon's images of backwoods America and its natural attractions. He met with great acceptance as he toured around England and Scotland, and was lionized as "the American woodsman." He raised enough money to begin publishing his "The Birds of America". This monumental work consists of 435 hand-colored, life-size prints of 497 bird species, made from engraved copper plates of various sizes depending on the size of the image. They were printed on sheets measuring about 39 by . The work contains slightly more than 700 North American bird species, of which some were based on specimens collected by fellow ornithologist John Kirk Townsend on his journey across America with Thomas Nuttall in 1834 as part of Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth's second expedition across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
The pages were organized for artistic effect and contrasting interest, as if the reader were taking a visual tour. (Some critics thought he should have organized the plates in Linnaean order as befitting a "serious" ornithological treatise.) The first and perhaps most famous plate was the wild turkey.
The cost of printing the entire work was $115,640 (over $2,000,000 today), paid for from advance subscriptions, exhibitions, oil painting commissions, and animal skins, which Audubon hunted and sold. Audubon's great work was a remarkable accomplishment. It took more than 14 years of field observations and drawings, plus his single-handed management and promotion of the project to make it a success. A reviewer wrote,
All anxieties and fears which overshadowed his work in its beginning had passed away. The prophecies of kind but overprudent friends, who did not understand his self-sustaining energy, had proved untrue; the malicious hope of his enemies, for even the gentle lover of nature has enemies, had been disappointed; he had secured a commanding place in the respect and gratitude of men.
Colorists applied each color in assembly-line fashion (over fifty were hired for the work). The original edition was engraved in aquatint by Robert Havell, Jr., who took over the task after the first ten plates engraved by W. H. Lizars were deemed inadequate. Known as the Double Elephant folio after its double elephant paper size, it is often regarded as the greatest picture book ever produced and the finest aquatint work. By the 1830s, the aquatint process was largely superseded by lithography. A contemporary French critic wrote, "A magic power transported us into the forests which for so many years this man of genius has trod. Learned and ignorant alike were astonished at the spectacle ... It is a real and palpable vision of the New World."
Audubon sold oil-painted copies of the drawings to make extra money and publicize the book. A potential publisher had his portrait painted by John Syme, who clothed the naturalist in frontier clothes. The portrait was hung at the entrance of his exhibitions, promoting his rustic image. (The painting is now held in the White House art collection, and is not frequently displayed.). The New-York Historical Society holds all 435 of the preparatory watercolors for "The Birds of America". Lucy Audubon sold them to the society after her husband's death. All but 80 of the original copper plates were melted down when Lucy Audubon, desperate for money, sold them for scrap to the Phelps Dodge Corporation.
King George IV was among the avid fans of Audubon and subscribed to support publication of the book. London's Royal Society recognized Audubon's achievement by electing him as a fellow. He was the second American to be elected after statesman Benjamin Franklin. While in Edinburgh to seek subscribers for the book, Audubon gave a demonstration of his method of supporting birds with wire at professor Robert Jameson's Wernerian Natural History Association. Student Charles Darwin was in the audience. Audubon also visited the dissecting theatre of the anatomist Robert Knox. Audubon was a hit in France as well, gaining the King and several of the nobility as subscribers.
"The Birds of America" became very popular during Europe's Romantic era. Audubon's dramatic portraits of birds appealed to people in this period's fascination with natural history.
Audubon returned to America in 1829 to complete more drawings for his magnum opus. He also hunted animals and shipped the valued skins to British friends. He was reunited with his family. After settling business affairs, Lucy accompanied him back to England. Audubon found that during his absence, he had lost some subscribers due to the uneven quality of coloring of the plates. Others were in arrears in their payments. His engraver fixed the plates and Audubon reassured subscribers, but a few begged off. He responded, "'The Birds of America' will then raise in value as much as they are now depreciated by certain fools and envious persons." He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1830.
He followed "The Birds of America" with a sequel "Ornithological Biographies". This was a collection of life histories of each species written with Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray. The two books were printed separately to avoid a British law requiring copies of all publications with text to be deposited in Crown libraries, a huge financial burden for the self-published Audubon. Both books were published between 1827 and 1839.
During the 1830s, Audubon continued making expeditions in North America. During a trip to Key West, a companion wrote in a newspaper article, "Mr. Audubon is the most enthusiastic and indefatigable man I ever knew ... Mr. Audubon was neither dispirited by heat, fatigue, or bad luck ... he rose every morning at 3 o'clock and went out ... until 1 o'clock." Then he would draw the rest of the day before returning to the field in the evening, a routine he kept up for weeks and months. In the posthumously published book, "The Life of John James Audubon", edited by his wife and derived primarily from his notes, Audubon related visiting the northeastern Florida coastal sugar plantation of John Joachim Bulow for Christmas 1831/early January 1832. It was started by his father and at 4,675 acres, was the largest in East Florida. Bulow had a sugar mill built there under direction of a Scottish engineer, who accompanied Audubon on an excursion in the region. The mill was destroyed in 1836 in the Seminole Wars. The plantation site is preserved today as the Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park.
In 1833, Audubon sailed north from Maine, accompanied by his son John, and five other young colleagues, to explore the ornithology of Labrador. On the return voyage, their ship "Ripley" made a stop at St. George's, Newfoundland. There Audubon and his assistants documented 36 species of birds.
Audubon painted some of his works while staying at the Key West house and gardens of Capt. John H. Geiger. This site was preserved as the Audubon House and Tropical Gardens.
In 1841, having finished the "Ornithological Biographies", Audubon returned to the United States with his family. He bought an estate on the Hudson River in northern Manhattan. (The roughly 20-acre estate came to be known as Audubon Park in the 1860s when Audubon's widow began selling off parcels of the estate for the development of free-standing single family homes.) Between 1840 and 1844, he published an octavo edition of "The Birds of America", with 65 additional plates. Printed in standard format to be more affordable than the oversize British edition, it earned $36,000 and was purchased by 1100 subscribers. Audubon spent much time on "subscription gathering trips", drumming up sales of the octavo edition, as he hoped to leave his family a sizable income.
Audubon made some excursions out West where he hoped to record Western species he had missed, but his health began to fail. In 1848, he manifested signs of senility or possibly dementia from what is now called Alzheimer's disease, his "noble mind in ruins." He died at his family home in northern Manhattan on January 27, 1851. Audubon is buried in the graveyard at the Church of the Intercession in the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum at 155th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, near his home. An imposing monument in his honor was erected at the cemetery, which is now recognized as part of the Heritage Rose District of NYC.
Audubon's final work dealt with mammals; he prepared "The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" (1845–1849) in collaboration with his good friend Rev John Bachman of Charleston, South Carolina, who supplied much of the scientific text. His son, John Woodhouse Audubon, drew most of the plates. The work was completed by Audubon's sons, and the second volume was published posthumously in 1851.
Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed them using fine shot. He then used wires to prop them into a natural position, unlike the common method of many ornithologists, who prepared and stuffed the specimens into a rigid pose. When working on a major specimen like an eagle, he would spend up to four 15-hour days, preparing, studying, and drawing it. His paintings of birds are set true-to-life in their natural habitat. He often portrayed them as if caught in motion, especially feeding or hunting. This was in stark contrast to the stiff representations of birds by his contemporaries, such as Alexander Wilson. Audubon based his paintings on his extensive field observations. He worked primarily with watercolor early on. He added colored chalk or pastel to add softness to feathers, especially those of owls and herons. He employed multiple layers of watercoloring, and sometimes used gouache. All species were drawn life size which accounts for the contorted poses of the larger birds as Audubon strove to fit them within the page size. Smaller species were usually placed on branches with berries, fruit, and flowers. He used several birds in a drawing to present all views of anatomy and wings. Larger birds were often placed in their ground habitat or perching on stumps. At times, as with woodpeckers, he combined several species on one page to offer contrasting features. He frequently depicted the birds' nests and eggs, and occasionally natural predators, such as snakes. He usually illustrated male and female variations, and sometimes juveniles. In later drawings, Audubon used assistants to render the habitat for him. In addition to faithful renderings of anatomy, Audubon also employed carefully constructed composition, drama, and slightly exaggerated poses to achieve artistic as well as scientific effects.
Audubon's influence on ornithology and natural history was far reaching. Nearly all later ornithological works were inspired by his artistry and high standards. Charles Darwin quoted Audubon three times in "On the Origin of Species" and also in later works. Despite some errors in field observations, he made a significant contribution to the understanding of bird anatomy and behavior through his field notes. "The Birds of America" is still considered one of the greatest examples of book art. Audubon discovered 25 new species and 12 new subspecies.
Audubon is the subject of the 1969 book-length poem, "Audubon: A Vision" by Robert Penn Warren. Stephen Vincent Benét, with his wife Rosemary Benét, included a poem about Audubon in the children's poetry book "A Book of Americans".
Audubon's 1833 trip to Labrador is the subject of the novel "Creation" by Katherine Govier. Audubon and his wife, Lucy, are the chief characters in the "June" section of the Maureen Howard novel "Big as Life: Three Tales for Spring". In the novel "Audubon's Watch", John Gregory Brown explores a mysterious death that took place on a Louisiana plantation when Audubon worked there as a young man.
The 1991 Disney series Darkwing Duck named major locations/landmarks Audubon Bay and the Audubon Bay Bridge after Audubon.
Audubon appears in the short story "Audubon In Atlantis" by Harry Turtledove, published in the 2010 collection "Atlantis and Other Places".
The choral oratorio Audubon by James Kallembach was premiered on November 9, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts by Chorus pro Musica. The work depicts scenes of Audubon's life and descriptions of the birds he drew with text drawn from the 2004 biography by Richard Rhodes.
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John Masefield
John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels "The Midnight Folk" and "The Box of Delights", and the poems "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever".
Masefield was born in Ledbury in Herefordshire, to George Masefield, a solicitor, and his wife Caroline. His mother died giving birth to his sister when Masefield was six and he went to live with his aunt. His father died soon afterwards, following a mental breakdown. After an unhappy education at the King's School in Warwick (now known as Warwick School), where he was a boarder between 1888 and 1891, he left to board , both to train for a life at sea and to break his addiction to reading, of which his aunt thought little. He spent several years aboard this ship, and found that he could spend much of his time reading and writing. It was aboard the "Conway" that Masefield's love of story-telling grew. While he was on the ship he listened to the stories told about sea lore, continued to read, and decided that he was to become a writer and story-teller himself.
In 1894 Masefield boarded the "Gilcruix", destined for Chile. This first voyage brought him the experience of sea sickness, but his record of his experiences while sailing through extreme weather shows his delight in seeing flying fish, porpoises and birds. He was awed by the beauty of nature, including a rare sighting of a nocturnal rainbow, on this voyage. On reaching Chile he suffered from sunstroke and was hospitalised. He eventually returned home to England as a passenger aboard a steamship.
In 1895 Masefield returned to sea on a windjammer destined for New York City. However, the urge to become a writer and the hopelessness of life as a sailor overtook him, and in New York he jumped ship and travelled throughout the countryside. For several months he lived as a vagrant, drifting between odd jobs, before he returned to New York City and found work as a barkeeper's assistant. Some time around Christmas 1895 he read the December edition of "Truth", a New York periodical, which contained the poem "The Piper of Arll" by Duncan Campbell Scott. Ten years later Masefield wrote to Scott to tell him what reading that poem had meant to him:
For the next two years Masefield was employed at the huge Alexander Smith carpet factory in Yonkers, New York, where long hours were expected and conditions were far from ideal. He purchased up to 20 books a week, and devoured both modern and classical literature. His interests at this time were diverse, and his reading included works by George du Maurier, Dumas, Thomas Browne, Hazlitt, Dickens, Kipling, and R. L. Stevenson. Chaucer also became very important to him during this time, as well as Keats and Shelley. Masefield returned home to England in 1897 as a passenger aboard a steamship.
When Masefield was 23 he met his future wife, Constance de la Cherois Crommelin (born 6 February 1867 died 18 February 1960, Rockport, County Antrim, Northern Ireland), who was 35 and of Huguenot descent and they married 23 June 1903 St. Mary, Bryanston Square. Educated in classics and English Literature, and a mathematics teacher, Constance was a good match for him, despite the difference in their ages. The couple had two children, Judith, born Isabel Judith, 28 April 1904, London died 1988, and Lewis, born in 1910, London died 1942.
In 1902 Masefield was put in charge of the fine art section of the Arts and Industrial Exhibition in Wolverhampton. By then his poems were being published in periodicals and his first collection of verse, "Salt-Water Ballads", was published that year. It included the poem "Sea-Fever". Masefield then wrote two novels, "Captain Margaret" (1908) and "Multitude and Solitude" (1909). In 1911, after a long period of writing no poems, he composed "The Everlasting Mercy", the first of his narrative poems, and within the next year had produced two more, "The Widow in the Bye Street" and "Dauber". As a result, he became widely known to the public and was praised by the critics. In 1912 he was awarded the annual Edmond de Polignac Prize.
When the First World War began in 1914 Masefield was old enough to be exempted from military service, but he joined the staff of a British hospital for French soldiers, the Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois in Haute-Marne, serving briefly in 1915 as a hospital orderly. He later published an account of his experiences. At about this time Masefield moved his country retreat from Buckinghamshire to Lollingdon Farm in Cholsey, Berkshire, a setting that inspired a number of poems and sonnets under the title "Lollingdon Downs", and which his family used until 1917.
After returning home Masefield was invited to the United States on a three-month lecture tour. Although his primary purpose was to lecture on English literature, he also intended to collect information on the mood and views of Americans regarding the war in Europe. When he returned to England he submitted a report to the British Foreign Office and suggested that he should be allowed to write a book about the failure of the Allied effort in the Dardanelles that might be used in the United States to counter German propaganda there. The resulting work, "Gallipoli", was a success. Masefield then met the head of British Military Intelligence in France and was asked to write an account of the Battle of the Somme. Although Masefield had grand ideas for his book, he was denied access to official records and what was intended to be the preface was published as "The Old Front Line", a description of the geography of the Somme area.
In 1918 Masefield returned to America on his second lecture tour, spending much of his time speaking and lecturing to American soldiers waiting to be sent to Europe. These speaking engagements were very successful. On one occasion a battalion of black soldiers danced and sang for him after his lecture. During this tour he matured as a public speaker and realised his ability to touch the emotions of his audience with his style of speaking, learning to speak publicly from his own heart rather than from dry scripted speeches. Towards the end of his visit both Yale and Harvard Universities conferred honorary doctorates of letters on him.
Masefield entered the 1920s as an accomplished and respected writer. His family was able to settle on Boar's Hill, a somewhat rural setting not far from Oxford, where Masefield took up beekeeping, goat-herding and poultry-keeping. He continued to meet with success: the first edition of his "Collected Poems" (1923) sold about 80,000 copies. A narrative poem, "Reynard The Fox" (1920), has been critically compared with works by Geoffrey Chaucer, not necessarily to Masefield's credit. This was followed by "Right Royal" and "King Cole", poems in which the relationship between humanity and nature is emphasised.
After "King Cole", Masefield turned away from long poems and back to novels. Between 1924 and 1939 he published 12 novels, which vary from stories of the sea ("The Bird of Dawning", "Victorious Troy") to social novels about modern England ("The Hawbucks", "The Square Peg"), and from tales of an imaginary land in Central America ("Sard Harker", "Odtaa") to fantasies for children ("The Midnight Folk", "The Box of Delights"). In this same period he wrote a large number of dramatic pieces. Most of these were based on Christian themes, and Masefield, to his amazement, encountered a ban on the performance of plays on biblical subjects that went back to the Reformation and had been revived a generation earlier to prevent production of Oscar Wilde's Salome. However, a compromise was reached and in 1928 his "The Coming of Christ" was the first play to be performed in an English cathedral since the Middle Ages.
In 1921 Masefield received an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Oxford. In 1923 he organised Oxford Recitations, an annual contest whose purpose was "to discover good speakers of verse and to encourage 'the beautiful speaking of poetry'." Given the numbers of contest applicants, the event's promotion of natural speech in poetical recitations, and the number of people learning how to listen to poetry, Oxford Recitations was generally deemed a success. Masefield was similarly a founding member, in 1924, of the Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse. He later came to question whether the Oxford events should continue as a contest, considering that they might better be run as a festival. However, in 1929, after he broke with the competitive element, Oxford Recitations came to an end. The Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse, on the other hand, continued to develop through the influence of associated figures such as Marion Angus and Hugh MacDiarmid and exists today as the Poetry Association of Scotland.
In 1930, on the death of Robert Bridges, a new Poet Laureate was needed. On the recommendation of the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, King George V appointed Masefield, who remained in the post until his death in 1967. The only person to hold the office for a longer period was Alfred, Lord Tennyson. On his appointment "The Times" wrote of him: "his poetry could touch to beauty the plain speech of everyday life". Masefield took his appointment seriously and produced a large quantity of poems for royal occasions, which were sent to "The Times" for publication. Masefield's modesty was shown by his inclusion of a stamped and self-addressed envelope with each submission so that the poem could be returned if it was found unacceptable. Later he was commissioned to write a poem to be set to music by the Master of the King's Musick, Sir Edward Elgar, and performed at the unveiling of the Queen Alexandra Memorial by the King on 8 June 1932. This was the ode "So many true Princesses who have gone".
After his appointment Masefield was awarded the Order of Merit by King George V and many honorary degrees from British universities. In 1937 he was elected President of the Society of Authors. Masefield encouraged the continued development of English literature and poetry, and began the annual awarding of the Royal Medals for Poetry for a first or second published edition of poems by a poet under the age of 35. Additionally, his speaking engagements called him further away, often on much longer tours, yet he still produced significant amounts of work in a wide variety of genres. To those he had already used he now added autobiography, producing "New Chum", "In the Mill", and "So Long to Learn".
It was not until he was about 70 that Masefield slowed his pace, mainly due to illness. In 1960 Constance died aged 93, after a long illness. Although her death was heartrending, he had spent a tiring year watching the woman he loved die. He continued his duties as Poet Laureate. "In Glad Thanksgiving", his last book, was published when he was 88 years old.
In late 1966 Masefield developed gangrene in his ankle. This spread to his leg and he died of the infection on 12 May 1967. In accordance with his stated wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were placed in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. However, the following verse by Masefield was discovered later, addressed to his "Heirs, Administrators, and Assigns":
The Masefield Centre at Warwick School, which Masefield attended, and John Masefield High School in Ledbury, Herefordshire, have been named in his honour. In 1977 Folkways Records released an album of readings of some of his poems, including some read by Masefield himself.
In addition to the commission for Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode with music by Elgar, many of Masefield's short poems were set as art songs by British composers of the time. Best known by far is John Ireland's "Sea-Fever". Frederick Keel composed several songs drawn from the "Salt-Water Ballads" and elsewhere. Of these, "Trade Winds" was particularly popular in its day, despite the tongue-twisting challenges the text presents to the singer. Keel's defiant setting of "Tomorrow", written while interned at Ruhleben during World War I, was frequently programmed at the BBC Proms after the war. Another memorable wartime composition is Ivor Gurney's climactic declamation of "By a bierside", a setting quickly set down in 1916 during a brief spell behind the lines.
"The Everlasting Mercy" (1911)
Sonnets (1916)
A Poem [Rosas] and Two Plays (1919)
Animula [Limited to 250 copies] (1920)
Right Royal (1920)
Sonnets of Good Cheer to The Lena Ashwell Players (1926)
South and East [Illustrated by Jacynth Parsons, Limited to 2,750] (1929)
Minnie Maylow's Story and Other Tales and Scenes (1931)
A Tale of Troy (1932)
Tribute to Ballet (With Pictures by Edward Seago) (1938)
Gautama the Enlightened and Other Verse (1941)
Natalie Maisie and Pavilastukay (1942)
Land Workers [11 page Pamphlet] (1942)
A Generation Risen [Illustrations by Edward Seago] (1943)
Wonderings (Between One and Six Years) (1943)
The Bullying of the Badger (1949)
On the Hill (1949)
The Story of Ossian [Long-playing record only] (1959)
A King's Daughter: A Tragedy in Verse (1923)
The Trial of Jesus (1925)
Easter: A Play for Singers (1929)
Some Memories of W. B. Yeats (1940)
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Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He is known for alleging that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately, the smear tactics that he used led him to be censured by the U.S. Senate. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.
Born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, McCarthy commissioned into the Marine Corps in 1942, where he served as an intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron. Following the end of World War II, he attained the rank of major. He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer, acquiring the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe". Some of his claims of heroism were later shown to be exaggerated or falsified, leading many of his critics to use "Tail-Gunner Joe" as a term of mockery.
McCarthy successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1946, defeating Robert M. La Follette Jr. After three largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950, when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the State Department. In succeeding years after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of America, and the U.S. Army. He also used various charges of communism, communist sympathies, disloyalty, or sex crimes to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government. This included a concurrent "Lavender Scare" against suspected homosexuals; as homosexuality was prohibited by law at the time, it was also perceived to increase a person's risk for blackmail. Former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson has written: "The so-called 'Red Scare' has been the main focus of most historians of that period of time. A lesser-known element ... and one that harmed far more people was the witch-hunt McCarthy and others conducted against homosexuals".
With the highly publicized Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954, and following the suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester C. Hunt that same year, McCarthy's support and popularity faded. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67–22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. He continued to speak against communism and socialism until his death at the age of 48 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 2, 1957. His death certificate listed the cause of death as "Hepatitis, acute, cause unknown". Doctors had not previously reported him to be in critical condition. Some biographers say this was caused or exacerbated by alcoholism.
McCarthy was born in 1908 on a farm in the town of Grand Chute in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, the fifth of seven children. His mother, Bridget (Tierney), was from County Tipperary, Ireland. His father, Timothy McCarthy, was born in the United States, the son of an Irish father and a German mother. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school at age 14 to help his parents manage their farm. He entered Little Wolf High School, in Manawa, Wisconsin, when he was 20 and graduated in one year.
He attended Marquette University from 1930 to 1935. McCarthy worked his way through college, studying first electrical engineering for two years, then law, and receiving an LL.B. degree in 1935 from Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee.
McCarthy was admitted to the bar in 1935. While working at a law firm in Shawano, Wisconsin, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for district attorney as a Democrat in 1936. During his years as an attorney, McCarthy made money on the side by gambling.
In 1939, McCarthy had better success when he ran for the nonpartisan elected post of 10th District circuit judge. McCarthy became the youngest circuit judge in the state's history by defeating incumbent Edgar V. Werner, who had been a judge for 24 years. In the campaign, McCarthy exaggerated Werner's age of 66, claiming that he was 73, and so allegedly too old and infirm to handle the duties of his office. Writing of Werner in "Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America," Ted Morgan wrote: "Pompous and condescending, he (Werner) was disliked by lawyers. His judgements had often been reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and he was so inefficient that he had piled up a huge backlog of cases."
McCarthy's judicial career attracted some controversy because of the speed with which he dispatched many of his cases as he worked to clear the heavily backlogged docket he had inherited from Werner. Wisconsin had strict divorce laws, but when McCarthy heard divorce cases, he expedited them whenever possible, and he made the needs of children involved in contested divorces a priority. When it came to other cases argued before him, McCarthy compensated for his lack of experience as a jurist by demanding and relying heavily upon precise briefs from the contesting attorneys. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a low percentage of the cases he heard, but he was also censured in 1941 for having lost evidence in a price fixing case.
In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, McCarthy joined the United States Marine Corps, despite the fact that his judicial office exempted him from military service. His college education qualified him for a direct commission, and he entered the Marines as a first lieutenant.
According to Morgan, writing in "Reds," McCarthy's friend and campaign manager, attorney and judge Urban P. Van Susteren, had applied for active duty in the U.S. Army Air Forces in early 1942, and advised McCarthy: "Be a hero—join the Marines." When McCarthy seemed hesitant, Van Susteren asked, "You got shit in your blood?"
He served as an intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron in the Solomon Islands and Bougainville for 30 months (August 1942 – February 1945), and held the rank of captain by the time he resigned his commission in April 1945. He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer, acquiring (or perhaps giving himself) the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe." McCarthy remained in the Marine Corps Reserve after the war, attaining the rank of major.
He later falsely claimed participation in 32 aerial missions in order to qualify for a Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple awards of the Air Medal, which the Marine Corps chain of command decided to approve in 1952 because of his political influence. McCarthy also publicized a letter of commendation which he claimed had been signed by his commanding officer and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, then Chief of Naval Operations. However, his commander revealed that McCarthy had written this letter himself, probably while preparing award citations and commendation letters as an additional duty, and that he had signed his commander's name, after which Nimitz signed it during the process of just signing numerous other such letters. A "war wound"—a badly broken leg—that McCarthy made the subject of varying stories involving airplane crashes or anti-aircraft fire had in fact happened aboard ship during a raucous celebration for sailors crossing the equator for the first time. Because of McCarthy's various lies about his military heroism, his "Tail-Gunner Joe" nickname was sarcastically used as a term of mockery by his critics.
McCarthy campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in 1944 but was defeated by Alexander Wiley, the incumbent. After he left the Marines in April 1945, five months before the end of the Pacific war in September 1945, McCarthy was reelected unopposed to his circuit court position. He then began a much more systematic campaign for the 1946 Republican Senate primary nomination, with support from Thomas Coleman, the Republican Party's political boss in Wisconsin. In this race, he was challenging three-term senator Robert M. La Follette Jr., founder of the Wisconsin Progressive Party and son of the celebrated Wisconsin governor and senator Robert M. La Follette Sr.
In his campaign, McCarthy attacked La Follette for not enlisting during the war, although La Follette had been 46 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He also claimed La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he, McCarthy, had been away fighting for his country. In fact, McCarthy had invested in the stock market himself during the war, netting a profit of $42,000 in 1943 (over $604,000 in 2017 dollars). Where McCarthy got the money to invest in the first place remains a mystery. La Follette's investments consisted of partial interest in a radio station, which earned him a profit of $47,000 over two years.
According to Jack Anderson and Ronald W. May, McCarthy's campaign funds, much of them from out of state, were ten times more than La Follette's and McCarthy's vote benefited from a Communist Party vendetta against La Follette. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of war profiteering was deeply damaging, and McCarthy won the primary nomination 207,935 votes to 202,557. It was during this campaign that McCarthy started publicizing his war-time nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe", using the slogan, "Congress needs a tail-gunner". Arnold Beichman later stated that McCarthy "was elected to his first term in the Senate with support from the Communist-controlled United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO", which preferred McCarthy to the anti-communist Robert M. La Follette.
In the general election against Democratic opponent Howard J. McMurray, McCarthy won 61.2% to Democrat McMurray's 37.3%, and thus joined Senator Wiley, whom he had challenged unsuccessfully two years earlier, in the Senate.
Senator McCarthy's first three years in the Senate were unremarkable. McCarthy was a popular speaker, invited by many different organizations, covering a wide range of topics. His aides and many in the Washington social circle described him as charming and friendly, and he was a popular guest at cocktail parties. He was far less well liked among fellow senators, however, who found him quick-tempered and prone to impatience and even rage. Outside of a small circle of colleagues, he was soon an isolated figure in the Senate.
He was active in labor-management issues, with a reputation as a moderate Republican. He fought against continuation of wartime price controls, especially on sugar. His advocacy in this area was associated by critics with a $20,000 personal loan McCarthy received from a Pepsi bottling executive, earning the Senator the derisive nickname "The Pepsi-Cola Kid".
He supported the Taft–Hartley Act over Truman's veto, angering labor unions in Wisconsin but solidifying his business base.
In an incident for which he would be widely criticized, McCarthy lobbied for the commutation of death sentences given to a group of Waffen-SS soldiers convicted of war crimes for carrying out the 1944 Malmedy massacre of American prisoners of war. McCarthy was critical of the convictions because of allegations of torture during the interrogations that led to the German soldiers' confessions. He charged that the U.S. Army was engaged in a coverup of judicial misconduct, but never presented any evidence to support the accusation.
Shortly after this, a poll of the Senate press corps voted McCarthy "the worst U.S. senator" currently in office.
McCarthy experienced a meteoric rise in national profile on February 9, 1950, when he gave a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. His words in the speech are a matter of some debate, as no audio recording was saved. However, it is generally agreed that he produced a piece of paper that he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is usually quoted to have said: "The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
There is some dispute about whether or not McCarthy actually gave the number of people on the list as being "205" or "57". In a later telegram to President Truman, and when entering the speech into the Congressional Record, he used the number 57.
The origin of the number 205 can be traced: in later debates on the Senate floor, McCarthy referred to a 1946 letter that then–Secretary of State James Byrnes sent to Congressman Adolph J. Sabath. In that letter, Byrnes said State Department security investigations had resulted in "recommendation against permanent employment" for 284 persons, and that 79 of these had been removed from their jobs; this left 205 still on the State Department's payroll. In fact, by the time of McCarthy's speech only about 65 of the employees mentioned in the Byrnes letter were still with the State Department, and all of these had undergone further security checks.
At the time of McCarthy's speech, communism was a significant concern in the United States. This concern was exacerbated by the actions of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, the victory of the communists in the Chinese Civil War, the Soviets' development of a nuclear weapon the year before, and by the contemporary controversy surrounding Alger Hiss and the confession of Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs. With this background and due to the sensational nature of McCarthy's charge against the State Department, the Wheeling speech soon attracted a flood of press interest in McCarthy's claim.
McCarthy himself was taken aback by the massive media response to the Wheeling speech, and he was accused of continually revising both his charges and figures. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a few days later, he cited a figure of 57, and in the Senate on February 20, 1950, he claimed 81. During a five-hour speech, McCarthy presented a case-by-case analysis of his 81 "loyalty risks" employed at the State Department. It is widely accepted that most of McCarthy's cases were selected from the so-called "Lee list", a report that had been compiled three years earlier for the House Appropriations Committee. Led by a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent named Robert E. Lee, the House investigators had reviewed security clearance documents on State Department employees, and had determined that there were "incidents of inefficiencies"
in the security reviews of 108 employees. McCarthy hid the source of his list, stating that he had penetrated the "iron curtain" of State Department secrecy with the aid of "some good, loyal Americans in the State Department". In reciting the information from the Lee list cases, McCarthy consistently exaggerated, representing the hearsay of witnesses as facts and converting phrases such as "inclined towards Communism" to "a Communist".
In response to McCarthy's charges, the Senate voted unanimously to investigate, and the Tydings Committee hearings were called. This was a subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations set up in February 1950 to conduct "a full and complete study and investigation as to whether persons who are disloyal to the United States are, or have been, employed by the Department of State".
Many Democrats were incensed at McCarthy's attack on the State Department of a Democratic administration, and had hoped to use the hearings to discredit him. The Democratic chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Millard Tydings, was reported to have said, "Let me have him [McCarthy] for three days in public hearings, and he'll never show his face in the Senate again."
During the hearings, McCarthy moved on from his original unnamed Lee list cases and used the hearings to make charges against nine specific people: Dorothy Kenyon, Esther Brunauer, Haldore Hanson, Gustavo Durán, Owen Lattimore, Harlow Shapley, Frederick Schuman, John S. Service, and Philip Jessup. Some of them no longer worked for the State Department, or never had; all had previously been the subject of charges of varying worth and validity. Owen Lattimore became a particular focus of McCarthy's, who at one point described him as a "top Russian spy". Throughout the hearings, McCarthy employed colorful rhetoric, but produced no substantial evidence, to support his accusations.
From its beginning, the Tydings Committee was marked by partisan infighting. Its final report, written by the Democratic majority, concluded that the individuals on McCarthy's list were neither Communists nor pro-communist, and said the State Department had an effective security program. The Tydings Report labeled McCarthy's charges a "fraud and a hoax", and said that the result of McCarthy's actions was to "confuse and divide the American people ... to a degree far beyond the hopes of the Communists themselves". Republicans responded in kind, with William E. Jenner stating that Tydings was guilty of "the most brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history".
The full Senate voted three times on whether to accept the report, and each time the voting was precisely divided along party lines.
From 1950 onward, McCarthy continued to exploit the fear of Communism and to press his accusations that the government was failing to deal with Communism within its ranks. McCarthy also began investigations into the numerous homosexuals working in the foreign policy bureaucracy, who were considered prime candidates for blackmail by the Soviets. These accusations received wide publicity, increased his approval rating, and gained him a powerful national following.
"In Congress, there was little doubt that homosexuals did not belong in sensitive government positions." Since the late 1940s, the government had been dismissing about five homosexuals a month from civilian posts; by 1954, the number had grown twelve-fold. In the opinion of one writer, "Mixed in with the hysterics were some logic, though: homosexuals faced condemnation and discrimination, and most of them—wishing to conceal their orientation—were vulnerable to blackmail." DCI Roscoe Hillenkoetter was called to Congress to testify on homosexuals being employed at the CIA. He said, "The use of homosexuals as a control mechanism over individuals recruited for espionage is a generally accepted technique which has been used at least on a limited basis for many years." As soon as the DCI said these words, his aide signaled to take the remainder of the DCI's testimony off the record. Political historian David Barrett uncovered Hillenkoetter's notes, which reveal the remainder of the statement: "While this agency will never employ homosexuals on its rolls, it might conceivably be necessary, and in the past has actually been valuable, to use known homosexuals as agents in the field. I am certain that if Josef Stalin or a member of the Politburo or a high satellite official were known to be a homosexual, no member of this committee or of the Congress would balk against our use of any technique to penetrate their operations ... after all, intelligence and espionage is, at best, an extremely dirty business." The senators reluctantly agreed the CIA had to be flexible.
McCarthy's methods also brought on the disapproval and opposition of many. Barely a month after McCarthy's Wheeling speech, the term "McCarthyism" was coined by "Washington Post" cartoonist Herbert Block. Block and others used the word as a synonym for demagoguery, baseless defamation, and mudslinging. Later, it would be embraced by McCarthy and some of his supporters. "McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled," McCarthy said in a 1952 speech, and later that year, he published a book titled "McCarthyism: The Fight For America."
McCarthy sought to discredit his critics and political opponents by accusing them of being Communists or communist sympathizers. In the 1950 Maryland Senate election, McCarthy campaigned for John Marshall Butler in his race against four-term incumbent Millard Tydings, with whom McCarthy had been in conflict during the Tydings Committee hearings. In speeches supporting Butler, McCarthy accused Tydings of "protecting Communists" and "shielding traitors." McCarthy's staff was heavily involved in the campaign, and collaborated in the production of a campaign tabloid that contained a composite photograph doctored to make it appear that Tydings was in intimate conversation with Communist leader Earl Russell Browder.
A Senate subcommittee later investigated this election and referred to it as "a despicable, back-street type of campaign," as well as recommending that the use of defamatory literature in a campaign be made grounds for expulsion from the Senate. The pamphlet was clearly labeled a composite. McCarthy said it was "wrong" to distribute it; though staffer Jean Kerr thought it was fine. After he lost the election by almost 40,000 votes, Tydings claimed foul play.
In addition to the Tydings–Butler race, McCarthy campaigned for several other Republicans in the 1950 elections, including Everett Dirksen against Democratic incumbent and Senate Majority Leader Scott W. Lucas. Dirksen, and indeed all the candidates McCarthy supported, won their elections, and those he opposed lost. The elections, including many that McCarthy was not involved in, were an overall Republican sweep. Although his impact on the elections was unclear, McCarthy was credited as a key Republican campaigner. He was now regarded as one of the most powerful men in the Senate and was treated with new-found deference by his colleagues.
In the 1952 Senate elections McCarthy was returned to his Senate seat with 54.2% of the vote, compared to Democrat Thomas Fairchild's 45.6%.
In 1950 McCarthy assaulted journalist Drew Pearson in the cloakroom of a Washington club, reportedly kneeing him in the groin. McCarthy, who admitted the assault, claimed he merely "slapped" Pearson. In 1952, using rumors collected by Pearson, Nevada publisher Hank Greenspun wrote that McCarthy was a homosexual. The major journalistic media refused to print the story, and no notable McCarthy biographer has accepted the rumor as probable. In 1953, McCarthy married Jean Fraser Kerr, a researcher in his office. In January 1957 McCarthy and his wife adopted a baby girl, whom they named Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy.
McCarthy and President Truman clashed often during the years both held office. McCarthy characterized Truman and the Democratic Party as soft on, or even in league with, Communists, and spoke of the Democrats' "twenty years of treason". Truman, in turn, once referred to McCarthy as "the best asset the Kremlin has", calling McCarthy's actions an attempt to "sabotage the foreign policy of the United States" in a cold war and comparing it to shooting American soldiers in the back in a hot war.
It was the Truman Administration's State Department that McCarthy accused of harboring 205 (or 57 or 81) "known Communists". Truman's Secretary of Defense, George Catlett Marshall, was the target of some of McCarthy's most vitriolic rhetoric. Marshall had been Army Chief of Staff during World War II and was also Truman's former Secretary of State. Marshall was a highly respected general and statesman, remembered today as the architect of victory and peace, the latter based on the Marshall Plan for post-war reconstruction of Europe, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. McCarthy made a lengthy speech on Marshall, later published in 1951 as a book titled "America's Retreat From Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall". Marshall had been involved in American foreign policy with China, and McCarthy charged that Marshall was directly responsible for the loss of China to Communism. In the speech McCarthy also implied that Marshall was guilty of treason;
declared that "if Marshall were merely stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that part of his decisions would serve this country's interest"; and most famously, accused him of being part of "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man".
During the Korean War, when President Truman dismissed General Douglas MacArthur, McCarthy charged that Truman and his advisors must have planned the dismissal during late-night sessions when "they've had time to get the President cheerful" on bourbon and Bénédictine. McCarthy declared, "The son of a bitch should be impeached."
One of the strongest bases of anti-Communist sentiment in the United States was the Catholic community, which constituted over 20% of the national vote. McCarthy identified himself as Catholic, and although the great majority of Catholics were Democrats, as his fame as a leading anti-Communist grew, he became popular in Catholic communities across the country, with strong support from many leading Catholics, diocesan newspapers, and Catholic journals.
At the same time, some Catholics opposed McCarthy, notably the anti-Communist author Father John Francis Cronin and the influential journal "Commonweal".
McCarthy established a bond with the powerful Kennedy family, which had high visibility among Catholics. McCarthy became a close friend of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., himself a fervent anti-Communist, and he was also a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters, Patricia and Eunice. It has been stated that McCarthy was godfather to Robert F. Kennedy's first child, Kathleen Kennedy. This claim has been acknowledged by Robert's wife and Kathleen's mother Ethel, though Kathleen later claimed that she looked at her christening certificate and that her actual godfather was Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart professor Daniel Walsh.
Robert Kennedy was chosen by McCarthy to be a counsel for his investigatory committee, but he resigned after six months due to disagreements with McCarthy and Committee Counsel Roy Marcus Cohn. Joseph Kennedy had a national network of contacts and became a vocal supporter, building McCarthy's popularity among Catholics and making sizable contributions to McCarthy's campaigns. The Kennedy patriarch hoped that one of his sons would be president. Mindful of the anti-Catholic prejudice which Al Smith faced during his 1928 campaign for that office, Joseph Kennedy supported McCarthy as a national Catholic politician who might pave the way for a younger Kennedy's presidential candidacy.
Unlike many Democrats, John F. Kennedy, who served in the Senate with McCarthy from 1953 until the latter's death in 1957, never attacked McCarthy. McCarthy had refused to campaign for Kennedy's 1952 opponent, Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., due to his friendship with the Kennedys. When a speaker at a February 1952 final club dinner stated that he was glad that McCarthy had not attended Harvard College, an angry Kennedy jumped up, denounced the speaker, and left the event. When Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. asked Kennedy why he avoided criticizing McCarthy, Kennedy responded by saying, "Hell, half my voters in Massachusetts look on McCarthy as a hero."
During the 1952 presidential election, the Eisenhower campaign toured Wisconsin with McCarthy. In a speech delivered in Green Bay, Eisenhower declared that while he agreed with McCarthy's goals, he disagreed with his methods. In draft versions of his speech, Eisenhower had also included a strong defense of his mentor, George Marshall, which was a direct rebuke of McCarthy's frequent attacks. However, under the advice of conservative colleagues who were fearful that Eisenhower could lose Wisconsin if he alienated McCarthy supporters, he deleted this defense from later versions of his speech. The deletion was discovered by William H. Laurence, a reporter for "The New York Times," and featured on its front page the next day. Eisenhower was widely criticized for giving up his personal convictions, and the incident became the low point of his campaign.
With his victory in the 1952 presidential race, Dwight Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years. The Republican party also held a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After being elected president, Eisenhower made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy and he worked actively to diminish his power and influence. Still, he never directly confronted McCarthy or criticized him by name in any speech, thus perhaps prolonging McCarthy's power by giving the impression that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly. Oshinsky disputes this, stating that "Eisenhower was known as a harmonizer, a man who could get diverse factions to work toward a common goal. ... Leadership, he explained, meant patience and conciliation, not 'hitting people over the head.'"
McCarthy won reelection in 1952 with 54% of the vote, defeating former Wisconsin State Attorney General Thomas E. Fairchild but, as stated above, badly trailing a Republican ticket which otherwise swept the state of Wisconsin; all the other Republican winners, including Eisenhower himself, received at least 60% of the Wisconsin vote.
Those who expected that party loyalty would cause McCarthy to tone down his accusations of Communists being harbored within the government were soon disappointed. Eisenhower had never been an admirer of McCarthy, and their relationship became more hostile once Eisenhower was in office. In a November 1953 speech that was carried on national television, McCarthy began by praising the Eisenhower Administration for removing "1,456 Truman holdovers who were ... gotten rid of because of Communist connections and activities or perversion." He then went on to complain that John Paton Davies Jr. was still "on the payroll after eleven months of the Eisenhower Administration," even though Davies had actually been dismissed three weeks earlier, and repeated an unsubstantiated accusation that Davies had tried to "put Communists and espionage agents in key spots in the Central Intelligence Agency." In the same speech, he criticized Eisenhower for not doing enough to secure the release of missing American pilots shot down over China during the Korean War. By the end of 1953, McCarthy had altered the "twenty years of treason" catchphrase he had coined for the preceding Democratic administrations and began referring to "twenty-"one" years of treason" to include Eisenhower's first year in office.
As McCarthy became increasingly combative towards the Eisenhower Administration, Eisenhower faced repeated calls that he confront McCarthy directly. Eisenhower refused, saying privately "nothing would please him [McCarthy] more than to get the publicity that would be generated by a public repudiation by the President." On several occasions Eisenhower is reported to have said of McCarthy that he did not want to "get down in the gutter with that guy."
With the beginning of his second term as senator in 1953, McCarthy was made chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations. According to some reports, Republican leaders were growing wary of McCarthy's methods and gave him this relatively mundane panel rather than the Internal Security Subcommittee—the committee normally involved with investigating Communists—thus putting McCarthy "where he can't do any harm," in the words of Senate Majority Leader Robert A. Taft. However, the Committee on Government Operations included the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and the mandate of this subcommittee was sufficiently flexible to allow McCarthy to use it for his own investigations of Communists in the government. McCarthy appointed Roy Cohn as chief counsel and 27-year-old Robert F. Kennedy as an assistant counsel to the subcommittee. Cohn brought with him, as his assistant, Gerard David Schine, heir to a hotel-chain fortune, who would bear much responsibility for triggering McCarthy's eventual downfall.
This subcommittee would be the scene of some of McCarthy's most publicized exploits. When the records of the closed executive sessions of the subcommittee under McCarthy's chairmanship were made public in 2003–04, Senators Susan Collins and Carl Levin wrote the following in their preface to the documents:
Senator McCarthy's zeal to uncover subversion and espionage led to disturbing excesses. His browbeating tactics destroyed careers of people who were not involved in the infiltration of our government. His freewheeling style caused both the Senate and the Subcommittee to revise the rules governing future investigations, and prompted the courts to act to protect the Constitutional rights of witnesses at Congressional hearings. ... These hearings are a part of our national past that we can neither afford to forget nor permit to re-occur.
The subcommittee first investigated allegations of Communist influence in the Voice of America, at that time administered by the State Department's United States Information Agency. Many VOA personnel were questioned in front of television cameras and a packed press gallery, with McCarthy lacing his questions with hostile innuendo and false accusations. A few VOA employees alleged Communist influence on the content of broadcasts, but none of the charges were substantiated. Morale at VOA was badly damaged, and one of its engineers committed suicide during McCarthy's investigation. Ed Kretzman, a policy advisor for the service, would later comment that it was VOA's "darkest hour when Senator McCarthy and his chief hatchet man, Roy Cohn, almost succeeded in muffling it."
The subcommittee then turned to the overseas library program of the International Information Agency. Cohn toured Europe examining the card catalogs of the State Department libraries looking for works by authors he deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and the press. The State Department bowed to McCarthy and ordered its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves "material by any controversial persons, Communists, fellow travelers, etc." Some libraries went as far as burning the newly-forbidden books. Shortly after this, in one of his public criticisms of McCarthy, President Eisenhower urged Americans: "Don't join the book burners. ... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book."
Soon after receiving the chair to the Subcommittee on Investigations, McCarthy appointed J. B. Matthews as staff director of the subcommittee. One of the nation's foremost anti-communists, Matthews had formerly been staff director for the House Un-American Activities Committee. The appointment became controversial when it was learned that Matthews had recently written an article titled "Reds and Our Churches", which opened with the sentence, "The largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States is composed of Protestant Clergymen." A group of senators denounced this "shocking and unwarranted attack against the American clergy" and demanded that McCarthy dismiss Matthews. McCarthy initially refused to do this. As the controversy mounted, however, and the majority of his own subcommittee joined the call for Matthews's ouster, McCarthy finally yielded and accepted his resignation. For some McCarthy opponents, this was a signal defeat of the senator, showing he was not as invincible as he had formerly seemed.
In autumn 1953, McCarthy's committee began its ill-fated inquiry into the United States Army. This began with McCarthy opening an investigation into the Army Signal Corps laboratory at Fort Monmouth. McCarthy, newly married to Jean Kerr, cut short his honeymoon to open the investigation. He garnered some headlines with stories of a dangerous spy ring among the army researchers, but after weeks of hearings, nothing came of his investigations. Unable to expose any signs of subversion, McCarthy focused instead on the case of Irving Peress, a New York dentist who had been drafted into the army in 1952 and promoted to major in November 1953. Shortly thereafter it came to the attention of the military bureaucracy that Peress, who was a member of the left-wing American Labor Party, had declined to answer questions about his political affiliations on a loyalty-review form. Peress's superiors were therefore ordered to discharge him from the army within 90 days. McCarthy subpoenaed Peress to appear before his subcommittee on January 30, 1954. Peress refused to answer McCarthy's questions, citing his rights under the Fifth Amendment. McCarthy responded by sending a message to Secretary of the Army, Robert T. Stevens, demanding that Peress be court-martialed. On that same day, Peress asked for his pending discharge from the army to be effected immediately, and the next day Brigadier General Ralph W. Zwicker, his commanding officer at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, gave him an honorable separation from the army. At McCarthy's encouragement, "Who promoted Peress?" became a rallying cry among many anti-communists and McCarthy supporters. In fact, and as McCarthy knew, Peress had been promoted automatically through the provisions of the Doctor Draft Law, for which McCarthy had voted.
Early in 1954, the U.S. Army accused McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, of improperly pressuring the army to give favorable treatment to G. David Schine, a former aide to McCarthy and a friend of Cohn's, who was then serving in the army as a private. McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Zwicker the previous year. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, usually chaired by McCarthy himself, was given the task of adjudicating these conflicting charges. Republican senator Karl Mundt was appointed to chair the committee, and the Army–McCarthy hearings convened on April 22, 1954.
The army consulted with an attorney familiar with McCarthy to determine the best approach to attacking him. Based on his recommendation, it decided not to pursue McCarthy on the issue of communists in government: "The attorney feels it is almost impossible to counter McCarthy effectively on the issue of kicking Communists out of Government, because he generally has some basis, no matter how slight, for his claim of Communist connection."
The hearings lasted for 36 days and were broadcast on live television by ABC and DuMont, with an estimated 20 million viewers. After hearing 32 witnesses and two million words of testimony, the committee concluded that McCarthy himself had not exercised any improper influence on Schine's behalf, but that Cohn had engaged in "unduly persistent or aggressive efforts". The committee also concluded that Army Secretary Robert Stevens and Army Counsel John Adams "made efforts to terminate or influence the investigation and hearings at Fort Monmouth", and that Adams "made vigorous and diligent efforts" to block subpoenas for members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board "by means of personal appeal to certain members of the [McCarthy] committee".
Of far greater importance to McCarthy than the committee's inconclusive final report was the negative effect that the extensive exposure had on his popularity. Many in the audience saw him as bullying, reckless, and dishonest, and the daily newspaper summaries of the hearings were also frequently unfavorable.
Late in the hearings, Senator Stuart Symington made an angry and prophetic remark to McCarthy. Upon being told by McCarthy that "You're not fooling anyone", Symington replied: "Senator, the American people have had a look at you now for six weeks; you're not fooling anyone, either."
In Gallup polls of January 1954, 50% of those polled had a positive opinion of McCarthy. In June, that number had fallen to 34%. In the same polls, those with a negative opinion of McCarthy increased from 29% to 45%.
An increasing number of Republicans and conservatives were coming to see McCarthy as a liability to the party and to anti-communism. Congressman George H. Bender noted, "There is a growing impatience with the Republican Party. McCarthyism has become a synonym for witch-hunting, Star Chamber methods, and the denial of ... civil liberties." Frederick Woltman, a reporter with a long-standing reputation as a staunch anti-communist, wrote a five-part series of articles criticizing McCarthy in the "New York World-Telegram." He stated that McCarthy "has become a major liability to the cause of anti-communism", and accused him of "wild twisting of facts and near-facts [that] repels authorities in the field".
The most famous incident in the hearings was an exchange between McCarthy and the army's chief legal representative, Joseph Nye Welch. On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the hearings, Welch challenged Roy Cohn to provide U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. with McCarthy's list of 130 Communists or subversives in defense plants "before the sun goes down". McCarthy stepped in and said that if Welch was so concerned about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a man in his Boston law office named Fred Fisher, who had once belonged to the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive lawyers' association.
In an impassioned defense of Fisher, Welch responded, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness ..." When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted in applause and a recess was called.
Even before Welch asked McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last?" in the hearings, one of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods was an episode of the television documentary series "See It Now", hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow, which was broadcast on March 9, 1954. Titled "A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy", the episode consisted largely of clips of McCarthy speaking. In these clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of "twenty years of treason", describes the American Civil Liberties Union as "listed as 'a front for, and doing the work of', the Communist Party", and berates and harangues various witnesses, including General Zwicker.
In his conclusion, Murrow said of McCarthy:
The following week, "See It Now" ran another episode critical of McCarthy, this one focusing on the case of Annie Lee Moss, an African-American army clerk who was the target of one of McCarthy's investigations. The Murrow shows, together with the televised Army–McCarthy hearings of the same year, were the major causes of a nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy, in part because for the first time his statements were being publicly challenged by noteworthy figures. To counter the negative publicity, McCarthy appeared on "See It Now" on April 6, 1954, and made a number of charges against the popular Murrow, including the accusation that he colluded with VOKS, the "Russian espionage and propaganda organization". This response did not go over well with viewers, and the result was a further decline in McCarthy's popularity.
According to Arthur Herman, popular historian and senior fellow of the conservative Hudson Institute, Murrow's staff edited the film to show McCarthy behaving in an unflattering way. Herman quotes John Cogley of "Commonweal", a McCarthy critic, as stating, "A totally different selection of film would turn McCarthy into a man on a shining white steed—infinitely reasonable, burdened with the onus of single-handedly cleaning out subversives in the face of violent criticism" and that Murrow used "partial truth and innuendo".
On March 18, 1954 "Sauk-Prairie Star" editor Leroy Gore of Sauk City, Wisconsin urged the recall of McCarthy in a front-page editorial that ran alongside a sample petition that readers could fill out and mail to the newspaper. A Republican and former McCarthy supporter, Gore cited the senator with subverting President Eisenhower's authority, disrespecting Wisconsin's own Gen. Ralph Wise Zwicker and ignoring the plight of Wisconsin dairy farmers faced with price-slashing surpluses.
Despite critics' claims that a recall attempt was foolhardy, the "Joe Must Go" movement caught fire and was backed by a diverse coalition including other Republican leaders, Democrats, businessmen, farmers and students. Wisconsin's constitution stipulates the number of signatures needed to force a recall election must exceed one-quarter the number of voters in the most recent gubernatorial election, requiring the anti-McCarthy movement to gather some 404,000 signatures in sixty days. With little support from organized labor or the state Democratic Party, the roughly organized recall effort attracted national attention, particularly during the concurrent Army-McCarthy hearings.
Following the deadline of June 5, the final number of signatures was never determined because the petitions were sent out of state to avoid a subpoena from the Sauk County district attorney, an ardent McCarthy supporter who was investigating the leaders of the recall campaign on the grounds that they had violated Wisconsin's Corrupt Practices Act. Chicago newspapermen later tallied 335,000 names while another 50,000 were said to be hidden in Minneapolis, with other lists buried on Sauk County farms.
Several members of the U.S. Senate had opposed McCarthy well before 1953. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican, delivered her "Declaration of Conscience" on June 1, 1950, calling for an end to the use of smear tactics without mentioning McCarthy or anyone else by name. Six other Republican senators—Wayne Morse, Irving Ives, Charles W. Tobey, Edward John Thye, George Aiken, and Robert C. Hendrickson—joined her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow senators as "Snow White and the six dwarfs".
On March 9, 1954, Vermont Republican senator Ralph E. Flanders gave a humor-laced speech on the Senate floor, questioning McCarthy's tactics in fighting communism, likening McCarthyism to "house-cleaning" with "much clatter and hullabaloo". He recommended that McCarthy turn his attention to the worldwide encroachment of Communism outside North America.
In a June 1 speech, Flanders compared McCarthy to Adolf Hitler, accusing him of spreading "division and confusion" and saying, "Were the Junior Senator from Wisconsin in the pay of the Communists he could not have done a better job for them."
On June 11, Flanders introduced a resolution to have McCarthy removed as chair of his committees. Although there were many in the Senate who believed that some sort of disciplinary action against McCarthy was warranted, there was no clear majority supporting this resolution. Some of the resistance was due to concern about usurping the Senate's rules regarding committee chairs and seniority. Flanders next introduced a resolution to censure McCarthy. The resolution was initially written without any reference to particular actions or misdeeds on McCarthy's part. As Flanders put it, "It was not his breaches of etiquette, or of rules or sometimes even of laws which is so disturbing," but rather his overall pattern of behavior. Ultimately a "bill of particulars" listing 46 charges was added to the censure resolution. A special committee, chaired by Senator Arthur Vivian Watkins, was appointed to study and evaluate the resolution. This committee opened hearings on August 31.
After two months of hearings and deliberations, the Watkins Committee recommended that McCarthy be censured on two of the 46 counts: his contempt of the Subcommittee on Rules and Administration, which had called him to testify in 1951 and 1952, and his abuse of General Zwicker in 1954. The Zwicker count was dropped by the full Senate on the grounds that McCarthy's conduct was arguably "induced" by Zwicker's own behavior. In place of this count, a new one was drafted regarding McCarthy's statements about the Watkins Committee itself.
The two counts on which the Senate ultimately voted were:
On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy on both counts by a vote of 67 to 22. The Democrats present unanimously favored condemnation and the Republicans were split evenly. The only senator not on record was John F. Kennedy, who was hospitalized for back surgery; Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted. Immediately after the vote, Senator H. Styles Bridges, a McCarthy supporter, argued that the resolution was "not a censure resolution" because the word "condemn" rather than "censure" was used in the final draft. The word "censure" was then removed from the title of the resolution, though it is generally regarded and referred to as a censure of McCarthy, both by historians
and in Senate documents. McCarthy himself said, "I wouldn't exactly call it a vote of confidence." He added, "I don't feel I've been lynched."
Indiana Senator William E. Jenner, one of McCarthy's friends and fellow Republicans likened McCarthy's conduct, however, to that of "the kid who came to the party and peed in the lemonade."
After his condemnation and censure, Joseph McCarthy continued to perform his senatorial duties for another two and a half years. His career as a major public figure, however, had been irreparably ruined. His colleagues in the Senate obviously avoided him; his speeches on the Senate floor were delivered to a near-empty chamber or they were received with intentional and conspicuous displays of inattention.
The press that had once recorded his every public statement now ignored him, and outside speaking engagements dwindled almost to nothing. President Eisenhower, finally freed of McCarthy's political intimidation, quipped to his Cabinet that McCarthyism was now "McCarthywasm".
Still, McCarthy continued to rail against Communism. He warned against attendance at summit conferences with "the Reds", saying that "you cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers ... without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder."
He declared that "co-existence with Communists is neither possible nor honorable nor desirable. Our long-term objective must be the eradication of Communism from the face of the earth." In one of his final acts in the Senate, McCarthy opposed President Eisenhower's nomination to the Supreme Court of William J. Brennan, after reading a speech Brennan had given shortly beforehand in which he characterized McCarthy's anti-Communist investigations as "witch hunts". McCarthy's opposition failed to gain any traction, however, and he was the only senator to vote against Brennan's confirmation.
McCarthy's biographers agree that he was a changed man after the censure; declining both physically and emotionally, he became a "pale ghost of his former self" in the words of Fred J. Cook.
It was reported that McCarthy suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and was frequently hospitalized for alcohol abuse.
Numerous eyewitnesses, including Senate aide George Reedy and journalist Tom Wicker, reported finding him alarmingly drunk in the Senate.
Journalist Richard Rovere (1959) wrote:
He had always been a heavy drinker, and there were times in those seasons of discontent when he drank more than ever. But he was not always drunk. He went on the wagon (for him this meant beer instead of whiskey) for days and weeks at a time. The difficulty toward the end was that he couldn't hold the stuff. He went to pieces on his second or third drink, and he did not snap back quickly.
McCarthy had also become addicted to morphine. Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, became aware of McCarthy's addiction in the 1950s, and demanded he stop using the drug. McCarthy refused. In Anslinger's memoir, "The Murderers", McCarthy is anonymously quoted as saying:
I wouldn't try to do anything about it, Commissioner ... It will be the worse for you ... and if it winds up in a public scandal and that should hurt this country, I wouldn't care [. . .] The choice is yours.
Anslinger decided to give McCarthy access to morphine in secret from a pharmacy in Washington, DC. The morphine was paid for by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, right up to McCarthy's death. Anslinger never publicly named McCarthy, and he threatened, with prison, a journalist who had uncovered the story. However, McCarthy's identity was known to Anslinger's agents, and journalist Maxine Cheshire confirmed his identity with Will Oursler, co-author of "The Murderers", in 1978.
McCarthy died in the Bethesda Naval Hospital on Thursday, May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. His death certificate listed the cause of death as "Hepatitis, acute, cause unknown"; previously doctors had not reported him to be in critical condition. It was hinted in the press that he died of alcoholism (cirrhosis of the liver), an estimation that is now accepted by modern biographers. He was given a state funeral that was attended by 70 senators, and a Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass was celebrated before more than 100 priests and 2,000 others at Washington's St. Matthew's Cathedral. Thousands of people viewed his body in Washington. He was buried in St. Mary's Parish Cemetery, Appleton, Wisconsin, where more than 17,000 people filed through St. Mary's Church in order to pay him their last respects. Three senators—George W. Malone, William E. Jenner, and Herman Welker—had flown from Washington to Appleton on the plane which carried McCarthy's casket. Robert F. Kennedy quietly attended the funeral in Wisconsin. McCarthy was survived by his wife, Jean, and their adopted daughter, Tierney.
In the summer of 1957, a special election was held in order to fill McCarthy's seat. In the primaries, voters in both parties turned away from McCarthy's legacy. The Republican primary was won by Walter J. Kohler Jr., who called for a clean break from McCarthy's approach; he defeated former Congressman Glenn Robert Davis, who charged that Eisenhower was soft on Communism. The Democratic candidate, William Proxmire, called the late McCarthy "a disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America". On August 27, Proxmire won the election, serving in the seat for 32 years.
William Bennett, former Reagan Administration Secretary of Education, summed up his perspective in his 2007 book "America: The Last Best Hope":
McCarthy remains a controversial figure. Some scholars assert that new evidence—in the form of Venona-decrypted Soviet messages, Soviet espionage data now opened to the West, and newly released transcripts of closed hearings before McCarthy's subcommittee—has partially vindicated McCarthy by showing that some of his identifications of Communists were correct and the scale of Soviet espionage activities in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s was larger than many scholars had suspected. After reviewing evidence from Venona and other sources, historian John Earl Haynes concluded that, of the 159 people who were identified on lists which were used or referenced by McCarthy, evidence substantially proved that nine of them had aided Soviet espionage efforts. His own view was that a number of those on the lists above, perhaps a majority, likely were security risks, but others, a minority but a significant one, likely were not.
Among those who were implicated in files which were later made public from the Venona project and Soviet sources were Cedric Belfrage, Frank Coe, Lauchlin Currie, Harold Glasser, David Karr, Mary Jane Keeney, and Leonard Mins.
Challenging efforts aimed at the "rehabilitation" of McCarthy, Haynes argues that McCarthy's attempts to "make anti-communism a partisan weapon" actually "threatened [the post-War] anti-Communist consensus", thereby ultimately harming anti-Communist efforts more than helping them.
Diplomat George F. Kennan drew on his State Department experience to provide his view that "The penetration of the American governmental services by members or agents (conscious or otherwise) of the American Communist Party in the late 1930s was not a figment of the imagination ... it really existed; and it assumed proportions which, while never overwhelming, were also not trivial." Kennan wrote that under the Roosevelt administration "warnings which should have been heeded fell too often on deaf or incredulous ears."
However, some writers, such as ex-communist Herbert Romerstein and journalist M. Stanton Evans, have argued that evidence from the Venona documents shows a greater amount of penetration by Soviet agents.
McCarthy's hearings are often incorrectly conflated with the hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). HUAC is best known for its investigations of Alger Hiss and the Hollywood film industry, which led to the blacklisting of hundreds of actors, writers, and directors. HUAC was a House committee, and as such it had no formal connection to McCarthy, who served in the Senate, although the existence of the House Un-American Activities Committee thrived in part as a result of McCarthy's activities. HUAC was active for 37 years (1938–1975).
From the start of his notoriety, McCarthy served as a favorite subject for political cartoonists. He was traditionally depicted in a negative light, normally pertaining to McCarthyism and his accusations. Herblock's cartoon that coined the term "McCarthyism" appeared less than two months after the senator's now famous February 1950 speech in Wheeling, West Virginia.
In 1951, Ray Bradbury published "The Fireman", an allegory on suppression of ideas. This served as the basis for "Fahrenheit 451" published in 1953. Bradbury said that he wrote "Fahrenheit 451" because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States.
In 1953, the popular daily comic strip "Pogo" introduced the character Simple J. Malarkey, a pugnacious and conniving wildcat with an unmistakable physical resemblance to McCarthy. After a worried Rhode Island newspaper editor protested to the syndicate that provided the strip, creator Walt Kelly began depicting the Malarkey character with a bag over his head, concealing his features. The explanation was that Malarkey was hiding from a Rhode Island Red hen, a clear reference to the controversy over the Malarkey character.
In 1953, playwright Arthur Miller published "The Crucible", suggesting the Salem Witch Trials were analogous to McCarthyism.
As his fame grew, McCarthy increasingly became the target of ridicule and parody. He was impersonated by nightclub and radio impressionists and was satirized in "Mad" magazine, on "The Red Skelton Show", and elsewhere. Several comedy songs lampooning the senator were released in 1954, including "Point of Order" by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler, "Senator McCarthy Blues" by Hal Block, and unionist folk singer Joe Glazer's "Joe McCarthy's Band", sung to the tune of "McNamara's Band". Also in 1954, the radio comedy team Bob and Ray parodied McCarthy with the character "Commissioner Carstairs" in their soap opera spoof "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". That same year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio network broadcast a satire, "The Investigator", whose title character was a clear imitation of McCarthy. A recording of the show became popular in the United States, and was reportedly played by President Eisenhower at cabinet meetings.
The 1953 short story "Mr. Costello, Hero" by Theodore Sturgeon was described by noted journalist and author Paul Williams as "the all-time great story about Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he was and how he did what he did."
"Mr. Costello, Hero" was adapted in 1958 by X Minus One into a radio teleplay and broadcast on July 3, 1956. While the radio adaptation retains much of the story, it completely remakes the narrator and in fact gives him a line spoken in the original by Mr. Costello himself, thus changing the tone of the story considerably. In a 1977 interview Sturgeon commented that it was his concerns about the ongoing McCarthy Hearings that prompted him to write the story.
A more serious fictional portrayal of McCarthy played a central role in the 1959 novel "The Manchurian Candidate" by Richard Condon. The character of Senator John Iselin, a demagogic anti-communist, is closely modeled on McCarthy, even to the varying numbers of Communists he asserts are employed by the federal government. He remains a major character in the 1962 film version.
The 1962 novel "Advise and Consent" by Allen Drury features an overzealous demagogue, Senator Fred Van Ackerman, based on McCarthy. Although the fictional senator is an ultra liberal who proposes surrender to the Soviet Union, his portrayal strongly resembles the popular perception of McCarthy's character and methods.
McCarthy was portrayed by Peter Boyle in the 1977 Emmy-winning television movie "Tail Gunner Joe", a dramatization of McCarthy's life. Archival footage of McCarthy himself was used in the 2005 movie "Good Night, and Good Luck" about Edward R. Murrow and the "See It Now" episode that challenged McCarthy. McCarthy was also portrayed by Joe Don Baker in the 1992 HBO film "Citizen Cohn". In the German-French docu-drama "The Real American – Joe McCarthy" (2012), directed by Lutz Hachmeister, McCarthy is portrayed by the British actor and comedian John Sessions. In Lee Daniels 2020 film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday McCarthy is portrayed by actor Randy Davison.
R.E.M.'s song "Exhuming McCarthy", from their 1987 album "Document", deals largely with McCarthy and contains sound clips from the Army-McCarthy Hearings.
'Joe' McCarthy is also mentioned in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire."
McCarthyism is one of the subjects of Barbara Kingsolver's novel "The Lacuna".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16321
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John Hancock
John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that the term "John Hancock" has become a synonym in the United States for one's signature.
Before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle. He began his political career in Boston as a protégé of Samuel Adams, an influential local politician, though the two men later became estranged. Hancock used his wealth to support the colonial cause as tensions increased between colonists and Great Britain in the 1760s. He became very popular in Massachusetts, especially after British officials seized his sloop "Liberty" in 1768 and charged him with smuggling. Those charges were eventually dropped; he has often been described as a smuggler in historical accounts, but the accuracy of this characterization has been questioned.
Hancock was one of Boston's leaders during the crisis that led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. He served more than two years in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and he was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence in his position as president of Congress. He returned to Massachusetts and was elected governor of the Commonwealth, serving in that role for most of his remaining years. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788.
John Hancock was born on January 23, 1737 in Braintree, Massachusetts, in a part of town that eventually became the separate city of Quincy. He was the son of Col. John Hancock Jr. of Braintree and Mary Hawke Thaxter (widow of Samuel Thaxter Junior), who was from nearby Hingham. As a child, Hancock became a casual acquaintance of young John Adams, whom the Reverend Hancock had baptized in 1735. The Hancocks lived a comfortable life, and owned one slave to help with household work.
After Hancock's father died in 1744, John was sent to live with his uncle and aunt, Thomas Hancock and Lydia (Henchman) Hancock. Thomas Hancock was the proprietor of a firm known as the House of Hancock, which imported manufactured goods from Britain and exported rum, whale oil, and fish. Thomas Hancock's highly successful business made him one of Boston's richest and best-known residents. He and Lydia, along with several servants and slaves, lived in Hancock Manor on Beacon Hill. The couple, who did not have any children of their own, became the dominant influence on John's life.
After graduating from the Boston Latin School in 1750, Hancock enrolled in Harvard College and received a bachelor's degree in 1754. Upon graduation, he began to work for his uncle, just as the French and Indian War (1754–1763) had begun. Thomas Hancock had close relations with the royal governors of Massachusetts and secured profitable government contracts during the war. John Hancock learned much about his uncle's business during these years and was trained for eventual partnership in the firm. Hancock worked hard, but he also enjoyed playing the role of a wealthy aristocrat and developed a fondness for expensive clothes.
From 1760 to 1761, Hancock lived in England while building relationships with customers and suppliers. Upon returning to Boston, Hancock gradually took over the House of Hancock as his uncle's health failed, becoming a full partner in January 1763. He became a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in October 1762, which connected him with many of Boston's most influential citizens. When Thomas Hancock died in August 1764, John inherited the business, Hancock Manor, two or three household slaves, and thousands of acres of land, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the colonies. The household slaves continued to work for John and his aunt, but were eventually freed through the terms of Thomas Hancock's will; there is no evidence that John Hancock ever bought or sold slaves.
After its victory in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the British Empire was deeply in debt. Looking for new sources of revenue, the British Parliament sought, for the first time, to directly tax the colonies, beginning with the Sugar Act of 1764. The earlier Molasses Act of 1733, a tax on shipments from the West Indies, had produced hardly any revenue because it was widely bypassed by smuggling, which was seen as a victimless crime.
Not only was there little social stigma attached to smuggling in the colonies, but in port cities, where trade was the primary generator of wealth, smuggling enjoyed considerable community support, and it was even possible to obtain insurance against being caught. Colonial merchants developed an impressive repertoire of evasive maneuvers to conceal the origin, nationality, routes, and content of their illicit cargoes. This included the frequent use of fraudulent paperwork to make the cargo appear legal and authorized. And much to the frustration of the British authorities, when seizures did happen local merchants were often able to use sympathetic provincial courts to reclaim confiscated goods and have their cases dismissed. For instance, Edward Randolph, the appointed head of customs in New England, brought 36 seizures to trial from 1680 to the end of 1682—and all but two of these were acquitted. Alternatively, merchants sometimes took matters into their own hands and stole illicit goods back while impounded.
The Sugar Act provoked outrage in Boston, where it was widely viewed as a violation of colonial rights. Men such as James Otis and Samuel Adams argued that because the colonists were not represented in Parliament, they could not be taxed by that body; only the colonial assemblies, where the colonists were represented, could levy taxes upon the colonies. Hancock was not yet a political activist; however, he criticized the tax for economic, rather than constitutional, reasons.
Hancock emerged as a leading political figure in Boston just as tensions with Great Britain were increasing. In March 1765, he was elected as one of Boston's five selectmen, an office previously held by his uncle for many years. Soon after, Parliament passed the 1765 Stamp Act, a tax on legal documents, such as wills, that had been levied in Britain for many years but which was wildly unpopular in the colonies, producing riots and organized resistance. Hancock initially took a moderate position: as a loyal British subject, he thought that the colonists should submit to the act, even though he believed that Parliament was misguided. Within a few months, Hancock had changed his mind, although he continued to disapprove of violence and the intimidation of royal officials by mobs. Hancock joined the resistance to the Stamp Act by participating in a boycott of British goods, which made him popular in Boston. After Bostonians learned of the impending repeal of the Stamp Act, Hancock was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in May 1766.
Hancock's political success benefited from the support of Samuel Adams, the clerk of the House of Representatives and a leader of Boston's "popular party", also known as "Whigs" and later as "Patriots". The two men made an unlikely pair. Fifteen years older than Hancock, Adams had a somber, Puritan outlook that stood in marked contrast to Hancock's taste for luxury and extravagance. Apocryphal stories later portrayed Adams as masterminding Hancock's political rise so that the merchant's wealth could be used to further the Whig agenda. Historian James Truslow Adams portrayed Hancock as shallow and vain, easily manipulated by Adams. Historian William M. Fowler, who wrote biographies of both men, argued that this characterization was an exaggeration, and that the relationship between the two was symbiotic, with Adams as the mentor and Hancock the protégé.
After the repeal of the Stamp Act, Parliament took a different approach to raising revenue, passing the 1767 Townshend Acts, which established new duties on various imports and strengthened the customs agency by creating the American Customs Board. The British government believed that a more efficient customs system was necessary because many colonial American merchants had been smuggling. Smugglers violated the Navigation Acts by trading with ports outside of the British Empire and avoiding import taxes. Parliament hoped that the new system would reduce smuggling and generate revenue for the government.
Colonial merchants, even those not involved in smuggling, found the new regulations oppressive. Other colonists protested that new duties were another attempt by Parliament to tax the colonies without their consent. Hancock joined other Bostonians in calling for a boycott of British imports until the Townshend duties were repealed. In their enforcement of the customs regulations, the Customs Board targeted Hancock, Boston's wealthiest Whig. They may have suspected that he was a smuggler, or they may have wanted to harass him because of his politics, especially after Hancock snubbed Governor Francis Bernard by refusing to attend public functions when the customs officials were present.
On April 9, 1768, two customs employees (called "tidesmen") boarded Hancock's brig "Lydia" in Boston Harbor. Hancock was summoned, and finding that the agents lacked a writ of assistance (a general search warrant), he did not allow them to go below deck. When one of them later managed to get into the hold, Hancock's men forced the tidesman back on deck. Customs officials wanted to file charges, but the case was dropped when Massachusetts Attorney General Jonathan Sewall ruled that Hancock had broken no laws. Later, some of Hancock's most ardent admirers would call this incident the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies and credit Hancock with initiating the American Revolution.
The next incident proved to be a major event in the coming of the American Revolution. On the evening of May 9, 1768, Hancock's sloop "Liberty" arrived in Boston Harbor, carrying a shipment of Madeira wine. When custom officers inspected the ship the next morning, they found that it contained 25 pipes of wine, just one fourth of the ship's carrying capacity. Hancock paid the duties on the 25 pipes of wine, but officials suspected that he had arranged to have more wine unloaded during the night to avoid paying the duties for the entire cargo. They did not have any evidence to prove this, however, since the two tidesmen who had stayed on the ship overnight gave a sworn statement that nothing had been unloaded.
One month later, while the British warship HMS "Romney" was in port, one of the tidesmen changed his story: he now claimed that he had been forcibly held on the "Liberty" while it had been illegally unloaded. On June 10, customs officials seized the "Liberty". Bostonians were already angry because the captain of the "Romney" had been impressing colonists, and not just deserters from the Royal Navy, an arguably illegal activity. A riot broke out when officials began to tow the "Liberty" out to the "Romney", which was also arguably illegal. The confrontation escalated when sailors and marines coming ashore to seize the "Liberty" were mistaken for a press gang. After the riot, customs officials relocated to the "Romney", and then to Castle William (an island fort in the harbor), claiming that they were unsafe in town. Whigs insisted that the customs officials were exaggerating the danger so that London would send troops to Boston.
British officials filed two lawsuits stemming from the "Liberty" incident: an "in rem" suit against the ship, and an "in personam" suit against Hancock. Royal officials, as well as Hancock's accuser, stood to gain financially, since, as was the custom, any penalties assessed by the court would be awarded to the governor, the informer, and the Crown, each getting a third. The first suit, filed on June 22, 1768, resulted in the confiscation of the "Liberty" in August. Customs officials then used the ship to enforce trade regulations until it was burned by angry colonists in Rhode Island the following year.
The second trial began in October 1768, when charges were filed against Hancock and five others for allegedly unloading 100 pipes of wine from the "Liberty" without paying the duties. If convicted, the defendants would have had to pay a penalty of triple the value of the wine, which came to £9,000. With John Adams serving as his lawyer, Hancock was prosecuted in a highly publicized trial by a vice admiralty court, which had no jury and did not always allow the defense to cross-examine the witnesses. After dragging out for nearly five months, the proceedings against Hancock were dropped without explanation.
Although the charges against Hancock were dropped, many writers later described him as a smuggler. The accuracy of this characterization has been questioned. "Hancock's guilt or innocence and the exact charges against him", wrote historian John W. Tyler in 1986, "are still fiercely debated." Historian Oliver Dickerson argued that Hancock was the victim of an essentially criminal racketeering scheme perpetrated by Governor Bernard and the customs officials. Dickerson believed that there is no reliable evidence that Hancock was guilty in the "Liberty" case, and that the purpose of the trials was to punish Hancock for political reasons and to plunder his property. Opposed to Dickerson's interpretation were Kinvin Wroth and Hiller Zobel, the editors of John Adams's legal papers, who argued that "Hancock's innocence is open to question", and that the British officials acted legally, if unwisely. Lawyer and historian Bernard Knollenberg concluded that the customs officials had the right to seize Hancock's ship, but towing it out to the "Romney" had been illegal. Legal historian John Phillip Reid argued that the testimony of both sides was so politically partial that it is not possible to objectively reconstruct the incident.
Aside from the "Liberty" affair, the degree to which Hancock was engaged in smuggling, which may have been widespread in the colonies, has been questioned. Given the clandestine nature of smuggling, records are scarce. If Hancock was a smuggler, no documentation of this has been found. John W. Tyler identified 23 smugglers in his study of more than 400 merchants in revolutionary Boston, but found no written evidence that Hancock was one of them. Biographer William Fowler concluded that while Hancock was probably engaged in some smuggling, most of his business was legitimate, and his later reputation as the "king of the colonial smugglers" is a myth without foundation.
The "Liberty" affair reinforced a previously made British decision to suppress unrest in Boston with a show of military might. The decision had been prompted by Samuel Adams's 1768 Circular Letter, which was sent to other British American colonies in hopes of coordinating resistance to the Townshend Acts. Lord Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies, sent four regiments of the British Army to Boston to support embattled royal officials, and instructed Governor Bernard to order the Massachusetts legislature to revoke the Circular Letter. Hancock and the Massachusetts House voted against rescinding the letter, and instead drew up a petition demanding Governor Bernard's recall. When Bernard returned to England in 1769, Bostonians celebrated.
The British troops remained, however, and tensions between soldiers and civilians eventually resulted in the killing of five civilians in the Boston Massacre of March 1770. Hancock was not involved in the incident, but afterwards he led a committee to demand the removal of the troops. Meeting with Bernard's successor, Governor Thomas Hutchinson, and the British officer in command, Colonel William Dalrymple, Hancock claimed that there were 10,000 armed colonists ready to march into Boston if the troops did not leave. Hutchinson knew that Hancock was bluffing, but the soldiers were in a precarious position when garrisoned within the town, and so Dalrymple agreed to remove both regiments to Castle William. Hancock was celebrated as a hero for his role in getting the troops withdrawn. His reelection to the Massachusetts House in May was nearly unanimous.
After Parliament partially repealed the Townshend duties in 1770, Boston's boycott of British goods ended. Politics became quieter in Massachusetts, although tensions remained. Hancock tried to improve his relationship with Governor Hutchinson, who in turn sought to woo Hancock away from Adams's influence. In April 1772, Hutchinson approved Hancock's election as colonel of the Boston Cadets, a militia unit whose primary function was to provide a ceremonial escort for the governor and the General Court. In May, Hutchinson even approved Hancock's election to the Council, the upper chamber of the General Court, whose members were elected by the House but subject to veto by the governor. Hancock's previous elections to the Council had been vetoed, but now Hutchinson allowed the election to stand. Hancock declined the office, however, not wanting to appear to have been co-opted by the governor. Nevertheless, Hancock used the improved relationship to resolve an ongoing dispute. To avoid hostile crowds in Boston, Hutchinson had been convening the legislature outside of town; now he agreed to allow the General Court to sit in Boston once again, to the relief of the legislators.
Hutchinson had dared to hope that he could win over Hancock and discredit Adams. To some, it seemed that Adams and Hancock were indeed at odds: when Adams formed the Boston Committee of Correspondence in November 1772 to advocate colonial rights, Hancock declined to join, creating the impression that there was a split in the Whig ranks. But whatever their differences, Hancock and Adams came together again in 1773 with the renewal of major political turmoil. They cooperated in the revelation of private letters of Thomas Hutchinson, in which the governor seemed to recommend "an abridgement of what are called English liberties" to bring order to the colony. The Massachusetts House, blaming Hutchinson for the military occupation of Boston, called for his removal as governor.
Even more trouble followed Parliament's passage of the 1773 Tea Act. On November 5, Hancock was elected as moderator at a Boston town meeting that resolved that anyone who supported the Tea Act was an "Enemy to America". Hancock and others tried to force the resignation of the agents who had been appointed to receive the tea shipments. Unsuccessful in this, they attempted to prevent the tea from being unloaded after three tea ships had arrived in Boston Harbor. Hancock was at the fateful meeting on December 16, where he reportedly told the crowd, "Let every man do what is right in his own eyes." Hancock did not take part in the Boston Tea Party that night, but he approved of the action, although he was careful not to publicly praise the destruction of private property.
Over the next few months, Hancock was disabled by gout, which would trouble him with increasing frequency in the coming years. By March 5, 1774, he had recovered enough to deliver the fourth annual Massacre Day oration, a commemoration of the Boston Massacre. Hancock's speech denounced the presence of British troops in Boston, who he said had been sent there "to enforce obedience to acts of Parliament, which neither God nor man ever empowered them to make". The speech, probably written by Hancock in collaboration with Adams, Joseph Warren, and others, was published and widely reprinted, enhancing Hancock's stature as a leading Patriot.
Parliament responded to the Tea Party with the Boston Port Act, one of the so-called Coercive Acts intended to strengthen British control of the colonies. Hutchinson was replaced as governor by General Thomas Gage, who arrived in May 1774. On June 17, the Massachusetts House elected five delegates to send to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which was being organized to coordinate colonial response to the Coercive Acts. Hancock did not serve in the first Congress, possibly for health reasons, or possibly to remain in charge while the other Patriot leaders were away.
Gage soon dismissed Hancock from his post as colonel of the Boston Cadets. In October 1774, Gage canceled the scheduled meeting of the General Court. In response, the House resolved itself into the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, a body independent of British control. Hancock was elected as president of the Provincial Congress and was a key member of the Committee of Safety. The Provincial Congress created the first minutemen companies, consisting of militiamen who were to be ready for action on a moment's notice.
On December 1, 1774, the Provincial Congress elected Hancock as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress to replace James Bowdoin, who had been unable to attend the first Congress because of illness. Before Hancock reported to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, the Provincial Congress unanimously reelected him as their president in February 1775. Hancock's multiple roles gave him enormous influence in Massachusetts, and as early as January 1774 British officials had considered arresting him. After attending the Provincial Congress in Concord in April 1775, Hancock and Samuel Adams decided that it was not safe to return to Boston before leaving for Philadelphia. They stayed instead at Hancock's childhood home in Lexington.
Gage received a letter from Lord Dartmouth on April 14, 1775, advising him "to arrest the principal actors and abettors in the Provincial Congress whose proceedings appear in every light to be acts of treason and rebellion". On the night of April 18, Gage sent out a detachment of soldiers on the fateful mission that would spark the American Revolutionary War. The purpose of the British expedition was to seize and destroy military supplies that the colonists had stored in Concord. According to many historical accounts, Gage also instructed his men to arrest Hancock and Adams; if so, the written orders issued by Gage made no mention of arresting the Patriot leaders. Gage apparently decided that he had nothing to gain by arresting Hancock and Adams, since other leaders would simply take their place, and the British would be portrayed as the aggressors.
Although Gage had evidently decided against seizing Hancock and Adams, Patriots initially believed otherwise. From Boston, Joseph Warren dispatched messenger Paul Revere to warn Hancock and Adams that British troops were on the move and might attempt to arrest them. Revere reached Lexington around midnight and gave the warning. Hancock, still considering himself a militia colonel, wanted to take the field with the Patriot militia at Lexington, but Adams and others convinced him to avoid battle, arguing that he was more valuable as a political leader than as a soldier. As Hancock and Adams made their escape, the first shots of the war were fired at Lexington and Concord. Soon after the battle, Gage issued a proclamation granting a general pardon to all who would "lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects"—with the exceptions of Hancock and Samuel Adams. Singling out Hancock and Adams in this manner only added to their renown among Patriots.
With the war underway, Hancock made his way to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia with the other Massachusetts delegates. On May 24, 1775, he was unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding Peyton Randolph after Henry Middleton declined the nomination. Hancock was a good choice for president for several reasons. He was experienced, having often presided over legislative bodies and town meetings in Massachusetts. His wealth and social standing inspired the confidence of moderate delegates, while his association with Boston radicals made him acceptable to other radicals. His position was somewhat ambiguous because the role of the president was not fully defined, and it was not clear if Randolph had resigned or was on a leave of absence. Like other presidents of Congress, Hancock's authority was mostly limited to that of a presiding officer. He also had to handle a great deal of official correspondence, and he found it necessary to hire clerks at his own expense to help with the paperwork.
In Congress on June 15, 1775, Massachusetts delegate John Adams nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army then gathered around Boston. Years later, Adams wrote that Hancock had shown great disappointment at not getting the command for himself. This brief comment from 1801 is the only source for the oft-cited claim that Hancock sought to become commander-in-chief. In the early 20th century, historian James Truslow Adams wrote that the incident initiated a lifelong estrangement between Hancock and Washington, but some subsequent historians have expressed doubt that the incident, or the estrangement, ever occurred. According to historian Donald Proctor, "There is no contemporary evidence that Hancock harbored ambitions to be named commander-in-chief. Quite the contrary." Hancock and Washington maintained a good relationship after the alleged incident, and in 1778 Hancock named his only son "John George Washington Hancock". Hancock admired and supported General Washington, even though Washington politely declined Hancock's request for a military appointment.
When Congress recessed on August 1, 1775, Hancock took the opportunity to wed his fiancée, Dorothy "Dolly" Quincy. The couple was married on August 28 in Fairfield, Connecticut. John and Dorothy would have two children, neither of whom survived to adulthood. Their daughter Lydia Henchman Hancock was born in 1776 and died ten months later. Their son John was born in 1778 and died in 1787 after suffering a head injury while ice skating.
While president of Congress, Hancock became involved in a long-running controversy with Harvard. As treasurer of the college since 1773, he had been entrusted with the school's financial records and about £15,000 in cash and securities. In the rush of events at the onset of the Revolutionary War, Hancock had been unable to return the money and accounts to Harvard before leaving for Congress. In 1777, a Harvard committee headed by James Bowdoin, Hancock's chief political and social rival in Boston, sent a messenger to Philadelphia to retrieve the money and records. Hancock was offended, but he turned over more than £16,000, though not all of the records, to the college. When Harvard replaced Hancock as treasurer, his ego was bruised, and for years he declined to settle the account or pay the interest on the money he had held, despite pressure put on him by Bowdoin and other political opponents. The issue dragged on until after Hancock's death, when his estate finally paid the college more than £1,000 to resolve the matter.
Hancock served in Congress through some of the darkest days of the Revolutionary War. The British drove Washington from New York and New Jersey in 1776, which prompted Congress to flee to Baltimore, Maryland. Hancock and Congress returned to Philadelphia in March 1777 but were compelled to flee six months later when the British occupied Philadelphia. Hancock wrote innumerable letters to colonial officials, raising money, supplies, and troops for Washington's army. He chaired the Marine Committee, and took pride in helping to create a small fleet of American frigates, including the USS "Hancock", which was named in his honor.
Hancock was president of Congress when the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. He is primarily remembered by Americans for his large, flamboyant signature on the Declaration, so much so that "John Hancock" became, in the United States, an informal synonym for "signature". According to legend, Hancock signed his name largely and clearly so that King George could read it without his spectacles, but the story is apocryphal and originated years later.
Contrary to popular mythology, there was no ceremonial signing of the Declaration on July 4, 1776. After Congress approved the wording of the text on July 4, the "fair copy" was sent to be printed. As president, Hancock may have signed the document that was sent to the printer John Dunlap, but this is uncertain because that document is lost, perhaps destroyed in the printing process. Dunlap produced the first published version of the Declaration, the widely distributed Dunlap broadside. Hancock, as President of Congress, was the only delegate whose name appeared on the broadside, although the name of Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, but not a delegate, was also on it as "Attested by" implying that Hancock had signed the fair copy. This meant that until a second broadside was issued six months later with all of the signers listed, Hancock was the only delegate whose name was publicly attached to the treasonous document. Hancock sent a copy of the Dunlap broadside to George Washington, instructing him to have it read to the troops "in the way you shall think most proper".
Hancock's name was printed, not signed, on the Dunlap broadside; his iconic signature appears on a different document—a sheet of parchment that was carefully handwritten sometime after July 19 and signed on August 2 by Hancock and those delegates present. Known as the engrossed copy, this is the famous document on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
In October 1777, after more than two years in Congress, President Hancock requested a leave of absence. He asked George Washington to arrange a military escort for his return to Boston. Although Washington was short on manpower, he nevertheless sent fifteen horsemen to accompany Hancock on his journey home. By this time Hancock had become estranged from Samuel Adams, who disapproved of what he viewed as Hancock's vanity and extravagance, which Adams believed were inappropriate in a republican leader. When Congress voted to thank Hancock for his service, Adams and the other Massachusetts delegates voted against the resolution, as did a few delegates from other states.
Back in Boston, Hancock was reelected to the House of Representatives. As in previous years, his philanthropy made him popular. Although his finances had suffered greatly because of the war, he gave to the poor, helped support widows and orphans, and loaned money to friends. According to biographer William Fowler, "John Hancock was a generous man and the people loved him for it. He was their idol." In December 1777, he was reelected as a delegate to the Continental Congress and as moderator of the Boston town meeting.
Hancock rejoined the Continental Congress in Pennsylvania in June 1778, but his brief time there was unhappy. In his absence, Congress had elected Henry Laurens as its new president, which was a disappointment to Hancock, who had hoped to reclaim his chair. Hancock got along poorly with Samuel Adams, and missed his wife and newborn son. On July 9, 1778, Hancock and the other Massachusetts delegates joined the representatives from seven other states in signing the Articles of Confederation; the remaining states were not yet prepared to sign, and the Articles would not be ratified until 1781.
Hancock returned to Boston in July 1778, motivated by the opportunity to finally lead men in combat. Back in 1776, he had been appointed as the senior major general of the Massachusetts militia. Now that the French fleet had come to the aid of the Americans, General Washington instructed General John Sullivan of the Continental Army to lead an attack on the British garrison at Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1778. Hancock nominally commanded 6,000 militiamen in the campaign, although he let the professional soldiers do the planning and issue the orders. It was a fiasco: French Admiral d'Estaing abandoned the operation, after which Hancock's militia mostly deserted Sullivan's Continentals. Hancock suffered some criticism for the debacle but emerged from his brief military career with his popularity intact. He was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780.
After much delay, the new Massachusetts Constitution finally went into effect in October 1780. To no one's surprise, Hancock was elected Governor of Massachusetts in a landslide, garnering over 90% of the vote. In the absence of formal party politics, the contest was one of personality, popularity, and patriotism. Hancock was immensely popular and unquestionably patriotic given his personal sacrifices and his leadership of the Second Continental Congress. James Bowdoin, his principal opponent, was cast by Hancock's supporters as unpatriotic, citing among other things his refusal (which was due to poor health) to serve in the First Continental Congress. Bowdoin's supporters, who were principally well-off commercial interests from Massachusetts coastal communities, cast Hancock as a foppish demagogue who pandered to the populace.
Hancock governed Massachusetts through the end of the Revolutionary War and into an economically troubled postwar period, repeatedly winning reelection by wide margins. Hancock took a hands-off approach to governing, avoiding controversial issues as much as possible. According to William Fowler, Hancock "never really led" and "never used his strength to deal with the critical issues confronting the commonwealth." Hancock governed until his surprise resignation on January 29, 1785. Hancock cited his failing health as the reason, but he may have become aware of growing unrest in the countryside and wanted to get out of office before the trouble came. Hancock's critics sometimes believed that he used claims of illness to avoid difficult political situations. Historian James Truslow Adams wrote that Hancock's "two chief resources were his money and his gout, the first always used to gain popularity, and the second to prevent his losing it". The turmoil that Hancock avoided ultimately blossomed as Shays's Rebellion, which Hancock's successor James Bowdoin had to deal with. After the uprising, Hancock was reelected in 1787, and he promptly pardoned all the rebels. Hancock was reelected to annual terms as governor for the remainder of his life.
When he had resigned as governor in 1785, Hancock was again elected as a delegate to Congress, known as the Confederation Congress after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781. Congress had declined in importance after the Revolutionary War, and was frequently ignored by the states. Hancock was elected to serve as its president on November 23, 1785, but he never attended because of his poor health and because he was disinterested. He sent Congress a letter of resignation in June 1786.
In an effort to remedy the perceived defects of the Articles of Confederation, delegates were first sent to the Annapolis Convention in 1786 and then to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, where they drafted the United States Constitution, which was then sent to the states for ratification or rejection. Hancock, who was not present at the Philadelphia Convention, had misgivings about the new Constitution's lack of a bill of rights and its shift of power to a central government. In January 1788, Hancock was elected president of the Massachusetts ratifying convention, although he was ill and not present when the convention began. Hancock mostly remained silent during the contentious debates, but as the convention was drawing to close, he gave a speech in favor of ratification. For the first time in years, Samuel Adams supported Hancock's position. Even with the support of Hancock and Adams, the Massachusetts convention narrowly ratified the Constitution by a vote of 187 to 168. Hancock's support was probably a deciding factor in the ratification.
Hancock was put forth as a candidate in the 1789 U. S. presidential election. As was the custom in an era where political ambition was viewed with suspicion, Hancock did not campaign or even publicly express interest in the office; he instead made his wishes known indirectly. Like everyone else, Hancock knew that George Washington was going to be elected as the first president, but Hancock may have been interested in being vice president, despite his poor health. Hancock received only four electoral votes in the election, however, none of them from his home state; the Massachusetts electors all voted for another Massachusetts native, John Adams, who received the second-highest number of electoral votes and thus became vice president. Although Hancock was disappointed with his performance in the election, he continued to be popular in Massachusetts.
His health failing, Hancock spent his final few years as essentially a figurehead governor. With his wife at his side, he died in bed on October 8, 1793, at 56 years of age. By order of acting governor Samuel Adams, the day of Hancock's burial was a state holiday; the lavish funeral was perhaps the grandest given to an American up to that time.
Despite his grand funeral, Hancock faded from popular memory after his death. According to historian Alfred F. Young, "Boston celebrated only one hero in the half-century after the Revolution: George Washington." As early as 1809, John Adams lamented that Hancock and Samuel Adams were "almost buried in oblivion". In Boston, little effort was made to preserve Hancock's historical legacy. His house on Beacon Hill was torn down in 1863 after both the city of Boston and the Massachusetts legislature decided against maintaining it. According to Young, the conservative "new elite" of Massachusetts "was not comfortable with a rich man who pledged his fortune to the cause of revolution". In 1876, with the centennial of American independence renewing popular interest in the Revolution, plaques honoring Hancock were put up in Boston. In 1896, a memorial column was finally erected over Hancock's essentially unmarked grave in the Granary Burying Ground.
No full-length biography of Hancock appeared until the 20th century. A challenge facing Hancock biographers is that, compared to prominent Founding Fathers like Jefferson and John Adams, Hancock left relatively few personal writings for historians to use in interpreting his life. As a result, most depictions of Hancock have relied on the voluminous writings of his political opponents, who were often scathingly critical of him. According to historian Charles Akers, "The chief victim of Massachusetts historiography has been John Hancock, the most gifted and popular politician in the Bay State's long history. He suffered the misfortune of being known to later generations almost entirely through the judgments of his detractors, Tory and Whig."
Hancock's most influential 20th-century detractor was historian James Truslow Adams, who wrote negative portraits of Hancock in "Harper's Magazine" and the "Dictionary of American Biography" in the 1930s. Adams argued that Hancock was a "fair presiding officer" but had "no great ability", and was prominent only because of his inherited wealth. Decades later, historian Donald Proctor argued that Adams had uncritically repeated the negative views of Hancock's political opponents without doing any serious research. Adams "presented a series of disparaging incidents and anecdotes, sometimes partially documented, sometimes not documented at all, which in sum leave one with a distinctly unfavorable impression of Hancock". According to Proctor, Adams evidently projected his own disapproval of 1920s businessmen onto Hancock, and ended up misrepresenting several key events in Hancock's career. Writing in the 1970s, Proctor and Akers called for scholars to evaluate Hancock based on his merits, rather than on the views of his critics. Since that time, historians have usually presented a more favorable portrait of Hancock, while acknowledging that he was not an important writer, political theorist, or military leader.
Many places and things in the United States have been named in honor of John Hancock. The U.S. Navy has named vessels USS "Hancock" and USS "John Hancock"; a World War II Liberty ship was also named in his honor. Ten states have a Hancock County named for him; other places named after him include Hancock, Massachusetts; Hancock, Michigan; Hancock, New Hampshire; Hancock, New York; and Mount Hancock in New Hampshire. John Hancock University is named for him, as was the John Hancock Financial company, founded in Boston in 1862; it had no connection to Hancock's own business ventures. The financial company passed on the name to the John Hancock Tower in Boston, the John Hancock Center in Chicago, as well as the John Hancock Student Village at Boston University.
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John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of "Astounding Science Fiction" (later called "Analog Science Fiction and Fact") from late 1937 until his death and was part of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Campbell wrote super-science space opera under his own name and stories under his primary pseudonym, Don A. Stuart. Campbell also used the pen names Karl Van Kampen and Arthur McCann. His novella "Who Goes There?" was adapted as the films "The Thing from Another World" (1951), "The Thing" (1982), and "The Thing" (2011).
Campbell began writing science fiction at age 18 while attending MIT. He published six short stories, one novel, and six letters in the science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories" from 1930 to 1931. This work established Campbell's reputation as a writer of space adventure. When in 1934 he began to write stories with a different tone, he wrote as Don A. Stuart. From 1930 until the later part of that decade, Campbell was prolific and successful under both names, though he stopped writing fiction shortly after he became editor of "Astounding" in 1937.
It is as editor of "Astounding Science Fiction" (later called "Analog Science Fiction and Fact") from late 1937 until his death for which Campbell is primarily remembered today. Also, in 1939, Campbell started the fantasy magazine "Unknown," although it was canceled after only four years. Referring to his time spent as an editor, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction wrote: "More than any other individual, he helped to shape modern sf." Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever" and said the "first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely." In his capacity as an editor, Campbell published some of the very earliest work, and helped shape the careers of virtually every important science-fiction author to debut between 1938 and 1946, including Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke.
An increasingly strong interest in pseudoscience later alienated Campbell from Isaac Asimov. As well, beginning in the 1960s, Campbell's controversial essays supporting segregation, and other remarks and writings surrounding slavery and race, served to distance him from many in the science fiction community. Nevertheless, Campbell remained an important figure in science fiction publishing up until his death. Campbell and "Astounding" shared one of the inaugural Hugo Awards with H. L. Gold and "Galaxy" at the 1953 World Science Fiction Convention. Subsequently, Campbell and "Astounding" (later renamed "Analog") won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine seven times.
Shortly after his death in 1971, the University of Kansas science fiction program established the annual John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and also renamed after him its annual Campbell Conference. The World Science Fiction Society established the annual John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, since renamed the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Campbell in 1996, in its inaugural class of two deceased and two living persons.
John Campbell was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1910. His father, John Wood Campbell Sr., was an electrical engineer. His mother, Dorothy (née Strahern) had an identical twin who visited them often and who disliked John. John was unable to tell them apart and says he was frequently rebuffed by the person he took to be his mother. Campbell attended the Blair Academy, a boarding school in rural Warren County, New Jersey, but did not graduate because of lack of credits for French and trigonometry.
He also attended, without graduating, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was befriended by the mathematician Norbert Wiener (who coined the term "cybernetics") – but he failed German and MIT dismissed him. After one year at Duke University, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1932.
Campbell began writing science fiction at age 18 while attending MIT and sold his first stories quickly. From January 1930 to June 1931, "Amazing Stories" published six of his short stories, one novel, and six letters. Campbell was editor of "Astounding Science Fiction" (later called "Analog Science Fiction and Fact") from late 1937 until his death. He stopped writing fiction after he became editor of "Astounding". Between December 11, 1957, and June 13, 1958, he hosted a weekly science fiction radio program called "Exploring Tomorrow". The scripts were written by authors such as Gordon R. Dickson and Robert Silverberg.
Campbell and Doña Stewart married in 1931. They divorced in 1949 and he married Margaret (Peg) Winter in 1950. He spent most of his life in New Jersey and died of heart failure at his home in Mountainside, New Jersey. He was an atheist.
Editor T. O'Conor Sloane lost Campbell's first manuscript that he accepted for "Amazing Stories", entitled "Invaders of the Infinite". "When the Atoms Failed" appeared in January 1930, followed by five more during 1930. Three were part of a space opera series featuring the characters Arcot, Morey, and Wade. A complete novel in the series, "Islands of Space", was the cover story in the Spring 1931 "Quarterly". During 1934–35 a serial novel, "The Mightiest Machine", ran in "Astounding Stories", edited by F. Orlin Tremaine, and several stories featuring lead characters Penton and Blake appeared from late 1936 in "Thrilling Wonder Stories", edited by Mort Weisinger.
The early work for "Amazing" established Campbell's reputation as a writer of space adventure. When in 1934 he began to publish stories with a different tone he wrote as Don A. Stuart, a pseudonym derived from his wife's maiden name.
From 1930 until the later part of that decade, Campbell was prolific and successful under both names. Three significant stories published under the pseudonym are "Twilight" ("Astounding", November 1934), "Night" ("Astounding", October 1935), and "Who Goes There?" ("Astounding", August 1938). "Who Goes There?", about a group of Antarctic researchers who discover a crashed alien vessel, formerly inhabited by a malevolent shape-changing occupant, was published in "Astounding" almost a year after Campbell became its editor and it was his last significant piece of fiction, at age 28. It was filmed as "The Thing from Another World" (1951), "The Thing" (1982), and again as "The Thing" (2011).
Campbell held the amateur radio call sign W2ZGU, and wrote many articles on electronics and radio for a wide range of magazines.
Tremaine hired Campbell to succeed him as the editor of "Astounding" from its October 1937 issue. Campbell was not given full authority for "Astounding" until May 1938, but had been responsible for buying stories somewhat earlier. He began to make changes almost immediately, instigating a "mutant" label for unusual stories, and in March 1938 changing the title from "Astounding Stories" to "Astounding Science-Fiction".
Lester del Rey's first story, in March 1938, was an early find for Campbell, and in 1939, he published such an extraordinary group of new writers for the first time that the period is generally regarded as the beginning of the "Golden Age of Science Fiction", and the July 1939 issue in particular. The July issue contained A. E. van Vogt's first story, "Black Destroyer", and Asimov's early story "Trends"; August brought Robert A. Heinlein's first story, "Life-Line", and the next month Theodore Sturgeon's first story appeared.
Also in 1939, Campbell started the fantasy magazine "Unknown" (later "Unknown Worlds"). Although "Unknown" was canceled after only four years, a victim of wartime paper shortages, the magazine's editorial direction was significant in the evolution of modern fantasy.
"The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" wrote: "More than any other individual, he helped to shape modern sf", and Darrell Schweitzer credits him with having "decreed that SF writers should pull themselves up out of the pulp mire and start writing intelligently, for adults". After 1950, new magazines such as "Galaxy Science Fiction" and "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction" moved in different directions and developed talented new writers who were not directly influenced by him. Campbell often suggested story ideas to writers (including "Write me a creature that thinks "as well as" a man, or "better than" a man, but not "like" a man" ), and sometimes asked for stories to match cover paintings he had already bought.
Campbell had a strong formative influence on Asimov and eventually became a friend. Asimov said of Campbell's influence on the field: By his own example and by his instruction and by his undeviating and persisting insistence, he forced first "Astounding" and then all science fiction into his mold. He abandoned the earlier orientation of the field. He demolished the stock characters who had filled it; eradicated the penny dreadful plots; extirpated the Sunday-supplement science. In a phrase, he blotted out the purple of pulp. Instead, he demanded that science-fiction writers understand science and understand people, a hard requirement that many of the established writers of the 1930s could not meet. Campbell did not compromise because of that: those who could not meet his requirements could not sell to him, and the carnage was as great as it had been in Hollywood a decade before, while silent movies had given way to the talkies.
One example of the type of speculative but plausible science fiction that Campbell demanded from his writers is "Deadline", a short story by Cleve Cartmill that appeared during the wartime year of 1944, a year before the detonation of the first atomic bomb. As Ben Bova, Campbell's successor as editor at "Analog", wrote, it "described the basic facts of how to build an atomic bomb. Cartmill and Campbell worked together on the story, drawing their scientific information from papers published in the technical journals before the war. To them, the mechanics of constructing a uranium-fission bomb seemed perfectly obvious." The FBI descended on Campbell's office after the story appeared in print and demanded that the issue be removed from the newsstands. Campbell convinced them that by removing the magazine "the FBI would be advertising to everyone that such a project existed and was aimed at developing nuclear weapons" and the demand was dropped.
Campbell was also responsible for the grim and controversial ending of Tom Godwin's short story "The Cold Equations". Writer Joe Green recounted that Campbell had three times sent 'Cold Equations' back to Godwin, before he got the version he wanted ... Godwin kept coming up with ingenious ways to save the girl! Since the strength of this deservedly classic story lies in the fact that the life of one young woman must be sacrificed to save the lives of many, it simply would not have the same impact if she had lived.
Between December 11, 1957, and June 13, 1958, Campbell hosted a weekly science fiction radio program called "Exploring Tomorrow".
Green wrote that Campbell "enjoyed taking the 'devil's advocate' position in almost any area, willing to defend even viewpoints with which he disagreed if that led to a livelier debate". As an example, he wrote, Campbell pointed out that the much-maligned 'peculiar institution' of slavery in the American South had in fact provided the blacks brought there with a higher standard of living than they had in Africa ... I suspected, from comments by Asimov, among others – and some "Analog" editorials I had read – that John held some racist views, at least in regard to blacks. Finally, however, Green agreed with Campbell that "rapidly increasing mechanization after 1850 would have soon rendered slavery obsolete anyhow. It would have been better for the USA to endure it a few more years than suffer the truly horrendous costs of the Civil War."
In a June 1961 editorial called "Civil War Centennial", Campbell argued that slavery had been a dominant form of human relationships for most of history and that the present was unusual in that anti-slavery cultures dominated the planet. He wrote, It's my bet that the South would have been integrated by 1910. The job would have been done – and done right – half a century sooner, with vastly less human misery, and with almost no bloodshed ... The only way slavery has ever been ended, anywhere, is by introducing industry ... If a man is a skilled and competent machinist – if the lathes work well under his hands – the industrial management will be forced, to remain in business, to accept that fact, whether the man be black, white, purple, or polka-dotted.
According to Michael Moorcock, Campbell suggested that some people preferred slavery. He also, when faced with the Watts riots of the mid-sixties, seriously proposed and went on to proposing that there were 'natural' slaves who were unhappy if freed. I sat on a panel with him in 1965, as he pointed out that the worker bee when unable to work dies of misery, that the moujiks when freed went to their masters and begged to be enslaved again, that the ideals of the anti-slavers who fought in the Civil War were merely expressions of self-interest and that the blacks were 'against' emancipation, which was fundamentally why they were indulging in 'leaderless' riots in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
In 1963, Campbell published an essay supporting segregated schools and arguing that "the Negro race" had failed to "produce super-high-geniuses". In 1965, he continued his defense of segregation and related practices, critiquing "the arrogant defiance of law by many of the Negro 'Civil Rights' groups". On February 10, 1967, Campbell rejected Samuel R. Delany's "Nova" a month before it was ultimately published, with a note and phone call to his agent explaining that he did not feel his readership "would be able to relate to a black main character".
Campbell was a critic of government regulation of health and safety, excoriating numerous public health initiatives and regulations.
Campbell was a heavy smoker throughout his life and was seldom seen without his customary cigarette holder. In the "Analog" of September 1964, nine months after the Surgeon General's first major warning about the dangers of cigarette smoking had been issued (January 11, 1964) Campbell ran an editorial, "A Counterblaste to Tobacco" that took its title from the anti-smoking book of the same name by King James I of England. In it, he stated that the connection to lung cancer was "esoteric" and referred to "a barely determinable possible correlation between cigarette smoking and cancer". He said that tobacco's calming effects led to more effective thinking.
However, in a one-page piece about automobile safety in the "Analog" dated May 1967, Campbell wrote of "people suddenly becoming conscious of the fact that cars kill more people than cigarettes do, even if the antitobacco alarmists were completely right..."
His critiques of government regulation of health risks were not limited to tobacco. In 1963, Campbell published an angry editorial about Frances Oldham Kelsey who, while at the FDA, refused to permit thalidomide to be sold in the United States.
In a number of other essays, Campbell supported crank medicine, arguing that government regulation was more harmful than beneficial and that regulating quackery prevented the use of many possible beneficial medicines ("e.g.", krebiozen).
In the 1930s Campbell became interested in Joseph Rhine's theories about ESP (Rhine had already founded Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University when Campbell was a student there), and over the following years his growing interest in parapsychology would be reflected in the stories he published when he encouraged the writers to include these topics in their tales, leading to the publication of numerous works about telepathy and other "psionic" abilities. This post-war "psi-boom" has been dated by science fiction scholars to roughly the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, and continues to influence many popular culture tropes and motifs.
His increasing beliefs in pseudoscience would eventually start to isolate and alienate him from some of his own writers. He wrote favorably about such things as the "Dean drive", a device that supposedly produced thrust in violation of Newton's third law, and the "Hieronymus machine", which could supposedly amplify psi powers.
In 1949, Campbell worked closely with L. Ron Hubbard on the techniques that Hubbard would later turn into Dianetics. When Hubbard's therapy failed to find support from the medical community, Campbell published the earliest forms of Dianetics in "Astounding". He wrote of L. Ron Hubbard's initial article in "Astounding" that "[i]t is, I assure you in full and absolute sincerity, one of the most important articles ever published."
Campbell continued to promote Hubbard's theories until 1952, when the pair split acrimoniously over direction of the movement.
Asimov wrote: "A number of writers wrote pseudoscientific stuff to ensure sales to Campbell, but the best writers retreated, I among them. ..." Elsewhere Asimov went on to further explain, Campbell championed far-out ideas ... He pained very many of the men he had trained (including me) in doing so, but felt it was his duty to stir up the minds of his readers and force curiosity right out to the border lines. He began a series of editorials ... in which he championed a social point of view that could sometimes be described as far right (he expressed sympathy for George Wallace in the 1968 national election, for instance). There was bitter opposition to this from many (including me – I could hardly ever read a Campbell editorial and keep my temper).
Damon Knight described Campbell as a "portly, bristled-haired blond man with a challenging stare". "Six-foot-one, with hawklike features, he presented a formidable appearance," said Sam Moskowitz. "He was a tall, large man with light hair, a beaky nose, a wide face with thin lips, and with a cigarette in a holder forever clamped between his teeth", wrote Asimov.
Algis Budrys wrote that "John W. Campbell was the greatest editor SF has seen or is likely to see, and is in fact one of the major editors in all English-language literature in the middle years of the twentieth century. All about you is the heritage of what he built".
Asimov said that Campbell was "talkative, opinionated, quicksilver-minded, overbearing. Talking to him meant listening to a monologue ..." Knight agreed: "Campbell's lecture-room manner was so unpleasant to me that I was unwilling to face it. Campbell talked a good deal more than he listened, and he liked to say outrageous things."
British novelist and critic Kingsley Amis dismissed Campbell brusquely: "I might just add as a sociological note that the editor of "Astounding," himself a deviant figure of marked ferocity, seems to think he has invented a psi machine."
Several science-fiction novelists have criticized Campbell as prejudiced – Samuel R. Delany for Campbell's rejection of a novel due to the black main character, and Joe Haldeman in the dedication of "Forever Peace", for rejecting a novel due to a female soldier protagonist.
British science-fiction novelist Michael Moorcock, as part of his "Starship Stormtroopers" editorial, said Campbell's "Stories" and its writers were "wild-eyed paternalists to a man, fierce anti-socialists" with "[stories] full of crew-cut wisecracking, cigar-chewing, competent guys (like Campbell's image of himself)", who had success because their "work reflected the deep-seated conservatism of the majority of their readers, who saw a Bolshevik menace in every union meeting". He viewed Campbell as turning the magazine into a vessel for right-wing politics, "by the early 1950s ... a crypto-fascist deeply philistine magazine pretending to intellectualism and offering idealistic kids an 'alternative' that was, of course, no alternative at all".
SF writer Alfred Bester, an editor of "Holiday Magazine" and a sophisticated Manhattanite, recounted at some length his "one demented meeting" with Campbell, a man he imagined from afar to be "a combination of Bertrand Russell and Ernest Rutherford". The first thing Campbell said to him was that Freud was dead, destroyed by the new discovery of Dianetics, which, he predicted, would win L. Ron Hubbard the Nobel Peace Prize. Campbell ordered the bemused Bester to "think back. Clear yourself. Remember! You can remember when your mother tried to abort you with a button hook. You've never stopped hating her for it." Bester commented: "It reinforced my private opinion that a majority of the science-fiction crowd, despite their brilliance, were missing their marbles."
Campbell died in 1971 at the age of 61 in Mountainside, New Jersey. At the time of his sudden death after 34 years at the helm of "Analog," Campbell's quirky personality and eccentric editorial demands had alienated a number of his most illustrious writers to the point that they no longer submitted works to him. After 1950, Theodore Sturgeon only published one story in "Astounding" but dozens in other magazines.
Asimov remained grateful for Campbell's early friendship and support. He dedicated "The Early Asimov" (1972) to him, and concluded it by stating that "There is no way at all to express how much he meant to me and how much he did for me except, perhaps, to write this book evoking, once more, those days of a quarter century ago". His final word on Campbell, however, was that "in the last twenty years of his life, he was only a diminishing shadow of what he had once been." Even Heinlein, perhaps Campbell's most important discovery and a "fast friend", eventually tired of him.
Poul Anderson wrote that Campbell "had saved and regenerated science fiction", which had become "the product of hack pulpsters" when he took over "Astounding". "By his editorial policies and the help and encouragement he gave his writers (always behind the scenes), he raised both the literary and the intellectual standard anew. Whatever progress has been made stems from that renaissance".
Shortly after Campbell's death, the University of Kansas science fiction program – now the Center for the Study of Science Fiction – established the annual John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and also renamed after him its annual Campbell Conference. The World Science Fiction Society established the annual John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. All three memorials became effective in 1973. However, following Jeannette Ng's August 2019 acceptance speech of the award for Best New Writer at Worldcon 77, in which she criticized Campbell's politics and called him a fascist, the publishers of "Analog" magazine announced that the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer would immediately be renamed to "The "Astounding Award" for Best New Writer".
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Campbell in 1996, in its inaugural class of two deceased and two living persons.
Campbell and "Astounding" shared one of the inaugural Hugo Awards with H. L. Gold and "Galaxy" at the 1953 World Science Fiction Convention. Subsequently, he won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine seven times to 1965. In 2018 he won a retrospective Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form (1943).
The Martian impact crater Campbell was named after him.
This shortened bibliography lists each title once. Some titles that are duplicated are different versions, whereas other publications of Campbell's with different titles are simply selections from or retitlings of other works, and have hence been omitted. The main bibliographic sources are footnoted from this paragraph and provided much of the information in the following sections.
Memorial works (Festschrift) include:
Marowski, Daniel G. and Stine, Jean C. “John W(ood) Campbell, Jr. (1910-1971).” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 32, 1985: 71-82 Literature Criticism Online. Web. November 2, 2011.
Nevala-Lee, Alec "Astounding" 2018 Morrow/Dey Street.
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Joule
The joule ( ; symbol: J) is a derived unit of energy in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy transferred to (or work done on) an object when a force of one newton acts on that object in the direction of the force's motion through a distance of one metre (1 newton metre or N⋅m). It is also the energy dissipated as heat when an electric current of one ampere passes through a resistance of one ohm for one second. It is named after the English physicist James Prescott Joule (1818–1889).
In terms firstly of base SI units and then in terms of other SI units, a joule is defined below (please consider this table for the meaning of symbols):
One joule can also be defined as the following:
The cgs system had been declared official in 1881, at the first International Electrical Congress.
The erg was adopted as its unit of energy in 1882. Wilhelm Siemens, in his inauguration speech as chairman of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (23 August 1882) first proposed the "Joule" as unit of heat, to be derived from the electromagnetic units Ampere and Ohm, in cgs units equivalent to .
The naming of the unit in honour of James Prescott Joule (1818–1889), at the time retired but still living (aged 63), is due to Siemens:
At the second International Electrical Congress, on 31 August 1889, the joule was officially adopted alongside the watt and the "quadrant" (later renamed to henry).
Joule died in the same year, on 11 October 1889.
At the fourth congress (1893), the "international Ampere" and "international Ohm" were defined, with slight changes in the specifications for their measurement, with the "international Joule" being the unit derived from them.
In 1935, the International Electrotechnical Commission (as the successor organisation of the International Electrical Congress) adopted the "Giorgi system", which by virtue of assuming a defined value for the magnetic constant also implied a redefinition of the Joule. The Giorgi system was approved by the International Committee for Weights and Measures in 1946. The joule was now no longer defined based on electromagnetic unit, but instead as the unit of work performed by one unit of force (at the time not yet named newton)
over the distance of 1 metre. The joule was explicitly intended as the unit of energy to be used in both electromagnetic and mechanical contexts. The ratification of the definition at the ninth General Conference on Weights and Measures, in 1948,
added the specification that the joule was also to be preferred as the unit of heat in the context of calorimetry, thereby officially deprecating the use of the calorie.
This definition was the direct precursor of the joule as adopted in the modern International System of Units in 1960.
The definition of the joule as J=kg⋅m2⋅s-2 has remained unchanged since 1946, but the joule as a derived unit has inherited changes in the definitions of the second (in 1960 and 1967), the metre (in 1983) and the kilogram (in 2019).
One joule represents (approximately):
A kilowatt-hour is 3.6 megajoules.
1 joule is equal to (approximately unless otherwise stated):
Units defined exactly in terms of the joule include:
In mechanics, the concept of force (in some direction) has a close analogue in the concept of torque (about some angle):
A result of this similarity is that the SI unit for torque is the newton metre, which works out algebraically to have the same dimensions as the joule. But they are not interchangeable. The CGPM has given the unit of energy the name "joule", but has not given the unit of torque any special name, hence it is simply the newton metre (N⋅m) – a compound name derived from its constituent parts. The use of newton metres for torque and joules for energy is helpful to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications.
The distinction may be seen also in the fact that energy is a scalar – the dot product of a force vector and a displacement vector. By contrast, torque is a vector – the cross product of a force vector and a distance vector. Torque and energy are related to one another by the equation
where "E" is energy, "τ" is (the vector magnitude of) torque, and "θ" is the angle swept (in radians). Since angles are dimensionless, it follows that torque and energy have the same dimensions.
A watt-second (symbol W s or W·s) is a derived unit of energy equivalent to the joule. The watt-second is the energy equivalent to the power of one watt sustained for one second. While the watt-second is equivalent to the joule in both units and meaning, there are some contexts in which the term "watt-second" is used instead of "joule".
In photography, the unit for flashes is the watt-second. A flash can be rated in watt-seconds (e.g., 300 W⋅s) or in joules (different names for the same thing), but historically, the term "watt-second" has been used and continues to be used. An on-camera flash, using a 1000 microfarad capacitor at 300 volts, would be 45 watt-seconds. Studio flashes, using larger capacitors and higher voltages, are in the 200–2000 watt-second range.
The energy rating a flash is given is not a reliable benchmark for its light output because there are numerous factors that affect the energy conversion efficiency. For example, the construction of the tube will affect the efficiency, and the use of reflectors and filters will change the usable light output towards the subject. Some companies specify their products in "true" watt-seconds, and some specify their products in "nominal" watt-seconds.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16327
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John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407), Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the "Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom", and his ascetic sensibilities. The epithet ("Chrysostomos", anglicized as Chrysostom) means "golden-mouthed" in Greek and denotes his celebrated eloquence. Chrysostom was among the most prolific authors in the early Christian Church, exceeded only by Augustine of Hippo in the quantity of his surviving writings.
He is honoured as a saint in the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, as well as in some others. The Eastern Orthodox, together with the Byzantine Catholics, hold him in special regard as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs (alongside Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus). The feast days of John Chrysostom in the Eastern Orthodox Church are 13 November and 27 January. In the Roman Catholic Church he is recognized as a Doctor of the Church. Because the date of his death is occupied by the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September), the General Roman Calendar celebrates him since 1970 on the previous day, 13 September; from the 13th century to 1969 it did so on 27 January, the anniversary of the translation of his body to Constantinople. Of other Western churches, including Anglican provinces and Lutheran churches, some commemorate him on 13 September, others on 27 January. The Coptic Church also recognizes him as a saint (with feast days on 16 Thout and 17 Hathor).
John was born in Antioch in 347 to Greek parents from Syria. Different scholars describe his mother Anthusa as a pagan or as a Christian, and his father was a high-ranking military officer. John's father died soon after his birth and he was raised by his mother. He was baptised in 368 or 373 and tonsured as a reader (one of the minor orders of the Church). It is sometimes said that he was bitten by a snake when he was ten years old, leading to him getting an infection from the bite.
As a result of his mother's influential connections in the city, John began his education under the pagan teacher Libanius. From Libanius, John acquired the skills for a career in rhetoric, as well as a love of the Greek language and literature.
As he grew older, however, John became more deeply committed to Christianity and went on to study theology under Diodore of Tarsus, founder of the re-constituted School of Antioch. According to the Christian historian Sozomen, Libanius was supposed to have said on his deathbed that John would have been his successor "if the Christians had not taken him from us".
John lived in extreme asceticism and became a hermit in about 375; he spent the next two years continually standing, scarcely sleeping, and committing the Bible to memory. As a consequence of these practices, his stomach and kidneys were permanently damaged and poor health forced him to return to Antioch.
John was ordained as a deacon in 381 by Saint Meletius of Antioch who was not then in communion with Alexandria and Rome. After the death of Meletius, John separated himself from the followers of Meletius, without joining Paulinus, the rival of Meletius for the bishopric of Antioch. But after the death of Paulinus he was ordained a presbyter (priest) in 386 by Flavian, the successor of Paulinus. He was destined later to bring about reconciliation between Flavian I of Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, thus bringing those three sees into communion for the first time in nearly seventy years.
In Antioch, over the course of twelve years (386–397), John gained popularity because of the eloquence of his public speaking at the Golden Church, Antioch's cathedral, especially his insightful expositions of Bible passages and moral teaching. The most valuable of his works from this period are his "Homilies" on various books of the Bible. He emphasised charitable giving and was concerned with the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor. He spoke against abuse of wealth and personal property:Do you wish to honour the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to neglect him outside where he is cold and ill-clad. He who said: "This is my body" is the same who said: "You saw me hungry and you gave me no food", and "Whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did also to me"... What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well."
His straightforward understanding of the Scriptures – in contrast to the Alexandrian tendency towards allegorical interpretation – meant that the themes of his talks were practical, explaining the Bible's application to everyday life. Such straightforward preaching helped Chrysostom to garner popular support. He founded a series of hospitals in Constantinople to care for the poor.
One incident that happened during his service in Antioch illustrates the influence of his homilies. When Chrysostom arrived in Antioch, Flavian, the bishop of the city, had to intervene with Emperor Theodosius I on behalf of citizens who had gone on a rampage mutilating statues of the Emperor and his family. During the weeks of Lent in 387, John preached more than twenty homilies in which he entreated the people to see the error of their ways. These made a lasting impression on the general population of the city: many pagans converted to Christianity as a result of the homilies. As a result, Theodosius' vengeance was not as severe as it might have been.
In the autumn of 397, John was appointed Archbishop of Constantinople, after having been nominated without his knowledge by the eunuch Eutropius. He had to leave Antioch in secret due to fears that the departure of such a popular figure would cause civil unrest.
During his time as Archbishop he adamantly refused to host lavish social gatherings, which made him popular with the common people, but unpopular with wealthy citizens and the clergy. His reforms of the clergy were also unpopular. He told visiting regional preachers to return to the churches they were meant to be serving—without any payout.
His time in Constantinople was more tumultuous than his time in Antioch. Theophilus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, wanted to bring Constantinople under his sway and opposed John's appointment to Constantinople. Theophilus had disciplined four Egyptian monks (known as "the Tall Brothers") over their support of Origen's teachings. They fled to John and were welcomed by him. Theophilus therefore accused John of being too partial to the teaching of Origen. He made another enemy in Aelia Eudoxia, wife of Emperor Arcadius, who assumed that John's denunciations of extravagance in feminine dress were aimed at her. Eudoxia, Theophilus and other of his enemies held a synod in 403 (the Synod of the Oak) to charge John, in which his connection to Origen was used against him. It resulted in his deposition and banishment. He was called back by Arcadius almost immediately, as the people became "tumultuous" over his departure, even threatening to burn the royal palace. There was an earthquake the night of his arrest, which Eudoxia took for a sign of God's anger, prompting her to ask Arcadius for John's reinstatement.
Peace was short-lived. A silver statue of Eudoxia was erected in the Augustaion, near his cathedral. John denounced the dedication ceremonies as pagan and spoke against the Empress in harsh terms: "Again Herodias raves; again she is troubled; she dances again; and again desires to receive John's head in a charger", an allusion to the events surrounding the death of John the Baptist. Once again he was banished, this time to the Caucasus in Abkhazia.
Around 405, John began to lend moral and financial support to Christian monks who were enforcing the emperors' anti-Pagan laws, by destroying temples and shrines in Phoenicia and nearby regions.
The causes of John's exile are not clear, though Jennifer Barry suggests that they have to do with his connections to Arianism. Other historians, including Wendy Mayer and Geoffrey Dunn, have argued that "the surplus of evidence reveals a struggle between Johannite and anti-Johannite camps in Constantinople soon after John's departure and for a few years after his death". Faced with exile, John Chrysostom wrote an appeal for help to three churchmen: Pope Innocent I, Venerius the Bishop of Milan, and the third to Chromatius, the Bishop of Aquileia. In 1872, church historian William Stephens wrote:
The Patriarch of the Eastern Rome appeals to the great bishops of the West, as the champions of an ecclesiastical discipline which he confesses himself unable to enforce, or to see any prospect of establishing. No jealousy is entertained of the Patriarch of the Old Rome by the Patriarch of the New Rome. The interference of Innocent is courted, a certain primacy is accorded him, but at the same time he is not addressed as a supreme arbitrator; assistance and sympathy are solicited from him as from an elder brother, and two other prelates of Italy are joint recipients with him of the appeal.
Pope Innocent I protested John's banishment from Constantinople to the town of Cucusus in Cappadocia, but to no avail. Innocent sent a delegation to intercede on behalf of John in 405. It was led by Gaudentius of Brescia; Gaudentius and his companions, two bishops, encountered many difficulties and never reached their goal of entering Constantinople.
John wrote letters which still held great influence in Constantinople. As a result of this, he was further exiled from Cucusus (where he stayed from 404 to 407) to Pitiunt (Pityus) (in modern Georgia) where his tomb is a shrine for pilgrims. He never reached this destination, as he died at Comana Pontica on 14 September 407 during the journey. His last words are said to have been "δόξα τῷ θεῷ πάντων ἕνεκεν" (Glory be to God for all things).
John came to be venerated as a saint soon after his death. Almost immediately after, an anonymous supporter of John (known as pseudo-Martyrius) wrote a funeral oration to reclaim John as a symbol of Christian orthodoxy. But three decades later, some of his adherents in Constantinople remained in schism. Saint Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople (434–446), hoping to bring about the reconciliation of the Johannites, preached a homily praising his predecessor in the Church of Hagia Sophia. He said, "O John, your life was filled with sorrow, but your death was glorious. Your grave is blessed and reward is great, by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ O graced one, having conquered the bounds of time and place! Love has conquered space, unforgetting memory has annihilated the limits, and place does not hinder the miracles of the saint."
These homilies helped to mobilize public opinion, and the patriarch received permission from the emperor to return Chrysostom's relics to Constantinople, where they were enshrined in the Church of the Holy Apostles on 28 January 438. The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates him as a "Great Ecumenical Teacher", with Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian. These three saints, in addition to having their own individual commemorations throughout the year, are commemorated together on 30 January, a feast known as the Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs.
There are several feast days dedicated to him:
The best known of his many homilies, the Paschal Homily ("Hieratikon"), is rather brief. In the Eastern Orthodox Church it is traditionally read in full each year at the Paschal Divine Liturgy (eucharistic) service following the midnight Orthros (or Matins).
Chrysostom's extant homiletical works are vast, including many hundreds of exegetical homilies on both the New Testament (especially the works of Saint Paul) and the Old Testament (particularly on Genesis). Among his extant exegetical works are sixty-seven homilies on Genesis, fifty-nine on the Psalms, ninety on the Gospel of Matthew, eighty-eight on the Gospel of John, and fifty-five on the Acts of the Apostles.
The homilies were written down by stenographers and subsequently circulated, revealing a style that tended to be direct and greatly personal, but formed by the rhetorical conventions of his time and place. In general, his homiletical theology displays much characteristic of the Antiochian school (i.e., somewhat more literal in interpreting Biblical events), but he also uses a good deal of the allegorical interpretation more associated with the Alexandrian school.
John's social and religious world was formed by the continuing and pervasive presence of paganism in the life of the city. One of his regular topics was the paganism in the culture of Constantinople, and in his homilies he thunders against popular pagan amusements: the theatre, horseraces, and the revelry surrounding holidays. In particular, he criticizes Christians for taking part in such activities:
One of the recurring features of John's homilies is his emphasis on care for the needy. Echoing themes found in the Gospel of Matthew, he calls upon the rich to lay aside materialism in favor of helping the poor, often employing all of his rhetorical skills to shame wealthy people to abandon conspicuous consumption:Along these lines, he wrote often about the need for almsgiving and it’s importance alongside fasting and prayer, e.g. “Prayer without almsgiving is unfruitful.”
During his first two years as a presbyter in Antioch (386–387), John denounced Jews and Judaizing Christians in a series of eight homilies delivered to Christians in his congregation who were taking part in Jewish festivals and other Jewish observances. It is disputed whether the main target were specifically Judaizers or Jews in general. His homilies were expressed in the conventional manner, utilizing the uncompromising rhetorical form known as the "psogos" (Greek: blame, censure).
One of the purposes of these homilies was to prevent Christians from participating in Jewish customs, and thus prevent the perceived erosion of Chrysostom's flock. In his homilies, John criticized those "Judaizing Christians", who were participating in Jewish festivals and taking part in other Jewish observances, such as the shabbat, submitted to circumcision and made pilgrimage to Jewish holy places. There had been a revival of Jewish faith and tolerance in Antioch in 361, so Chrysostom’s followers and the greater Christian community were in contact with Jews frequently, and Chrysostom was concerned that this interaction would draw Christians away from their faith identity.
John claimed that synagogues were full of Christians, especially Christian women, on the shabbats and Jewish festivals, because they loved the solemnity of the Jewish liturgy and enjoyed listening to the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, and applauded famous preachers in accordance with the contemporary custom. A more recent theory is that he instead tried to persuade Jewish Christians, who for centuries had kept connections with Jews and Judaism, to choose between Judaism and Christianity. He promoted the proselytization of Jews, and many of these sermons highlighted their need to be “saved” from their corrupt faith. He also refers to Jews as outsiders, illnesses, idolaters, lewd, and beast-like.
Due to Chrysostom’s stature in the Christian church, both locally and within the greater church hierarchy, his sermons were fairly successful in spreading anti-Jewish sentiment. This prompted the introduction of anti-Jewish legislation and social regulations, increasing the separation between the two communities. Despite being in a pluralistic world, Chrysostom and many other early Christians aimed to establish a community that was distinct from all others, and limited the presence of non-Christians.
Since there were only two other ordained individuals in Antioch who were legally recognized as able to preach Christianity, Chrysostom was able to reach a majority of the local population, especially with his skills in the art of orating. He held great social and political power in Antioch, and was able to determine where one was or was not allowed to physically go; he frequently spoke about acts of violence taking place in Jewish spaces to dissuade Christians from going there.
In Greek the homilies are called "Kata Ioudaiōn" ("Κατὰ Ἰουδαίων"), which is translated as "Adversus Judaeos" in Latin and "Against the Jews" in English. The original Benedictine editor of the homilies, Bernard de Montfaucon, gives the following footnote to the title: "A discourse against the Jews; but it was delivered against those who were Judaizing and keeping the fasts with them [the Jews]."
According to Patristics scholars, opposition to any particular view during the late 4th century was conventionally expressed in a manner, utilizing the rhetorical form known as the psogos, whose literary conventions were to vilify opponents in an uncompromising manner; thus, it has been argued that to call Chrysostom an "anti-Semite" is to employ anachronistic terminology in a way incongruous with historical context and record. This does not preclude assertions that Chrysostom's theology was a form of Anti-Jewish supersessionism.
Christian priest James Parkes called Chrysostom's writing on Jews "the most horrible and violent denunciations of Judaism to be found in the writings of a Christian theologian". According to historian William I. Brustein, his sermons against Jews gave further momentum to the idea that Jews are collectively responsible for the death of Jesus. Steven Katz cites Chrysostom's homilies as “the decisive turn in the history of Christian anti-Judaism, a turn whose ultimate disfiguring consequence was enacted in the political antisemitism of Adolf Hitler.”
According to Robert H. Allen, "Chrysostom's learning and eloquence spans and sums up a long age of ever-growing moral outrage, fear and loathing of homosexuality." His most notable discourse in this regard is his fourth homily on , where he argues that those who have sex with the same sex must do so because they are insane: All of these affections then were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored than the body in diseases. ... [The men] have done an insult to nature itself. And a yet more disgraceful thing than these is it, when even the women seek after these intercourses, who ought to have more shame than men.
He describes homosexuality as the worst of sins, greater than murder. He asserts that punishment will be found in hell for such transgressors, and that women can be guilty of the sin as much as men. Chrysostom argues that the male passive partner has effectively renounced his manhood and become a woman – such an individual deserves to be "driven out and stoned". He attributes the cause to "luxury". "Do not, he means (Paul), because you have heard that they burned, suppose that the evil was only in desire. For the greater part of it came out their luxuriousness, which also kindled their flame into lust."
According to scholar Michael Carden, Chrysostom was particularly influential in shaping early Christian thought that same-sex desire was an evil that ultimately resulted in social injustice – altering the traditional interpretation of Sodom as a place of inhospitality, to one where the sexual transgressions of the Sodomites became paramount. Allen describes the sermon as the "climax and consummation of homophobia in the late classical world".
Apart from his homilies, a number of John's other treatises have had a lasting influence. One such work is John's early treatise "Against Those Who Oppose the Monastic Life", written while he was a deacon (sometime before 386), which was directed to parents, pagan as well as Christian, whose sons were contemplating a monastic vocation. Chrysostom wrote that, already in his day, it was customary for Antiochenes to send their sons to be educated by monks.
Another important treatise written by John is titled "On the Priesthood" (written 390/391, it contains in Book 1 an account of his early years and a defence of his flight from ordination by Bishop Meletios of Antioch, and then proceeds in later books to expound on his exalted understanding of the priesthood). Two other notable books by John are "Instructions to Catechumens" and "On the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature". In addition, he wrote a series of letters to the deaconess Olympias, of which seventeen are extant.
Beyond his preaching, the other lasting legacy of John is his influence on Christian liturgy. Two of his writings are particularly notable. He harmonized the liturgical life of the Church by revising the prayers and rubrics of the Divine Liturgy, or celebration of the Holy Eucharist. To this day, Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine Rite typically celebrate the "Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom" as the normal Eucharistic liturgy, although his exact connection with it remains a matter of debate among experts.
During a time when city clergy were subject to criticism for their high lifestyle, John was determined to reform his clergy in Constantinople. These efforts were met with resistance and limited success. He was an excellent preacher whose homilies and writings are still studied and quoted. As a theologian, he has been and continues to be very important in Eastern Christianity, and is generally considered among the Three Holy Hierarchs of the Greek Church, but has been less important to Western Christianity. His writings have survived to the present day more so than any of the other Greek Fathers.
John's influence on church teachings is interwoven throughout the current Catechism of the Catholic Church (revised 1992). The Catechism cites him in eighteen sections, particularly his reflections on the purpose of prayer and the meaning of the Lord's Prayer:
Christian clerics, such as R. S. Storr, refer to him as "one of the most eloquent preachers who ever since apostolic times have brought to men the divine tidings of truth and love", and the 19th-century John Henry Newman described John as a "bright, cheerful, gentle soul; a sensitive heart".
John's liturgical legacy has inspired several musical compositions. Particularly noteworthy are Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom", Op. 31, composed in 1910, one of his two major unaccompanied choral works; Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom", Op. 41; and Ukrainian composer Kyrylo Stetsenko's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Arvo Pärt's "Litany" sets Chrysostom's twenty-four prayers, one for each hour of the day, for soli, mixed choir and orchestra. And the compositions of Alexander Grechaninovs "Liturgy of Johannes Chrysostomos No. 1, Op. 13 (1897)", "Liturgy of Johannes Chrysostomos No. 2, Op.29 (1902)", "Liturgia Domestica (Liturgy Johannes Chrysostomos No. 3), Op. 79 (1917)" and "Liturgy of Johannes Chrysostomos No. 4, Op. 177 (1943)" are noteworthy.
James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" includes a character named Mulligan who brings 'Chrysostomos' into another character (Stephen Dedalus)'s mind because Mulligan's gold-stopped teeth and his gift of the gab earn him the title which St. John Chrysostom's preaching earned him, 'golden-mouthed': ""[Mulligan] peered sideways up and gave a long low whistle of call, then paused awhile in rapt attention, his even white teeth glistening here and there with gold points. Chrysostomos.""
A late medieval legend (not included in the Golden Legend) relates that, when John Chrysostom was a hermit in the desert, he was approached by a royal princess in distress. The Saint, thinking she was a demon, at first refused to help her, but the princess convinced him that she was a Christian and would be devoured by wild beasts if she were not allowed to enter his cave. He therefore admitted her, carefully dividing the cave in two parts, one for each of them. In spite of these precautions, the sin of fornication was committed, and in an attempt to hide it the distraught saint took the princess and threw her over a precipice. He then went to Rome to beg absolution, which was refused. Realising the appalling nature of his crimes, Chrysostom made a vow that he would never rise from the ground until his sins were expiated, and for years he lived like a beast, crawling on all fours and feeding on wild grasses and roots. Subsequently, the princess reappeared, alive, and suckling the saint's baby, who miraculously pronounced his sins forgiven. This last scene was very popular from the late 15th century onwards as a subject for engravers and artists. The theme was depicted by Albrecht Dürer around 1496, Hans Sebald Beham and Lucas Cranach the Elder, among others. Martin Luther mocked this same legend in his "Die Lügend von S. Johanne Chrysostomo" (1537). The legend was recorded in Croatia in the 16th century.
John Chrysostom died in the city of Comana in the year 407 on his way to his place of exile. There his relics remained until 438 when, thirty years after his death, they were transferred to Constantinople during the reign of the Empress Eudoxia's son, the Emperor Theodosius II (408–450), under the guidance of John's disciple, St. Proclus, who by that time had become Archbishop of Constantinople (434–447).
Most of John's relics were looted from Constantinople by Crusaders in 1204 and taken to Rome, but some of his bones were returned to the Orthodox Church on 27 November 2004 by Pope John Paul II. They are now enshrined in the Church of St. George, Istanbul.
The skull, however, having been kept at the monastery at Vatopedi on Mount Athos in northern Greece, was not among the relics that were taken by the crusaders in the 13th century. In 1655, at the request of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the skull was taken to Russia, for which the monastery was compensated in the sum of 2000 rubles. In 1693, having received a request from the Vatopedi Monastery for the return of Saint John's skull, Tsar Peter the Great ordered that the skull remain in Russia but that the monastery was to be paid 500 rubles every four years. The Russian state archives document these payments up until 1735. The skull was kept at the Moscow Kremlin, in the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God, until 1920, when it was confiscated by the Soviets and placed in the Museum of Silver Antiquities. In 1988, in connection with the 1000th Anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, the head, along with other important relics, was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and kept at the Epiphany Cathedral, until being moved to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour after its restoration.
Today, the monastery at Vatopedi posits a rival claim to possessing the skull of John Chrysostom, and there a skull is venerated by pilgrims to the monastery as that of Saint John. Two sites in Italy also claim to have the saint's skull: the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and the "Dal Pozzo" chapel in Pisa. The right hand of Saint John is preserved on Mount Athos, and numerous smaller relics are scattered throughout the world.
Widely used editions of Chrysostom's works are available in Greek, Latin, English, and French. The Greek edition is edited by Sir Henry Savile (eight volumes, Eton, 1613); the most complete Greek and Latin edition is edited by Bernard de Montfaucon (thirteen volumes, Paris, 1718–38, republished in 1834–40, and reprinted in Migne's "Patrologia Graeca", volumes 47–64). There is an English translation in the first series of the "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers" (London and New York, 1889–90). A selection of his writings has been published more recently in the original with facing French translation in "Sources Chrétiennes".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16329
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James Heckman
James Joseph Heckman (born 1944) is a Nobel Prize winning American economist who is currently at the University of Chicago, where he is The Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College; Professor at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies; Director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD); and Co-Director of Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group. He is also Professor of Law at the Law School, a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2000, Heckman shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Daniel McFadden, for his pioneering work in econometrics and microeconomics. As of February 2019 (according to RePEc), he is the next most influential economist in the world.
Heckman was born to John Jacob Heckman and Bernice Irene Medley in Chicago, Illinois. He received his B.A. in mathematics from Colorado College in 1965 and his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1971 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Three essays on the supply of labor and the demand for goods" under the supervision of Stanley W. Black.
He served as an assistant professor at Columbia University before he moved to the University of Chicago, in 1973. He has been a dissertation advisor for over 70 students, including Carolyn Heinrich, George Borjas, Stephen Cameron, Mark Rosenzweig, and Russ Roberts.
In addition to serving as the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor and director of the Economics Research Center in the department of economics, Heckman is also a professor of law at the Law School and a professor in the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago where he is the director of both the Center for Social Program Evaluation and Center for the Study of Childhood Development. He also serves as a member of the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics's Research Council. Heckman has held many appointments at other institutions and notably served as the Distinguished Chair of Microeconometrics at University College London (2004-2008), a Professor of Science and Society at University College Dublin (2005-2014), and as the Alfred Cowles Distinguished Visiting Professor at Yale University (2008-2011). His current appointments include Presidential Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Southern California's Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics (2015-) and International Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (2014-).
Founded in 2014 and directed by Heckman, the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD), at the University of Chicago, umbrellas his multiple research areas and initiatives that encompass rigorous empirical research to determine effective human capital policies and program design. CEHD initiatives include the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group, the Pritzker Consortium on Early Childhood Development, the Heckman Equation, the Research Network on the Determinants of Life Course Capabilities and Outcomes, and the Asian Family in Transition Initiative. Along with professor Steve Durlauf, Heckman is the Co-Director of the HCEO Working Group.
Heckman is noted for his contributions to selection bias and self-selection analysis, especially Heckman correction, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is also well known for his empirical research in labor economics, particularly regarding the efficacy of early childhood education programs.
His work has been devoted to the development of a scientific basis for economic policy evaluation, with special emphasis on models of individuals and disaggregated groups, and the problems and possibilities created by heterogeneity, diversity, and unobserved counterfactual states. He developed a body of new econometric tools that address these issues. His research has given policymakers important new insights into areas such as education, jobtraining, the importance of accounting for general equilibrium in the analysis of labor markets, anti-discrimination law, and civil rights. He demonstrated a strong causal effect of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in promoting African-American economic progress. He has recently demonstrated that the high school dropout rate is increasing in the US. He has studied the economic benefits of sorting in the labor market, the ineffectiveness of active labor market programs, and the economic returns to education.
His recent research focuses on inequality, human development and lifecycle skill formation, with a special emphasis on the economics of early childhood education. He is currently conducting new social experiments on early childhood interventions and reanalyzing old experiments. He is also studying the emergence of the underclass in the US and Western Europe. For example, he showed that a high IQ only improved an individual's chances of financial success by 1 or 2%. Instead, "conscientiousness," or "diligence, perseverance and self-discipline," are what lead to financial success.
In the early 1990s, his pioneering research, on the outcomes of people who obtain the GED certificate, received national attention.
Heckman has published over 300 articles and several books. His books include "Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policy?" (with Alan Krueger); "Evaluating Human Capital Policy, Law, and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean" (with Carmen Pages); the "Handbook of Econometrics", volumes 5, 6A, and 6B (edited with Edward Leamer); "Global Perspectives on the Rule of Law," (edited with R. Nelson and L. Cabatingan); and "The Myth of Achievement Tests: The GED and the Role of Character in American Life" (with John Eric Humphries and Tim Kautz).
He is currently co-editor of the "Journal of Political Economy". He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and the American Philosophical Society. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society (of which he is also former president), the Society of Labor Economics, the American Statistical Association, and the International Statistical Institute.
Heckman has received numerous awards for his work, including the John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association in 1983, the 2005 and 2007 Dennis Aigner Award for Applied Econometrics from the "Journal of Econometrics", the 2005 Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement in Labor Economics, the 2005 Ulysses Medal from the University College Dublin, the 2007 Theodore W. Schultz Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association, the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic awarded by the International Scientific Committee of the Pio Manzú Centre in 2008, the Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children Award from the Society for Research in Child Development in 2009, the 2014 Frisch Medal from the Econometric Society, the 2014 Spirit of Erikson Award from the Erikson Institute, and the 2016 Dan David Prize for Combating Poverty from Tel Aviv University.
Heckman is married to sociologist Lynne Pettler-Heckman with whom he has two children: a son, Jonathan (b. 1982) who is a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania, and a daughter, Alma (b. 1986), who is an assistant professor of history at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16333
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Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-Super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist, former politician, convicted perjurer, and peer of the realm. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt. He revived his fortunes as a best-selling novelist; his books have sold around 330 million copies worldwide.
Archer became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–86), before resigning after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a prostitute. In 1987, he won a court case and was awarded large damages because of this claim. He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became Conservative candidate to be the first elected Mayor of London. He had to resign his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in his 1987 libel case. He was imprisoned (2001–03) for perjury and perverting the course of justice, ending his elected political career.
Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in the City of London Maternity Hospital in Finsbury and his birth was registered in the June quarter of 1940. He was two weeks old when his family moved to Somerset, eventually settling in the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, where Archer spent most of his early life. His father, William (died 1956), was 64 years old when Jeffrey Archer was born. Early in his career, Archer gave conflicting accounts to the press of his father's supposed, but non-existent, military career. William Archer was, in fact, a bigamist, fraudster and conman, who impersonated another William Archer, a deceased war medal holder. He was at different times employed as a chewing gum salesman in New York and a mortgage broker in London. In the latter capacity he was charged at the Old Bailey for a series of fraud offences. On being allowed bail, he absconded to America under the name William Grimwood. As a boy Archer dreamt about being captain of Bristol Rovers Football Club, and is still a fan of the club.
In 1951, Archer won a scholarship to Wellington School in Somerset, not to the more prestigious Wellington College in Berkshire, as he was later inclined to claim. At this time his mother, Lola, was employed as a journalist on Weston's local newspaper, the Weston Mercury. She wrote a weekly column entitled "Over the Teacups", and frequently wrote about Jeffrey, calling him 'Tuppence'. Although Archer enjoyed the local fame this brought him, it caused him to be the victim of bullying while at Wellington School.
Archer left school with O-levels in English literature, art and history. He then spent a few years in a variety of jobs, including training with the army and a short period with the Metropolitan Police. He later worked as a physical education teacher, first at Vicar's Hill, a preparatory school in Hampshire, and later at Dover College in Kent.
In 1963 Archer was offered a place at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education to study for a Diploma of Education. The course was based in the department, and Archer became a member of Brasenose College. There have been claims that Archer provided false evidence of his academic qualifications to Brasenose College, for instance, the apparent citing of an American institution which was actually a bodybuilding club, in gaining admission to the course. It has also been alleged Archer provided false statements about three non-existent A-level passes and a U.S. university degree. Although the diploma course only lasted a year, Archer spent a total of three years at Oxford.
At Oxford Archer was successful in athletics, competing in sprinting and hurdling, and became president of the Oxford University Athletic Club. Television coverage survives of him making false starts in a 1964 sprint race, but he was not disqualified. He gained a blue in athletics and went on to run for England, and once successfully competed for Great Britain.
Even as a student Jeffrey Archer was plagued with rumours of financial wrongdoing — fellow undergraduates were amazed that he owned houses and cars with personalised number plates while working part time as an Oxfam fund raiser.
Archer raised money for the charity Oxfam, obtaining the support of The Beatles in a charity fundraising drive. The band accepted his invitation to visit the Principal's lodge at Brasenose College, where they were photographed with Archer and dons of the college, although they did not play there. The critic Sheridan Morley, then a student at Merton, was present and recalled the occasion:
After leaving Oxford, Archer continued as a charity fundraiser, initially working for the National Birthday Trust, a medical charity that promoted safe childbirth, before joining the United Nations Association (UNA) as its chief fundraiser. The then chairman of the UNA, Humphry Berkeley, alleged that there were numerous discrepancies in Archer's expense claims whilst he worked at the UNA.
Around this time, Archer began a career in politics, serving as a Conservative councillor on the Greater London Council (1967–1970).
Archer set up his own fundraising and public relations company, Arrow Enterprises, in 1969. That same year he opened an art gallery, the Archer Gallery, in Mayfair. The gallery specialised in modern art, including pieces by the sculptor and painter Leon Underwood. The gallery ultimately lost money, however, and Archer sold it two years later.
At 29, Archer was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth, holding the seat for the Conservative Party in a by-election on 4 December 1969. Archer beat Ian Gow to the selection after winning over a substantial proportion of younger members at the selection meeting. The national party had concerns about Archer's selection, specifically relating to the UNA expenses allegations made by Humphry Berkeley, himself a former Conservative MP. Berkeley tried to persuade Conservative Central Office that Archer was unsuitable as a parliamentary candidate. However, Archer brought a defamation action against Berkeley and the story was kept out of the press, although a truncated version of the story did appear in "The Times". The case was eventually settled out of court, with Archer agreeing to pay the legal costs of around £30,000.
Louth constituency had three key areas: Louth, Cleethorpes, and Immingham. During his time as an MP, Archer was a regular at the Immingham Conservative Club in the most working-class part of the constituency. In 1970 he took part in the Kennedy Memorial Test, a 50-mile running/walking race from Louth to Skegness and back.
In parliament, Archer was on the left of the Conservative Party, rebelling against some of his party's policies. He advocated free TV licences for elderly people and was against museum entrance charges. In 1971, he employed David Mellor to deal with his correspondence. He tipped Mellor to reach the cabinet. In an interview in February 1999 Archer said, "I hope we don't return to extremes. I'm what you might call centre-right but I've always disliked the right wing as much as I've disliked the left wing."
In 1974 Archer was a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme involving a Canadian company called Aquablast. The debacle lost him his first fortune and left him almost £500,000 in debt. Fearing imminent bankruptcy, he stood down as an MP at the October 1974 general election.
While he was a witness in the Aquablast case in Toronto in 1975, Archer was accused of stealing three suits from a department store. Archer denied the accusation for many years, but in the late 1990s he finally acknowledged that he had taken the suits, although he claimed that at the time he had not realised he had left the shop. No charges were ever brought.
Archer wrote his first book, "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less", in the autumn of 1974, as a means of avoiding bankruptcy. The book was picked up by the literary agent Deborah Owen and published first in the U.S., then eventually in Britain in the autumn of 1976. A radio adaptation was aired on BBC Radio 4 in the early 1980s and a BBC Television adaptation of the book was broadcast in 1990.
"Kane and Abel" (1979) proved to be his best-selling work, reaching number one on "The New York Times" bestsellers list. Like most of his early work it was edited by Richard Cohen, the Olympic fencing gold-medallist. It was made into a television mini-series by CBS in 1985, starring Peter Strauss and Sam Neill. The following year, Granada TV screened a 10-part adaptation of another Archer bestseller, "First Among Equals", which told the story of four men and their quest to become Prime Minister. In the U.S. edition of the novel, the character of Andrew Fraser was eliminated, reducing the number of protagonists to three.
As well as novels and short stories, Archer has also written three stage plays. The first, "Beyond Reasonable Doubt", opened in 1987 and ran at the Queen's Theatre in London's West End for over a year. However, Archer's next play, "Exclusive", was not well received by critics, and closed after a few weeks. His final play, "The Accused", opened at the Theatre Royal, Windsor on 26 September 2000, before transferring to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in the West End in December.
In 1988 author Kathleen Burnett accused Archer of plagiarising a story she'd written and including it in his short-story collection, "A Twist in the Tale". Archer denied he had plagiarised the story, claiming he'd simply been inspired by the idea.
Whilst Archer's books are commercially successful, critics have been generally unfavourable towards his writing. However, journalist Hugo Barnacle, writing for "The Independent" about "The Fourth Estate" (1996), thought the novel, while demonstrating that "the editors don't seem to have done any work", was "not wholly unsatisfactory".
Archer has said that he spends considerable time writing and re-writing each book. He goes abroad to write the first draft, working in blocks of two hours at a time, then writes anything up to 17 drafts in total. Since 2010, Archer has written the first draft of each new book at his luxury villa in Majorca, called "Writer's Block".
In 2011, Archer published the first of seven books in "The Clifton Chronicles" series, which follow the life of Harry Clifton from his birth in 1920, through to his funeral in 1993. The first novel in the series, "Only Time Will Tell", tells the story of Harry from 1920 through to 1940, and was published in the UK on 12 May 2011. The seventh and final novel in the series, "This Was a Man", was published on 3 November 2016.
Archer's latest novel, "Nothing Ventured", was published in September 2019, and is the first in a new series featuring detective William Warwick.
In January 2020 it was reported that Archer was suing his former literary agents, Curtis Brown, for £500,000 in unpaid royalties.
Archer's political career revived in the 1980s, and he became a popular speaker among the Conservative grassroots. He was appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher in September 1985. Norman Tebbit, party chairman, had misgivings over the appointment, as did other prominent members of the party, including William Whitelaw and Ted Heath. During his tenure as deputy chairman, Archer was responsible for a number of embarrassing moments, including his statement, made during a live radio interview, that many young, unemployed people were simply unwilling to find work. At the time of Archer's comment, unemployment in the UK stood at a record 3.4 million. Archer was later forced to apologise for the remark, saying that his words had been "taken out of context". Archer resigned as deputy chairman in October 1986 due to a scandal caused by an article in "The News of the World", which led on the story "Tory boss Archer pays vice-girl" and claimed Archer had paid Monica Coghlan, a prostitute, £2,000 through an intermediary at Victoria Station to go abroad.
Shortly after "The News of the World" story broke, rival tabloid the "Daily Star" ran a story alleging Archer had paid for sex with Coghlan, something "The News of the World" had been careful to avoid stating directly. Archer responded by suing the "Daily Star". The case came to court in July 1987. Explaining the payment to Coghlan as the action of a philanthropist rather than that of a guilty man, Archer won the case and was awarded £500,000 damages. Archer stated he would donate the money to charity. However, this case would ultimately result in Archer's final exit from front-line politics some years later. The description the judge (Mr Justice Caulfield) gave of Mrs Archer in his jury instructions included: "Remember Mary Archer in the witness-box. Your vision of her probably will never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she have, without the strain of this trial, radiance? How would she appeal? Has she had a happy married life? Has she been able to enjoy, rather than endure, her husband Jeffrey?" The judge then went on to say of Jeffrey Archer, "Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?"
Although the Archers claimed they were a normal, happily-married couple, by this time, according to the journalist Adam Raphael, Jeffrey and Mary Archer were living largely separate lives. The editor of the "Daily Star", Lloyd Turner, was sacked six weeks after the trial by the paper's owner Lord Stevens of Ludgate. Adam Raphael soon afterwards found proof that Archer had perjured himself at the trial, but his superiors were unwilling to take the risk of a potentially costly libel case. "The News of the World" later settled out-of-court with Archer, acknowledging they, too, had libelled him.
When Saddam Hussein suppressed Kurdish uprisings in 1991, Archer, with the Red Cross, set up the charity Simple Truth, a fundraising campaign on behalf of the Kurds. In May 1991, Archer organised a charity pop concert, starring Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Sting and Gloria Estefan, who all performed for free. Archer claimed that his charity had raised £57,042,000, though it was later revealed that only £3 million came from the Simple Truth concert and appeal, the rest from aid projects sponsored by the British and other governments, with significant amounts pledged before the concert. The charity would later result in further controversy. Having been previously rejected, Archer was made a life peer on 27 July 1992 as Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare, "of Mark in the County of Somerset". Prime Minister John Major recommended him largely because of Archer's role in aid to the Kurds. Archer and Major had been friends for a number of years.
In a speech at the 1993 Conservative conference, Archer urged then Home Secretary Michael Howard, to "Stand and deliver," saying: "Michael, I am sick and tired of being told by old people that they are frightened to open the door, they're frightened to go out at night, frightened to use the parks and byways where their parents and grandparents walked with freedom ... We say to you: stand and deliver!". He then attacked violent films and urged tougher prison conditions to prevent criminals from re-offending. He criticised the role of "do-gooders" and finished off the speech by denouncing the opposition party's law and order policies. This was a time when Archer was actively seeking another front-line political role.
On "Question Time" on 20 January 1994, Archer said that 18 should be the age of consent for gay sex, as opposed to 21, which it was at the time. Archer though was opposed to the age of consent for gay men being 16. Historian David Starkey was on the same edition, and said of Archer: "Englishmen like you enjoy sitting on the fence so much because you enjoy the sensation." Archer has also consistently been an opponent of a return to capital punishment.
In January 1994, Mary Archer, then a director of Anglia Television, attended a directors' meeting at which an impending takeover of Anglia Television by MAI, which owned Meridian Broadcasting, was discussed. The following day, Jeffrey Archer bought 50,000 shares in Anglia Television, acting on behalf of a friend, Broosk Saib. Shortly after this, it was announced publicly that Anglia Television would be taken over by MAI. As a result, the shares jumped in value, whereupon Archer sold them on behalf of his friend for a profit of £77,219. The arrangements he made with the stockbrokers meant he did not have to pay at the time of buying the shares.
An inquiry was launched by the Stock Exchange into possible insider trading. The Department of Trade and Industry, headed by Michael Heseltine, announced that Archer would not be prosecuted due to insufficient evidence. His solicitors admitted that he had made a mistake, but Archer later said that he had been exonerated.
In 1999, Archer had been selected by the Conservative Party as candidate for the London mayoral election of 2000, with the support of two former Prime Ministers, Baroness Thatcher and John Major. Eight Conservative ex-Cabinet Ministers who had been in office during the Thatcher and Major governments wrote to "The Daily Telegraph" in support of Archer's candidature. However, on 21 November 1999 the "News of the World" published allegations made by Ted Francis, a former friend of Archer's, that Archer had committed perjury in his 1987 libel case. Archer withdrew his candidature the following day. After the allegations, Archer was disowned by his party. Conservative leader William Hague explained: ""This is the end of politics for Jeffrey Archer. I will not tolerate such behaviour in my party."" On 4 February 2000, Archer was expelled from the party for five years.
On 26 September 2000, Archer was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice during the 1987 libel trial. Ted Francis was charged with perverting the course of justice. Simultaneously, Archer starred in a production of his own courtroom play "The Accused", staged at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket. The play concerned the court trial of an alleged murderer and assigned the role of jury to the audience, which would vote on the guilt of Archer's character at the end of each performance.
The perjury trial began on 30 May 2001, a month after Monica Coghlan's death in a road traffic collision. Ted Francis claimed that Archer had asked him to provide a false alibi for the night Archer was alleged to have been with Monica Coghlan. Angela Peppiatt, Archer's former personal assistant, also claimed Archer had fabricated an alibi in the 1987 trial. Peppiatt had kept a diary of Archer's movements, which contradicted evidence given during the 1987 trial. Andrina Colquhoun, Archer's former mistress, confirmed that they had been having an affair in the 1980s, thus contradicting the claim that he and Mary Archer had been “happily married” at the time of the trial.
Archer never spoke during the trial, though his wife Mary again gave evidence as she had done during the 1987 trial. On 19 July 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Mr Justice Potts. Francis was found not guilty. Prominent journalists admitted to having accepted Archer's hospitality after he was convicted. Archer's mother had died shortly before he was sentenced and he was released for the day to attend her funeral.
Archer was initially sent to Belmarsh Prison, a Category "A" prison, but was moved to Wayland Prison, a Category "C" prison in Norfolk, on 9 August 2001. Despite automatically qualifying as a category "D" prisoner given it was a first conviction and he did not pose serious risk of harm to the public, his status as such was suspended pending a police investigation into allegations about his Kurdish charity. He was then transferred to HM Prison North Sea Camp, an open prison, in October 2001. From there he was let out to work at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln, and allowed occasional home visits.
Media reports claimed he had been abusing this privilege by attending lunches with friends, including former Education Secretary Gillian Shephard. In September 2002 he was transferred to a Category "B" prison, Lincoln. After three weeks, he was moved to the Category "D" HM Prison Hollesley Bay in Suffolk.
During his imprisonment, Archer was visited by a number of high-profile friends, including actor Donald Sinden and performer Barry Humphries, better known as Dame Edna Everage.
In October 2002, Archer repaid the "Daily Star" the £500,000 damages he had received in 1987, as well as legal costs and interest of £1.3 million. That month, he was suspended from Marylebone Cricket Club for seven years.
On 21 July 2003, Archer was released on licence from Hollesley Bay after serving half of his sentence.
He remained a peer, there being no legal provision through which it could be removed other than passing a new Act of Parliament. He also retained membership of the House of Lords, which did not then have the power to expel members; however, Archer has not taken an active part in the proceedings of the House. Politically he is a non-affiliated member.
While in prison, Archer wrote the three-volume memoir "A Prison Diary", with volumes fashioned after Dante's "Divine Comedy" and named after the first three prisons in which he was kept. His prison term also served as inspiration for nine of the 12 short stories in the collection, "Cat O' Nine Tales".
In July 2001, shortly after Archer was jailed for perjury, Scotland Yard began investigating allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from his Kurdish charity. In 1991, Archer had claimed to have raised £57,042,000. In 1992, the Kurdish Disaster Fund had written to Archer, complaining: "You must be concerned that the Kurdish refugees have seen hardly any of the huge sums raised in the west in their name." Kurdish groups claimed little more than £250,000 had been received by groups in Iraq.
A British Red Cross-commissioned KPMG audit of the cash showed no donations were handled by Archer and any misappropriation was "unlikely", however KPMG also could find no evidence to support Archer's claims to have raised £31.5 million from overseas governments. The police said they would launch a "preliminary assessment of the facts" from the audit but were not investigating the Simple Truth fund.
In 2004, the government of Equatorial Guinea alleged that Archer was one of the financiers of the failed 2004 coup d'état attempt against it, citing bank details and telephone records as evidence. In 2009, Archer said: "I am completely relaxed about it. Mr Mann [Simon Mann, the English mercenary leader of the coup] has made clear that it's nothing to do with me." In 2011, Mann, imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for his role in leading the failed 2004 coup d'état but released on humanitarian grounds later, told "The Daily Telegraph" that his forthcoming book, "Cry Havoc", would reveal "the financial involvement of a controversial and internationally famous member of the British House of Lords in the plot, backed up by banking records." He claimed documents from the bank accounts in Guernsey of two companies Mann used as vehicles for organising the coup, showed a 'J H Archer' paying $135,000 into one of the firms.
Archer has been married to Mary Weeden since July 1966. They met at Oxford University, where Weeden was studying chemistry at St Anne's College. She went on to specialise in solar power.
They have two children: William Archer (born 1972), a theatre producer, and James Archer (born 1974), a financial adviser and businessman.
In 1979 the Archers purchased the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, a house associated with the poet Rupert Brooke. Every summer, they host a lavish garden party in the grounds to celebrate their wedding anniversary. By the early 1980s Archer was back in a comfortable financial position and began to hold shepherd's pie and Krug parties for prominent people at his London apartment, which overlooks the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament.
On 26 February 2006, on Andrew Marr's "Sunday AM" programme, Archer said he had no interest in returning to front-line politics and would pursue his writing instead.
Archer was satirically portrayed as a misunderstood secret agent, saviour of Britain and mankind and "overall thoroughly good chap", by actor Damian Lewis in the BBC drama "" (2002). Scriptwriter Guy Jenkin explained that "my Jeffrey Archer is the man who has frequently saved Britain over the last 30 years. He's beloved of all women he comes across, all men, all dogs — he's a superhero."
In the Amazon series "Good Omens" a reference is made by one of the angels in Aziraphale's bookshop, "Something smells evil." Aziraphale replies, "Oh, that would be the Jeffrey Archer books, I'm afraid."
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Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna. His reputation and status as a composer are such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs.
Brahms's father, Johann Jakob Brahms (1806–72), was from the town of Heide in Holstein. The family name was also sometimes spelt 'Brahmst' or 'Brams', and derives from 'Bram', the German word for the shrub broom. Against the family's will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg in 1826, where he found work as a jobbing musician and a string and wind player. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen (1789–1865), a seamstress 17 years older than he was. In the same year he was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia. Eventually he became a double-bass player in the Stadttheater Hamburg and the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. As Johann Jakob prospered, the family moved over the years to ever better accommodation in Hamburg. Johannes Brahms was born in 1833; his sister Elisabeth (Elise) had been born in 1831 and a younger brother Fritz Friedrich (Fritz) was born in 1835. Fritz also became a pianist; overshadowed by his brother, he emigrated to Caracas in 1867, and later returned to Hamburg as a teacher.
Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training; Johannes also learnt to play the violin and the basics of playing the cello. From 1840 he studied piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel (1813–1865). Cossel complained in 1842 that Brahms "could be such a good player, but he will not stop his never-ending composing." At the age of 10, Brahms made his debut as a performer in a private concert including Beethoven's quintet for piano and winds Op. 16 and a piano quartet by Mozart. He also played as a solo work an étude of Henri Herz. By 1845 he had written a piano sonata in G minor. His parents disapproved of his early efforts as a composer, feeling that he had better career prospects as a performer.
From 1845 to 1848 Brahms studied with Cossel's teacher, the pianist and composer Eduard Marxsen (1806–1887). Marxsen had been a personal acquaintance of Beethoven and Schubert, admired the works of Mozart and Haydn, and was a devotee of the music of J. S. Bach. Marxsen conveyed to Brahms the tradition of these composers and ensured that Brahms's own compositions were grounded in that tradition. In 1847 Brahms made his first public appearance as a solo pianist in Hamburg, playing a fantasy by Sigismund Thalberg. His first full piano recital, in 1848, included a fugue by Bach as well as works by Marxsen and contemporary virtuosi such as Jacob Rosenhain. A second recital in April 1849 included Beethoven's "Waldstein" sonata and a waltz fantasia of his own composition, and garnered favourable newspaper reviews.
Brahms's compositions at this period are known to have included piano music, chamber music and works for male voice choir. Under the pseudonym 'G. W. Marks', some piano arrangements and fantasies were published by the Hamburg firm of Cranz in 1849. The earliest of Brahms's works which he acknowledged (his "Scherzo" Op. 4 and the song "Heimkehr" Op. 7 no. 6) date from 1851. However Brahms was later assiduous in eliminating all his early works; even as late as 1880 he wrote to his friend Elise Giesemann to send him his manuscripts of choral music so that they could be destroyed.
Persistent stories of the impoverished adolescent Brahms playing in bars and brothels have only anecdotal provenance, and many modern scholars dismiss them; the Brahms family was relatively prosperous, and Hamburg legislation very strictly forbade music in, or the admittance of minors to, brothels.
In 1850 Brahms met the Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi and accompanied him in a number of recitals over the next few years. This was his introduction to "gypsy-style" music such as the "csardas", which was later to prove the foundation of his most lucrative and popular compositions, the two sets of "Hungarian Dances" (1869 and 1880). 1850 also marked Brahms's first contact (albeit a failed one) with Robert Schumann; during Schumann's visit to Hamburg that year, friends persuaded Brahms to send the former some of his compositions, but the package was returned unopened.
In 1853 Brahms went on a concert tour with Reményi. In late May the two visited the violinist and composer Joseph Joachim at Hanover. Brahms had earlier heard Joachim playing the solo part in Beethoven's violin concerto and been deeply impressed. Brahms played some of his own solo piano pieces for Joachim, who remembered fifty years later: "Never in the course of my artist's life have I been more completely overwhelmed". This was the beginning of a friendship which was lifelong, albeit temporarily derailed when Brahms took the side of Joachim's wife in their divorce proceedings of 1883. Brahms also admired Joachim as a composer, and in 1856 they were to embark on a mutual training exercise to improve their skills in (in Brahms's words) "double counterpoint, canons, fugues, preludes or whatever". Bozarth notes that "products of Brahms's study of counterpoint and early music over the next few years included "dance pieces, preludes and fugues for organ, and neo-Renaissance and neo-Baroque choral works."
After meeting Joachim, Brahms and Reményi visited Weimar, where Brahms met Franz Liszt, Peter Cornelius, and Joachim Raff, and where Liszt performed Brahms's Op. 4 "Scherzo" at sight. Reményi claimed that Brahms then slept during Liszt's performance of his own Sonata in B minor; this and other disagreements led Reményi and Brahms to part company.
Brahms visited Düsseldorf in October 1853, and, with a letter of introduction from Joachim, was welcomed by Schumann and his wife Clara. Schumann, greatly impressed and delighted by the 20-year-old's talent, published an article entitled "Neue Bahnen" ("New Paths") in the 28 October issue of the journal "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" nominating Brahms as one who was "fated to give expression to the times in the highest and most ideal manner". This praise may have aggravated Brahms's self-critical standards of perfection and dented his confidence. He wrote to Schumann in November 1853 that his praise "will arouse such extraordinary expectations by the public that I don't know how I can begin to fulfil them". While in Düsseldorf, Brahms participated with Schumann and Schumann's pupil Albert Dietrich in writing a movement each of a violin sonata for Joachim, the "F-A-E Sonata", the letters representing the initials of Joachim's personal motto "Frei aber einsam" ("Free but lonely").
Schumann's accolade led to the first publication of Brahms's works under his own name. Brahms went to Leipzig where Breitkopf & Härtel published his Opp. 1–4 (the Piano Sonatas nos. 1 and 2, the Six Songs Op. 3, and the Scherzo Op. 4), whilst Bartholf Senff published the Third Piano Sonata Op. 5 and the Six Songs Op. 6. In Leipzig, he gave recitals including his own first two piano sonatas, and met with among others Ferdinand David, Ignaz Moscheles, and Hector Berlioz.
After Schumann's attempted suicide and subsequent confinement in a mental sanatorium near Bonn in February 1854 (where he died of pneumonia in 1856), Brahms based himself in Düsseldorf, where he supported the household and dealt with business matters on Clara's behalf. Clara was not allowed to visit Robert until two days before his death, but Brahms was able to visit him and acted as a go-between. Brahms began to feel deeply for Clara, who to him represented an ideal of womanhood. Their intensely emotional platonic relationship lasted until Clara's death. In June 1854 Brahms dedicated to Clara his Op. 9, the "Variations on a Theme of Schumann". Clara continued to support Brahms's career by programming his music in her recitals.
After the publication of his Op. 10 Ballades for piano, Brahms published no further works until 1860. His major project of this period was the Piano Concerto in D minor, which he had begun as a work for two pianos in 1854 but soon realized needed a larger-scale format. Based in Hamburg at this time, he gained, with Clara's support, a position as musician to the tiny court of Detmold, the capital of the Principality of Lippe, where he spent the winters of 1857 to 1860 and for which he wrote his two Serenades (1858 and 1859, Opp. 11 and 16). In Hamburg he established a women's choir for which he wrote music and conducted. To this period also belong his first two Piano Quartets (Op. 25 and Op. 26) and the first movement of the third Piano Quartet, which eventually appeared in 1875.
The end of the decade brought professional setbacks for Brahms. The premiere of the First Piano Concerto in Hamburg on 22 January 1859, with the composer as soloist, was poorly received. Brahms wrote to Joachim that the performance was "a brilliant and decisive – failure...[I]t forces one to concentrate one's thoughts and increases one's courage...But the hissing was too much of a good thing..." At a second performance, audience reaction was so hostile that Brahms had to be restrained from leaving the stage after the first movement. As a consequence of these reactions Breitkopf and Härtel declined to take on his new compositions. Brahms consequently established a relationship with other publishers, including Simrock, who eventually became his major publishing partner. Brahms further made an intervention in 1860 in the debate on the future of German music which seriously misfired. Together with Joachim and others, he prepared an attack on Liszt's followers, the so-called "New German School" (although Brahms himself was sympathetic to the music of Richard Wagner, the School's leading light). In particular they objected to the rejection of traditional musical forms and to the "rank, miserable weeds growing from Liszt-like fantasias". A draft was leaked to the press, and the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" published a parody which ridiculed Brahms and his associates as backward-looking. Brahms never again ventured into public musical polemics.
Brahms's personal life was also troubled. In 1859 he became engaged to Agathe von Siebold. The engagement was soon broken off, but even after this Brahms wrote to her: "I love you! I must see you again, but I am incapable of bearing fetters. Please write me ... whether ... I may come again to clasp you in my arms, to kiss you, and tell you that I love you." They never saw one another again, and Brahms later confirmed to a friend that Agathe was his "last love".
Brahms had hoped to be given the conductorship of the Hamburg Philharmonic, but in 1862 this post was given to the baritone Julius Stockhausen. (Brahms continued to hope for the post; but when he was finally offered the directorship in 1893, he demurred as he had "got used to the idea of having to go along other paths".) In autumn 1862 Brahms made his first visit to Vienna, staying there over the winter. There he became an associate of two close members of Wagner's circle, his earlier friend Peter Cornelius and Karl Tausig, and of Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. and Julius Epstein, respectively the Director and head of violin studies, and the head of piano studies, at the Vienna Conservatoire. Brahms's circle grew to include the notable critic (and opponent of the 'New German School') Eduard Hanslick, the conductor Hermann Levi and the surgeon Theodor Billroth, who were to become amongst his greatest advocates.
In January 1863 Brahms met Richard Wagner for the first time, for whom he played his "Handel Variations" Op. 24, which he had completed the previous year. The meeting was cordial, although Wagner was in later years to make critical, and even insulting, comments on Brahms's music. Brahms however retained at this time and later a keen interest in Wagner's music, helping with preparations for Wagner's Vienna concerts in 1862/63, and being rewarded by Tausig with a manuscript of part of Wagner's "Tannhäuser" (which Wagner demanded back in 1875). The "Handel Variations" also featured, together with the first Piano Quartet, in his first Viennese recitals, in which his performances were better-received by the public and critics than his music.
Although Brahms entertained the idea of taking up conducting posts elsewhere, he based himself increasingly in Vienna and soon made it his home. In 1863, he was appointed conductor of the Wiener Singakademie. He surprised his audiences by programming much work of the early German masters such as Heinrich Schütz and J. S. Bach, and other early composers such as Giovanni Gabrieli; more recent music was represented by works of Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn. Brahms also wrote works for the choir, including his Motet, Op. 29. Finding however that the post encroached too much of the time he needed for composing, he left the choir in June 1864. From 1864 to 1876 he spent many of his summers in Lichtental, today part of Baden-Baden, where Clara Schumann and her family also spent some time. His house in Lichtental, where he worked on many of his major compositions including "A German Requiem" and his middle-period chamber works, is preserved as a museum.
In February 1865 Brahms's mother died, and he began to compose his large choral work "A German Requiem" Op. 45, of which six movements were completed by 1866. Premieres of the first three movements were given in Vienna, but the complete work was first given in Bremen in 1868 to great acclaim. A seventh movement (the soprano solo "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit") was added for the equally successful Leipzig premiere (February 1869), and the work went on to receive concert and critical acclaim throughout Germany and also in England, Switzerland and Russia, marking effectively Brahms's arrival on the world stage. Brahms also experienced at this period popular success with works such as his first set of "Hungarian Dances" (1869), the "Liebeslieder Walzer", Op. 52, (1868/69), and his collections of lieder (Opp. 43 and 46–49). Following such successes he finally completed a number of works that he had wrestled with over many years such as the cantata "Rinaldo" (1863–1868), his first two string quartets Op. 51 nos. 1 and 2 (1865–1873), the third piano quartet (1855–1875), and most notably his first symphony which appeared in 1876, but which had been begun as early as 1855. During 1869 Brhams had felt himself falling in love with the Schumann's daughter Julie (then aged 24 to his 36) but did not declare himself; when later that year Julie's engagement to Count Marmorito was announced, he wrote and gave to Clara the manuscript of his "Alto Rhapsody" (Op. 53). Clara wrote in her diary that "he called it "his" wedding song" and noted "the profound pain in the text and the music."
From 1872 to 1875, Brahms was director of the concerts of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. He ensured that the orchestra was staffed only by professionals, and conducted a repertoire which ran from Bach to the nineteenth century composers who were not of the 'New German School'; these included Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Joachim, Ferdinand Hiller, Max Bruch and himself (notably his large scale choral works, the "German Requiem", the "Alto Rhapsody", and the patriotic "Triumphlied", Op. 55, which celebrated Prussia's victory in the 1870/71 Franco-Prussian War). 1873 saw the premiere of his orchestral "Variations on a Theme by Haydn", originally conceived for two pianos, which has become one of his most popular works.
Brahms's first symphony, Op. 68, appeared in 1876, though it had been begun (and a version of the first movement had been announced by Brahms to Clara and to Albert Dietrich) in the early 1860s. During the decade it evolved very gradually; the finale may not have begun its conception until 1868. Brahms was cautious and typically self-deprecating about the symphony during its creation, writing to his friends that it was "long and difficult", "not exactly charming" and, significantly "long and in C Minor", which, as Richard Taruskin points out, made it clear "that Brahms was taking on the model of models [for a symphony]: Beethoven's Fifth."
In May 1876, Cambridge University offered to grant honorary degrees of Doctor of Music to both Brahms and Joachim, provided that they composed new pieces as "theses" and were present in Cambridge to receive their degrees. Brahms was averse to traveling to England, and requested to receive the degree 'in absentia', offering as his thesis the previously performed (November 1876) symphony. But of the two, only Joachim went to England and only he was granted a degree. Brahms "acknowledged the invitation" by giving the manuscript score and parts of his first symphony to Joachim, who led the performance at Cambridge 8 March 1877 (English premiere).
Despite the warm reception the first symphony received, Brahms remained dissatisfied and extensively revised the second movement before the work was published. There followed a succession of well-received orchestral works; the Second Symphony Op. 73 (1877), the Violin Concerto Op. 77 (1878), dedicated to Joachim who was consulted closely during its composition, and the "Academic Festival Overture" (written following the conferring of an honorary degree by the University of Breslau) and "Tragic Overture" of 1880. The commendation of Brahms by Breslau as "the leader in the art of serious music in Germany today" led to a bilious comment from Wagner in his essay "On Poetry and Composition": "I know of some famous composers who in their concert masquerades don the disguise of a street-singer one day, the hallelujah periwig of Handel the next, the dress of a Jewish Czardas-fiddler another time, and then again the guise of a highly respectable symphony dressed up as Number Ten" (referring to Brahms's First Symphony as a putative tenth symphony of Beethoven).
Brahms was now recognised as a major figure in the world of music. He had been on the jury which awarded the Vienna State Prize to the (then little-known) composer Antonín Dvořák three times, first in February 1875, and later in 1876 and 1877 and had successfully recommended Dvořák to his publisher, Simrock. The two men met for the first time in 1877, and Dvořák dedicated to Brahms his String Quartet, Op. 44 of that year. He also began to be the recipient of a variety of honours; Ludwig II of Bavaria awarded him the Maximilian Order for Science and Art in 1874, and the music loving Duke George of Meiningen awarded him in 1881 the Commander's Cross of the Order of the House of Meiningen.
At this time Brahms also chose to change his image. Having been always clean-shaven, in 1878 he surprised his friends by growing a beard, writing in September to the conductor Bernhard Scholz "I am coming with a large beard! Prepare your wife for a most awful sight." The singer George Henschel recalled that after a concert "I saw a man unknown to me, rather stout, of middle height, with long hair and a full beard. In a very deep and hoarse voice he introduced himself as 'Musikdirektor Müller'... an instant later, we all found ourselves laughing heartily at the perfect success of Brahms's disguise". The incident also displays Brahms's love of practical jokes.
In 1882 Brahms completed his Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 83, dedicated to his teacher Marxsen. Brahms was invited by Hans von Bülow to undertake a premiere of the work with the Meiningen Court Orchestra; this was the beginning of his collaboration with Meiningen and with von Bülow, who was to rank Brahms as one of the 'Three Bs'; in a letter to his wife he wrote "You know what I think of Brahms: after Bach and Beethoven the greatest, the most sublime of all composers." The following years saw the premieres of his Third Symphony Op. 90 (1883) and his Fourth Symphony Op. 98 (1885). Richard Strauss, who had been appointed assistant to von Bülow at Meiningen, and had been uncertain about Brahms's music, found himself converted by the Third Symphony and was enthusiastic about the Fourth: "a giant work, great in concept and invention." Another, but cautious, supporter from the younger generation was Gustav Mahler who first met Brahms in 1884 and remained a close acquaintance; he rated Brahms as superior to Anton Bruckner, but more earth-bound than Wagner and Beethoven.
In 1889, Theo Wangemann, a representative of the American inventor Thomas Edison, visited the composer in Vienna and invited him to make an experimental recording. Brahms played an abbreviated version of his first Hungarian Dance and of Josef Strauss's "Die Libelle" on the piano. Although the spoken introduction to the short piece of music is quite clear, the piano playing is largely inaudible due to heavy surface noise.
In that same year, Brahms was named an honorary citizen of Hamburg.
Brahms had become acquainted with Johann Strauss II, who was eight years his senior, in the 1870s, but their close friendship belongs to the years 1889 and after. Brahms admired much of Strauss's music, and encouraged the composer to sign up with his publisher Simrock. In autographing a fan for Strauss's wife Adele, Brahms wrote the opening notes of "The Blue Danube" waltz, adding the words "unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms".
After the successful Vienna premiere of his Second String Quintet, op. 111, in 1890, the 57-year-old Brahms came to think that he might retire from composition, telling a friend that he "had achieved enough; here I had before me a carefree old age and could enjoy it in peace." He also began to find solace in escorting the mezzo-soprano Alice Barbi and may have proposed to her (she was only 28). His admiration for Richard Mühlfeld, clarinettist with the Meiningen orchestra, revived his interest in composing and led him to write the Clarinet Trio, Op. 114, Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 (1891), and the two Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120 (1894). Brahms also wrote at this time his final cycles of piano pieces, Opp. 116–19, the "Vier ernste Gesänge" (Four Serious Songs), Op. 121 (1896) (which were prompted by the death of Clara Schumann), and the Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ, Op. 122 (1896). The last of these is a setting of "O Welt ich muss dich lassen", ("O world I must leave thee"), and are the last notes that Brahms wrote. Many of these works were written in his house in Bad Ischl, where Brahms had first visited in 1882 and where he spent every summer from 1889 onwards.
In the summer of 1896 Brahms was diagnosed as having jaundice, and later in the year his Viennese doctor diagnosed him as having cancer of the liver (from which his father Jakob had died). His last public appearance was on 7 March 1897 when he saw Hans Richter conduct his Symphony No. 4; there was an ovation after each of the four movements. He made the effort, three weeks before his death, to attend the premiere of Johann Strauss's operetta "Die Göttin der Vernunft" (The Goddess of Reason) in March 1897. His condition gradually worsened and he died on 3 April 1897, in Vienna, aged 63. Brahms is buried in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, under a monument designed by Victor Horta with sculpture by Ilse von Twardowski.
Brahms maintained a classical sense of form and order in his works, in contrast to the opulence of the music of many of his contemporaries. Thus, many admirers (though not necessarily Brahms himself) saw him as the champion of traditional forms and "pure music", as opposed to the "New German" embrace of programme music.
Brahms venerated Beethoven; in the composer's home, a marble bust of Beethoven looked down on the spot where he composed, and some passages in his works are reminiscent of Beethoven's style. Brahms's First Symphony bears strongly the influence of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, as the two works are both in C minor and end in the struggle towards a C major triumph. The main theme of the finale of the First Symphony is also reminiscent of the main theme of the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, and when this resemblance was pointed out to Brahms he replied that any dunce could see that. In 1876, when the work was premiered in Vienna, it was immediately hailed as "Beethoven's Tenth". Indeed, the similarity of Brahms's music to that of late Beethoven had first been noted as early as November 1853 in a letter from Albert Dietrich to Ernst Naumann.
Brahms was a master of counterpoint. "For Brahms, ... the most complicated forms of counterpoint were a natural means of expressing his emotions," writes Geiringer. "As Palestrina or Bach succeeded in giving spiritual significance to their technique, so Brahms could turn a canon in motu contrario or a canon per augmentationem into a pure piece of lyrical poetry." Writers on Brahms have commented on his use of counterpoint. For example, of Op. 9, "Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann," Geiringer writes that Brahms "displays all the resources of contrapuntal art". In the A major piano quartet Opus 26, Jan Swafford notes that the third movement is "demonic-canonic", echoing Haydn's famous minuet for string quartet called the 'Witch's Round'." Swafford further opines that "thematic development, counterpoint, and form were the dominant technical terms in which Brahms... thought about music".
Allied to his skill in counterpoint was his subtle handling of rhythm and meter. The "New Grove Dictionary of Music" speculates that the his contact with Hungarian and gypsy folk music as a teenager led to "his lifelong fascination with the irregular rhythms, triplet figures and use of rubato" in his compositions. The Hungarian Dances are among Brahms's most-appreciated pieces. According to "only one composer rivals him in the advanced nature of his rhythmic thinking, and that is Stravinsky."
His consummate skills in counterpoint and rhythm are richly present in "A German Requiem", a work that was partially inspired by his mother's death in 1865 (at which time he composed a funeral march that was to become the basis of Part Two, "Denn alles Fleisch"), but which also incorporates material from a symphony which he started in 1854 but abandoned following Schumann's suicide attempt. He once wrote that the Requiem "belonged to Schumann". The first movement of this abandoned symphony was re-worked as the first movement of the First Piano Concerto.
Brahms loved the classical composers Mozart and Haydn. He collected first editions and autographs of their works and edited performing editions. He studied the music of pre-classical composers, including Giovanni Gabrieli, Johann Adolph Hasse, Heinrich Schütz, Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, and, especially, Johann Sebastian Bach. His friends included leading musicologists, and, with Friedrich Chrysander, he edited an edition of the works of François Couperin. Brahms also edited works by C. P. E. Bach and W. F. Bach. He looked to older music for inspiration in the art of counterpoint; the themes of some of his works are modelled on Baroque sources such as Bach's "The Art of Fugue" in the fugal finale of Cello Sonata No. 1 or the same composer's Cantata No. 150 in the passacaglia theme of the Fourth Symphony's finale. Peter Phillips (2007) hears affinities between Brahms's rhythmically charged contrapuntal textures and those of Renaissance masters such as Giovanni Gabrieli and William Byrd. Referring to Byrd's "Though Amaryllis dance", Philips remarks that “the cross-rhythms in this piece so excited E. H. Fellowes that he likened them to Brahms's compositional style.”
The early Romantic composers had a major influence on Brahms, particularly Schumann, who encouraged Brahms as a young composer. During his stay in Vienna in 1862–63, Brahms became particularly interested in the music of Franz Schubert. The latter's influence may be identified in works by Brahms dating from the period, such as the two piano quartets Op. 25 and Op. 26, and the Piano Quintet which alludes to Schubert's String Quintet and Grand Duo for piano four hands. The influence of Chopin and Mendelssohn on Brahms is less obvious, although occasionally one can find in his works what seems to be an allusion to one of theirs (for example, Brahms's Scherzo, Op. 4, alludes to Chopin's Scherzo in B-flat minor; the scherzo movement in Brahms's Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 5, alludes to the finale of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in C minor).
Brahms considered giving up composition when it seemed that other composers' innovations in extended tonality resulted in the rule of tonality being broken altogether. Although Wagner became fiercely critical of Brahms as the latter grew in stature and popularity, he was enthusiastically receptive of the early "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel"; Brahms himself, according to many sources, deeply admired Wagner's music, confining his ambivalence only to the dramaturgical precepts of Wagner's theory.
Brahms wrote settings for piano and voice of 144 German folk songs, and many of his lieder reflect folk themes or depict scenes of rural life.
Brahms wrote a number of major works for orchestra, including two Serenades, four symphonies, two piano concertos (No. 1 in D minor; No. 2 in B-flat major), a Violin Concerto, a Double Concerto for violin and cello, and two companion orchestral overtures, the "Academic Festival Overture" and the "Tragic Overture".
His large choral work "A German Requiem" is not a setting of the liturgical "Missa pro defunctis" but a setting of texts which Brahms selected from the Luther Bible. The work was composed in three major periods of his life. An early version of the second movement was first composed in 1854, not long after Robert Schumann's attempted suicide, and this was later used in his first piano concerto. The majority of the Requiem was composed after his mother's death in 1865. The fifth movement was added after the official premiere in 1868, and the work was published in 1869.
His works in variation form include, among others, the "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel" and the "Paganini Variations", both for solo piano, and the "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" (now sometimes called the "Saint Anthony Variations") in versions for two pianos and for orchestra. The final movement of the Fourth Symphony, Op. 98, is formally a passacaglia.
His chamber works include three string quartets, two string quintets, two string sextets, a clarinet quintet, a clarinet trio, a horn trio, a piano quintet, three piano quartets, and four piano trios (the fourth being published posthumously). He composed several instrumental sonatas with piano, including three for violin, two for cello, and two for clarinet (which were subsequently arranged for viola by the composer). His solo piano works range from his early piano sonatas and ballades to his late sets of character pieces. Brahms was a significant Lieder composer, who wrote over 200 of them. His chorale preludes for organ, Op. 122, which he wrote shortly before his death, have become an important part of the organ repertoire. They were published posthumously in 1902. The last of this set is a setting of the chorale, "O Welt ich muss dich lassen", "O world I now must leave thee" and were the last notes he wrote.
Brahms was an extreme perfectionist. He destroyed many early works – including a violin sonata he had performed with Reményi and violinist Ferdinand David – and once claimed to have destroyed 20 string quartets before he issued his official First in 1873. Over the course of several years, he changed an original project for a symphony in D minor into his first piano concerto. In another instance of devotion to detail, he laboured over the official First Symphony for almost fifteen years, from about 1861 to 1876. Even after its first few performances, Brahms destroyed the original slow movement and substituted another before the score was published.
Another factor that contributed to his perfectionism was Schumann's early enthusiasm, which Brahms was determined to live up to.
Brahms strongly preferred writing absolute music that does not refer to an explicit scene or narrative, and he never wrote an opera or a symphonic poem.
Brahms looked both backward and forward; his output was often bold in its exploration of harmony and rhythm. As a result, he was an influence on composers of both conservative and modernist tendencies. Within his lifetime, his idiom left an imprint on several composers within his personal circle, who strongly admired his music, such as Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Robert Fuchs, and Julius Röntgen, as well as on Gustav Jenner, who was his only formal composition pupil. Antonín Dvořák, who received substantial assistance from Brahms, deeply admired his music and was influenced by it in several works, such as the Symphony No. 7 in D minor and the F minor Piano Trio. Features of the "Brahms style" were absorbed in a more complex synthesis with other contemporary (chiefly Wagnerian) trends by Hans Rott, Wilhelm Berger, Max Reger and Franz Schmidt, whereas the British composers Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar and the Swede Wilhelm Stenhammar all testified to learning much from Brahms. As Elgar said, "I look at the Third Symphony of Brahms, and I feel like a pygmy."
Ferruccio Busoni's early music shows much Brahmsian influence, and Brahms took an interest in him, though Busoni later tended to disparage Brahms. Towards the end of his life, Brahms offered substantial encouragement to Ernő Dohnányi and to Alexander von Zemlinsky. Their early chamber works (and those of Béla Bartók, who was friendly with Dohnányi) show a thoroughgoing absorption of the Brahmsian idiom. Zemlinsky, moreover, was in turn the teacher of Arnold Schoenberg, and Brahms was apparently impressed by drafts of two movements of Schoenberg's early Quartet in D major which Zemlinsky showed him in 1897. In 1933, Schoenberg wrote an essay "Brahms the Progressive" (re-written 1947), which drew attention to his fondness for motivic saturation and irregularities of rhythm and phrase; in his last book ("Structural Functions of Harmony", 1948), he analysed Brahms's "enriched harmony" and exploration of remote tonal regions. These efforts paved the way for a re-evaluation of his reputation in the 20th century. Schoenberg went so far as to orchestrate one of Brahms's piano quartets. Schoenberg's pupil Anton Webern, in his 1933 lectures, posthumously published under the title "The Path to the New Music", claimed Brahms as one who had anticipated the developments of the Second Viennese School, and Webern's own Op. 1, an orchestral passacaglia, is clearly in part a homage to, and development of, the variation techniques of the passacaglia-finale of Brahms's Fourth Symphony. Ann Scott has shown how Brahms anticipated the procedures of the serialists by redistributing melodic fragments between instruments, as in the first movement of the Clarinet Sonata, Op.120 No. 2.
Brahms was honoured in the German hall of fame, the Walhalla memorial. On 14 September 2000, he was introduced there as the 126th "rühmlich ausgezeichneter Teutscher" and 13th composer among them, with a bust by sculptor .
Brahms was baptised into the Lutheran church as an infant, and was confirmed at aged fifteen (at St. Michael's Church, Hamburg), but has been described as an agnostic and a humanist. The devout Catholic Antonín Dvořák wrote in a letter: "Such a man, such a fine soul – and he believes in nothing! He believes in nothing!" When asked by conductor Karl Reinthaler to add additional explicitly religious text to his "German Requiem", Brahms is reported to have responded, "As far as the text is concerned, I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human; also with my best knowledge and will I would dispense with passages like . On the other hand, I have chosen one thing or another because I am a musician, because I needed it, and because with my venerable authors I can't delete or dispute anything. But I had better stop before I say too much."
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Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology, and one of the leading figures in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. His work has also influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies, and continues to influence these disciplines.
Sartre was also noted for his open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyle and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity ("mauvaise foi", literally, "bad faith") and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work "Being and Nothingness" ("L'Être et le Néant", 1943). Sartre's introduction to his philosophy is his work "Existentialism Is a Humanism" ("L'existentialisme est un humanisme", 1946), originally presented as a lecture.
He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honours and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution".
Jean-Paul Sartre was born on 21 June 1905 in Paris as the only child of Jean-Baptiste Sartre, an officer of the French Navy, and Anne-Marie (Schweitzer). His mother was of Alsatian origin and the first cousin of Nobel Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer, whose father Louis Théophile was the younger brother of Anne-Marie's father.
When Sartre was two years old, his father died of an illness, which he most likely contracted in Indochina. Anne-Marie moved back to her parents' house in Meudon, where she raised Sartre with help from her father Charles Schweitzer, a teacher of German who taught Sartre mathematics and introduced him to classical literature at a very early age. When he was twelve, Sartre's mother remarried, and the family moved to La Rochelle, where he was frequently bullied, in part due to the wandering of his blind right eye (sensory exotropia).
As a teenager in the 1920s, Sartre became attracted to philosophy upon reading Henri Bergson's essay "". He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school in Paris. He studied and earned certificates in psychology, history of philosophy, logic, general philosophy, ethics and sociology, and physics, as well as his "" (roughly equivalent to an MA thesis) in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure, an institution of higher education that was the alma mater for several prominent French thinkers and intellectuals. (His 1928 MA thesis under the title "L'Image dans la vie psychologique: rôle et nature" ["Image in Psychological Life: Role and Nature"] was supervised by Henri Delacroix.) It was at ENS that Sartre began his lifelong, sometimes fractious, friendship with Raymond Aron. Perhaps the most decisive influence on Sartre's philosophical development was his weekly attendance at Alexandre Kojève's seminars, which continued for a number of years.
From his first years in the École Normale, Sartre was one of its fiercest pranksters. In 1927, his antimilitarist satirical cartoon in the revue of the school, coauthored with Georges Canguilhem, particularly upset the director Gustave Lanson. In the same year, with his comrades Nizan, Larroutis, Baillou and Herland, he organized a media prank following Charles Lindbergh's successful New York City–Paris flight; Sartre & Co. called newspapers and informed them that Lindbergh was going to be awarded an honorary École degree. Many newspapers, including "Le Petit Parisien", announced the event on 25 May. Thousands, including journalists and curious spectators, showed up, unaware that what they were witnessing was a stunt involving a Lindbergh look-alike. The public's resultant outcry forced Lanson to resign.
In 1929 at the École Normale, he met Simone de Beauvoir, who studied at the Sorbonne and later went on to become a noted philosopher, writer, and feminist. The two became inseparable and lifelong companions, initiating a romantic relationship, though they were not monogamous. The first time Sartre took the agrégation, he failed. He took it a second time and virtually tied for first place with Beauvoir, although Sartre was eventually awarded first place, with Beauvoir second.
From 1931 until 1945, Sartre taught at various lycées of Le Havre (at the Lycée de Le Havre, the present-day , 1931–1936), Laon (at the Lycée de Laon, 1936–37), and, finally, Paris (at the Lycée Pasteur, 1937–1939, and at the Lycée Condorcet, 1941–1944; see below).
In 1932, Sartre discovered "Voyage au bout de la nuit" by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, a book that had a remarkable influence on him.
In 1933–34, he succeeded Raymond Aron at the Institut français d'Allemagne in Berlin where he studied Edmund Husserl's phenomenological philosophy. Aron had already advised him in 1930 to read Emmanuel Levinas's "Théorie de l'intuition dans la phénoménologie de Husserl" ("The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology").
The Neo-Hegelian revival led by Alexandre Kojève and Jean Hyppolite in the 1930s inspired a whole generation of French thinkers, including Sartre, to discover Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit".
In 1939 Sartre was drafted into the French army, where he served as a meteorologist. He was captured by German troops in 1940 in Padoux, and he spent nine months as a prisoner of war—in Nancy and finally in , Trier, where he wrote his first theatrical piece, "Barionà, fils du tonnerre", a drama concerning Christmas. It was during this period of confinement that Sartre read Martin Heidegger's "Sein und Zeit", later to become a major influence on his own essay on phenomenological ontology. Because of poor health (he claimed that his poor eyesight and exotropia affected his balance) Sartre was released in April 1941. According to other sources, he escaped after a medical visit to the ophthalmologist. Given civilian status, he recovered his teaching position at Lycée Pasteur near Paris and settled at the Hotel Mistral. In October 1941 he was given a position, previously held by a Jewish teacher who had been forbidden to teach by Vichy law, at Lycée Condorcet in Paris.
After coming back to Paris in May 1941, he participated in the founding of the underground group "Socialisme et Liberté" ("Socialism and Liberty") with other writers Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Toussaint Desanti, Dominique Desanti, Jean Kanapa, and École Normale students. In spring of 1941, Sartre suggested with "cheerful ferocity" at a meeting that the "Socialisme et Liberté" assassinate prominent war collaborators like Marcel Déat, but de Beauvoir noted his idea was rejected as "none of us felt qualified to make bombs or hurl grenades". The British historian Ian Ousby observed that the French always had far more hatred for collaborators than they did for the Germans, noting it was French people like Déat that Sartre wanted to assassinate rather than the military governor of France, General Otto von Stülpnagel, and the popular slogan always was "Death to Laval!" rather than "Death to Hitler!". In August Sartre and de Beauvoir went to the French Riviera seeking the support of André Gide and André Malraux. However, both Gide and Malraux were undecided, and this may have been the cause of Sartre's disappointment and discouragement. "Socialisme et liberté" soon dissolved and Sartre decided to write instead of being involved in active resistance. He then wrote "Being and Nothingness", "The Flies", and "No Exit", none of which were censored by the Germans, and also contributed to both legal and illegal literary magazines.
In his essay "Paris under the Occupation", Sartre wrote that the "correct" behaviour of the Germans had entrapped too many Parisians into complicity with the occupation, accepting what was unnatural as natural:
The Germans did not stride, revolver in hand, through the streets. They did not force civilians to make way for them on the pavement. They would offer seats to old ladies on the Metro. They showed great fondness for children and would pat them on the cheek. They had been told to behave correctly and being well-disciplined, they tried shyly and conscientiously to do so. Some of them even displayed a naive kindness which could find no practical expression.
Sartre noted when Wehrmacht soldiers asked Parisians politely in their German-accented French for directions, people usually felt embarrassed and ashamed as they tried their best to help out the Wehrmacht which led Sartre to remark "We could not be "natural"". French was a language widely taught in German schools and most Germans could speak at least some French. Sartre himself always found it difficult when a Wehrmacht soldier asked him for directions, usually saying he did not know where it was that the soldier wanted to go, but still felt uncomfortable as the very act of speaking to the Wehrmacht meant he had been complicit in the Occupation. Ousby wrote: "But, in however humble a fashion, everyone still had to decide how they were going to cope with life in a fragmenting society ... So Sartre's worries ... about how to react when a German soldier stopped him in the street and asked politely for directions were not as fussily inconsequential as they might sound at first. They were emblematic of how the dilemmas of the Occupation presented themselves in daily life". Sartre wrote the very "correctness" of the Germans caused moral corruption in many people who used the "correct" behavior of the Germans as an excuse for passivity, and the very act of simply trying to live one's day-to-day existence without challenging the occupation aided the "New Order in Europe", which depended upon the passivity of ordinary people to accomplish its goals.
Throughout the occupation, it was German policy to plunder France and food shortages were always a major problem as the majority of food from the French countryside went to Germany. Sartre wrote about the "languid existence" of the Parisians as people waited obsessively for the one weekly arrival of trucks bringing food from the countryside that the Germans allowed, writing: "Paris would grow peaked and yawn with hunger under the empty sky. Cut off from the rest of the world, fed only through the pity or some ulterior motive, the town led a purely abstract and symbolic life". Sartre himself lived on a diet of rabbits sent to him by a friend of de Beauvoir living in Anjou. The rabbits were usually in an advanced state of decay full of maggots, and despite being hungry, Sartre once threw out one rabbit as uneatable, saying it had more maggots in it than meat. Sartre also remarked that conversations at the Café de Flore between intellectuals had changed, as the fear that one of them might be a "mouche" (informer) or a writer of the "corbeau" (anonymous denunciatory letters) meant that no one really said what they meant anymore, imposing self-censorship. Sartre and his friends at the Café de Flore had reasons for their fear; by September 1940, the "Abwehr" alone had already recruited 32,000 French people to work as "mouches" while by 1942 the Paris "Kommandantur" was receiving an average of 1,500 letters/per day sent by the "corbeaux".
Sartre wrote under the occupation Paris had become a "sham", resembling the empty wine bottles displayed in shop windows as all of the wine had been exported to Germany, looking like the old Paris, but hollowed out, as what had made Paris special was gone. Paris had almost no cars on the streets during the occupation as the oil went to Germany while the Germans imposed a nightly curfew, which led Sartre to remark that Paris "was peopled by the absent". Sartre also noted that people began to disappear under the occupation, writing:
One day you might phone a friend and the phone would ring for a long time in an empty flat. You would go round and ring the doorbell, but no-one would answer it. If the "concierge" forced the door, you would find two chairs standing close together in the hall with the fag-ends of German cigarettes on the floor between their legs. If the wife or mother of the man who had vanished had been present at his arrest, she would tell you that he had been taken away by very polite Germans, like those who asked the way in the street. And when she went to ask what had happened to them at the offices in the Avenue Foch or the Rue des Saussaies she would be politely received and sent away with comforting words" [No. 11 Rue des Saussaies was the headquarters of the Gestapo in Paris].
Sartre wrote the "feldgrau" ("field grey") uniforms of the Wehrmacht and the green uniforms of the Order Police which had seemed so alien in 1940 had become accepted, as people were numbed into accepting what Sartre called "a pale, dull green, unobtrusive strain, which the eye almost expected to find among the dark clothes of the civilians". Under the occupation, the French often called the Germans "les autres" ("the others"), which inspired Sartre's aphorism in his play "Huis clos" ("No Exit") of ""l'enfer, c'est les Autres"" ("Hell is other people"). Sartre intended the line ""l'enfer, c'est les Autres"" at least in part to be a dig at the German occupiers.
After August 1944 and the Liberation of Paris, he wrote "Anti-Semite and Jew". In the book he tries to explain the etiology of "hate" by analyzing antisemitic hate. Sartre was a very active contributor to "Combat", a newspaper created during the clandestine period by Albert Camus, a philosopher and author who held similar beliefs. Sartre and de Beauvoir remained friends with Camus until 1951, with the publication of Camus's "The Rebel". Later, while Sartre was labeled by some authors as a resistant, the French philosopher and resistant Vladimir Jankelevitch criticized Sartre's lack of political commitment during the German occupation, and interpreted his further struggles for liberty as an attempt to redeem himself. According to Camus, Sartre was a writer who resisted; not a resister who wrote.
In 1945, after the war ended, Sartre moved to an apartment on the rue Bonaparte which was where he was to produce most of his subsequent work, and where he lived until 1962. It was from there that he helped establish a quarterly literary and political review, "Les Temps modernes" ("Modern Times"), in part to popularize his thought. He ceased teaching and devoted his time to writing and political activism. He would draw on his war experiences for his great trilogy of novels, "Les Chemins de la Liberté" ("The Roads to Freedom") (1945–1949).
The first period of Sartre's career, defined in large part by "Being and Nothingness" (1943), gave way to a second period—when the world was perceived as split into communist and capitalist blocs—of highly publicized political involvement. Sartre tended to glorify the Resistance after the war as the uncompromising expression of morality in action, and recalled that the "résistants" were a "band of brothers" who had enjoyed "real freedom" in a way that did not exist before nor after the war. Sartre was "merciless" in attacking anyone who had collaborated or remained passive during the German occupation; for instance, criticizing Camus for signing an appeal to spare the collaborationist writer Robert Brasillach from being executed. His 1948 play "Les mains sales" ("Dirty Hands") in particular explored the problem of being a politically "engaged" intellectual. He embraced Marxism but did not join the Communist Party. For a time in the late 1940s, Sartre described French nationalism as "provincial" and in a 1949 essay called for a "United States of Europe". In an essay published in the June 1949 edition of the journal "Politique étrangère", Sartre wrote:
If we want French civilization to survive, it must be fitted into the framework of a great European civilization. Why? I have said that civilization is the reflection on a shared situation. In Italy, in France, in Benelux, in Sweden, in Norway, in Germany, in Greece, in Austria, everywhere we find the same problems and the same dangers ... But this cultural polity has prospects only as elements of a policy which defends Europe's cultural autonomy vis-à-vis America and the Soviet Union, but also its political and economic autonomy, with the aim of making Europe a single force between the blocs, not a third bloc, but an autonomous force which will refuse to allow itself to be torn into shreds between American optimism and Russian scientificism.
About the Korean War, Sartre wrote: "I have no doubt that the South Korean feudalists and the American imperialists have promoted this war. But I do not doubt either that it was begun by the North Koreans". In July 1950, Sartre wrote in "Les Temps Modernes" about his and de Beauvoir's attitude to the Soviet Union:
As we were neither members of the [Communist] party nor its avowed sympathizers, it was not our duty to write about Soviet labor camps; we were free to remain aloof from the quarrel over the nature of this system, provided that no events of sociological significance had occurred.
Sartre held that the Soviet Union was a "revolutionary" state working for the betterment of humanity and could be criticized only for failing to live up to its own ideals, but that critics had to take in mind that the Soviet state needed to defend itself against a hostile world; by contrast Sartre held that the failures of "bourgeois" states were due to their innate shortcomings. The Swiss journalist François Bondy wrote that, based on a reading of Sartre's numerous essays, speeches and interviews "a simple basic pattern never fails to emerge: social change must be comprehensive and revolutionary" and the parties that promote the revolutionary charges "may be criticized, but only by those who completely identify themselves with its purpose, its struggle and its road to power", deeming Sartre's position to be "existentialist".
Sartre believed at this time in the moral superiority of the Eastern Bloc in spite of its human rights violations, arguing that this belief was necessary "to keep hope alive" and opposed any criticism of Soviet Union to the extent that Maurice Merleau-Pont called him an "ultra-Bolshevik". Sartre's expression "workers of Billancourt must not be deprived of their hopes" (Fr. "il ne faut pas désespérer Billancourt"), became a catchphrase meaning communist activists should not tell the whole truth to the workers in order to avoid decline in their revolutionary enthusiasm.
In 1954, Sartre visited the Soviet Union, which he stated he found a "complete freedom of criticism" while condemning the United States for sinking into "prefascism". Sartre wrote about those Soviet writers expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union "still had the opportunity of rehabilitating themselves by writing better books". Sartre's comments on Hungarian revolution of 1956 are quite representative to his frequently contradictory and changing views. On one hand, Sartre saw in Hungary a true reunification between intellectuals and workers only to criticize it for "losing socialist base". He condemned the Soviet invasion of Hungary in November 1956.
In 1964 after the death of Stalin, Sartre attacked Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" which condemned the stalinist repressions and purges. Sartre argued that "the masses were not ready to receive the truth".
In 1973 he argued that "revolutionary authority always needs to get rid of some people that threaten it, and their death is the only way". A number of people, starting from Frank Gibney in 1961, classified Sartre as an "useful idiot" due to his uncritical position.
Sartre came to admire the Polish leader Władysław Gomułka, a man who favored a "Polish road to socialism" and wanted more independence for Poland, but was loyal to the Soviet Union because of the Oder-Neisse line issue. Sartre's newspaper "Les Temps Modernes" devoted a number of special issues in 1957 and 1958 to Poland under Gomułka, praising him for his reforms. Bondy wrote of the notable contradiction between Sarte's "ultra Bolshevism" as he expressed admiration for the Chinese leader Mao Zedong as the man who led the oppressed masses of the Third World into revolution while also praising more moderate Communist leaders like Gomułka.
As an anti-colonialist, Sartre took a prominent role in the struggle against French rule in Algeria, and the use of torture and concentration camps by the French in Algeria. He became an eminent supporter of the FLN in the Algerian War and was one of the signatories of the "Manifeste des 121". Consequently, Sartre became a domestic target of the paramilitary Organisation armée secrète (OAS), escaping two bomb attacks in the early '60s. He later argued in 1959 that each French person was responsible for the collective crimes during the Algerian War of Independence. (He had an Algerian mistress, Arlette Elkaïm, who became his adopted daughter in 1965.) He opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and, along with Bertrand Russell and others, organized a tribunal intended to expose U.S. war crimes, which became known as the Russell Tribunal in 1967.
His work after Stalin's death, the "Critique de la raison dialectique" ("Critique of Dialectical Reason"), appeared in 1960 (a second volume appearing posthumously). In the "Critique" Sartre set out to give Marxism a more vigorous intellectual defense than it had received until then; he ended by concluding that Marx's notion of "class" as an objective entity was fallacious. Sartre's emphasis on the humanist values in the early works of Marx led to a dispute with a leading leftist intellectual in France in the 1960s, Louis Althusser, who claimed that the ideas of the young Marx were decisively superseded by the "scientific" system of the later Marx. In the late 1950s, Sartre began to argue that the European working classes were too apolitical to carry out the revolution predicated by Marx, and influenced by Frantz Fanon stated to argue it was the impoverished masses of the Third World, the "real damned of the earth", who would carry out the revolution. A major theme of Sarte's political essays in the 1960s was of his disgust with the "Americanization" of the French working class who would much rather watch American TV shows dubbed into French than agitate for a revolution.
Sartre went to Cuba in the 1960s to meet Fidel Castro and spoke with Ernesto "Che" Guevara. After Guevara's death, Sartre would declare him to be "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age" and the "era's most perfect man". Sartre would also compliment Guevara by professing that "he lived his words, spoke his own actions and his story and the story of the world ran parallel". However he stood against the persecution of gays by Castro's régime, which he compared to Nazi persecution of the Jews, and said: "In Cuba there are no Jews, but there are homosexuals".
During a collective hunger strike in 1974, Sartre visited Red Army Faction member Andreas Baader in Stammheim Prison and criticized the harsh conditions of imprisonment.
Towards the end of his life, Sartre began to describe himself as a "special kind" of anarchist.
In 1964 Sartre renounced literature in a witty and sardonic account of the first ten years of his life, "Les Mots" ("The Words"). The book is an ironic counterblast to Marcel Proust, whose reputation had unexpectedly eclipsed that of André Gide (who had provided the model of "littérature engagée" for Sartre's generation). Literature, Sartre concluded, functioned ultimately as a bourgeois substitute for real commitment in the world. In October 1964, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature but he declined it. He was the first Nobel laureate to voluntarily decline the prize, and remains one of only two laureates to do so. According to Lars Gyllensten, in the book "Minnen, bara minnen" ("Memories, Only Memories") published in 2000, Sartre himself or someone close to him got in touch with the Swedish Academy in 1975 with a request for the prize money, but was refused. In 1945, he had refused the Légion d'honneur. The Nobel prize was announced on 22 October 1964; on 14 October, Sartre had written a letter to the Nobel Institute, asking to be removed from the list of nominees, and warning that he would not accept the prize if awarded, but the letter went unread; on 23 October, "Le Figaro" published a statement by Sartre explaining his refusal. He said he did not wish to be "transformed" by such an award, and did not want to take sides in an East vs. West cultural struggle by accepting an award from a prominent Western cultural institution. Nevertheless, he was that year's prizewinner. After being awarded the prize he tried to escape the media by hiding in the house of Simone's sister Hélène de Beauvoir in Goxwiller, Alsace.
Though his name was then a household word (as was "existentialism" during the tumultuous 1960s), Sartre remained a simple man with few possessions, actively committed to causes until the end of his life, such as the May 1968 strikes in Paris during the summer of 1968 during which he was arrested for civil disobedience. President Charles de Gaulle intervened and pardoned him, commenting that "you don't arrest Voltaire".
In 1975, when asked how he would like to be remembered, Sartre replied:
I would like [people] to remember "Nausea", [my plays] "No Exit" and "The Devil and the Good Lord", and then my two philosophical works, more particularly the second one, "Critique of Dialectical Reason". Then my essay on Genet, "Saint Genet". ... If these are remembered, that would be quite an achievement, and I don't ask for more. As a man, if a certain Jean-Paul Sartre is remembered, I would like people to remember the milieu or historical situation in which I lived, ... how I lived in it, in terms of all the aspirations which I tried to gather up within myself.
Sartre's physical condition deteriorated, partially because of the merciless pace of work (and the use of amphetamine) he put himself through during the writing of the "Critique" and a massive analytical biography of Gustave Flaubert ("The Family Idiot"), both of which remained unfinished. He suffered from hypertension, and became almost completely blind in 1973. Sartre was a notorious chain smoker, which could also have contributed to the deterioration of his health.
Sartre died on 15 April 1980 in Paris from edema of the lung. He had not wanted to be buried at Père-Lachaise Cemetery between his mother and stepfather, so it was arranged that he be buried at Montparnasse Cemetery. At his funeral on Saturday, 19 April, 50,000 Parisians descended onto boulevard du Montparnasse to accompany Sartre's cortege. The funeral started at "the hospital at 2:00 p.m., then filed through the fourteenth arrondissement, past all Sartre's haunts, and entered the cemetery through the gate on the Boulevard Edgar Quinet". Sartre was initially buried in a temporary grave to the left of the cemetery gate. Four days later the body was disinterred for cremation at Père-Lachaise Cemetery, and his ashes were reburied at the permanent site in Montparnasse Cemetery, to the right of the cemetery gate.
Sartre's primary idea is that people, as humans, are "condemned to be free". This theory relies upon his position that there is no creator, and is illustrated using the example of the paper cutter. Sartre says that if one considered a paper cutter, one would assume that the creator would have had a plan for it: an essence. Sartre said that human beings have no essence before their existence because there is no Creator. Thus: "existence precedes essence". This forms the basis for his assertion that because one cannot explain one's own actions and behavior by referring to any specific human nature, they are necessarily fully responsible for those actions. "We are left alone, without excuse." "We can act without being determined by our past which is always separated from us."
Sartre maintained that the concepts of authenticity and individuality have to be earned but not learned. We need to experience "death consciousness" so as to wake up ourselves as to what is really important; the authentic in our lives which is life experience, not knowledge. Death draws the final point when we as beings cease to live for ourselves and permanently become objects that exist only for the outside world. In this way death emphasizes the burden of our free, individual existence.
As a junior lecturer at the Lycée du Havre in 1938, Sartre wrote the novel "La Nausée" ("Nausea"), which serves in some ways as a manifesto of existentialism and remains one of his most famous books. Taking a page from the German phenomenological movement, he believed that our ideas are the product of experiences of real-life situations, and that novels and plays can well describe such fundamental experiences, having equal value to discursive essays for the elaboration of philosophical theories such as existentialism. With such purpose, this novel concerns a dejected researcher (Roquentin) in a town similar to Le Havre who becomes starkly conscious of the fact that inanimate objects and situations remain absolutely indifferent to his existence. As such, they show themselves to be resistant to whatever significance human consciousness might perceive in them.
He also took inspiration from phenomenologist epistemology, explained by Franz Adler in this way: "Man chooses and makes himself by acting. Any action implies the judgment that he is right under the circumstances not only for the actor, but also for everybody else in similar circumstances."
This indifference of "things in themselves" (closely linked with the later notion of "being-in-itself" in his "Being and Nothingness") has the effect of highlighting all the more the freedom Roquentin has to perceive and act in the world; everywhere he looks, he finds situations imbued with meanings which bear the stamp of his existence. Hence the "nausea" referred to in the title of the book; all that he encounters in his everyday life is suffused with a pervasive, even horrible, taste—specifically, his freedom. The book takes the term from Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", where it is used in the context of the often nauseating quality of existence. No matter how much Roquentin longs for something else or something different, he cannot get away from this harrowing evidence of his engagement with the world.
The novel also acts as a terrifying realization of some of Immanuel Kant's fundamental ideas about freedom; Sartre uses the idea of the autonomy of the will (that morality is derived from our ability to choose in reality; the ability to choose being derived from human freedom; embodied in the famous saying "Condemned to be free") as a way to show the world's indifference to the individual. The freedom that Kant exposed is here a strong burden, for the freedom to act towards objects is ultimately useless, and the practical application of Kant's ideas proves to be bitterly rejected.
Also important is Sartre's analysis of psychological concepts, including his suggestion that consciousness exists as something other than itself, and that the conscious awareness of things is not limited to their knowledge: for Sartre intentionality applies to the emotions as well as to cognitions, to desires as well as to perceptions. "When an external object is perceived, consciousness is also conscious of itself, even if consciousness is not its own object: it is a non-positional consciousness of itself."
While the broad focus of Sartre's life revolved around the notion of human freedom, he began a sustained intellectual participation in more public matters towards the end of the Second World War, around 1944–1945. Before World War II, he was content with the role of an apolitical liberal intellectual: "Now teaching at a lycée in Laon ... Sartre made his headquarters the Dome café at the crossing of Montparnasse and Raspail boulevards. He attended plays, read novels, and dined [with] women. He wrote. And he was published." Sartre and his lifelong companion, de Beauvoir, existed, in her words, where "the world about us was a mere backdrop against which our private lives were played out".
Sartre portrayed his own pre-war situation in the character Mathieu, chief protagonist in "The Age of Reason", which was completed during Sartre's first year as a soldier in the Second World War. By forging Mathieu as an absolute rationalist, analyzing every situation, and functioning entirely on reason, he removed any strands of authentic content from his character and as a result, Mathieu could "recognize no allegiance except to [him]self", though he realized that without "responsibility for my own existence, it would seem utterly absurd to go on existing". Mathieu's commitment was only to himself, never to the outside world. Mathieu was restrained from action each time because he had no reasons for acting. Sartre then, for these reasons, was not compelled to participate in the Spanish Civil War, and it took the invasion of his own country to motivate him into action and to provide a crystallization of these ideas. It was the war that gave him a purpose beyond himself, and the atrocities of the war can be seen as the turning point in his public stance.
The war opened Sartre's eyes to a political reality he had not yet understood until forced into continual engagement with it: "the world itself destroyed Sartre's illusions about isolated self-determining individuals and made clear his own personal stake in the events of the time." Returning to Paris in 1941 he formed the "Socialisme et Liberté" resistance group. In 1943, after the group disbanded, Sartre joined a writers' Resistance group, in which he remained an active participant until the end of the war. He continued to write ferociously, and it was due to this "crucial experience of war and captivity that Sartre began to try to build up a positive moral system and to express it through literature".
The symbolic initiation of this new phase in Sartre's work is packaged in the introduction he wrote for a new journal, "Les Temps modernes", in October 1945. Here he aligned the journal, and thus himself, with the Left and called for writers to express their political commitment. Yet, this alignment was indefinite, directed more to the concept of the Left than a specific party of the Left.
Sartre's philosophy lent itself to his being a public intellectual. He envisaged culture as a very fluid concept; neither pre-determined, nor definitely finished; instead, in true existential fashion, "culture was always conceived as a process of continual invention and re-invention." This marks Sartre, the intellectual, as a pragmatist, willing to move and shift stance along with events. He did not dogmatically follow a cause other than the belief in human freedom, preferring to retain a pacifist's objectivity. It is this overarching theme of freedom that means his work "subverts the bases for distinctions among the disciplines". Therefore, he was able to hold knowledge across a vast array of subjects: "the international world order, the political and economic organisation of contemporary society, especially France, the institutional and legal frameworks that regulate the lives of ordinary citizens, the educational system, the media networks that control and disseminate information. Sartre systematically refused to keep quiet about what he saw as inequalities and injustices in the world."
Sartre always sympathized with the Left, and supported the French Communist Party (PCF) until the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. Following the Liberation the PCF were infuriated by Sartre's philosophy, which appeared to lure young French men and women away from the ideology of communism and into Sartre's own existentialism. From 1956 onwards Sartre rejected the claims of the PCF to represent the French working classes, objecting to its "authoritarian tendencies". In the late 1960s Sartre supported the Maoists, a movement that rejected the authority of established communist parties. However, despite aligning with the Maoists, Sartre said after the May events: "If one rereads all my books, one will realize that I have not changed profoundly, and that I have always remained an anarchist." He would later explicitly allow himself to be called an anarchist.
In the aftermath of a war that had for the first time properly engaged Sartre in political matters, he set forth a body of work which "reflected on virtually every important theme of his early thought and began to explore alternative solutions to the problems posed there". The greatest difficulties that he and all public intellectuals of the time faced were the increasing technological aspects of the world that were outdating the printed word as a form of expression. In Sartre's opinion, the "traditional bourgeois literary forms remain innately superior", but there is "a recognition that the new technological 'mass media' forms must be embraced" if Sartre's ethical and political goals as an authentic, committed intellectual are to be achieved: the demystification of bourgeois political practices and the raising of the consciousness, both political and cultural, of the working class.
The struggle for Sartre was against the monopolising moguls who were beginning to take over the media and destroy the role of the intellectual. His attempts to reach a public were mediated by these powers, and it was often these powers he had to campaign against. He was skilled enough, however, to circumvent some of these issues by his interactive approach to the various forms of media, advertising his radio interviews in a newspaper column for example, and vice versa.
The role of a public intellectual can lead to the individual placing himself in danger as he engages with disputed topics. In Sartre's case, this was witnessed in June 1961, when a plastic bomb exploded in the entrance of his apartment building. His public support of Algerian self-determination at the time had led Sartre to become a target of the campaign of terror that mounted as the colonists' position deteriorated. A similar occurrence took place the next year and he had begun to receive threatening letters from Oran, Algeria.
Sartre wrote successfully in a number of literary modes and made major contributions to literary criticism and literary biography. His plays are richly symbolic and serve as a means of conveying his philosophy. The best-known, "Huis-clos" ("No Exit"), contains the famous line "L'enfer, c'est les autres", usually translated as "Hell is other people." Aside from the impact of "Nausea", Sartre's major work of fiction was "The Roads to Freedom" trilogy which charts the progression of how World War II affected Sartre's ideas. In this way, "Roads to Freedom" presents a less theoretical and more practical approach to existentialism.
John Huston got Sartre to script his film "". However it was too long and Sartre withdrew his name from the film's credits. Nevertheless, many key elements from Sartre's script survive in the finished film.
Despite their similarities as polemicists, novelists, adapters, and playwrights, Sartre's literary work has been counterposed, often pejoratively, to that of Camus in the popular imagination. In 1948 the Roman Catholic Church placed Sartre's oeuvre on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" (List of Prohibited Books).
Some philosophers argue that Sartre's thought is contradictory. Specifically, they believe that Sartre makes metaphysical arguments despite his claim that his philosophical views ignore metaphysics. Herbert Marcuse criticized "Being and Nothingness" for projecting anxiety and meaninglessness onto the nature of existence itself: "Insofar as Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine, it remains an idealistic doctrine: it hypostatizes specific historical conditions of human existence into ontological and metaphysical characteristics. Existentialism thus becomes part of the very ideology which it attacks, and its radicalism is illusory." In "Letter on Humanism", Heidegger criticized Sartre's existentialism:
Existentialism says existence precedes essence. In this statement he is taking "existentia" and "essentia" according to their metaphysical meaning, which, from Plato's time on, has said that "essentia" precedes "existentia". Sartre reverses this statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical statement remains a metaphysical statement. With it, he stays with metaphysics, in oblivion of the truth of Being.
The philosophers Richard Wollheim and Thomas Baldwin have argued that Sartre's attempt to show that Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious is mistaken was based on a misinterpretation of Freud. Richard Webster considers Sartre one of many modern thinkers who have reconstructed Judaeo-Christian orthodoxies in secular form.
Intellectuals associated with the political right allege that Sartre's politics are indicative of authoritarianism. Brian C. Anderson denounced Sartre as an apologist for tyranny and terror and a supporter of Stalinism, Maoism, and Castro's regime in Cuba. The historian Paul Johnson asserted that Sartre's ideas had inspired the Khmer Rouge leadership: "The events in Cambodia in the 1970s, in which between one-fifth and one-third of the nation was starved to death or murdered, were entirely the work of a group of intellectuals, who were for the most part pupils and admirers of Jean-Paul Sartre – 'Sartre's Children' as I call them." Sarte's philosophy, and his actions in the world, were opposed by a group of French literati dubbed the Hussards.
Sartre, who stated in his preface to Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth" that, "To shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone, to destroy an oppressor and the man he oppresses at the same time: there remains a dead man and a free man", has been criticized by Anderson and Michael Walzer for supporting the killing of European civilians by the FLN during the Algerian War. Walzer suggests that Sartre, a European, was a hypocrite for not volunteering to be killed.
The critic, poet, essayist and philosopher Clive James excoriated Sartre in his book of mini biographies "Cultural Amnesia" (2007). James attacks Sartre's philosophy as being "all a pose".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16340
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John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends and enemies—who accused him of piracy—among America's political elites, and his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day. As such, he is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the American Navy" (a sobriquet he shares with John Barry and John Adams).
Jones was born and grew up in Scotland, became a sailor, and served as commander of several British merchant ships. After having killed one of his crew members with a sword, he fled to the Colony of Virginia and around 1775 joined the newly founded Continental Navy in their fight against Britain in the American Revolutionary War. He commanded U.S. Navy ships stationed in France and led one single assault on England, which resulted in a failure, and few on British merchant ships. Left without a command in 1787, he joined the Imperial Russian Navy and obtained the rank of rear admiral.
John Paul (he added "Jones" in later life to hide from law enforcement) was born on the estate of Arbigland near Kirkbean in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright on the southwest coast of Scotland. His father John Paul Sr. was a gardener at Arbigland, and his mother was Jean McDuff (1708–1767). His parents married on November 29, 1733 in New Abbey, Kirkcudbright.
John Paul started his maritime career at the age of 13, sailing out of Whitehaven in the northern English county of Cumberland as apprentice aboard "Friendship" under Captain Benson. Paul's older brother William Paul had married and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Virginia was the destination of many of the younger Jones's voyages.
For several years, Paul sailed aboard a number of merchant and slave ships, including "King George" in 1764 as third mate and "Two Friends" as first mate in 1766. In 1768, he abandoned his prestigious position on the profitable "Two Friends" while docked in Jamaica. He found his own passage back to Scotland, and eventually obtained another position.
John Paul's career was quickly and unexpectedly advanced during his next voyage aboard the brig "John", which sailed from port in 1768, when both the captain and a ranking mate suddenly died of yellow fever. Paul managed to navigate the ship back to a safe port and, in reward for this feat, the vessel's grateful Scottish owners made him master of the ship and its crew, giving him ten percent of the cargo. He led two voyages to the West Indies before running into difficulty.
During his second voyage in 1770, John Paul had one of his crew flogged after trying to start a mutiny about early payment of wages, leading to accusations that his discipline was "unnecessarily cruel". These claims initially were dismissed, but his favorable reputation was destroyed when the sailor died a few weeks later. John Paul was arrested for his involvement in the man's death, and was imprisoned in Kirkcudbright Tolbooth, but later released on bail. The negative effect of this episode on his reputation is indisputable, although the man's death has been linked to yellow fever. The local governor encouraged John Paul to leave the area and change his name while on bail. The man who died of his injuries was not a usual sailor but an adventurer from a very influential Scottish family.
Leaving Scotland, John Paul commanded a London-registered vessel named "Betsy", a West Indiaman mounting 22 guns, engaging in commercial speculation in Tobago for about 18 months. This came to an end, however, when he killed a mutinous crew member named Blackton with a sword in a dispute over wages. Years later, in a letter to Benjamin Franklin describing the incident, John Paul claimed that the killing was committed in self-defense, but he was not willing to be tried in an Admiral's Court, where the family of his first victim had been influential.
He felt compelled to flee to Fredericksburg, Virginia, leaving his fortune behind; he also sought to arrange the affairs of his brother, who had died there without leaving any immediate family. About this time, John Paul assumed the surname of Jones (in addition to his original surname). There is a long-held tradition in the state of North Carolina that John Paul adopted the name "Jones" in honor of Willie Jones of Halifax, North Carolina. Another source Lillie Thomas High states her grandfather said she was born in the room that John Paul stayed in while he had typhoid fever. The home "Mount Gallant" had belonged to Brigadier General Allen Jones and the family had cared for John Paul Jones. Willie Jones found John Paul and took him to his brother Allen's house. John Paul would have been killed if the British found him.
From that period, America became "the country of his fond election", as he afterwards expressed himself to Baron Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol. It was not long afterward that John Paul "Jones" joined the American navy to fight against Britain.
Sources struggle with this period of Jones's life, especially the specifics of his family situation, making it difficult to pinpoint historically Jones's exact motivations for emigrating to America. It is not known whether his plans were not developing as expected for the plantation, or if he was inspired by a revolutionary spirit.
Jones left for Philadelphia shortly after settling in North America to volunteer his services around 1775 to the newly founded Continental Navy, precursor to the United States Navy. During this time, the Navy and Marines were being formally established, and suitable ship's officers and captains were in great demand. Jones's potential would likely have gone unrecognized were it not for the endorsement of Richard Henry Lee, who knew of his abilities. With help from influential members of the Continental Congress, Jones was appointed as a 1st Lieutenant of the newly converted 24-gun frigate "Alfred" in the Continental Navy on December 7, 1775.
Jones sailed from the Delaware River in February 1776 aboard "Alfred" on the Continental Navy's maiden cruise. It was aboard this vessel that Jones took the honor of hoisting the first U.S. ensign−the Grand Union Flag−over a naval vessel.
The fleet had been expected to cruise along the coast but was ordered instead by Commodore Esek Hopkins to sail for The Bahamas, where Nassau was raided for military supplies. The fleet had an unsuccessful encounter with a British packet ship on their return voyage. Jones was then assigned command of the sloop . Congress had recently ordered the construction of thirteen frigates for the American Navy, one of which was to be commanded by Jones. In exchange for this prestigious command, Jones accepted his commission aboard the smaller "Providence". Over the summer of 1776 as commander of "Providence", Jones performed various services for the Continental Navy and Congress. These services included the transport of troops, the movement of supplies and the escort of convoys. During this time, Jones was able to assist a 'brig from Hispaniola' that was being chased by HMS "Cerberus" and laden with military stores. This ship was then purchased by Congress and put in commission as Captain Hoysted Hacker commanding. During a later six-week voyage to Nova Scotia, Jones captured sixteen prizes and inflicted significant damage in the Raid on Canso.
Jones's next command came as a result of Commodore Hopkins's orders to liberate hundreds of American prisoners forced to labor in coal mines in Nova Scotia, and also to raid British shipping. On November 1, 1776, Jones set sail in command of "Alfred" to carry out this mission. Winter conditions prevented freeing the prisoners, but the mission did result in the capture of "Mellish", a vessel carrying a vital supply of winter clothing intended for General John Burgoyne's troops in Canada.
Despite his successes at sea, Jones' disagreements with those in authority reached a new level upon arrival in Boston on December 16, 1776. While at the port, he began feuding with Commodore Hopkins, as Jones believed that Hopkins was hindering his advancement by talking down his campaign plans. As a result of this and other frustrations, Jones was assigned the smaller command of the newly constructed on June 14, 1777, the same day that the new Stars and Stripes flag was adopted.
After making the necessary preparations, Jones sailed for France on November 1, 1777, with orders to assist the American cause however possible. The American commissioners in France were Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, and they listened to Jones's strategic recommendations. They promised him the command of , a new vessel being constructed for America in Amsterdam. Britain, however, was able to divert "L'Indien" away from American hands by exerting pressure to ensure its sale to France instead (which had not yet allied with America).
Jones was again left without a command, an unpleasant reminder of his stagnation in Boston from late 1776 until early 1777. It is thought that during this time Jones developed his close friendship with Benjamin Franklin, whom he greatly admired.
On February 6, 1778, France signed the Treaty of Alliance with America, formally recognizing the independence of the new American republic. Eight days later, Captain Jones's "Ranger" became the first American naval vessel to be formally saluted by the French, with a nine-gun salute fired from captain Lamotte-Piquet's flagship. Jones wrote of the event: "I accepted his offer all the more for after all it was a recognition of our independence and in the nation".
On April 10, 1778, Jones set sail from Brest, France, for the western coasts of Britain.
Jones had some early successes against British merchant shipping in the Irish Sea. He persuaded his crew on April 17, 1778, to participate in an assault on Whitehaven, the town where his maritime career had begun. Jones later wrote about the poor command qualities of his senior officers (having tactfully avoided such matters in his official report): "'Their object', they said, 'was gain not honor'. They were poor: instead of encouraging the morale of the crew, they excited them to disobedience; they persuaded them that they had the right to judge whether a measure that was proposed to them was good or bad".
As it happened, contrary winds forced them to abandon the attempt and drove "Ranger" towards Ireland, causing more trouble for British shipping on the way.
On April 20, 1778, Jones learned from captured sailors that the Royal Navy sloop of war was anchored off Carrickfergus, Ireland. According to the diary of "Ranger"s surgeon, Jones's first intention was to attack the vessel in broad daylight, but his sailors were "unwilling to undertake it" (another incident omitted from the official report). Therefore, the attack took place just after midnight, but the mate responsible for dropping the anchor to halt "Ranger" right alongside "Drake" misjudged the timing in the dark (Jones claimed in his memoirs that the man was drunk), so Jones had to cut his anchor cable and run. The wind shifted, and "Ranger" recrossed the Irish Sea to make another attempt at raiding Whitehaven. Jones led the assault with two boats of fifteen men just after midnight on April 23, 1778, hoping to set fire to and sink all Whitehaven's ships anchored in harbor, which numbered between 200 and 400 wooden vessels and consisted of a full merchant fleet and many coal transporters. They also hoped to terrorize the townspeople by lighting further fires. As it happened, the journey to shore was slowed by the still-shifting wind, as well as a strong ebb tide. They successfully spiked the town's big defensive guns to prevent them being fired, but lighting fires proved difficult, as the lanterns in both boats had run out of fuel. To remedy this, some of the party were sent to raid a public house on the quayside, but the temptation to stop for a quick drink led to a further delay. Dawn was breaking by the time they returned and began the arson attacks, so efforts were concentrated on the coal ship "Thompson" in the hope that the flames would spread to adjacent vessels, all grounded by the low tide. However, in the twilight, one of the crew slipped away and alerted residents on a harbourside street. A fire alert was sounded, and large numbers of people came running to the quay, forcing the Americans to retreat, and extinguishing the flames with the town's two fire-engines. The townspeople's hopes of sinking Jones's boats with cannon fire were dashed because of the prudent spiking.
Jones next crossed the Solway Firth from Whitehaven to Scotland, hoping to hold for ransom the Earl of Selkirk, who lived on St Mary's Isle near Kirkcudbright. The Earl, Jones reasoned, could be exchanged for American sailors impressed into the Royal Navy. The Earl was discovered to be absent from his estate, so his wife entertained the officers and conducted negotiations. Canadian historian Peter C. Newman gives credit to the governess for protecting the young heir and to the butler for filling a sack half with coal, and topping it up with the family silver, in order to fob off the Americans. Jones claimed that he intended to return directly to his ship and continue seeking prizes elsewhere, but his crew wished to "pillage, burn, and plunder all they could". Ultimately, Jones allowed the crew to seize a silver plate set adorned with the family's emblem to placate their desires, but nothing else. Jones bought the plate himself when it was later sold off in France, and returned it to the Earl of Selkirk after the war.
The attacks on St. Mary's Isle and Whitehaven resulted in no prizes or profits which would be shared with the crew under normal circumstances. Throughout the mission, the crew acted as if they were aboard a privateer, not a warship, led by Lieutenant Thomas Simpson, Jones's second-in-command.
Jones led "Ranger" back across the Irish Sea, hoping to make another attempt at the "Drake", still anchored off Carrickfergus. This time, late in the afternoon of April 24, 1778, the ships, roughly equal in firepower, engaged in combat. Earlier in the day, the Americans had captured the crew of a reconnaissance boat, and learned that "Drake" had taken on dozens of soldiers, with the intention of grappling and boarding "Ranger", so Jones made sure that did not happen, capturing "Drake" after an hour-long gun battle which cost the British captain his life. Lieutenant Simpson was given command of "Drake" for the return journey to Brest. The ships separated during the return journey as "Ranger" chased another prize, leading to a conflict between Simpson and Jones. Both ships arrived at port safely, but Jones filed for a court-martial of Simpson, keeping him detained on the ship.
Partly through the influence of John Adams, who was still serving as a commissioner in France, Simpson was released from Jones's accusation. Adams implies in his memoirs that the overwhelming majority of the evidence supported Simpson's claims. Adams seemed to believe Jones was hoping to monopolize the mission's glory, especially by detaining Simpson on board while he celebrated the capture with numerous important European dignitaries.
Even with the wealth of perspectives, including the commander's, it is difficult if not impossible to tell exactly what occurred. It is clear, however, that the crew felt alienated by their commander, who might well have been motivated by his pride. Jones believed his intentions were honorable, and his actions were strategically essential to the Revolution. Regardless of any controversy surrounding the mission, "Ranger"s capture of "Drake" was one of the Continental Navy's few significant military victories during the Revolution. "Ranger"s victory became an important symbol of the American spirit and served as an inspiration for the permanent establishment of the United States Navy after the revolution.
In 1779, Captain Jones took command of the 42-gun , a merchant ship rebuilt and given to America by the French shipping magnate, Jacques-Donatien Le Ray. On August 14, as a vast French and Spanish invasion fleet approached England, he provided a diversion by heading for Ireland at the head of a five ship squadron including the 36-gun , 32-gun USS "Pallas", 12-gun , and "Le Cerf", also accompanied by two privateers, and "Granville". When the squadron was only a few days out of Groix, "Monsieur" separated due to a disagreement between her captain and Jones. Several Royal Navy warships were sent towards Ireland in pursuit of Jones, but on this occasion, he continued right around the north of Scotland into the North Sea. Jones's main problems, as on his previous voyage, resulted from insubordination, particularly by Pierre Landais, captain of "Alliance". On September 23, 1779, the squadron met a large merchant convoy off the coast of Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire. The 50-gun British frigate and the 22-gun hired armed ship placed themselves between the convoy and Jones's squadron, allowing the merchants to escape.
Shortly after 7 p.m. the Battle of Flamborough Head began. "Serapis" engaged "Bonhomme Richard", and soon afterwards, "Alliance" fired, from a considerable distance, at "Countess". Quickly recognizing that he could not win a battle of big guns, and with the wind dying, Jones made every effort to lock "Richard" and "Serapis" together (his famous, albeit possibly apocryphal, quotation "I have not yet begun to fight!" was uttered in reply to a demand to surrender in this phase of the battle), finally succeeding after about an hour, following which his deck guns and his Marine marksmen in the rigging began clearing the British decks. "Alliance" sailed past and fired a broadside, doing at least as much damage to "Richard" as to "Serapis". Meanwhile, "Countess of Scarborough" had enticed "Pallas" downwind of the main battle, beginning a separate engagement. When "Alliance" approached this contest, about an hour after it had begun, the badly damaged "Countess" surrendered.
With "Bonhomme Richard" burning and sinking, it seems that her ensign was shot away; when one of the officers, apparently believing his captain to be dead, shouted a surrender, the British commander asked, seriously this time, if they had struck their colours. Jones later remembered saying something like "I am determined to make you strike", but the words allegedly heard by crew-members and reported in newspapers a few days later were more like: "I may sink, but I'll be damned if I strike". An attempt by the British to board "Bonhomme Richard" was thwarted, and a grenade caused the explosion of a large quantity of gunpowder on "Serapis" lower gun-deck.
"Alliance" returned to the main battle, firing two broadsides. Again, these did at least as much damage to "Richard" as to "Serapis", but the tactic worked to the extent that, unable to move, and with "Alliance" keeping well out of the line of his own great guns, Captain Pearson of "Serapis" accepted that prolonging the battle could achieve nothing, so he surrendered. Most of "Bonhomme Richard"s crew immediately transferred to other vessels, and after a day and a half of frantic repair efforts, it was decided that the ship could not be saved, so it was allowed to sink, and Jones took command of "Serapis" for the trip to the island of Texel in neutral (but American-sympathizing) Holland.
In the following year, the King of France Louis XVI, honored him with the title "Chevalier". Jones accepted the honor, and desired the title to be used thereafter: when the Continental Congress in 1787 resolved that a medal of gold be struck in commemoration of his "valor and brilliant services" it was to be presented to "Chevalier John Paul Jones". He also received from Louis XVI a decoration of "l'Institution du Mérite Militaire" and a sword. By contrast, in Britain at this time, he was usually denigrated as a pirate.
In June 1782, Jones was appointed to command the 74-gun , but his command fell through when Congress decided to give "America" to the French as replacement for the wrecked "Le Magnifique". As a result, he was given assignment in Europe in 1783 to collect prize money due his former hands. At length, this too expired and Jones was left without prospects for active employment, leading him on April 23, 1787 to enter into the service of the Empress Catherine II of Russia, who placed great confidence in Jones, saying: "He will get to Constantinople". He was granted name as a French subject Павел де Жонес ("Pavel de Zhones", Paul de Jones).
Jones avowed his intention, however, to preserve the condition of an American citizen and officer. As a rear admiral aboard the 24-gun flagship "Vladimir", he took part in the naval campaign in the Dnieper-Bug Liman (an arm of the Black Sea, into which flow the Southern Bug and Dnieper rivers) against the Turks, in concert with the Dnieper Flotilla commanded by Prince Charles of Nassau-Siegen. Jones (and Nassau-Siegen) repulsed the Ottoman forces from the area, but the jealous intrigues of Nassau-Siegen (and perhaps Jones's own inaptitude for Imperial politics) turned the Russian commander Prince Grigory Potëmkin against Jones and he was recalled to St. Petersburg for the pretended purpose of being transferred to a command in the North Sea. Another factor may have been the resentment of several ex-British naval officers also in Russian employment, who regarded Jones as a renegade and refused to speak to him. Whatever motivated the Prince, once recalled he was compelled to remain in idleness, while rival officers plotted against him and even maliciously assailed his private character through accusations of sexual misconduct. In April 1789 Jones was arrested and accused of raping a 12-year-old girl named Katerina Goltzwart. But the Count de Segur, the French representative at the Russian court (and also Jones's last friend in the capital), conducted his own personal investigation into the matter and was able to convince Potëmkin that the girl had not been raped and that Jones had been accused by Prince de Nassau-Siegen for his own purposes; Jones, however, admitted to prosecutors that he had "often frolicked" with the girl "for a small cash payment", only denying that he had deprived her of her virginity. Even so, in that period he was able to author his "Narrative of the Campaign of the Liman".
On June 8, 1788, Jones was awarded the Order of St. Anne, but he left the following month, an embittered man.
In 1789 Jones arrived in Warsaw, Poland, where he befriended Tadeusz Kościuszko, another veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Kościuszko advised him to leave the service of the autocratic Russia, and serve another power, suggesting Sweden. Despite Kościuszko's backing, the Swedes, while somewhat interested, in the end decided not to recruit Jones.
In May 1790, Jones arrived in Paris. He still retained his position as Russian rear admiral, with a corresponding pension which allowed him to remain in retirement until his death two years later, although he made a number of attempts to re-enter the service in the Russian navy. By this time, his memoirs had been published in Edinburgh. Inspired by them, James Fenimore Cooper and Alexandre Dumas later wrote their own adventure novels.
According to Walter Herrick:
In June 1792, Jones was appointed U.S. Consul to treat with the Dey of Algiers for the release of American captives. Before Jones was able to fulfill his appointment, he was found dead lying face-down on his bed in his third-floor Paris apartment, No. 19 Rue de Tournon, on July 18, 1792. He was 45 years old. The cause of death was interstitial nephritis. A small procession of servants, friends and loyal family walked his body for burial. He was buried in Paris at the Saint Louis Cemetery, which belonged to the French royal family. Four years later, France's revolutionary government sold the property and the cemetery was forgotten. In 1906, the corporeal remains of John Paul Jones were interred into the crypt beneath the Annapolis, Maryland, Naval Academy in a ceremony presided over by President Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1905, Jones's remains were identified by U.S. Ambassador to France Gen. Horace Porter, who had searched for six years to track down the body using faulty copies of Jones's burial record.
After Jones's death, Frenchman Pierrot Francois Simmoneau donated over 460 francs to mummify the body. It was preserved in alcohol and interred in a lead coffin "in the event that should the United States decide to claim his remains, they might more easily be identified." Porter knew what to look for in his search. With the aid of an old map of Paris, Porter's team, which included anthropologist Louis Capitan, identified the site of the former St. Louis Cemetery for Alien Protestants. Sounding probes were used to search for lead coffins and five coffins were ultimately exhumed. The third, unearthed on April 7, 1905, was later identified by a post-mortem examination by Doctors Capitan and Georges Papillault as being that of Jones. The autopsy confirmed the original listing of cause of death. The face was later compared to a bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon.
Jones's body was brought to the United States aboard the , escorted by three other cruisers. On approaching the American coastline, seven U.S. Navy battleships joined the procession escorting Jones's body back to America. On April 24, 1906, Jones's coffin was installed in Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, following a ceremony in Dahlgren Hall, presided over by President Theodore Roosevelt who gave a speech paying tribute to Jones and holding him up as an example to the officers of the Navy. On January 26, 1913, the Captain's remains were finally re-interred in a magnificent bronze and marble sarcophagus at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis.
Jones was given an honorary pardon in 1999 by the Port of Whitehaven for his raid on the town, in the presence of Lt. Steve Lyons representing the US Naval Attaché to the UK, and Yuri Fokine the Russian Ambassador to the UK. The US Navy were also awarded the Freedom of the Port of Whitehaven, the only time the honour has been granted in its 400-year history.
The Pardon and Freedom were arranged by Gerard Richardson as part of the launch of the series of Maritime Festival. Richardson's of Whitehaven is now the honorary Consulate to the US Navy for the Town and Port of Whitehaven. The Consul is Rear Admiral (retired) US Navy, Steve Morgan and the Deputy Consul is Rob Romano.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16341
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Boulting brothers
John Edward Boulting (21 December 1913 – 17 June 1985) and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting (21 December 1913 – 5 November 2001), known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their popular series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company, Charter Film Productions, which they set up in 1937.
The twin brothers were born to Arthur Boulting and his wife Rosetta (Rose) "née" Bennett in Bray, Berkshire, England on 21 December 1913. John was the elder by half an hour. John was named Joseph Edward John Boulting and Roy was named Alfred Fitzroy Clarence Boulting. Their elder brother Sydney Boulting became an actor and stage producer as Peter Cotes; he was the original director of "The Mousetrap". A younger brother, Guy, died aged eight.
Both twins were educated at Reading School, where they formed a film society. They were extras in Anthony Asquith's 1931 film "Tell England" while still at school.
During the Spanish Civil War, John served with the International Brigades as an ambulance driver, where—according to Richard Attenborough—Boulting was nearly captured.
The brothers constitute one of those producer-director teams responsible for much notable British cinema. For most of their careers one produced while the other directed, but the product remained essentially a 'Boulting Brothers film'. They were socialists, as John demonstrated with the International Brigades, and wanted all film, including comedies, to reflect the real world.
In 1937, they set up Charter Film Productions and made several short features, including "The Landlady" (1937) and "Consider Your Verdict" (1938), which attracted critical and commercial attention.
They made quota quickies such as "Trunk Crime" (1939) and "Inquest" (1939).
Being eager to speak out against the Third Reich, the brothers made their major film, "Pastor Hall (1940)", a biopic of Martin Niemöller, a German preacher who refuses to kowtow to the Nazis. Roy directed and John produced. The film had to have its initial release delayed by the British Government, which was not yet ready to be openly critical of Nazism. Once released, the film was well received by the critics and the public.
They followed up with "Thunder Rock (1942)" with Michael Redgrave, a passionate anti-isolationist allegory distinguished by imaginative cinematography and a theatrical but highly atmospheric lighthouse setting. It was financed by MGM.
In 1941 Roy joined the Army Film Unit, where he was responsible for the enormously influential "Desert Victory" - which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1944. He also worked on "Tunisian Victory" (1944) and "Burma Victory" (1945).
John joined the RAF Film Unit, where he made "Journey Together" in 1945, a dramatised documentary about the training and combat experience of a bomber crew with Richard Attenborough in the lead part. Terence Rattigan worked on the script.
After the war the Boultings made the drama "Fame Is the Spur" (1947) with Redgrave. More popular was "Brighton Rock" (1947), starring Attenborough as the gangster "Pinkie" from the novel by Graham Greene, which has become a classic.
Also well liked was the comedy "The Guinea Pig" (1948), starring Richard Attenborough as a young working-class boy sent to a public school. It was made for Pilgrim Pictures who the Boultings left shortly afterwards.
The Boultings co-directed the thriller "Seven Days to Noon" (1950), which won an Oscar for Best Story. It led to a less popular sequel, "High Treason" (1951).
John directed "The Magic Box" (1951), a biopic of William Friese-Greene notable for the number of cameos in its cast. It was a box office disappointment.
Roy received an offer to direct a World War Two naval film, "Sailor of the King" (1953), starring Jeffrey Hunter for 20th Century Fox. "Seagulls Over Sorrento" (1954) was another war naval story financed by a Hollywood studio (in this case MGM) with an imported star (Gene Kelly); it was not a big success.
The brothers collaborated on a comedy, "Josephine and Men" (1955) then Roy was hired by United Artists to do an action film with Hollywood stars, "Run for the Sun" (1956).
In the mid-50s the Boultings quickly became identified with "affectionate" satires on various British institutions. it started with John's "Private's Progress" (1956), a look at army life, starring Attenborough, Terry-Thomas and Ian Carmichael and co written by Frank Harvey. It was the second most popular film in Britain in 1956.
They followed it with "Lucky Jim" (1957), a look at academia from the novel by Kingsley Amis. It starred Carmichael and Terry-Thomas. "Brothers in Law" (1957) with Carmichael, Attenborough and Thomas, took on the legal profession.
They had a break from satirising institutions with "Happy Is the Bride" (1958), an adaptation of "Quiet Wedding", then returned to it with "Carlton-Browne of the F.O." (1959), a send up of diplomacy.
The Boultings took on increasingly powerful trade unions and ever corrupt board room power with "I'm All Right Jack" (1959), a sequel to "Private's Progress" with Carmichael, Thomas and Attenborough reprising their roles, and Harvey co-writing. The film was also notable for the performance of Peter Sellers as trade union foreman Fred Kite. It was the most popular film at the British box office in 1959.
"Suspect" (1960) was a return to the thriller genre for the brothers. "A French Mistress" (1960) was a comedy farce.
"Heavens Above!" (1963) was a look at religion in Britain, starring Sellers and Carmichael. It was a minor hit.
"Rotten to the Core" (1965) was a heist comedy which attempted to make a star of Anton Rodgers in a Peter Sellers-type role, playing multiple parts. It featured a young Charlotte Rampling.
The Boultings directed and produced the northern comedy "The Family Way" (1966), starring John Mills and his teenage daughter Hayley. Roy Boulting and Hayley Mills began a relationship during the shoot despite a 33-year age difference; they married in 1971.
Roy wrote and directed "Twisted Nerve" (1968), a thriller starring Mills and Hywel Bennett. The brothers had a massive hit with "There's a Girl in My Soup" (1970) starring Sellers and Goldie Hawn.
Roy was called in to replace the director on "Mr. Forbush and the Penguins" (1971), and he brought in Mills to star. The movie was not successful. Neither was the comedy "Soft Beds, Hard Battles" (1974) made by the brothers starring Peter Sellers. Roy Boulting lost a considerable amount of money on the film.
In 1975 Roy was working on a stage play, "The Family Games". He worked on the script for "The Kingfisher Caper" (1975), starring Mills.
In the US, Roy directed "The Last Word" (1979), a comedy starring Richard Harris that was barely seen.
When John died of cancer in 1985, Roy stopped making films. His last credit was directing an episode of the "Miss Marple" series for TV, "The Moving Finger" (1985). He was working on an adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play "Deja Vu" when he died.
When the National Film Theatre mounted its biggest retrospective to date of British cinema in the late 1980s, Roy who launched it, introduced "Desert Victory". The Boulting Brother's films are regarded by film historians as "a sensitive barometer of the changing times."
John Boulting was married four times and had three sons and three daughters.
John and his South African-born wife Anne had two daughters: one of whom is Lucy Boulting Hill, a successful casting director. John's grandson Jordan Stephens (son of Emma Boulting) is one half of British hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks.
Roy Boulting was married five times and had seven sons.
In 1951, Roy married Enid Munnik (née Groenewald/Grunewald), later known as Enid Boulting (later wife of 9th Earl of Hardwicke), an established fashion model and fashion editor at the French magazine "Elle". Ingrid Boulting is Enid's daughter from a previous marriage. Together, they had three children: the eldest, Fitzroy (b. 1951), then identical twins named Edmund and Rupert (b. 1952).
In 1971, Roy married Hayley Mills, 33 years his junior, whom he had met on the set of "The Family Way". Their son is musician and filmmaker Crispian Mills. The couple separated in 1975, and divorced in 1977.
John Boulting died on 17 June 1985 at his home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, and Roy Boulting 16 years later on 5 November 2001 in the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford; both died of cancer.
A still from "The Family Way" was used for The Smiths single "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16343
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John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), "Seven Days in May" (1964), "The Train" (1965), "Seconds" (1966), "Grand Prix" (1966), "French Connection II" (1975), "Black Sunday" (1977), "Ronin" (1998), and "Reindeer Games" (2000).
He won four Emmy Awards—three consecutive—in the 1990s for directing the television movies "Against the Wall", "The Burning Season", "Andersonville", and "George Wallace", the last of which also received a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film.
Frankenheimer's 30 feature films and over 50 plays for television were notable for their influence on contemporary thought. He became a pioneer of the "modern-day political thriller", having begun his career at the peak of the Cold War.
He was technically highly accomplished from his days in live television; many of his films were noted for creating "psychological dilemmas" for his male protagonists along with having a strong "sense of environment," similar in style to films by director Sidney Lumet, for whom he had earlier worked as assistant director. He developed a "tremendous propensity for exploring political situations" which would ensnare his characters.
Movie critic Leonard Maltin writes that "in his time [1960s]... Frankenheimer worked with the top writers, producers and actors in a series of films that dealt with issues that were just on top of the moment—things that were facing us all."
Frankenheimer was born in Queens, New York City, the son of Helen Mary ("née" Sheedy) and Walter Martin Frankenheimer, a stockbroker. Frankenheimer once speculated he might be related to actress Ally Sheedy. His father was of German Jewish descent, his mother was Irish Catholic, and Frankenheimer was raised in his mother's religion.
He grew up in New York City and became interested in movies at an early age; he recalled going to the cinema every weekend. In 1947, he graduated from La Salle Military Academy in Oakdale, Long Island, New York. In 1951, he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he had studied English. He also developed an interest in acting as a career while in college but began thinking seriously about directing when he was in the Air Force.
This led him to join a film squadron based in Burbank, California, where he shot his first documentary. He also began studying film theory by reading books about other famous directors, such as Sergei Eisenstein along with how-to books about the craft of film making.
Frankenheimer began his directing career in live television at CBS. Throughout the 1950s he directed over 140 episodes of shows like "Playhouse 90", "Climax!", and "Danger", including "The Comedian", written by Rod Serling and starring Mickey Rooney as a ragingly vicious television comedian.
Frankenheimer's first theatrical film was "The Young Stranger" (1957), starring James MacArthur as the rebellious teenage son of a powerful Hollywood movie producer. He directed the production, based on a "Climax!" episode, "Deal a Blow", which he directed when he was 26. Frankenheimer returned to television during the late 1950s, moving to film permanently in 1961 with "The Young Savages", in which he worked for the first time with Burt Lancaster in a story of a young boy murdered by a New York gang. His departure from television is considered to signal the end of the Golden Age of Television.
Roger Ebert considered Frankenheimer to have had a special gift as a filmmaker and to have been a "master craftsman". He stated that Frankenheimer made some of the "most distinctive films of his time" and that he was " one of the most gifted directors of drama on television".
Production of "Birdman of Alcatraz" began under director Charles Crichton. Burt Lancaster, who was producing, as well as starring, asked Frankenheimer to take over the film. As Frankenheimer describes in Charles Champlin's interview book, he advised Lancaster that the script was too long, but was told he had to shoot all that was written.
The first cut of the film was four-and-a-half hours long, the length Frankenheimer had predicted. Moreover, the film was constructed so that it could not be cut and still be coherent. Frankenheimer said the film would have to be rewritten and partly reshot. Lancaster was committed to star in "Judgment at Nuremberg", so he made that film while Frankenheimer prepared the reshoots. The finished film, released in 1962, was a huge success and was nominated for four Oscars, including one for Lancaster's performance.
Frankenheimer was next hired by producer John Houseman to direct "All Fall Down", a family drama starring Eva Marie Saint and Warren Beatty. Due to production difficulties with "Birdman of Alcatraz", "All Fall Down" was released first.
Frankenheimer followed this with his most famous and best-regarded film, "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962). Frankenheimer and producer George Axelrod bought Richard Condon's 1959 novel after it had already been turned down by many Hollywood studios. After Frank Sinatra committed to the film, they secured backing from United Artists. The story of a Korean War veteran, brainwashed by the Communist Chinese to assassinate a candidate for President, co-starred Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, James Gregory, John McGiver, and Angela Lansbury.
Frankenheimer had to fight to cast Lansbury who had worked with him on "All Fall Down" and was only three years older than Harvey, who would play her son in the film. Sinatra's preference had initially been for Lucille Ball. The film was nominated for two Oscars, including one for Lansbury.
The film was unseen, either theatrically or on broadcast, for many years. Urban legend has it that the film was pulled from circulation due to the similarity of its plot to the death of President Kennedy the following year, but Frankenheimer states in the Champlin book that it was pulled because of a legal battle between the producer, Sinatra, and the studio over Sinatra's share of the profits. In any event, it was re-released to great acclaim in 1988.
Frankenheimer followed with another successful political thriller, "Seven Days in May" (1964). He again bought the rights to a bestselling book, this time by Charles Bailey II and Fletcher Knebel, and again produced the film with his star, this time Kirk Douglas. Douglas intended to play the role of the General who attempts to lead a coup against the President, who is about to sign a disarmament treaty with the Soviets. Douglas then decided he wanted to work with Burt Lancaster, with whom he had just costarred in another film. To entice Lancaster, Douglas agreed to let him play the General, while Douglas took the less showy lead role of the General's aide, who turns against him and helps the President.
The film, written by Rod Serling, also starred Fredric March as the President and Ava Gardner as a former flame of Lancaster's character. It was nominated for two Oscars.
"The Train" (1964) had already begun shooting in France when star Lancaster had Arthur Penn, the original director, fired and called in Frankenheimer to save the film. As he recounts in the Champlin book, Frankenheimer used the production's desperation to his advantage in negotiations. He successfully demanded that his name be made part of the title, "John Frankenheimer's The Train"; that the French co-director, required by French tax laws, never be allowed to be on the film's set; that he be given total final cut on the film; and that he receive a Ferrari.
Again saddled with an unworkably long script, Frankenheimer threw it out and took the locations and actors left from the previous film and began filming, with writers working in Paris as the production shot in Normandy. The poorly chosen locations caused endless weather delays. The film contains multiple real train wrecks. The Allied bombing of a rail yard was accomplished with real dynamite, as the French rail authority needed to enlarge the track gauge. This can be observed by the shockwaves traveling through the ground during the action sequence. Producers realized after filming that the story needed another action scene, and reassembled some of the cast for a Spitfire attack scene that was inserted into the first third of the film. The script was nominated for an Oscar.
"Seconds" (1966) tells of an older man (John Randolph) given the body of a young man (Rock Hudson) through experimental surgery. It was poorly received on its release but has come to be one of the director's most respected and popular films subsequently. The film is an expressionistic, part-horror, part-thriller, part-science fiction film about the obsession with eternal youth and misplaced faith in the ability of medical science to achieve it.
The director of photography for "Seconds" was the highly regarded James Wong Howe, who is well known for pioneering novel techniques in black-and-white cinematography, and whose prolific career spanned nearly five decades. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film. "Seconds" was Frankenheimer and Howe's last film in black-and-white. All of Frankenheimer's films until "Grand Prix" had been made in black-and-white.
Frankenheimer followed "Seconds" with his most spectacular production, 1966's "Grand Prix". Shot on location at the Grand Prix races throughout Europe, using 65mm Cinerama cameras, the film starred James Garner and Eva Marie Saint. The making was a race itself, as John Sturges and Steve McQueen planned to make a similar movie titled "Day of the Champion".
Due to their contract with the German Nürburgring, Frankenheimer had to turn over 27 reels shot there to Sturges. Frankenheimer was ahead in schedule anyway, and the McQueen/Sturges project was called off, while the German race track was only mentioned briefly in "Grand Prix". Introducing methods of photographing high-speed auto racing that had never been seen before, mounting cameras on the cars, at full speed and putting the stars in the actual cars, instead of against rear-projections, the film was an international success and won three Oscars, for editing, sound, and sound effects.
Frankenheimer's next film, 1967's all-star anti-war comedy "The Extraordinary Seaman", starred David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda and Mickey Rooney. The film was a failure at the box office and critically. Frankenheimer calls it in the Champlin book "the only movie I've made which I would say was a total disaster."
Following this the next year was "The Fixer", about a Jew in Tsarist Russia and based on the novel by Bernard Malamud. The film was shot in Communist Hungary. It starred Alan Bates and was not a major success, but Bates was nominated for an Oscar.
Frankenheimer became a close friend of Senator Robert F. Kennedy during the making of "The Manchurian Candidate" in 1962. In 1968, Kennedy asked Frankenheimer to make some commercials for use in the presidential campaign, at which he hoped to become the Democratic candidate. On the night he was assassinated in June 1968, it was Frankenheimer who had driven Kennedy from Los Angeles Airport to the Ambassador Hotel for his acceptance speech.
"The Gypsy Moths" was a romantic drama about a troupe of barnstorming skydivers and their impact on a small midwestern town. The celebration of Americana starred Frankenheimer regular Lancaster, reuniting him with "From Here to Eternity" co-star Deborah Kerr, and it also featured Gene Hackman. The film failed to find an audience, but Frankenheimer claimed it was one of his favorites.
Frankenheimer followed this with "I Walk the Line" in 1970. The film, starring Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld, about a Tennessee sheriff who falls in love with a moonshiner's daughter, was set to songs by Johnny Cash. Frankenheimer's next project took him to Afghanistan. "The Horseman" focused on the relationship between a father and son, played by Jack Palance and Omar Sharif. Sharif's character, an expert horseman, played the Afghan national sport of buzkashi.
"Impossible Object", also known as "Story of a Love Story", suffered distribution difficulties and was not widely released. Next came a four-hour film of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh", in 1973, starring Lee Marvin, and the decidedly offbeat "99 and 44/100% Dead", a crime black comedy starring Richard Harris.
With his fluent French and knowledge of French culture, Frankenheimer was asked to direct "French Connection II", set entirely in Marseille. With Hackman reprising his role as New York cop Popeye Doyle, the film was a success and got Frankenheimer his next job. "Black Sunday", based on author Thomas Harris's only non-Hannibal Lecter novel, involves an Israeli Mossad agent (Robert Shaw) chasing a pro-Palestinian terrorist (Marthe Keller) and a PTSD-afflicted Vietnam vet (Bruce Dern), who plan a spectacular mass-murder involving the Goodyear blimp which flies over the Super Bowl. It was shot on location at the actual Super Bowl X in January 1976 in Miami, with the use of a real Goodyear Blimp. The film tested very highly, and Paramount and Frankenheimer had high expectations for it but it was not a hit.
Frankenheimer is quoted in Champlin's biography as saying that his alcohol problem caused him to do work that was below his own standards on "Prophecy" (1979), an ecological monster movie about a mutant grizzly bear terrorizing a forest in Maine.
In 1981, Frankenheimer travelled to Japan to shoot the cult martial-arts action film "The Challenge", with Scott Glenn and legendary Japanese star Toshiro Mifune. He told Champlin that his drinking became so severe while shooting in Japan that he actually drank on set, which he had never done before, and as a result he entered rehab on returning to America. The film was released in 1982, along with his HBO television adaptation of the acclaimed play "The Rainmaker".
In 1985, Frankenheimer directed an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum bestseller "The Holcroft Covenant", starring Michael Caine. That was followed the next year with another adaptation, "52 Pick-Up", from the novel by Elmore Leonard, starring Vanity. "Dead Bang" (1989) followed Don Johnson as he infiltrated a group of white supremacists. In 1990, he returned to the Cold War political thriller genre with "The Fourth War" with Roy Scheider (with whom Frankenheimer had worked previously on "52 Pick-Up") as a loose cannon Army colonel drawn into a dangerous personal war with a Soviet officer. It was not a commercial success.
Most of his 1980s films were less than successful, both critically and financially, but Frankenheimer was able to make a comeback in the 1990s by returning to his roots in television. He directed two films for HBO in 1994: "Against the Wall" and "The Burning Season" that won him several awards and renewed acclaim. The director also helmed two films for Turner Network Television, "Andersonville" (1996) and "George Wallace" (1997), that were highly praised.
Frankenheimer's 1996 film "The Island of Doctor Moreau", which he took over after the firing of original director Richard Stanley, was the cause of countless stories of production woes and personality clashes and received scathing reviews. Frankenheimer was said to be unable to stand Val Kilmer, the young co-star of the film and whose disruption had reportedly led to the removal of Stanley half a week into production. When Kilmer's last scene was completed, Frankenheimer reportedly said, "Now get that bastard off my set." The veteran director also professed that "Will Rogers never met Val Kilmer". In an interview, Frankenheimer refused to discuss the film, saying only that he had a miserable time making it.
However, his next film, 1998's "Ronin", starring Robert De Niro, was a return to form, featuring Frankenheimer's now trademark elaborate car chases woven into a labyrinthine espionage plot. Co-starring an international cast including Jean Reno and Jonathan Pryce, it was a critical and box-office success. As the 1990s drew to a close, he even had a rare acting role, appearing in a cameo as a U.S. general in "The General's Daughter" (1999). He earlier had an uncredited cameo as a TV director in his 1977 film "Black Sunday".
Frankenheimer's last theatrical film, 2000's "Reindeer Games", starring Ben Affleck, underperformed. But then came his final film, "Path to War" for HBO in 2002, which brought him back to his strengths – political machinations, 1960s America and character-based drama, and was nominated for numerous awards. A look back at the Vietnam War, it starred Michael Gambon as President Lyndon Johnson along with Alec Baldwin and Donald Sutherland. One of Frankenheimer's last projects was the 2001 BMW action short-film "Ambush" for the promotional series "The Hire", starring Clive Owen.
Frankenheimer was scheduled to direct "", but it was announced before filming started that he was withdrawing, citing health concerns. Paul Schrader replaced him. About a month later he died suddenly in Los Angeles, California, from a stroke due to complications following spinal surgery at the age of 72.
The moving image collection of John Frankenheimer is held at the Academy Film Archive.
British Academy Film Awards
Cannes Film Festival
New York Film Critics Circle Award
Venice Film Festival
Frankenheimer is also a member of the Television Hall of Fame, and was inducted in 2002.
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John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe
Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, (5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. His handling of the fleet at that battle was controversial. Jellicoe made no serious mistakes and the German High Seas Fleet retreated to port, at a time when defeat would have been catastrophic for Britain, but the public was disappointed that the Royal Navy had not won a more dramatic victory given that they outnumbered the enemy. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys, but was relieved at the end of 1917. He also served as the Governor-General of New Zealand in the early 1920s.
Born the son of John Henry Jellicoe, a captain in the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and Lucy Henrietta Jellicoe (née Keele) and educated at Field House School in Rottingdean, Jellicoe joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in the training ship in 1872. He was made a midshipman in the steam frigate in September 1874 before transferring to the ironclad in the Mediterranean Fleet in July 1877. Promoted to sub-lieutenant on 5 December 1878, he joined , flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, as signal sub-lieutenant in 1880. Promoted to lieutenant on 23 September 1880, he returned to HMS "Agincourt" in February 1881 and commanded a rifle company of the Naval Brigade at Ismailia during the Egyptian war of 1882.
Jellicoe qualified as a gunnery officer in 1883 and was appointed to the staff of the gunnery school in May 1884. He joined the turret ship as gunnery officer in September 1885 and was awarded the Board of Trade Silver Medal for rescuing the crew of a capsized steamer near Gibraltar in May 1886. He joined the battleship in April 1886 and was put in charge of the experimental department at HMS "Excellent" in December 1886 before being appointed assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance in September 1889.
Promoted to commander on 30 June 1891, Jellicoe joined the battleship in the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1892. He transferred to the battleship in 1893 (the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon) and was aboard when it collided with and was wrecked off Tripoli in Lebanon on 22 June 1893. He was then appointed to the new flagship, , in October 1893.
Promoted to captain on 1 January 1897, Jellicoe became a member of the Admiralty's Ordnance Committee. He served as Captain of the battleship and chief of staff to Vice Admiral Sir Edward Seymour during the Seymour Expedition to relieve the legations at Peking during the Boxer Rebellion in June 1900. He was badly wounded during the Battle of Beicang and told he would die but confounded the attending doctor and chaplain by living. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and given the German Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class, with Crossed Swords for services rendered in China. "Centurion" returned to the United Kingdom in August 1901, and was paid off the following month, when Captain Jellicoe and the crew went on leave. He became Naval Assistant to Third Naval Lord and Controller of the Navy in February 1902 and was given command of the armoured cruiser on the North America and West Indies Station in August 1903.
As a protege of Admiral John Fisher, Jellicoe became Director of Naval Ordnance in 1905 and, having been appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on the occasion of launching of on 10 February 1906, he was also made an Aide-de-Camp to the King on 8 March 1906. Promoted to rear admiral on 8 February 1907, he pushed hard for funds to modernise the navy, supporting the construction of new -type battleships and s. He supported F. C. Dreyer's improvements in gunnery fire-control systems, and favoured the adoption of Dreyer's "Fire Control Table", a form of mechanical computer for calculating firing solutions for warships. Jellicoe arranged for the output of naval ordnance to be transferred from the War Office to the Admiralty.
Jellicoe was appointed second-in-command of the Atlantic Fleet in August 1907, hoisting his flag in the battleship . He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on the occasion of the King's Review of the Home Fleet in the Solent on 3 August 1907. He went on to be Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in October 1908 and, having taken part in the funeral of King Edward VII in May 1910, he became Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet in December 1910, hoisting his flag in the battleship . He advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the Coronation of King George V on 19 June 1911 and confirmed in the rank of vice admiral on 18 September 1911. He went on to be Second-in-Command of the Home Fleet, hoisting his flag in the battleship , in December 1911 and, having also been appointed commander of the 2nd Battle Squadron in May 1912, joined the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines on 1 August 1912. He became Second Sea Lord in December 1912.
At the start of the First World War, the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, removed Admiral George Callaghan, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet (August 1914). Jellicoe was promoted to full admiral on 4 August 1914 and assigned command of the renamed Grand Fleet in Admiral Callaghan's place, though he was appalled by the treatment of his predecessor. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 8 February 1915.
When Fisher (First Sea Lord) and Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty) both had to leave office (May 1915) after their quarrel over the Dardanelles, Jellicoe wrote to Fisher: "We owe you a debt of gratitude for having saved the Navy from a continuance in office of Mr Churchill, and I hope that never again will any politician be allowed to usurp the functions that he took upon himself to exercise".
Jellicoe commanded the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, the largest (and only major) clash of dreadnoughts, albeit an indecisive one. His handling of the Grand Fleet during the battle remains controversial, with some historians characterising Jellicoe as too cautious and other historians faulting the battlecruiser commander, Admiral David Beatty, for making various tactical errors. Jellicoe certainly made no significant mistakes during the battle: based on limited intelligence, he correctly deployed the Grand Fleet with a turn to port so as to "cross the T" of the German High Seas Fleet as it appeared. After suffering heavy damage from shells, the German fleet turned 180 degrees and headed away from the battle. At the time the British public expressed disappointment that the Royal Navy had not won a victory on the scale of the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. Churchill described Jellicoe later as "the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon"—essentially hinting that Jellicoe's decision to prefer caution was strategically correct. Nevertheless, he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit on 31 May 1916, advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order on 17 June 1916 and awarded the Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honour on 15 September 1916.
Jellicoe was appointed First Sea Lord in November 1916. His term of office saw Britain brought within danger of starvation by German unrestricted U-Boat warfare.
At the War Committee (a Cabinet Committee which discussed strategy in 1915–16) in November 1916, the admirals present, including Jellicoe, told Lloyd George that convoys presented too large a target for enemy ships, and that merchant ship masters lacked the discipline to "keep station" in a convoy. In February 1917, Maurice Hankey wrote a memorandum for Lloyd George calling for the introduction of "scientifically organised convoys", almost certainly after being persuaded by Commander Henderson and the Shipping Ministry officials with whom he was in contact. After a breakfast meeting (13 February 1917) with Lloyd George, Carson (First Lord of the Admiralty) and Admirals Jellicoe and Duff agreed to "conduct experiments". However, convoys were not in general use until August 1917, by which time shipping losses to U-boats were already falling from their April peak.
Jellicoe continued to take a pessimistic view, advising the War Policy Committee (a Cabinet Committee which discussed strategy in 1917) during planning meetings for the Third Ypres Offensive in June and July that nothing could be done to defeat the U-boats. However, removing Jellicoe in July, as Lloyd George wanted, would have been politically impossible given Conservative anger at the return of Churchill (still blamed for the Dardanelles) to office as Minister of Munitions. In August and September Lloyd George was preoccupied with Third Ypres and the possible transfer of resources to Italy, whilst the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Eric Campbell Geddes, was reforming the Naval Staff (including creating a post for Wemyss as Deputy First Sea Lord). Geddes and Lloyd George met with Balfour and Carson (both former First Lords of the Admiralty) on 26 October to discuss sacking Jellicoe after he had failed to act on "secret, but absolutely reliable" information about a German attack on a Norwegian convoy, but again nothing came of this as Lloyd George was soon preoccupied by the Battle of Caporetto and the setting up of the Supreme War Council. Geddes wanted to return to his previous job in charge of military transportation in France, and by December it was clear that Lloyd George would have to sack Jellicoe or lose Geddes.
Jellicoe was rather abruptly dismissed by Geddes in December 1917. Before he left for leave on Christmas Eve he received a letter from Geddes demanding his resignation. Geddes' letter stated that he was still in the building and available to talk, but after consulting Admiral Halsey Jellicoe replied in writing that he would "do what was best for the service". The move became public knowledge two days later.
The Christmas holiday, when Parliament was not sitting, provided a good opportunity to remove Jellicoe with a minimum of fuss. Geddes squared matters with the King and with the Grand Fleet commander Admiral Beatty (who had initially written to Jellicoe of his "dismay" over his sacking and promised to speak to Geddes, but then did not write to him again for a month) over the holiday. The other Sea Lords talked of resigning (although Jellicoe advised them not to do so), especially when Geddes suggested in a meeting (31 December) that Balfour and Carson had specifically recommended Jellicoe's removal at the 26 October meeting; they had not done so, although Balfour's denial was less than emphatic. There was no trouble from the generals, who had a low opinion of Jellicoe. In the end the Sea Lords remained in place, whilst Carson remained a member of the War Cabinet, resigning in January over Irish Home Rule.
Although it was pretended that the decision had been Geddes' alone, he let slip in the Naval Estimates debate (6 March 1918) that he had been conveying "the decision of the Government", i.e. of Lloyd George, who had never put the matter to the War Cabinet. MPs picked up on his slip immediately, and Bonar Law (Conservative Leader) admitted in the same debate that he too had had prior knowledge.
As First Sea Lord Jellicoe was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Belgian Order of Leopold on 21 April 1917, the Russian Order of St. George, 3rd Class on 5 June 1917, the Grand Cross of the Italian Military Order of Savoy on 11 August 1917 and the Grand Cordon of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun on 29 August 1917.
Jellicoe was created Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa Flow on 7 March 1918.
In June 1918, amidst concerns that—following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk—the Germans were about to requisition the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Lloyd George proposed Jellicoe as Allied Supreme Naval Commander in the Mediterranean. The French were in favour of a combined Allied naval command, but the Italians were not, so nothing came of the suggestion.
Jellicoe was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 3 April 1919. He became Governor-General of New Zealand in September 1920 and while there also served as Grand Master of New Zealand's Masonic Grand Lodge. Following his return to England, he was created Earl Jellicoe and Viscount Brocas of Southampton in the County of Southampton on 1 July 1925. He was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire in 1932. He died of pneumonia at his home in Kensington in London on 20 November 1935 and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
In 1919, "Sleep, beneath the wave! a requiem" with words by Rev. Alfred Hall and Music by Albert Ham was "Dedicated to Admiral Viscount Jellicoe."
The attempt of his official biographer, Admiral Reginald Bacon, to portray him as the conqueror of the U-Boats is, in John Grigg's view, absurd, as the main decisions were taken by other men. Bacon also claimed that his elevation to a viscountcy on dismissal was a deliberate snub, but in fact Sir John French, the former Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, was only a viscount at the time (both he and Jellicoe became Earls subsequently), whilst Fisher was never more than a Baron. Bacon's neutrality may be questionable as he had himself been sacked by Geddes from command of the Dover Patrol, replaced by Roger Keyes, shortly after Jellicoe's removal.
Jellicoe married, at Holy Trinity church, Sloane Street on 1 July 1902, Florence Gwendoline Cayzer, daughter of the shipping magnate Sir Charles Cayzer. His brother Rev. Frederick Jellicoe (1858–1927) conducted the service. Lord and Lady Jellicoe had a son and five daughters. The son George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe had an illustrious military career during the Second World War, followed by prominent careers as parliamentarian and businessman.
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Sandy Woodward
Admiral Sir John Forster "Sandy" Woodward, (1 May 1932 – 4 August 2013) was a senior Royal Navy officer who commanded the Task Force of the Falklands War.
Woodward was born on 1 May 1932 at Penzance, Cornwall, to a bank clerk. He was educated at Stubbington House School, preparatory school in Stubbington, Hampshire. He then continued his education at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon.
On graduation from the Royal Naval College Dartmouth Woodward joined the Royal Navy in 1946. He became a submariner in 1954, and was promoted to lieutenant that May. In 1960 he passed the Royal Navy's rigorous Submarine Command Course known as "The Perisher", and received his first command, the T Class submarine HMS "Tireless". Promoted to lieutenant-commander in May 1962, he then commanded HMS "Grampus" before becoming the second in command of the nuclear fleet submarine HMS "Valiant". In 1967, he was promoted to commander and became the Instructor (known as "Teacher") of The Perisher Course. He took command of HMS "Warspite" in December 1969. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1972. In 1974, he became Captain of Submarine Training and in 1976 he took command of HMS "Sheffield".
He became Head of Naval Plans in the Ministry of Defence in 1978. In July 1981, he was promoted to rear admiral and appointed as Flag Officer First Flotilla.
In 1982, he commanded the "Hermes" aircraft carrier group, Task Group 317.8, in the Falklands War. (The Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse, served as the Task Force commander, CTF-317. The task group containing the amphibious ships which launched the actual invasion TG 317.0 was commanded by Commodore Michael Clapp, with Task Group 317.1 being the landing force itself.)
He worked out the timetable for the campaign, starting from the end and working to the start. Knowing that the Argentine forces had to be defeated before the (Southern Hemisphere) winter made conditions too bad, he set a latest date by which the land forces had to be ashore, that in turn set a latest date by which control of the air had to be achieved, and so on.
Possibly the best known single incident was the sinking of the ARA "General Belgrano". He knew that "General Belgrano" (and particularly her Exocet armed escorts) were a threat to the task force and he ordered that she be sunk. Admiral Sir George Zambellas credited "Woodward's inspirational leadership and tactical acumen ... [as] a major factor in shaping the success of the British forces in the South Atlantic".
Woodward was knighted for his services in the conflict. He wrote a book entitled "One Hundred Days", co-authored by Patrick Robinson, describing his Falklands experiences.
In 1983, Woodward was appointed Flag Officer Submarines and NATO Commander Submarines Eastern Atlantic. In 1984, he was promoted to vice admiral, and in 1985 he was Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments). Before retirement in 1989 he also served, from 1987, as Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command and Flag Aide-de-Camp to the Queen.
The first edition of Woodward's memoirs was published in 1992. They were well received and were updated in 2003 and 2012 with updated recollections as well as responses to the memoirs and responses made by Commodore Michael Clapp. In his later life Woodward wrote various opinion pieces for British newspapers regarding defence matters, particularly the Strategic Defence and Security Review.
He died of heart failure in his 82nd year on 4 August 2013 at Bosham, West Sussex. A memorial service was held for him at Chichester Cathedral on 14 November 2013, with Admiral Sir George Zambellas representing the Queen.
Woodward married Charlotte McMurtrie in 1960, the marriage producing a son and a daughter.
On 11 October 1982, Woodward was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) 'in recognition of service within the operations in the South Atlantic'. In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).
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James Blaylock
James Paul Blaylock (born September 20, 1950) is an American fantasy author. He is noted for a distinctive, humorous style, as well as being one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre of science fiction. Blaylock has cited Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens as his inspirations.
He was born in Long Beach, California; studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974; and lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman University. He taught at the Orange County School of the arts until 2013. Many of his books are set in Orange County, California, and can more specifically be termed "fabulism"that is, fantastic things happen in our present-day world, rather than in traditional fantasy, where the setting is often some other world. His works have also been categorized as magic realism.
He and his friends Tim Powers and K. W. Jeter were mentored by Philip K. Dick. Along with Powers, Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless. Blaylock and Powers have often collaborated with each other on writing stories, including "The Better Boy", "On Pirates", and "The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook".
Blaylock previously served as director of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts until 2013, where Powers has also been Writer in Residence.
He has been married to his wife, Viki Blaylock, for more than 40 years. They have two sons, John and Danny.
Blaylock's short story "Thirteen Phantasms" won the 1997 World Fantasy Award for best Short Fiction. "Paper Dragons" won the award in 1986. "Homunculus" won the Philip K. Dick award in 1987.
Whimsical fantasy inspired, according to the author, by "Wind in the Willows" and "The Hobbit".
Sharing the character of villain Ignacio Narbondo; "The Digging Leviathan" and its sequel "Zeuglodon" are contemporary fantasies set in 1960s California, while the remainder are steampunk novels set in Victorian England.
All short fiction (except for the novelette "Lord Kelvin's Machine") and two novels have appeared in two collections by Subterranean Press:
Present-day fantasy using Christian elements, such as the Holy Grail and the silver coins paid to Judas.
Present-day Californian ghost stories.
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Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American polymath: scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked in the aerospace industry, but eventually focused on his writing career. In an obituary in gizmodo, he is described as "a tireless ambassador for the future."
Pournelle is particularly known for writing hard science fiction, and received multiple awards for his writing. In addition to his solo writing, he wrote several novels with collaborators, most notably Larry Niven. Pournelle served a term as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Pournelle's journalism focused primarily on the computer industry, astronomy, and space exploration. From the 1970s until the early 1990s, he contributed to the computer magazine "Byte", writing from the viewpoint of an intelligent user, with the oft-cited credo, “We do this stuff so you won’t have to.” He created one of the first blogs, entitled "Chaos Manor", which included commentary about politics, computer technology, space technology, and science fiction.
Pournelle was also known for his paleoconservative political views, which were sometimes expressed in his fiction. He was one of the founders of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy, which developed some of the Reagan Administration's space initiatives, including the earliest versions of what would become the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Pournelle was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the seat of Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana, and later lived with his family in Capleville, Tennessee, an unincorporated area near Memphis. Percival Pournelle, his father, was a radio advertising executive and general manager of several radio stations. Ruth Pournelle, his mother, was a teacher, although during World War II, she worked in a munitions factory.
He attended first grade at St. Anne’s Elementary School, in Memphis, which had two grades to a classroom. Beginning with third grade, he attended Coleville Consolidated Elementary School, in Colevile, which had about 25 pupils per grade and four rooms and four teachers for 8 grades Pournelle attended high school at Christian Brothers College in Memphis, run by the De La Salle Christian Brothers; despite its name, it was a high school at the time.
He served in the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1953–54, after his military service, Pournelle attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Subsequently, he studied at the University of Washington, where he received a B.S. in psychology on June 11, 1955; an M.S. in psychology (experimental statistics) on March 21, 1958; and a Ph.D. in political science in March 1964.
His master's thesis is titled "Behavioural observations of the effects of personality needs and leadership in small discussion groups", and is dated 1957. Pournelle's Ph.D. dissertation is titled "The American political continuum; an examination of the validity of the left-right model as an instrument for studying contemporary American political 'isms'".
Pournelle married Roberta Jane Isdell in 1969; the couple had five children. His wife, and son, naval officer Phillip, and daughter, archaeologist Jennifer, have also written science fiction in collaboration with their father.
In 2008, Pournelle battled a brain tumor, which appeared to respond favorably to radiation treatment. An August 28, 2008 report on his weblog claimed he was now cancer-free. Pournelle suffered a stroke on December 16, 2014, for which he was hospitalized for a time. By June 2015, he was writing again, though impairment from the stroke had slowed his typing. Pournelle died in his sleep of heart failure at his home in Studio City, California, on September 8, 2017.
Pournelle was raised a Unitarian. He converted to Roman Catholicism while attending Christian Brothers College.
Pournelle was introduced to Malthusian principles upon reading the book "Road to Survival" by the ecologist (and ornithologist) William Vogt, who depicted an Earth denuded of species other than humans, all of them headed for squalor. Concerned about the Malthusian dangers of human overpopulation, and considering the Catholic Church's position on contraception to be untenable, he left the Catholic Church while an undergraduate at the University of Iowa. Pournelle eventually returned to religion, and for a number of years was a high church Anglican, in part because Anglican theology was virtually identical to Catholic theology, with the exception that the Anglicans accepted as moral the use of birth control.
Pournelle eventually returned to the Catholic Church, as his other beliefs were consistent with the Catholic communion, although he did not agree with the Church's position on birth control. Notably, despite his estrangement from the Catholic Church, he opposed having the government require that Catholic institutions provide access to birth control or abortion. In his online blog, "the View from Chaos Manor", he exhibited familiarity with and admiration for Catholic theology, occasionally quoting Catholic liturgical phrases, often in Latin—notably, his oft-repeated comment on current events, "Despair is a sin." He also described Sunday attendance at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, as part of his family's routine. Upon his death, his family arranged a memorial mass at the church, on 16 September 2017.
Pournelle was an intellectual protégé of Russell Kirk and Stefan T. Possony. Pournelle wrote numerous publications with Possony, including "The Strategy of Technology" (1970). "The Strategy" has been used as a textbook at the United States Military Academy (West Point), the United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), the Air War College, and the National War College.
In the late 1950s, while conducting operations research at Boeing, he envisioned a weapon consisting of massive tungsten rods dropped from high above the Earth. These super-dense, super-fast kinetic energy projectiles delivered enormous destructive force to the target without contaminating the environs with radioactive isotopes, as would occur with a nuclear bomb. Pournelle named his superweapon “Project Thor”. Others called it "Rods from God". Pournelle headed the Human Factors Laboratory at the Boeing Company, where his group did pioneering work on astronaut heat tolerance in extreme environments. His group also did experimental work that resulted in certification of the passenger oxygen system for the Boeing 707 airplane. He later worked as a Systems Analyst in a design and analysis group at Boeing, where he did strategic analysis of proposed new weapons systems.
In 1964, Pournelle joined the Aerospace Corporation in San Bernardino, California where he was Editor of "Project 75", a major study of all ballistic missile technology for the purpose of making recommendation to the US Air Force on investment in technologies required to build the missile force to be deployed in 1975. After Project 75 was completed Pournelle became manager of several advanced concept studies.
At North American Rockwell’s Space Division, Pournelle was associate director of operations research, where he took part in the Apollo program and general operations.
He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. In 1989, Pournelle, Max Hunter, and retired Army Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham made a presentation to then Vice President Dan Quayle promoting development of the DC-X rocket.
Pournelle was among those who in 1968 signed a pro-Vietnam War advertisement in "Galaxy Science Fiction". During the 1970s and 1980s, he also published articles on military tactics and war gaming in the military simulations industry in Avalon Hill's magazine "The General". He had previously won first prize in a late 1960s essay contest run by the magazine on how to end the Vietnam war. That led him into correspondences with some of the early figures in "Dungeons and Dragons" and other fantasy role-playing games.
Two of his collaborations with Larry Niven reached the top rankings in the New York Times Best Seller List. In 1977, "Lucifer's Hammer" reached number two. "Footfall" — wherein Robert A. Heinlein was a thinly veiled minor character — reached the number one spot in 1985.
Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.
In 1994, Pournelle's friendly relationship with Newt Gingrich led to Gingrich securing a government job for Pournelle's son, Richard. At the time, Pournelle and Gingrich were reported to be collaborating on "a science fiction political thriller." Pournelle's relationship with Gingrich was long established even then, as Pournelle had written the preface to Gingrich's book, "Window of Opportunity" (1985).
Years after "Byte" shuttered, Pournelle wrote his Chaos Manor column online. He reprised it at Byte.com, which he helped launch with journalist Gina Smith, John C. Dvorak, and others. However, after a shakeup, he announced that rather than stay at UBM, he would follow Smith, Dvorak, and 14 other news journalists to start an independent tech and politics site. As an active director of that site and others it launched, Pournelle wrote, edited, and worked with young writers and journalists on the craft of writing about science and tech.
Beginning during his tenure at Boeing Company, Pournelle submitted science fiction short stories to John W. Campbell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact), but Campbell did not accept any of Pournelle's submissions until shortly before Campbell's death in 1971, when he accepted for publication Pournelle's novelette "Peace with Honor."
From the beginning, Pournelle's work has engaged strong military themes. Several books are centered on a fictional mercenary infantry force known as "Falkenberg's Legion". There are strong parallels between these stories and the "Childe Cycle" mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.
Pournelle was one of the few close friends of H. Beam Piper and was granted by Piper the rights to produce stories set in Piper's Terro-Human Future History. This right has been recognized by the Piper estate. Pournelle worked for some years on a sequel to "Space Viking" but abandoned this in the early 1990s, however John F. Carr and Mike Robertson completed this sequel, entitled The Last Space Viking, and it was published in 2011.
In 2013, "Variety" reported that motion picture rights to Pournelle's novel "Janissaries" had been acquired by the newly formed Goddard Film Group, headed by Gary Goddard. The IMDb website reported that the film was in development, and that husband-and-wife writing team, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, had written the screenplay.
Pournelle began fiction writing non-SF work under a pseudonym in 1965. His early SF was published as "Wade Curtis", in "Analog" and other magazines. Some of his work is also published as "J.E. Pournelle".
In the mid-1970s, Pournelle began a fruitful collaboration with Larry Niven; he has also collaborated on novels with Roland J. Green, Michael F. Flynn, and Steven Barnes, and collaborated as an editor on an anthology series with John F. Carr.
In 2010, his daughter Jennifer R. Pournelle (writing as J.R. Pournelle), an archaeology professor, e-published a novel "Outies", an authorized sequel to the "Mote in God's Eye" series.
Pournelle wrote The User's Column (later "Computing at Chaos Manor" column) in "Byte". In it Pournelle described his experiences with computer hardware and software, some purchased and some sent by vendors for review, at his home office. Because Pournelle was then, according to the magazine, "virtually "Bytes" only writer who was a mere user—he didn't create compilers and computers, he merely used them", it began as "The User's Column" in July 1980. Subtitled "Omikron TRS-80 Boards, NEWDOS+, and Sundry Other Matters", an Editor's Note accompanied the article:
Pournelle stated that
He introduced to readers "my friend Ezekiel, who happens to be a Cromemco Z-2 with iCom 8-inch soft-sectored floppy disk drives"; he also owned a TRS-80 Model I, and the first subject discussed in the column was an add-on that permitted it to use the same data and CP/M applications as the Cromemco. The next column appeared in December 1980 with the subtitle "BASIC, Computer Languages, and Computer Adventures"; Ezekiel II, a Compupro S-100 CP/M system, debuted in March 1983. Other computers received nicknames, such as Zorro, Pournelle's "colorful" Zenith Z-100, and Lucy Van Pelt, a "fussbudget" IBM PC; he referred to generic PC compatibles as "PClones". Pournelle often denounced companies that announced vaporware, sarcastically writing that they would arrive "Real Soon Now", later abbreviated to just "RSN". As part of a redesign in June 1984, the magazine renamed the popular column to "Computing at Chaos Manor", and the accompanying letter column became "Chaos Manor Mail". A memorable column written for Byte in August 1989 was User column 94, entitled, "The Great Power Spike", which gives a digital necropsy of his electronic equipment after high voltage transmission wires dropped onto the power line for his neighborhood.
After the print version of "Byte" ended publication in the United States, Pournelle continued publishing the column for the online version and international print editions of "Byte". In July 2006, Pournelle and "Byte" declined to renew their contract and Pournelle moved the column to his own web site, Chaos Manor Reviews.
Pournelle is recognized as the first author to have written a published book contribution using a word processor on a personal computer, in 1977.
In the 1980s, Pournelle was an editor and columnist for "Survive", a survivalist magazine.
In 2011, Pournelle joined journalist Gina Smith, pundit John C. Dvorak, political cartoonist Ted Rall, and several other Byte.com staff reporters to launch independent tech and political news site, aNewDomain. Pournelle served as director of aNewDomain until his death.
After 1998, Pournelle maintained a website with a daily online journal, "View from Chaos Manor", a blog dating from before the use of that term. It is a collection of his "Views" and "Mail" from a large variety of readers. This is a continuation of his 1980s blog-like online journal on GEnie. He said he resists using the term "blog" because he considered the word ugly, and because he maintained that his "View" is primarily a vehicle for writing rather than a collection of links. In his book "Dave Barry in Cyberspace", humorist Dave Barry has fun with Pournelle's guru column in "Byte" magazine.
Pournelle, in collaboration with his wife, Roberta (who was an expert on reading education) wrote the commercial education software program called Reading: The Learning Connection.
Pournelle served as campaign research director for the mayoral campaign of 1969 for Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty (Democrat), working under campaign director Henry Salvatori. The election took place on May 27, 1969. Pournelle was later named Executive Assistant to the Mayor in charge of research in September 1969, but resigned from the position after two weeks. After leaving Yorty's office, in 1970 he was a consultant to the Professional Educators of Los Angeles (PELA), a group opposed to the unionization of school teachers in LA.
He is sometimes quoted as describing his politics as "somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan." Pournelle resisted others classifying him into any particular political group, but acknowledged the approximate accuracy of the term paleoconservatism as applying to him. He distinguished his conservativism from the alternative neoconservatism, noting that he had been drummed out of the Conservative movement by "the egregious Frum", referring to prominent neoconservative, David Frum. Notably, Pournell opposed the Gulf War and the Iraq War, maintaining that the money would be better spent developing energy technologies for the United States. According to a "Wall Street Journal" article, "Pournelle estimates that for what the Iraq war has cost so far, the United States could have paid for a network of nuclear power stations sufficient to achieve energy independence, and bankrupt the Arabs for once and for all."
Pournelle is well known for his Pournelle chart, a 2-dimensional coordinate system used to distinguish political ideologies that he initially delineated in his doctoral dissertation. It is a cartesian diagram in which the X-axis gauges opinion toward state and centralized government (farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil"), and the Y-axis measures the belief that all problems in society have rational solutions (top being complete confidence in rational planning, bottom being complete lack of confidence in rational planning).
In a 1997 article, Norman Spinrad wrote that Pournelle had written the SDI portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address, as part of a plan to use SDI to get more money for space exploration using the larger defense budget. Pournelle wrote in response that while the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy "wrote parts of Reagan's 1983 SDI speech, and provided much of the background for the policy, we certainly did not write the speech ... We were not trying to boost space, we were trying to win the Cold War". The Council's first report in 1980 became the transition team policy paper on space for the incoming Reagan administration. The third report was certainly quoted in the Reagan "Star Wars" speech.
As noted by James Wheatfield, "Pournelle delights in setting up complex background situations and plots, leading the reader step by step towards a solution which is the very opposite of "politically correct" and ... defying a dissenting reader to find where in this logical chain he or she would have acted differently."
Pournelle suggested several "laws".
His first use of the term "Pournelle's law" appears to be for the expression "One user, one CPU." He later amended this to "One user, at least one CPU."
His second use of the term "Pournelle's law" is "Silicon is cheaper than iron." That is, a computer is cheaper to upgrade than replace. A second aspect of this law was Pournelle's prediction the hard disk drive would eventually be replaced by solid-state memory.
He has also used "Pournelle's law" to apply to the importance of checking cable connections when diagnosing computer problems: "You’ll find by and large, the trouble is a cable."
His best-known "law" is "Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy":
He eventually restated it as:
This can be compared to the iron law of oligarchy. His blog, "The View from Chaos Manor", often references apparent examples of the law. Some of Pournelle's standard themes that recur in the stories are: welfare states become self-perpetuating, building a technological society requires a strong defense and the rule of law, and those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.
Pournelle never won a Hugo Award. He famously said, "Money will get you through times of no Hugos better than Hugos will get you through times of no money."
The SSX concept (The SSX concept became the DCX, the first successful reusable vertical landing rocket craft.)
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Barlaam and Josaphat
Barlaam and Josaphat are legendary Christian martyrs and saints. Their life story is likely to have been based on the life of the Gautama Buddha. It tells how an Indian king persecuted the Christian Church in his realm. When astrologers predicted that his own son would some day become a Christian, the king imprisoned the young prince Josaphat, who nevertheless met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity. After much tribulation the young prince's father accepted the Christian faith, turned over his throne to Josaphat, and retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated and went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam. The tale derives from a second to fourth century Sanskrit Mahayana Buddhist text, via a Manichaean version, then the Arabic "Kitāb Bilawhar wa-Būd̠āsaf" (Book of Bilawhar and Budhasaf), current in Baghdad in the eighth century, from where it entered into Middle Eastern Christian circles before appearing in European versions. The two were entered in the Eastern Orthodox calendar with a feast-day on 26 August, and in the Roman Martyrology in the Western Church as "Barlaam and Josaphat" on the date of 27 November.
The story of Barlaam and Josaphat or Joasaph is a Christianized and later version of the story of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. In the Middle Ages the two were treated as Christian saints, being entered in the Greek Orthodox calendar on 26 August, and in the Roman Martyrology in the Western Church as "Barlaam and Josaphat" on the date of 27 November. In the Slavic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, these two are commemorated on 19 November (corresponding to 2 December on the Gregorian calendar).
The first Christianized adaptation was the Georgian epic "Balavariani" dating back to the 10th century. A Georgian monk, Euthymius of Athos, translated the story into Greek, some time before he died in an accident while visiting Constantinople in 1028. There the Greek adaptation was translated into Latin in 1048 and soon became well known in Western Europe as "Barlaam and Josaphat". The Greek legend of "Barlaam and Ioasaph" is sometimes attributed to the 7th century John of Damascus, but Conybeare argued it was transcribed by the Georgian monk Euthymius in the 11th century.
The story of Barlaam and Josaphat was popular in the Middle Ages, appearing in such works as the "Golden Legend", and a scene there involving three caskets eventually appeared, via Caxton's English translation of a Latin version, in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice".
Two Middle High German versions were produced: one, the "Laubacher "Barlaam"", by Bishop Otto II of Freising and another, "Barlaam und Josaphat", a romance in verse, by Rudolf von Ems. The latter was described as "perhaps the flower of religious literary creativity in the German Middle Ages" by Heinrich Heine.
The story of Josaphat was re-told as an exploration of free will and the seeking of inner peace through meditation in the 17th century.
According to the legend, King Abenner or Avenier in India persecuted the Christian Church in his realm, founded by the Apostle Thomas. When astrologers predicted that his own son would some day become a Christian, Abenner had the young prince Josaphat isolated from external contact. Despite the imprisonment, Josaphat met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity. Josaphat kept his faith even in the face of his father's anger and persuasion. Eventually Abenner converted, turned over his throne to Josaphat, and retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated and went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam.
Ioasaph (Georgian "Iodasaph", Arabic "Yūdhasaf" or "Būdhasaf") is derived from the Sanskrit "Bodhisattva". The Sanskrit word was changed to "Bodisav" in Persian texts in the 6th or 7th century, then to "Budhasaf" or "Yudasaf" in an 8th-century Arabic document (possibly Arabic initial "b" ﺑ changed to "y" ﻳ by duplication of a dot in handwriting). This became "Iodasaph" in Georgia in the 10th century, and that name was adapted as "Ioasaph" in Greece in the 11th century, and then was assimilated to "Iosaphat/Josaphat" in Latin.
Although Barlaam and Josaphat were never formally canonized, they were included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August in Greek tradition etc. / 19 November in Russian tradition).
There are a large number of different books in various languages, all dealing with the lives of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat in India. In this hagiographic tradition, the life and teachings of Josaphat have many parallels with those of the Buddha. "But not till the mid-nineteenth century was it recognised that, in Josaphat, the Buddha had been venerated as a Christian saint for about a thousand years." The authorship of the work is disputed. The origins of the story seem to be a Central Asian manuscript written in the Manichaean tradition. This book was translated into Georgian and Arabic.
The best-known version in Europe comes from a separate, but not wholly independent, source, written in Greek, and, although anonymous, attributed to a monk named John. It was only considerably later that the tradition arose that this was John of Damascus, but most scholars no longer accept this attribution. Instead much evidence points to Euthymius of Athos, a Georgian who died in 1028.
The modern edition of the Greek text, from the 160 surviving variant manuscripts (2006), with introduction (German, 2009) is published as Volume 6 of the works of John the Damascene by the monks of the Abbey of Scheyern, edited by Robert Volk. It was included in the edition due to the traditional ascription, but marked "spuria" as the translator is the Georgian monk Euthymius the Hagiorite (ca. 955–1028) at Mount Athos and not John the Damascene of the monastery of Saint Sabas in the Judaean Desert. The 2009 introduction includes an overview
Among the manuscripts in English, two of the most important are the British Museum "MS Egerton 876" (the basis for Ikegami's book) and "MS Peterhouse 257" (the basis for Hirsh's book) at the University of Cambridge.
The book contains a tale similar to The Three Caskets found in the "Gesta Romanorum" and later in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice".
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Jaggies
"Jaggies" is the informal name for artifacts in raster images, most frequently from aliasing, which in turn is often caused by non-linear mixing effects producing high-frequency components, or missing or poor anti-aliasing filtering prior to sampling.
Jaggies are stair-like lines that appear where there should be "smooth" straight lines or curves. For example, when a nominally straight, un-aliased line steps across one pixel either horizontally or vertically, a "dogleg" occurs halfway through the line, where it crosses the threshold from one pixel to the other.
Jaggies should not be confused with most compression artifacts, which are a different phenomenon.
Jaggies occur due to the "staircase effect". This is because a line represented in raster mode is approximated by a sequence of pixels. Jaggies can occur for a variety of reasons, the most common being that the output device (display monitor or printer) does not have enough resolution to portray a smooth line. In addition, jaggies often occur when a bit-mapped image is converted to a different resolution. This is one of the advantages that vector graphics have over bitmapped graphics – the output looks the same regardless of the resolution of the output device.
The effect of jaggies can be reduced somewhat by a graphics technique known as spatial anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing smooths out jagged lines by surrounding the jaggies with transparent pixels to simulate the appearance of fractionally-filled pixels. The downside of anti-aliasing is that it reduces contrast – rather than sharp black/white transitions, there are shades of gray – and the resulting image is fuzzy. This is an inescapable trade-off: if the resolution is insufficient to display the desired detail, the output will either be jagged or fuzzy, or some combination thereof.
In addition, jaggies often occur when a bit mapped image is converted to a different resolution. They can occur for variety of reasons, the most common being that the output device (display monitor or printer) does not have enough resolution to portray a smooth line.
In realtime computer graphics, especially gaming, anti-aliasing is used to remove jaggies created by the edges of polygons and other lines entirely. Some video game consoles, such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, have publishing policies which mandated the use of anti-aliasing in some games released for them. Some computer graphics on newer video games are not anti-aliased on video game consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), because their hardware can not run graphics smoothly (30 frames per second) if they are anti-aliased. On eighth generation video game consoles, such as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, anti-aliasing and frame rate has been heavily improved. Jaggies in bitmaps, such as sprites and surface materials, are most often dealt with by separate texture filtering routines, which are far easier to perform than anti-aliasing filtering. Texture filtering became ubiquitous on PCs after the introduction of 3Dfx's Voodoo GPU.
In the Atari 8-bit game "Rescue on Fractalus!", developed by Lucasfilm Games and published in 1985, the graphics depicting the cockpit of the player's spacecraft contains two window struts, which are not anti-aliased and are therefore very "jagged". The developers made fun of this and named the in-game enemies "Jaggi", and also initially titled the game "Behind Jaggi Lines!". The latter idea was scrapped by the marketing department before release.
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Jury instructions
Jury instructions, directions to the jury, or judge's charge are legal rules that jurors should follow when deciding a case. They are a type of jury control procedure to support a fair trial.
Jury instructions are the set of legal rules governing how jurors should behave when deciding a case, often addressing with whom jurors may discuss the case and how jurors will decide who is guilty. They are a type of jury control procedure, intended to mitigate potential actions of jurors that may prevent a fair trial; the judge provides these instructions to ensure their interests are represented and nothing prejudicial is said.
Under the American judicial system, juries are often the trier of fact when they serve in a trial. In other words, it is their job to sort through disputed accounts presented in evidence. The judge decides questions of law, meaning he or she decides how the law applies to a given set of facts. Jury instructions are given to the jury by the judge, who usually reads them aloud to the jury. The judge issues a judge's charge to inform the jury how to act in deciding a case. The jury instructions provide something of a flow chart on what verdict jurors should deliver based on what they determine to be true. Put another way, "If you believe A (set of facts), you must find X (verdict). If you believe B (set of facts), you must find Y (verdict)." Jury instructions can also serve an important role in guiding the jury how to consider certain evidence.
Forty-eight states (Texas and West Virginia are the exceptions) have a model set of instructions, usually called "pattern jury instructions", which provide the framework for the charge to the jury; sometimes, only names and circumstances have to be filled in for a particular case. Often they are much more complex, although certain elements frequently recur. For instance, if a criminal defendant chooses not to testify, the jury will often be instructed not to draw any negative conclusions from that decision. Many jurisdictions are now instructing jurors not to communicate about the case through social networking services like Facebook and Twitter.
A significant issue with standard jury instructions is the language comprehension difficulties for the average juror. The purpose of jury instructions is to inform jurors of relevant laws and their application in the process of coming to a verdict. However, studies have shown that juries consistently run into problems understanding the instructions given to them. Poor comprehension is noted across juror demographics, as well as across legal contexts. Various linguistic features of legalese or legal English, such as complex sentence structures and technical jargon, have been pinpointed as major factors contributing to low comprehension.
Simplifying jury instructions through the use of plain English has been shown to markedly increase juror comprehension. In one study of California’s jury instructions in cases involving the death penalty, approximately 200 university students participated in a research experiment. Half of the participants heard the original standard instructions written in legal English, and half heard revised instructions in plain English. Instructions were read twice to each group, and the participants then answered questions for researchers to gauge their understanding. The results showed a notable disparity in comprehension between the two groups. The group that received revised instructions demonstrated stronger understanding of relevant points such as key concepts, and the ability to differentiate between legal terms.
In another California study, jury instructions were again simplified to make them easier for jurors to understand. The courts moved cautiously because, although verdicts are rarely overturned due to jury instructions in civil court, this is not the case in criminal court. For example, the old instructions on burden of proof in civil cases read:
The new instructions read:
Resistance to the movement towards the revision of standard jury instructions exists as well. This is due to the concern that moving away from legal English will result in jury instructions becoming imprecise. There is also the belief that jurors prefer judges to speak in legal language so that they come across as educated and respectable.
There is also debate over whether juries should be informed of jury nullification during jury instructions. One argument states that if juries have the power of jury nullification, then they should be informed of it and that neglecting to do so is an act of intervention. Another argument states that defendants should be judged according to the law, and that jury nullification interferes with this process. It is also debated that instructions permitting jury nullification is to be criticized as promoting chaos, as it brings the decision between having a structured set of rules and having less of said rules for a more free set of choices that could also promote the likes of anarchy and tyranny.
Studies have indicated that being informed of jury nullification is likely to affect the judgement of juries when they decide on verdicts. One study that looked into 144 juries showed that they were less harsh on sympathetic defendants and harsher on unsympathetic defendants when they had been briefed on jury nullification. Another study that looked into 45 juries showed that they were likelier to reach a guilty verdict in drunk driving cases and less likely in euthanasia cases, with no reported difference in likelihood in murder cases, with the inclusion of explicit jury nullification details in jury instructions.
The judge presents directions to the jury court, after overlapping instructions have been provided by a DVD and a jury manager.
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Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence or legal theory is the theoretical study of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and provide a deeper understanding of legal reasoning, legal systems, legal institutions, and the role of law in society.
Modern jurisprudence began in the 18th century and was focused on the first principles of natural law, civil law, and the law of nations. General jurisprudence can be divided into categories both by the type of question scholars seek to answer and by the theories of jurisprudence, or schools of thought, regarding how those questions are best answered. Contemporary philosophy of law, which deals with general jurisprudence, addresses problems internal to law and legal systems and problems of law as a social institution that relates to the larger political and social context in which it exists.
This article addresses three distinct branches of thought in general jurisprudence. Ancient natural law is the idea that there are rational objective limits to the power of legislative rulers. The foundations of law are accessible through reason, and it is from these laws of nature that human laws gain whatever force they have. Analytic jurisprudence (Clarificatory jurisprudence) rejects natural law's fusing of what law is and what it ought to be. It espouses the use of a neutral point of view and descriptive language when referring to aspects of legal systems. It encompasses such theories of jurisprudence as "legal positivism", which holds that there is no necessary connection between law and morality and that the force of law comes from basic social facts; and "legal realism", which argues that the real-world practice of law determines what law is, the law having the force that it does because of what legislators, lawyers, and judges do with it. Normative jurisprudence is concerned with "evaluative" theories of law. It deals with what the goal or purpose of law is, or what moral or political theories provide a foundation for the law. It not only addresses the question "What is law?", but also tries to determine what the proper function of law should be, or what sorts of acts should be subject to legal sanctions, and what sorts of punishment should be permitted.
The English word is derived from the Latin, "iurisprudentia". "Juris" is the genitive form of "jus" meaning law, and "prudentia" meaning prudence (also: discretion, foresight, forethought, circumspection). It refers to the exercise of good judgment, common sense, and caution, especially in the conduct of practical matters. The word first appeared in written English in 1628, at a time when the word "prudence" meant knowledge of, or skill in, a matter. It may have entered English via the French "jurisprudence", which appeared earlier.
Ancient Indian jurisprudence is mentioned in various Dharmaśāstra texts, starting with the Dharmasutra of Bhodhayana.
In Ancient China, the Daoists, Confucians, and Legalists all had competing theories of jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence in Ancient Rome had its origins with the ("periti")—experts in the "jus" "mos maiorum" (traditional law), a body of oral laws and customs.
Praetors established a working body of laws by judging whether or not singular cases were capable of being prosecuted either by the edicta, the annual pronunciation of prosecutable offense, or in extraordinary situations, additions made to the edicta. An iudex would then prescribe a remedy according to the facts of the case.
The sentences of the iudex were supposed to be simple interpretations of the traditional customs, but—apart from considering what traditional customs applied in each case—soon developed a more equitable interpretation, coherently adapting the law to newer social exigencies. The law was then adjusted with evolving "institutiones" (legal concepts), while remaining in the traditional mode. Praetors were replaced in the 3rd century BC by a laical body of "prudentes". Admission to this body was conditional upon proof of competence or experience.
Under the Roman Empire, schools of law were created, and practice of the law became more academic. From the early Roman Empire to the 3rd century, a relevant body of literature was produced by groups of scholars, including the Proculians and Sabinians. The scientific nature of the studies was unprecedented in ancient times.
After the 3rd century, "juris prudentia" became a more bureaucratic activity, with few notable authors. It was during the Eastern Roman Empire (5th century) that legal studies were once again undertaken in depth, and it is from this cultural movement that Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis was born.
In its general sense, natural law theory may be compared to both state-of-nature law and general law understood on the basis of being analogous to the laws of physical science. Natural law is often contrasted to positive law which asserts law as the product of human activity and human volition.
Another approach to natural-law jurisprudence generally asserts that human law must be in response to compelling reasons for action. There are two readings of the natural-law jurisprudential stance.
Notions of an objective moral order, external to human legal systems, underlie natural law. What is right or wrong can vary according to the interests one is focused on. John Finnis, one of the most important of modern natural lawyers, has argued that the maxim "an unjust law is no law at all" is a poor guide to the classical Thomist position.
Strongly related to theories of natural law are classical theories of justice, beginning in the West with Plato's Republic.
Aristotle is often said to be the father of natural law. Like his philosophical forefathers Socrates and Plato, Aristotle posited the existence of natural justice or natural right ("dikaion physikon", "δικαίον φυσικόν", Latin "ius naturale"). His association with natural law is largely due to how he was interpreted by Thomas Aquinas. This was based on Aquinas' conflation of natural law and natural right, the latter of which Aristotle posits in Book V of the "Nicomachean Ethics" (Book IV of the "Eudemian Ethics"). Aquinas's influence was such as to affect a number of early translations of these passages, though more recent translations render them more literally.
Aristotle's theory of justice is bound up in his idea of the golden mean. Indeed, his treatment of what he calls "political justice" derives from his discussion of "the just" as a moral virtue derived as the mean between opposing vices, just like every other virtue he describes. His longest discussion of his theory of justice occurs in "Nicomachean Ethics" and begins by asking what sort of mean a just act is. He argues that the term "justice" actually refers to two different but related ideas: general justice and particular justice. When a person's actions toward others are completely virtuous in all matters, Aristotle calls them "just" in the sense of "general justice"; as such, this idea of justice is more or less coextensive with virtue. "Particular" or "partial justice", by contrast, is the part of "general justice" or the individual virtue that is concerned with treating others equitably.
Aristotle moves from this unqualified discussion of justice to a qualified view of political justice, by which he means something close to the subject of modern jurisprudence. Of political justice, Aristotle argues that it is partly derived from nature and partly a matter of convention. This can be taken as a statement that is similar to the views of modern natural law theorists. But it must also be remembered that Aristotle is describing a view of morality, not a system of law, and therefore his remarks as to nature are about the grounding of the morality enacted as law, not the laws themselves.
The best evidence of Aristotle's having thought there was a natural law comes from the "Rhetoric", where Aristotle notes that, aside from the "particular" laws that each people has set up for itself, there is a "common" law that is according to nature. The context of this remark, however, suggests only that Aristotle thought that it could be rhetorically advantageous to appeal to such a law, especially when the "particular" law of one's own city was adverse to the case being made, not that there actually was such a law. Aristotle, moreover, considered certain candidates for a universally valid, natural law to be wrong. Aristotle's theoretical paternity of the natural law tradition is consequently disputed.
Thomas Aquinas is the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy, for a long time the primary philosophical approach of the Roman Catholic Church. The work for which he is best known is the "Summa Theologica". One of the thirty-five Doctors of the Church, he is considered by many Catholics to be the Church's greatest theologian. Consequently, many institutions of learning have been named after him.
Aquinas distinguished four kinds of law: eternal, natural, divine, and human:
Natural law is based on "first principles":
"... this is the first precept of the law, that good is to be done and promoted, and evil is to be avoided. All other precepts of the natural law are based on this ..."
The desires to live and to procreate are counted by Aquinas among those basic (natural) human values on which all other human values are based.
Francisco de Vitoria was perhaps the first to develop a theory of "ius gentium" (the rights of peoples), and thus is an important figure in the transition to modernity. He extrapolated his ideas of legitimate sovereign power to international affairs, concluding that such affairs ought to be determined by forms respecting of the rights of all and that the common good of the world should take precedence before the good of any single state. This meant that relations between states ought to pass from being justified by force to being justified by law and justice. Some scholars have upset the standard account of the origins of International law, which emphasises the seminal text "De iure belli ac pacis" by Grotius, and argued for Vitoria and, later, Suárez's importance as forerunners and, potentially, founders of the field. Others, such as Koskenniemi, have argued that none of these humanist and scholastic thinkers can be understood to have founded international law in the modern sense, instead placing its origins in the post-1870 period.
Francisco Suárez, regarded as among the greatest scholastics after Aquinas, subdivided the concept of "ius gentium". Working with already well-formed categories, he carefully distinguished "ius inter gentes" from "ius intra gentes". "Ius inter gentes" (which corresponds to modern international law) was something common to the majority of countries, although, being positive law, not natural law, it was not necessarily universal. On the other hand, "ius intra gentes", or civil law, is specific to each nation.
Writing after World War II, Lon L. Fuller defended a secular and procedural form of natural law. He emphasised that the (natural) law must meet certain formal requirements (such as being impartial and publicly knowable). To the extent that an institutional system of social control falls short of these requirements, Fuller argued, we are less inclined to recognise it as a system of law, or to give it our respect. Thus, the law must have a morality that goes beyond the societal rules under which laws are made.
Sophisticated positivist and natural law theories sometimes resemble each other and may have certain points in common. Identifying a particular theorist as a positivist or a natural law theorist sometimes involves matters of emphasis and degree, and the particular influences on the theorist's work. The natural law theorists of the distant past, such as Aquinas and John Locke made no distinction between analytic and normative jurisprudence, while modern natural law theorists, such as John Finnis, who claim to be positivists, still argue that law is moral by nature. In his book "Natural Law and Natural Rights" (1980, 2011), John Finnis provides a restatement of natural law doctrine.
Analytic, or "clarificatory", jurisprudence means taking a neutral point of view and using descriptive language when referring to various aspects of legal systems. This was a philosophical development that rejected natural law's fusing of what law is and what it ought to be. David Hume argued, in "A Treatise of Human Nature", that people invariably slip from describing what the world "is" to asserting that we therefore "ought" to follow a particular course of action. But as a matter of pure logic, one cannot conclude that we "ought" to do something merely because something "is" the case. So analysing and clarifying the way the world "is" must be treated as a strictly separate question from normative and evaluative questions of what "ought" to be done.
The most important questions of analytic jurisprudence are: "What are laws?"; "What is "the" law?"; "What is the relationship between law and power/sociology?"; and "What is the relationship between law and morality?" Legal positivism is the dominant theory, although there is a growing number of critics who offer their own interpretations.
Historical jurisprudence came to prominence during the debate on the proposed codification of German law. In his book "On the Vocation of Our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence", Friedrich Carl von Savigny argued that Germany did not have a legal language that would support codification because the traditions, customs, and beliefs of the German people did not include a belief in a code. Historicists believe that law originates with society.
An effort to systematically to inform jurisprudence from sociological insights developed from the beginning of the twentieth century, as sociology began to establish itself as a distinct social science, especially in the United States and in continental Europe. In Germany, Austria and France, the work of the "free law" theorists (e.g. Ernst Fuchs, Hermann Kantorowicz, Eugen Ehrlich and Francois Geny) encouraged the use of sociological insights in the development of legal and juristic theory. The most internationally influential advocacy for a "sociological jurisprudence" occurred in the United States, where, throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Roscoe Pound, for many years the Dean of Harvard Law School, used this term to characterise his legal philosophy. In the United States, many later writers followed Pound's lead or developed distinctive approaches to sociological jurisprudence. In Australia, Julius Stone strongly defended and developed Pound's ideas. In the 1930s, a significant split between the sociological jurists and the American legal realists emerged. In the second half of the twentieth century, sociological jurisprudence as a distinct movement declined as jurisprudence came more strongly under the influence of analytical legal philosophy; but with increasing criticism of dominant orientations of legal philosophy in English-speaking countries in the present century, it has attracted renewed interest. Increasingly, its contemporary focus is on providing theoretical resources for jurists to aid their understanding of new types of regulation (for example, the diverse kinds of developing transnational law) and the increasingly important interrelations of law and culture, especially in multicultural Western societies.
Legal positivism is the view that the content of law is dependent on social facts and that a legal system's existence is not constrained by morality. Within legal positivism, theorists agree that law's content is a product of social facts, but theorists disagree whether law's validity can be explained by incorporating moral values. Legal positivists who argue against the incorporation of moral values to explain law's validity are labeled exclusive (or hard) legal positivists. Joseph Raz's legal positivism is an example of exclusive legal positivism. Legal positivists who argue that law's validity can be explained by incorporating moral values are labeled inclusive (or soft) legal positivists. The legal positivist theories of HLA Hart and Jules Coleman are examples of inclusive legal positivism.
Hobbes was a social contractarian and believed that the law had peoples' tacit consent. He believed that society was formed from a state of nature to protect people from the state of war that would exist otherwise. In "Leviathan", Hobbes argues that without an ordered society life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." It is commonly said that Hobbes's views on human nature were influenced by his times. The English Civil War and the Cromwellian dictatorship had taken place; and, in reacting to that, Hobbes felt that absolute authority vested in a monarch, whose subjects obeyed the law, was the basis of a civilized society.
John Austin and Jeremy Bentham were early legal positivists who sought to provide a descriptive account of law that describes the law as it is. Austin explained the descriptive focus for legal positivism by saying, "The existence of law is one thing; its merit and demerit another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is a different enquiry." For Austin and Bentham, a society is governed by a sovereign who has de facto authority. Through the sovereign's authority come laws, which for Austin and Bentham are commands backed by sanctions for non-compliance. Along with Hume, Bentham was an early and staunch supporter of the utilitarian concept, and was an avid prison reformer, advocate for democracy, and firm atheist. Bentham's views about law and jurisprudence were popularized by his student John Austin. Austin was the first chair of law at the new University of London, from 1829. Austin's utilitarian answer to "what is law?" was that law is "commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience". HLA Hart criticized Austin and Bentham's early legal positivism because the command theory failed to account for individual's compliance with the law.
Hans Kelsen is considered one of the prominent jurists of the 20th century and has been highly influential in Europe and Latin America, although less so in common-law countries. His Pure Theory of Law describes law as "binding norms", while at the same time refusing to evaluate those norms. That is, "legal science" is to be separated from "legal politics". Central to the Pure Theory of Law is the notion of a "basic norm" ("Grundnorm")'—a hypothetical norm, presupposed by the jurist, from which all "lower" norms in the hierarchy of a legal system, beginning with constitutional law, are understood to derive their authority or the extent to which they are binding. Kelsen contends that the extent to which legal norms are binding, their specifically "legal" character, can be understood without tracing it ultimately to some suprahuman source such as God, personified Nature or—of great importance in his time—a personified State or Nation.
In the English-speaking world, the most influential legal positivist of the twentieth century was HLA Hart, professor of jurisprudence at Oxford University. Hart argued that the law should be understood as a system of social rules. In "The Concept of Law", Hart rejected Kelsen's views that sanctions were essential to law and that a normative social phenomenon, like law, cannot be grounded in non-normative social facts.
Hart claimed that law is the union primary rules and secondary rules. Primary rules require individuals to act or not act in certain ways and create duties for the governed to obey. Secondary rules are rules that confer authority to create new primary rules or modify existing ones. Secondary rules are divided into rules of adjudication (how to resolve legal disputes), rules of change (how laws are amended), and the rule of recognition (how laws are identified as valid). The validity of a legal system comes from the "rule of recognition," which is a customary practice of officials (especially barristers and judges) who identify certain acts and decisions as sources of law. In 1981, Neil MacCormick wrote a pivotal book on Hart (second edition published in 2008), which further refined and offered some important criticisms that led MacCormick to develop his own theory (the best example of which is his "Institutions of Law", 2007). Other important critiques include those of Ronald Dworkin, John Finnis, and Joseph Raz.
In recent years, debates on the nature of law have become increasingly fine-grained. One important debate is within legal positivism. One school is sometimes called "exclusive legal positivism" and is associated with the view that the legal validity of a norm can never depend on its moral correctness. A second school is labeled "inclusive legal positivism", a major proponent of which is Wil Waluchow, and is associated with the view that moral considerations , but do not necessarily, determine the legal validity of a norm.
Joseph Raz's theory of legal positivism argues against the incorporation of moral values to explain law's validity. In Raz's 1979 book "The Authority of Law", he criticised what he called the "weak social thesis" to explain law. He formulates the weak social thesis as "(a) Sometimes the identification of some laws turn on moral arguments, but also with, (b) In all legal systems the identification of some law turns on moral argument." Raz argues that law's authority is identifiable purely through social sources, without reference to moral reasoning. This view he calls "the sources thesis." Raz suggests that any categorisation of rules beyond their role as authority is better left to sociology than to jurisprudence. Some philosophers used to contend that positivism was the theory that held that there was "no necessary connection" between law and morality; but influential contemporary positivists—including Joseph Raz, John Gardner, and Leslie Green—reject that view. As Raz points out, it is a necessary truth that there are vices that a legal system cannot possibly have (for example, it cannot commit rape or murder).
Legal realism is the view that a theory of law should be descriptive and account for the reasons why judges decide cases as they do. Legal realism had some affinities with the sociology of law and sociological jurisprudence. The essential tenet of legal realism is that all law is made by humans and thus should account for reasons besides legal rules that led to a legal decision.
There are two separate schools of legal realism: American legal realism and Scandinavian legal realism. American legal realism grew out of the writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes. At the start of Holmes's "The Common Law", he claims that “[t]he life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.” This view was a reaction to legal formalism that was popular the time due to the Christopher Columbus Langdell. Holmes's writings on jurisprudence also laid the foundations for the predictive theory of law. In his article "The Path of the Law," Holmes argues that "the object of [legal] study...is prediction, the prediction of the incidence of the public force through the instrumentality of the courts."
For the American legal realists of the early twentieth century, legal realism sought to describe the way judges decide cases. For legal realists such as Jerome Frank, judges start with the facts before them and then move to legal principles. Before legal realism, theories of jurisprudence turned this method around where judges were thought to begin with legal principles and then look to facts.
It has become common today to identify Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., as the main precursor of American Legal Realism (other influences include Roscoe Pound, Karl Llewellyn, and Justice Benjamin Cardozo). Karl Llewellyn, another founder of the U.S. legal realism movement, similarly believed that the law is little more than putty in the hands of judges who are able to shape the outcome of cases based on their personal values or policy choices.
The Scandinavian school of legal realism argued that law can be explained through the empirical methods used by social scientists. Prominent Scandinavian legal realists are Alf Ross, Axel Hägerström, and Karl Olivecrona. Scandinavian legal realists also took a naturalist approach to law.
Despite its decline in popularity, legal realism continues to influence a wide spectrum of jurisprudential schools today, including critical legal studies, feminist legal theory, critical race theory, sociology of law, and law and economics.
Critical legal studies are a new theory of jurisprudence that has developed since the 1970s. The theory can generally be traced to American legal realism and is considered "the first movement in legal theory and legal scholarship in the United States to have espoused a committed Left political stance and perspective". It holds that the law is largely contradictory, and can be best analyzed as an expression of the policy goals of a dominant social group.
Karl Popper originated the theory of critical rationalism. According to Reinhold Zippelius many advances in law and jurisprudence take place by operations of critical rationalism. He writes, "daß die Suche nach dem Begriff des Rechts, nach seinen Bezügen zur Wirklichkeit und nach der Gerechtigkeit experimentierend voranschreitet, indem wir Problemlösungen versuchsweise entwerfen, überprüfen und verbessern" (that we empirically search for solutions to problems, which harmonise fairly with reality, by projecting, testing and improving the solutions).
American legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin's legal theory attacks legal positivists that separate law's content from morality. In his book "Law's Empire", Dworkin argued that law is an "interpretive" concept that requires barristers to find the best-fitting and most just solution to a legal dispute, given their constitutional traditions. According to him, law is not entirely based on social facts, but includes the best moral justification for the institutional facts and practices that form a society's legal tradition. It follows from Dworkin's view that one cannot know whether a society has a legal system in force, or what any of its laws are, until one knows some truths about the moral justifications of the social and political practices of that society. It is consistent with Dworkin's view—in contrast with the views of legal positivists or legal realists—that in a society may know what its laws are, because no-one may know the best moral justification for its practices.
Interpretation, according to Dworkin's "integrity theory of law", has two dimensions. To count as an interpretation, the reading of a text must meet the criterion of "fit". Of those interpretations that fit, however, Dworkin maintains that the correct interpretation is the one that portrays the practices of the community in their best light, or makes them "the best that they can be". But many writers have doubted whether there a single best moral justification for the complex practices of any given community, and others have doubted whether, even if there is, it should be counted as part of the law of that community.
Consequences of the operation of legal rules or legal procedures—or of the behavior of legal actors (such as lawyers and judges)—may be either beneficial (therapeutic) or harmful (anti-therapeutic) to people. Therapeutic jurisprudence ("TJ") studies law as a social force (or agent) and uses social science methods and data to study the extent to which a legal rule or practice affects the psychological well-being of the people it impacts.
In addition to the question, "What is law?", legal philosophy is also concerned with normative, or "evaluative" theories of law. What is the goal or purpose of law? What moral or political theories provide a foundation for the law? What is the proper function of law? What sorts of acts should be subject to punishment, and what sorts of punishment should be permitted? What is justice? What rights do we have? Is there a duty to obey the law? What value has the rule of law? Some of the different schools and leading thinkers are discussed below.
Aretaic moral theories, such as contemporary virtue ethics, emphasize the role of character in morality. Virtue jurisprudence is the view that the laws should promote the development of virtuous character in citizens. Historically, this approach has been mainly associated with Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas. Contemporary virtue jurisprudence is inspired by philosophical work on virtue ethics.
Deontology is the "theory of duty or moral obligation". The philosopher Immanuel Kant formulated one influential deontological theory of law. He argued that any rule we follow must be able to be universally applied, i.e. we must be willing for everyone to follow that rule. A contemporary deontological approach can be found in the work of the legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin.
Utilitarianism is the view that the laws should be crafted so as to produce the best consequences for the greatest number of people. Historically, utilitarian thinking about law has been associated with the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. John Stuart Mill was a pupil of Bentham's and was the torch bearer for utilitarian philosophy throughout the late nineteenth century. In contemporary legal theory, the utilitarian approach is frequently championed by scholars who work in the law and economics tradition.
John Rawls was an American philosopher; a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University; and author of "A Theory of Justice" (1971), "Political Liberalism", "", and "The Law of Peoples". He is widely considered one of the most important English-language political philosophers of the 20th century. His theory of justice uses a method called "original position" to ask us which principles of justice we would choose to regulate the basic institutions of our society if we were behind a "veil of ignorance". Imagine we do not know who we are—our race, sex, wealth, status, class, or any distinguishing feature—so that we would not be biased in our own favour. Rawls argued from this "original position" that we would choose exactly the same political liberties for everyone, like freedom of speech, the right to vote, and so on. Also, we would choose a system where there is only inequality because that produces incentives enough for the economic well-being of all society, especially the poorest. This is Rawls's famous "difference principle". Justice is fairness, in the sense that the fairness of the original position of choice guarantees the fairness of the principles chosen in that position.
There are many other normative approaches to the philosophy of law, including critical legal studies and libertarian theories of law.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16366
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Jury trial
A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a lawful proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions.
Jury trials are used in a significant share of serious criminal cases in many but not all common law judicial systems. The majority of common law jurisdictions in Asia (such as Singapore, Pakistan, India, and Malaysia) have abolished jury trials on the grounds that juries are susceptible to bias. Juries or lay judges have also been incorporated into the legal systems of many civil law countries for criminal cases. Only the United States makes routine use of jury trials in a wide variety of non-criminal cases. Other common law legal jurisdictions use jury trials only in a very select class of cases that make up a tiny share of the overall civil docket (like malicious prosecution and false imprisonment suits in England and Wales), but true civil jury trials are almost entirely absent elsewhere in the world. Some civil law jurisdictions, however, have arbitration panels where non-legally trained members decide cases in select subject-matter areas relevant to the arbitration panel members' areas of expertise.
The use of jury trials, which evolved within common law systems rather than civil law systems, has had a profound impact on the nature of American civil procedure and criminal procedure rules, even if a bench trial is actually contemplated in a particular case. In general, the availability of a jury trial if properly demanded has given rise to a system in which fact finding is concentrated in a single trial rather than multiple hearings, and appellate review of trial court decisions is greatly limited. Jury trials are of far less importance (or of no importance) in countries that do not have a common law system.
Ancient Athens had a mechanism, called "dikastaí", to assure that no one could select jurors for their own trial. For normal cases, the courts were made up of "dikastai" of up to 500 citizens. For capital cases—those that involved death, loss of liberty, exile, loss of civil rights, or seizure of property—the trial was before a jury of 1,001 to 1,501 "dikastai". In such large juries, they rule by majority. Juries were appointed by lot. Jurists cast a ceramic disk with an axle in its middle: the axle was either hollow or solid. Thus the way they voted was kept secret because the jurists would hold their disk by the axle by thumb and forefinger, thus hiding whether its axle was hollow or solid. Since Periclean times, jurists were compensated for their sitting in court, with the amount of one day's wages.
The institution of trial by jury was ritually depicted by Aeschylus in the Eumenides, the third and final play of his "Oresteia" trilogy. In the play, the innovation is brought about by the goddess Athena, who summons twelve citizens to sit as jury. The god Apollo takes part in the trial as the advocate for the defendant Orestes and the Furies as prosecutors for the slain Clytemnestra. In the event the jury is split six to six, and Athena dictates that in such a case, the verdict should henceforth be for acquittal
From the beginning of the republic and in the majority of civil cases towards the end of the empire, there were tribunals with the characteristics of the jury, the Roman judges being civilian, lay and not professional. Capital trials were held in front of juries composed of hundreds or thousands of people in the commitias or centuries, the same as in Roman trials. Roman law provided for the yearly selection of judices, who would be responsible for resolving disputes by acting as jurors, with a praetor performing many of the duties of a judge. High government officials and their relatives were barred from acting as judices, due to conflicts of interest. Those previously found guilty of serious crimes (felonies) were also barred as were gladiators for hire, who likely were hired to resolve disputes through trial by combat. The law was as follows:
"The peregrine praetor (literally, traveling judge) within the next ten days after this law is passed by the people or plebs shall provide for the selection of 450 persons in this State who have or have had a knight's census... provided that he does not select a person who is or has been plebeian tribune, quaestor, triumvir capitalis, military tribune in any of the first four legions, or triumvir for granting and assigning lands, or who is or has been in the Senate, or who has fought or shall fight as a gladiator for hire... or who has been condemned by the judicial process and a public trial whereby he cannot be enrolled in the Senate, or who is less than thirty or more than sixty years of age, or who does not have his residence in the city of Rome or within one mile of it, or who is the father, brother, or son of any above-described magistrate, or who is the father, brother, or son of a person who is or has been a member of the Senate, or who is overseas."
The "lafif" in Maliki jurisprudence developed between the 8th and 11th centuries and stipuated that 12 members of the community would swear to tell the truth and reach a unanimous verdict about matters "which they had personally seen or heard, binding on the judge, to settle the truth concerning facts in a case, between ordinary people, and obtained as of right by the plaintiff." In the 12th century, Henry II of England similarly instituted a jury system of 12 free men charged to uncover the facts of the case with the same characteristics as the "lafif" system. He was likely influenced by his exchequer, Thomas Brown, who formerly worked under the "diwan" of the Kingdom of Sicily which had recently conquered the Emirate of Sicily and incorporated Islamic government and legal systems into their procedures.
A Swabian ordinance of 1562 called for the summons of jurymen ('), and various methods were in use in Emmendingen, Oppenau, and Oberkirch. Hauenstein's charter of 1442 secured the right to be tried in all cases by 24 fellow equals, and in Freiburg the jury was composed of 30 citizens and councilors. The modern jury trial was first introduced in the Rhenish provinces in 1798, with a court consisting most commonly of 12 citizens (').
The system whereby citizens were tried by their peers chosen from the entire community in open court was gradually superseded by a system of professional judges in Germany, in which the process of investigation was more or less confidential and judgements were issued by judges appointed by the state. In Constance the jury trial was suppressed by decree of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1786. The Frankfurt Constitution of the failed Revolutions of 1848 called for jury trials for "the more serious crimes and all political offenses", but was never implemented after the Frankfurt Parliament was dissolved by Württemberg dragoons. An 1873 draft on criminal procedure produced by the Prussian Ministry of Justice proposed to abolish the jury and replace it with the mixed system, causing a significant political debate. In the Weimar Republic the jury was abolished by the Emminger Reform of 4 January 1924.
Between 1948 and 1950 in American-occupied Germany and the Federal Republic of Germany, Bavaria returned to the jury trial as it had existed before the emergency decrees, but they were again abolished by the 1950 Unification Act ("") for the Federal Republic. In 1979, the United States tried the East German LOT Flight 165 hijacking suspects in the United States Court for Berlin in West Berlin, which declared the defendants had the right to a jury trial under the United States Constitution, and hence were tried by a West German jury.
According to George Macaulay Trevelyan in "A Shortened History of England", during the Viking occupation: "The Scandinavians, when not on the Viking warpath, were a litigious people and loved to get together in the 'thing' to hear legal argument. They had no professional lawyers, but many of their farmer-warriors, like Njal, the truth-teller, were learned in folk custom and in its intricate judicial procedure. A Danish town in England often had, as its main officers, twelve hereditary 'law men.' The Danes introduced the habit of making committees among the free men in court, which perhaps made England favorable ground for the future growth of the jury system out of a Frankish custom later introduced by the Normans."
The English king Æthelred the Unready set up an early legal system through the Wantage Code of Ethelred, one provision of which stated that the twelve leading thegns (minor nobles) of each wapentake (a small district) were required to swear that they would investigate crimes without a bias. These juries differed from the modern sort by being self-informing; instead of getting information through a trial, the jurors were required to investigate the case themselves.
In the 12th century, Henry II took a major step in developing the jury system. Henry II set up a system to resolve land disputes using juries. A jury of twelve free men were assigned to arbitrate in these disputes. As with the Saxon system, these men were charged with uncovering the facts of the case on their own rather than listening to arguments in court. Henry II also introduced what is now known as the "grand jury" through his Assize of Clarendon. Under the assize, a jury of free men was charged with reporting any crimes that they knew of in their hundred to a "justice in eyre", a judge who moved between hundreds on a circuit. A criminal accused by this jury was given a trial by ordeal.
The Church banned participation of clergy in trial by ordeal in 1215. Without the legitimacy of religion, trial by ordeal collapsed. The juries under the assizes began deciding guilt as well as providing accusations. The same year, trial by jury became an explicit right in one of the most influential clauses of Magna Carta. Article 39 of the Magna Carta read:
"Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut desseisetur de libero tenemento, vel libertatibus, vel liberis consuetudinibus suis, sut utlagetur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terrae."
It is translated thus by Lysander Spooner in his "Essay on the Trial by Jury":
"No free man shall be captured, and or imprisoned, or disseised of his freehold, and or of his liberties, or of his free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against him by force or proceed against him by arms, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, and or by the law of the land."
Although it says "and or by the law of the land", this in no manner can be interpreted as if it were enough to have a positive law, made by the king, to be able to proceed legally against a citizen. The law of the land was the consuetudinary law, based on the customs and consent of John's subjects, and since they did not have Parliament in those times, this meant that neither the king nor the barons could make a law without the consent of the people.
According to some sources, in the time of Edward III, "by the law of the land" had been substituted "by due process of law", which in those times was a trial by twelve peers.
The Magna Carta of 1215 further secured trial by jury by stating that
During the mid-14th century, persons who had sat on the Presenting Jury (i.e., in modern parlance, the grand jury) were forbidden to sit on the trial jury for that crime. 25 Edward III stat 5., c3 (1353). Medieval juries were self-informing, in that individuals were chosen as jurors because they either knew the parties and the facts, or they had the duty to discover them. This spared the government the cost of fact-finding. Over time, English juries became less self-informing and relied more on the trial itself for information on the case. Jurors remained free to investigate cases on their own until the 17th century. The Magna Carta being forgotten after a succession of benevolent reigns (or, more probably, reigns limited by the jury and the barons, and only under the rule of laws that the juries and barons found acceptable), the kings, through the royal judges, began to extend their control over the jury and the kingdom. In David Hume's "History of England", he tells something of the powers that the kings had accumulated in the times after the Magna Carta, the prerogatives of the crown and the sources of great power with which these monarchs counted:
The first paragraph of the Act that abolished the Star Chamber repeats the clause on the right of a citizen to be judged by his peers:
In 1670 two Quakers charged with unlawful assembly, William Penn and William Mead, were found not guilty by a jury. The judge then fined the jury for contempt of court for returning a verdict contrary to their own findings of fact and removed them to prison until the fine was paid. Edward Bushel, a member of the jury, nonetheless refused to pay the fine.
Bushel petitioned the Court of Common Pleas for a writ of "habeas corpus". The ruling in the "Bushel's Case" was that a jury could not be punished simply on account of the verdict it returned.
Many British colonies, including the United States, adopted the English common law system in which trial by jury is an important part. Jury trials in criminal cases were a protected right in the original United States Constitution and the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments of the U.S. Constitution extend the rights to trial by jury to include the right to jury trial for both criminal and civil matters and a grand jury for serious cases.
Some jurisdictions with jury trials allow the defendant to waive their right to a jury trial, thus leading to a bench trial. Jury trials tend to occur only when a crime is considered serious. In some jurisdictions, such as France and Brazil, jury trials are reserved, and compulsory, for the most severe crimes and are not available for civil cases. In Brazil, for example, trials by jury are applied in cases of voluntary crimes against life, such as first and second degree murder, forced abortion and instigation of suicide, even if only attempted. In others, such as the United Kingdom, jury trials are only available for criminal cases and very specific civil cases (malicious prosecution, civil fraud and false imprisonment). In the United States, jury trials are available in both civil and criminal cases. In Canada, an individual charged with an indictable offence may elect to be tried by a judge alone in a provincial court, by judge alone in a superior court, or by judge and jury in a superior court; summary offences cannot be tried by jury.
In the United States, because jury trials tend to be high profile, the general public tends to overestimate the frequency of jury trials. Approximately 150,000 jury trials are conducted in state courts annually, and an additional 5,000 jury trials are conducted in federal courts. Two thirds of jury trials are criminal trials, while one-third are civil and "other" (e.g., family, municipal ordinance, traffic). Nevertheless, the vast majority of criminal cases are settled by plea bargain, which removes the need for a jury trial.
Some commentators contend that the guilty-plea system unfairly coerces defendants into relinquishing their right to a jury trial. Others contend that there never was a golden age of jury trials, but rather that juries in the early nineteenth century (before the rise of plea bargaining) were "unwitting and reflexive, generally wasteful of public resources and, because of the absence of trained professionals, little more than slow guilty pleas themselves", and that the guilty-plea system that emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century was a superior, more cost-effective method of achieving fair outcomes.
In countries where jury trials are common, juries are often seen as an important check against state power. Other common assertions about the benefits of trial by jury is that it provides a means of interjecting community norms and values into judicial proceedings and that it legitimizes the law by providing opportunities for citizens to validate criminal statutes in their application to specific trials. Alexis de Tocqueville also claimed that jury trials educate citizens about self-government. Many also believe that a jury is likely to provide a more sympathetic hearing, or a fairer one, to a party who is not part of the government—or other establishment interest—than would representatives of the state.
This last point may be disputed. For example, in highly emotional cases, such as child rape, the jury may be tempted to convict based on personal feelings rather than on conviction beyond reasonable doubt. In France, former attorney, then later Minister of Justice Robert Badinter, remarked about jury trials in France that they were like "riding a ship into a storm", because they are much less predictable than bench trials.
Another issue with jury trials is the potential for jurors to be swayed by prejudice, including racial considerations. Infamous cases include the Scottsboro Boys, a group of nine African-American teenagers accused of raping two White American women on a train in 1931, for which they were indicted by an all-white jury, the acquittal of two white men Roy Bryant and J. W. Milan by an all-white jury for the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 (they admitted killing him in a magazine interview a year later), and the 1992 trial in the Rodney King case in California, in which white police officers were acquitted of excessive force in the violent beating of a black man by a jury consisting mostly of whites without any black jurors.
The positive belief about jury trials in the UK and the U.S. contrasts with popular belief in many other nations, in which it is considered bizarre and risky for a person's fate to be put into the hands of untrained laymen. In Japan, for instance, which used to have optional jury trials for capital or other serious crimes between 1928 and 1943, the defendant could freely choose whether to have a jury or trial by judges, and the decisions of the jury were non-binding. During the Tojo regime this was suspended, arguably stemming from the popular belief that any defendant who risks his fate on the opinions of untrained laymen is almost certainly guilty.
Jury trials in multi-cultural countries with a history of ethnic tensions may be problematic, and lead to juries being unduly biased and partial.
A major issue in jury trials is the secretive nature of the process. While proponents may say that secrecy allows the jury to remain impartial by protecting it from undue pressure or attention, opponents contend that this prevents there from being a transparent trial. The fact that juries do not often have to give a reason for their verdict is also criticized, since opponents argue it is unfair for a person to be deprived of life, liberty or property without being told why it is being done so. In contrast where there is a decision by a judge or judges, they are required to provide often detailed reasons of both fact and law as to why their decision was made.
One issue that has been raised is the ability of a jury to fully understand statistical or scientific evidence. It has been said that the expectation of jury members as to the explanatory power of scientific evidence has been raised by TV police procedural and legal dramas, in what is known as the 'CSI effect' (after the ). In at least one English trial the misuse or misunderstanding or misrepresentation by the prosecution of statistics has led to wrongful conviction.
Argentina is one of the first countries in Latin America that has implemented the Trial by Juries. Although it has a Civil Law process, since November 2015, it now has Jury system for serious crimes cases.
The Australian Constitution provides that: "80. The trial on indictment of any offence against any law of the Commonwealth shall be by jury, and every such trial shall be held in the State where the offence was committed, and if the offence was not committed within any State the trial shall be held at such place or places as the Parliament prescribes.au/senate/general/constitution/chapter3.htm
The first trials by civilian juries of 12 in the colony of New South Wales were held in 1824, following a decision of the NSW Supreme Court on 14 October 1824. The NSW Constitution Act of 1828 effectively terminated trial by jury for criminal matters. Jury trials for criminal matters revived with the passing of the Jury Trials Amending Act of 1833 (NSW) (2 William IV No 12).
The "voir dire" system of examining the jury pool before selection is not permitted in Australia as it violates the privacy of jurors. Therefore, though it exists, the right to challenge for cause during jury selection cannot be employed much. Peremptory challenges are usually based on the hunches of counsel and no reason is needed to use them. All Australian states allow for peremptory challenges in jury selection; however, the number of challenges granted to the counsels in each state are not all the same. Until 1987 New South Wales had twenty peremptory challenges for each side where the offence was murder, and eight for all other cases. In 1987 this was lowered to three peremptory challenges per side, the same amount allowed in South Australia. Eight peremptory challenges are allowed for both counsels for all offences in Queensland. Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory allow for six. Western Australia allows five peremptory challenges per side.
In Australia majority verdicts are allowed in South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland, while the ACT require unanimous verdicts. Since 1927 South Australia has permitted majority verdicts of 11:1, and 10:1 or 9:1 where the jury has been reduced, in criminal trials if a unanimous verdict cannot be reached in four hours. They are accepted in all cases except for "guilty" verdicts where the defendant is on trial for murder or treason. Victoria has accepted majority verdicts with the same conditions since 1994, though deliberations must go on for six hours before a majority verdict can be made. Western Australia accepted majority verdicts in 1957 for all trials except where the crime is murder or has a life sentence. A 10:2 verdict is accepted. Majority verdicts of 10:2 have been allowed in Tasmania since 1936 for all cases except murder and treason if a unanimous decision has not been made within two hours. Since 1943 verdicts of "not guilty" for murder and treason have also been included, but must be discussed for six hours. The Northern Territory has allowed majority verdicts of 10:2, 10:1 and 9:1 since 1963 and does not discriminate between cases whether the charge is murder or not. Deliberation must go for at least six hours before delivering a majority verdict. The Queensland "Jury Act 1995" (s 59F) allows majority verdicts for all crimes except for murder and other offences that carry a life sentence, although only 11:1 or 10:1 majorities are allowed. Majority verdicts were introduced in New South Wales in 2006. In New South Wales, a majority verdict can only be returned if the jury consists of at least 11 jurors and the deliberation has occurred for at least 8 hours or for a period that the court considers reasonable having regard to the nature and complexity of the case. Additionally, the court must be satisfied through examination of one or more of the jurors on oath, that a unanimous verdict will not be reached if further deliberation were to occur.
Austria, in common with a number of European civil law jurisdictions, retains elements of trial by jury in serious criminal cases.
Belgium, in common with a number of European civil law jurisdictions, retains the trial by jury through the Court of Assize for serious criminal cases and for political crimes and for press delicts (except those based on racism or xenophobia), and for crimes of international law, such as genocide and crime against humanity.
Under Canadian law, a person has the constitutional right to a jury trial for all crimes punishable by five years of imprisonment or more. The Criminal Code also provides for the right to a jury trial for most indictable offences, including those punishable by less than five years' imprisonment, though the right is only constitutionally enshrined for those offences punishable by five years' imprisonment or more. Generally, it is the accused person who is entitled to elect whether their trial will proceed by judge alone or by judge and jury; however, for the most severe criminal offences—murder, treason, alarming Her Majesty, intimidating Parliament, inciting to mutiny, sedition, and piracy—trial by jury is mandatory unless the prosecution consents to trial by judge alone.
Jury panel exhaustion
Criminal Code Section 642(1): If a full jury and alternate jurors cannot be provided, the court may order the sheriff or other proper officer, at the request of the prosecutor, to summon without delay as many people as the court directs for the purpose of providing a full jury and alternate jurors.
Section 642(2): Jurors may be summoned under subsection (1) by word of mouth, if necessary.
Section 642(3): The names of the people who are summoned under this Section shall be added to the general panel for the purposes of the trial, and the same proceedings with respect to calling, challenging, excusing and directing them shall apply to them.
According to the case of "R v Mid-Valley Tractor Sales Limited" (1995 CarswellNB 313), there are limitations on the powers granted by Section 642. These powers are conferred specifically upon the judge, and the section does not confer a further discretion to delegate that power to others, such as the sheriff's officer, even with the consent of counsel. The Court said that to hold otherwise would nullify the rights of the accused and the prosecution to object to a person being excused inappropriately, and may also interfere with the rights of the parties to challenge for cause. The selection of an impartial jury is the basis of a fair trial.
The Supreme Court of Canada also held in "Basarabas and Spek v The Queen" (1982 SCR 730) that the right of an accused to be present in court during the whole of his trial includes the jury selection process.
In "Tran v The Queen" (1994 2 SCR 951), it was held that an accused only has to show that they were excluded from a part of the trial that affected their vital interests, they do not have to demonstrate actual prejudice, just the potential for prejudice. As well, a valid waiver of such a right must be clear, unequivocal and done with full knowledge of the rights that the procedure was enacted to protect, as well as the effect that the waiver will have on those rights.
In France, a defendant is entitled to a jury trial only when prosecuted for a felony ("crime" in French). Crimes encompass all offenses that carry a penalty of at least 10 years' imprisonment (for natural persons) or a fine of €75,000 (for legal persons). The only court that tries by jury is the "cour d'assises," in which three professional judges sit together with six or nine jurors (on appeal). Conviction requires a two-thirds majority (four or six votes).
The country that originated the concept of the jury trial retains it in an unusual form. The Constitution of Greece and Code of criminal procedure provide that felonies (Greek: Κακουργήματα) are tried by a "Mixed Court" composed of three professional judges, including the President of the Court, and four lay judges who decide the facts, and the appropriate penalty if they convict. Certain Felonies, such as terrorism, are exempt, due to their nature, from the jurisdiction of the "Mixed Courts" and are tried instead by the Court of Appeals both in first and second instance.
Being a Common Law jurisdiction, Gibraltar retains jury trial in a similar manner to that found in England and Wales, the exception being that juries consist of nine lay people, rather than twelve.
Hong Kong, as a former British colony has a common law legal system. Article 86 of Hong Kong's Basic Law, which came into force on 1 July 1997 following the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China provides: "The principle of trial by jury previously practised in Hong Kong shall be maintained."
Criminal trials in the High Court are by jury. The juries are generally made of seven members, who can return a verdict based on a majority of five.
There are no jury trials in the District Court, which can impose a sentence of up to seven years' imprisonment. This is despite the fact that all court rooms in the District Court have jury boxes. The lack of juries in the District Court has been severely criticized. Clive Grossman SC in a commentary in 2009 said conviction rates were "approaching those of North Korea".
Many complex commercial cases are prosecuted in the District Court rather than before a jury in the High Court. In 2009, Lily Chiang, former chairwoman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, lost an application to have her case transferred from the District Court to the High Court for a jury trial. Justice Wright in the Court of First Instance held that there was no absolute right to a trial by jury and that the "decision as to whether an indictable offence be tried in the Court of First Instance by a judge and jury or in the District Court by a judge alone is the prerogative of the Secretary for Justice." Chiang issued a statement at the time saying "she was disappointed with the judgment because she has been deprived of a jury trial, an opportunity to be judged by her fellow citizens and the constitutional benefit protected by the Basic Law".
In civil cases in the Court of First Instance jury trials are available for defamation, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution or seduction unless the court orders otherwise. A jury can return a majority verdict in a civil case.
The first case decided by an English jury in India happened in Madras in 1665, for which Ascentia Dawes (probably a British woman) was charged by a grand jury with the murder of her slave girl, and a petty jury, with six Englishmen and six Portuguese, found her not guilty. With the development of the East India Company empire in India, the jury system was implemented inside a dual system of courts: In Presidency Towns (Calcutta, Madras, Bombay), there were Crown Courts and in criminal cases juries had to judge British and European people (as a privilege) and in some cases Indian people; and in the territories outside the Presidency Towns (called "moffussil"), there were Company Courts (composed with Company officials) without jury to judge most of the cases implying indigenous people.
After the Crown Government of India (Raj) adopted the Indian Penal Code (1860) and the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure (1861, amended in 1872, 1882, 1898), the criminal jury was obligatory only in the High Courts of the Presidency Towns; elsewhere, it was optional and rarely used. According sections 274 and 275 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the jury was composed from 3 (for smaller offences judged in session courts) to 9 (for severe offences judges in High Courts) men; and when the accused were European or American, at least half of the jurors had to be European or American men.
Jury trials were abolished in most Indian courts by the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure. Nanavati Case was not the last Jury trial in India. West Bengal had Jury trials as late as 1973. The jury found no place in the 1950 Indian Constitution, and it was ignored in many Indian states.The Law Commission recommended its abolition in 1958 in its 14th Report.It has been claimed that the sensational aquittal in "K. M. Nanavati v. State of Maharashtra" case in 1959 also influenced the abolition. Jury trials were abolished in India in most courts except for Matrimonial Disputes of Parsis, which is still in force today.
Parsis in India can legally use Jury System to decide divorces wherein randomly selected members called 'delegates' from the community decide the fact of the matrimonial disputes of Parsis. Jury system for Parsi Matrimonial dispute cases is a mix of Panchayat system and Jury system found in US etc. countries. The law which governs this is 'The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936' as amended in 1988.
A study by Elisabeth Kolsky argues that many "perverse verdicts" were delivered by white juries in trial of "European British subjects" charged with murder, assault, confinement of Indians.
In the Republic of Ireland, a common law jurisdiction, jury trials are available for criminal cases before the Circuit Court, Central Criminal Court and defamation cases, consisting of twelve jurors.
Juries only decide questions of fact; they have no role in criminal sentencing in criminal cases or awarding damages in libel cases. It is not necessary that a jury be unanimous in its verdict. In civil cases, a verdict may be reached by a majority of nine of the twelve members. In a criminal case, a verdict need not be unanimous where there are not fewer than eleven jurors if ten of them agree on a verdict after considering the case for a reasonable time.
Juries are selected from a jury panel, which is picked at random by the county registrar from the electoral register. The principal statute regulating the selection, obligations and conduct of juries is the Juries Act 1976 as amended by the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008, which scrapped the upper age limit of 70. Juries are not paid, nor do they receive travel expenses. They do receive lunch for the days that they are serving; however, for jurors in employment, their employer is required to pay them as if they were present at work.
For certain terrorist and organised crime offences the Director of Public Prosecutions may issue a certificate that the accused be tried by the Special Criminal Court composed of three judges instead of a jury, one from the District Court, Circuit Court and High Court.
The Corte d'Assise is composed of 2 judges and 6 laypersons chosen at random among Italian citizens 30 to 65 years old. Only serious crimes like murder can be tried by the Corte d'Assise.
On May 28, 2004, the Diet of Japan enacted a law requiring selected citizens to take part in criminal court trials of certain severe crimes to make decisions together with professional judges, both on guilt and on the sentence. These citizens are called "saiban-in" (裁判員 "lay judge"). The "saiban-in" system was implemented in May 2009.
The Kuba Kingdom, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, developed trial by jury independently prior to the arrival of Europeans in 1884.
The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 provides a defendant with the right to a jury trial if they are charged with a criminal offence punishable by two years' imprisonment or more. For most offences, the defendant can choose to forego a jury trial in favour of a judge-alone (bench) trial. Serious "category 4" offences such as murder, manslaughter and treason are always tried by jury, with some exceptions. Civil jury trials are restricted to cases involving defamation, false imprisonment or malicious prosecution.
New Zealand previously required jury verdicts to be passed unanimously, but since the passing of the Criminal Procedure Bill in 2009 the Juries Act 1981 has permitted verdicts to be passed by a majority of one less than the full jury (that is an 11–1 or a 10–1 majority) under certain circumstances.
Norway has a system where the lower courts ("tingrett") is set with a judge and two lay judges, or in bigger cases two judges and three lay judges.
All of these judges convict or acquit, and set sentences. Simple majority is required in all cases, which means that the lay-judges are always in control.
In the higher court/appellate court ("lagmannsrett") there is a jury ("lagrette") of 10 members, which need a minimum of seven votes to be able to convict. The judges have no say in the jury deliberations, but jury instructions are given by the chief judge ("lagmann") in each case to the jury before deliberations. The "voir-dire" is usually set with 16 prospective jurors, which the prosecution and defence may dismiss the six persons they do not desire to serve on the jury.
This court ("lagmannsretten") is administered by a three-judge panel (usually one "lagmann" and two "lagdommere"), and if seven or more jury members want to convict, the sentence is set in a separate proceeding, consisting of the three judges and the jury foreman ("lagrettens ordfører") and three other members of the jury chosen by ballot. This way the laymen are in control of both the conviction and sentencing, as simple majority is required in sentencing.
The three-judge panel can set aside a jury conviction or acquittal if there has been an obvious miscarriage of justice. In that event, the case is settled by three judges and four lay-judges.
In May 2015, the Norwegian Parliament asked the government to bring an end to jury trials, replacing them with a bench trial ("meddomsrett") consisting of two law-trained judges and three lay judges ("lekdommere"). This has not been fully implemented yet as of February 2016, but is expected soon.
In the judiciary of Russia, for serious crimes the accused has the option of a jury trial consisting of 12 jurors. The number of jury trials remains small, at about 600 per year, out of about 1 million trials. A juror must be 25 years old, legally competent, and without a criminal record. The 12 jurors are selected by the prosecution and defense from a list of 30–40 eligible candidates. The Constitution of Russia stipulates that, until the abolition of the death penalty, all defendants in a case that may result in a death sentence are entitled to a jury trial. Lawmakers are continuously chipping away at what types of criminal offenses merit a jury trial.
They are similar to common law juries, and unlike lay judges, in that they sit separately from the judges and decide questions of fact alone while the judge determines questions of law. They must return unanimous verdicts during the first 3 hours of deliberation, but may return majority verdicts after that, with 6 jurors being enough to acquit. They may also request that the judge show leniency in sentencing.
Juries have granted acquittals in 15–20% of cases, compared with less than 1% in cases decided by judges. Juries may be dismissed and skeptical juries have been dismissed on the verge of verdicts, and acquittals are frequently overturned by higher courts.
Trial by jury was first introduced in the Russian Empire as a result of the Judicial reform of Alexander II in 1864, and abolished after the October Revolution in 1917. They were reintroduced in the Russian Federation in 1993, and extended to another 69 regions in 2003. Its reintroduction was opposed by the Prosecutor General.
Singapore fully abolished the jury system in 1969, though jury trials for non-capital offenses had already been abolished a decade earlier. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, a former trial lawyer, explained why he supported the policy to the BBC and in his memoirs, saying, "I had no faith in a system that allowed the superstition, ignorance, biases, and prejudices of seven jurymen to determine guilt or innocence."
The jury system was abolished in South Africa in 1969 by the Abolition of Juries Act, 1969. The last jury trial to be heard was in the District of Kimberley. Some judicial experts had argued that a system of whites-only juries (as was the system at that time) was inherently prejudicial to 'non-white' defendants (the introduction of nonracial juries would have been a political impossibility at that time). More recently it has been argued that, apart from being a racially divided country, South African society was, and still is, characterized by significant class differences and disparities of income and wealth that could make re-introducing the jury system problematic. Arguments for and against the re-introduction of a jury system have been discussed by South African constitutional expert Professor Pierre de Vos in the article "Do we need a jury system?" On 28 March 2014, the Oscar Pistorius trial was adjourned due to the illness of one of the two assessors that assist the judge on questions of fact (rather than law), in place of the jury, to reach a verdict. The legal system in the UK sees no reason to block extradition on this, as witnessed in the Shrien Dewani case.
In Sweden, juries are uncommon; the public is represented in the courts by means of lay judges (nämndemän). However, the defendant has the right to a jury trial in the lower court (tingsrätt) when accused of an offense against the fundamental laws on freedom of expression and freedom of the press. If a person is accused of e.g. libel or incitement to ethnic or racial hatred, in a medium covered by the fundamental laws (e.g. a printed paper or a radio programme), she has the right to have the accusation tried by a jury of nine jurors. This applies also in civil (tort) cases under the fundamental laws. A majority of at least six jurors must find that the defendant has committed the alleged crime. If it does not, the defendant is acquitted or, in a civil case, held not liable. If such a majority of the jurors hold that said crime has in fact been committed, this finding is not legally binding for the court; thus, the court (three judges) can still acquit the defendant or find him/her not liable. A jury acquittal may not be overruled after appeal. In Swedish civil process, the "English rule" applies to court costs. Earlier, a court disagreeing with a jury acquittal could, when deciding on the matter of such costs, set aside the English rule, and instead use the "American rule", that each party bears its own expense of litigation. This practice was declared to violate the rule of presumption of innocence according to article 6.2. of the European Convention on Human Rights, by the Supreme Court of Sweden, in 2012.
As of 2008, only the code of criminal procedure of the Canton of Geneva provides for genuine jury trials. Several other cantons—Vaud, Neuchâtel, Zürich and Ticino—provide for courts composed of both professional judges and laymen ("Schöffengerichte" / "tribunaux d'échevins"). Because the unified Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure (set to enter into force in 2011) does not provide for jury trials or lay judges, however, they are likely to be abolished in the near future.
The United Kingdom consists of three separate legal jurisdictions, but there are some features common to all of them. In particular there is seldom anything like the U.S. voir dire system; jurors are usually just accepted without question. Controversially, in England there has been some screening in sensitive security cases, but the Scottish courts have firmly set themselves against any form of jury vetting.
In England and Wales (which have the same legal system), everyone accused of an offence which carries more than six months' imprisonment has a right to trial by jury. Minor ("summary") criminal cases are heard without a jury in the Magistrates' Courts. Middle-ranking ("triable either way") offences may be tried by magistrates or the defendant may elect trial by jury in the Crown Court. Serious ("indictable-only") offences, however, must be tried before a jury in the Crown Court. Juries sit in few civil cases, being restricted to false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and civil fraud (unless ordered otherwise by a judge). Juries also sit in coroner's courts for more contentious inquests. All criminal juries consist of 12 jurors, those in a County Court having 8 jurors and Coroner's Court juries having between 7 and 11 members. Jurors must be between 18 and 75 years of age, and are selected at random from the register of voters. In the past a unanimous verdict was required. This has been changed so that, if the jury fails to agree after a given period, at the discretion of the judge they may reach a verdict by a 10–2 majority. This was designed to make it more difficult for jury tampering to succeed.
In 1999 the then Home Secretary Jack Straw introduced a controversial bill to limit the right to trial by jury. This became the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which sought to remove the right to trial by jury for cases involving jury tampering or complex fraud. The provision for trial without jury to circumvent jury tampering succeeded and came into force in 2007; the provision for complex fraud cases was defeated. Lord Goldsmith, the then Attorney General, then pressed forward with the Fraud (Trials Without a Jury) Bill in Parliament, which sought to abolish jury trials in major criminal fraud trials. The Bill was subject to sharp criticism from both sides of the House of Commons before passing its second Commons reading in November 2006, but was defeated in the Lords in March 2007.
The trial for the first serious offence to be tried without a jury for 350 years was allowed to go ahead in 2009. Three previous trials of the defendants had been halted because of jury tampering, and the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, cited cost and the additional burden on the jurors as reasons to proceed without a jury. Previously in cases where jury tampering was a concern the jurors were sometimes closeted in a hotel for the duration of the trial. However, Liberty director of policy Isabella Sankey said that "This is a dangerous precedent. The right to jury trial isn't just a hallowed principle but a practice that ensures that one class of people don't sit in judgement over another and the public have confidence in an open and representative justice system."
The trial started in 2010, with the four defendants convicted on the 31 March 2010 by Mr Justice Treacy at the Old Bailey.
In Scots law the jury system has some similarities with England but some important differences; in particular, there are juries of 15 in criminal trials, with verdicts by simple majority.
In Northern Ireland, the role of the jury trial is roughly similar to England and Wales, except that jury trials have been replaced in cases of alleged terrorist offences by courts where the judge sits alone, known as "Diplock courts". Diplock courts are common in Northern Ireland for crimes connected to terrorism.
Diplock courts were created in the 1970s during The Troubles, to phase out Operation Demetrius internments, and because of the argument that juries were intimidated, though this is disputed. The Diplock courts were shut in 2007, but between 1 August 2008 and 31 July 2009, 13 non-jury trials were held, down from 29 in the previous year, and 300 trials per year at their peak.
The availability of a trial by jury in American jurisdictions varies. Because the United States legal system separated from that of the English one at the time of the American Revolution, the types of proceedings that use juries depends on whether such cases were tried by jury under English common law at that time rather than the methods used in English courts now. For example, at the time, English "courts of law" tried cases of torts or private law for monetary damages using juries, but "courts of equity" that tried civil cases seeking an injunction or another form of non-monetary relief did not. As a result, this practice continues in American civil laws, but in modern English law, only criminal proceedings and some inquests are likely to be heard by a jury.
A distinctive feature of jury trials in the United States is that verdicts in criminal cases must usually be unanimous.
Every person accused of a crime punishable by incarceration for more than six months has a constitutionally protected right to a trial by jury, which arises in federal court from Article Three of the United States Constitution, which states in part, "The Trial of all Crimes...shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed." The right was expanded with the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states in part, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." Both provisions were made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Most states' constitutions also grant the right of trial by jury in lesser criminal matters, though most have abrogated that right in offenses punishable by fine only. The Supreme Court has ruled that if imprisonment is for six months or less, trial by jury is not required, meaning a state may choose whether or not to permit trial by jury in such cases. Under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, if the defendant is entitled to a jury trial, he may waive his right to have a jury, but both the government (prosecution) and court must consent to the waiver. Several states require jury trials for all crimes, "petty" or not.
In the cases "Apprendi v. New Jersey", , and "Blakely v. Washington", , the Supreme Court of the United States held that a criminal defendant has a right to a jury trial not only on the question of guilt or innocence, but any fact used to increase the defendant's sentence beyond the maximum otherwise allowed by statutes or sentencing guidelines. This invalidated the procedure in many states and the federal courts that allowed sentencing enhancement based on "a preponderance of evidence", where enhancement could be based on the judge's findings alone. Depending upon the state, a jury must be unanimous for either a guilty or not guilty decision. A hung jury results in the defendants release, however charges against the defendant are not dropped and can be reinstated if the state so chooses.
Jurors in some states are selected through voter registration and drivers' license lists. A form is sent to prospective jurors to pre-qualify them by asking the recipient to answer questions about citizenship, disabilities, ability to understand the English language, and whether they have any conditions that would excuse them from being a juror. If they are deemed qualified, a summons is issued.
English common law and the United States Constitution recognize the right to a jury trial to be a fundamental civil liberty or civil right that allows the accused to choose whether to be judged by judges or a jury.
In the United States, it is understood that juries usually weigh the evidence and testimony to determine questions of fact, while judges usually rule on questions of law, although the dissenting justices in the Supreme Court case "Sparf et al. v. U.S. 156 U.S. 51 (1895)", generally considered the pivotal case concerning the rights and powers of the jury, declared: "It is our deep and settled conviction, confirmed by a re-examination of the authorities that the jury, upon the general issue of guilty or not guilty in a criminal case, have the right, as well as the power, to decide, according to their own judgment and consciences, all questions, whether of law or of fact, involved in that issue." Jury determination of questions of law, sometimes called jury nullification, cannot be overturned by a judge if doing so would violate legal protections against double jeopardy. Although a judge can throw out a guilty verdict if it was not supported by the evidence, a jurist has no authority to override a verdict that favors a defendant.
It was established in Bushel's Case that a judge cannot order the jury to convict, no matter how strong the evidence is. In civil cases a special verdict can be given, but in criminal cases a general verdict is rendered, because requiring a special verdict could apply pressure to the jury, and because of the jury's historic function of tempering rules of law by common sense brought to bear upon the facts of a specific case. For this reason, Justice Black and Justice Douglas indicated their disapproval of special interrogatories even in civil cases.
There has been much debate about the advantages and disadvantages of the jury system, the competence or lack thereof of jurors as fact-finders, and the uniformity or capriciousness of the justice they administer. The jury has been described by one author as "an exciting and gallant experiment in the conduct of serious human affairs". Because they are fact-finders, juries are sometimes expected to perform a role similar to a lie detector, especially when presented with testimony from witnesses.
A civil jury is typically made up of 6 to 12 persons. In a civil case, the role of the jury is to listen to the evidence presented at a trial, to decide whether the defendant injured the plaintiff or otherwise failed to fulfill a legal duty to the plaintiff, and to determine what the compensation or penalty should be.
A criminal jury is usually made up of 12 members, though fewer may sit on cases involving lesser offenses. Criminal juries decide whether the defendant committed the crime as charged. In several southern states, the jury sets punishment, while in most states and at the federal level, it is set by the judge.
Prior to 2020, under most states' laws, verdicts in criminal cases must be unanimous with the exception of Oregon and Louisiana. In Oregon, a 10–2 majority was required for conviction, except for capital crimes which require unanimous verdicts for guilty in any murder case. In Oregon, unlike any other state, a Not Guilty verdict may be reached in any case (murder included) by a vote of 10 to 2 or 11 to 1. Louisiana also did not require unanimous juries in serious felony cases until passage of a state constitutional amendment going into effect for crimes committed on or after January 1, 2019. However, in "Ramos v. Louisiana", decided in April 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that felony convictions must be a unanimous vote from the jury, overturning Oregon's and Louisiana's prior allowances for split decisions.
In civil cases, the law (or the agreement of the parties) may permit a non-unanimous verdict.
A jury's deliberations are conducted in private, out of sight and hearing of the judge, litigants, witnesses, and others in the courtroom.
Not every case is eligible for a jury trial. In the majority of U.S. states, there is no right to a jury trial in family law actions not involving a termination of parental rights, such as divorce and custody modifications. Only eleven states allow juries in any aspect of divorce litigation (Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin). Most of these limit the right to a jury to try issues regarding grounds or entitlement for divorce only. Texas provides jury trial rights most broadly, including even the right to a jury trial on questions regarding child custody. However, anyone who is charged with a criminal offense, breach of contract or federal offence has a Constitutional right to a trial by jury.
"In the United States, a civil action is a lawsuit; civil law is the branch of common law dealing with non-criminal actions. It should not be confused with legal system of civil law."
The right to trial by jury in a civil case in federal court is addressed by the Seventh Amendment. Importantly, however, the Seventh Amendment does not guarantee a right to a civil jury trial in state courts (although most state constitutions guarantee such a right). The Seventh Amendment provides: "In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law." In Joseph Story's 1833 treatise "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States", he wrote, "[I]t is a most important and valuable amendment; and places upon the high ground of constitutional right the inestimable privilege of a trial by jury in civil cases, a privilege scarcely inferior to that in criminal cases, which is conceded by all to be essential to political and civil liberty."
The Seventh Amendment does not guarantee or create any right to a jury trial; rather, it preserves the right to jury trial in the federal courts that existed in 1791 at common law. In this context, common law means the legal environment the United States inherited from England. In England in 1791, civil actions were divided into actions at law and actions in equity. Actions at law had a right to a jury, actions in equity did not. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 2 says "[t]here is one form of action—the civil action", which abolishes the legal/equity distinction. Today, in actions that would have been "at law" in 1791, there is a right to a jury; in actions that would have been "in equity" in 1791, there is no right to a jury. However, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 39(c) allows a court to use one at its discretion. To determine whether the action would have been legal or equitable in 1791, one must first look at the type of action and whether such an action was considered "legal" or "equitable" at that time. Next, the relief being sought must be examined. Monetary damages alone were purely a legal remedy, and thus entitled to a jury. Non-monetary remedies such as injunctions, rescission, and specific performance were all equitable remedies, and thus up to the judge's discretion, not a jury. In "Beacon Theaters, Inc. v. Westover", , the US Supreme Court discussed the right to a jury, holding that when both equitable and legal claims are brought, the right to a jury trial still exists for the legal claim, which would be decided by a jury before the judge ruled on the equitable claim.
There is not a United States constitutional right under the Seventh Amendment to a jury trial in state courts, but in practice, almost every state except Louisiana, which has a civil law legal tradition, permits jury trials in civil cases in state courts on substantially the same basis that they are allowed under the Seventh Amendment in federal court. The right to a jury trial in civil cases does not extend to the states, except when a state court is enforcing a federally created right, of which the right to trial by jury is a substantial part.
The court determines the right to jury based on all claims by all parties involved. If the plaintiff brings only equitable claims but the defendant asserts counterclaims of law, the court grants a jury trial. In accordance with Beacon Theaters, the jury first determines the facts, then the judge enter judgment on the equitable claims.
Following the English tradition, U.S. juries have usually been composed of 12 jurors, and the jury's verdict has usually been required to be unanimous. However, in many jurisdictions, the number of jurors is often reduced to a lesser number (such as five or six) by legislative enactment, or by agreement of both sides. Some jurisdictions also permit a verdict to be returned despite the dissent of one, two, or three jurors.
The vast majority of U.S. criminal cases are not concluded with a jury verdict, but rather by plea bargain. Both prosecutors and defendants often have a strong interest in resolving the criminal case by negotiation resulting in a plea bargain. If the defendant waives a jury trial, a bench trial is held.
For civil cases, a jury trial must be demanded within a certain period of time per Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 38.
In United States Federal courts, there is no absolute right to waive a jury trial. Per Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 23(a), only if the prosecution and the court consent may a defendant waive a jury trial for criminal cases. However, most states give the defendant the absolute right to waive a jury trial, and it has become commonplace to find such a waiver in routine contracts as a 2004 "Wall Street Journal" Article states:
"For years, in an effort to avoid the slow-moving wheels of the U.S. judicial system, many American companies have forced their customers and employees to agree to settle disputes outside of the courts, through private arbitration... but the rising cost of arbitration proceedings has led some companies to decide they might be better off in the court system after all [so long as] they don't have to tangle with juries. The new tactic [is to] let disputes go to court, but on the condition that they be heard only by a judge." The article goes on to claim "The list includes residential leases, checking-account agreements, auto loans and mortgage contracts. Companies that believe juries are biased toward plaintiffs hope this approach will boost their chances of winning in court. Critics say that unfairly denies citizens' access to the full range of legal options guaranteed by the Constitution."
In the years since this 2004 article, this practice has become pervasive in the US and, especially in online agreements, it has become commonplace to include such waivers to trial by jury in everything from user agreements attached to software downloads to merely browsing a website. This practice, however, means that while such waivers may have legal force in one jurisdiction—in this case the United States—in the jurisdiction where a verdict is sought in the absence of jury trial (or indeed the presence of a defendant, or any legal representation "in absentia") may well run directly counter to law in the jurisdiction—such as the United Kingdom—where the defendant resides, thus:
The Judgment on "Regina v Jones issued by the United Kingdom's Court of Appeal's (Criminal Division)" states, (in part, in Item 55) "... the issue has to be determined by looking at the way in which the courts handled the problem under English criminal procedure and by deciding whether, in the result, the appellant can be said to have had a fair hearing."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16367
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Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense is the principle that people receive that which they deserve; with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspectives, including the concepts of moral correctness based on ethics, rationality, law, religion, equity and fairness.
Consequently, the appliction of justice differs in every culture. Early theories of justice were set out by the Ancient Greek philosophers Plato in his work The Republic, and Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics. Throughout history various theories have been established. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice issues from God. In the 1600s, theorists like John Locke argued for the theory of natural law. Thinkers in the social contract tradition argued that justice is derived from the mutual agreement of everyone concerned. In the 1800s, utilitarian thinkers including John Stuart Mill argued that justice is based on the best outcomes for the greatest number of people. Theories of distributive justice concern what is to be distributed, between whom they are to be distributed, and what is the "proper" distribution. Egalitarians argued that justice can only exist within the coordinates of equality. John Rawls used a social contract argument to show that justice, and especially distributive justice, is a form of fairness. Property rights theorists (like Robert Nozick) also take a consequentialist view of distributive justice and argue that property rights-based justice maximizes the overall wealth of an economic system. Theories of retributive justice are concerned with punishment for wrongdoing. Restorative justice (also sometimes called "reparative justice") is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of victims and offenders.
In his dialogue "Republic", Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both the just person and the just City State. Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the warring parts of the person or city. Hence, Plato's definition of justice is that justice is the having and doing of what is one's own. A just man is a man in just the right place, doing his best and giving the precise equivalent of what he has received. This applies both at the individual level and at the universal level. A person's soul has three parts – reason, spirit and desire. Similarly, a city has three parts – Socrates uses the parable of the chariot to illustrate his point: a chariot works as a whole because the two horses' power is directed by the charioteer. Lovers of wisdom – philosophers, in one sense of the term – should rule because only they understand what is good. If one is ill, one goes to a medic rather than a farmer, because the medic is expert in the subject of health. Similarly, one should trust one's city to an expert in the subject of the good, not to a mere politician who tries to gain power by giving people what they want, rather than what's good for them. Socrates uses the parable of the ship to illustrate this point: the unjust city is like a ship in open ocean, crewed by a powerful but drunken captain (the common people), a group of untrustworthy advisors who try to manipulate the captain into giving them power over the ship's course (the politicians), and a navigator (the philosopher) who is the only one who knows how to get the ship to port. For Socrates, the only way the ship will reach its destination – the good – is if the navigator takes charge.
Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice, and indeed the whole of morality, is the authoritative command of God. Murder is wrong and must be punished, for instance, because God says it so. Some versions of the theory assert that God must be obeyed because of the nature of his relationship with humanity, others assert that God must be obeyed because he is goodness itself, and thus doing what he says would be best for everyone.
A meditation on the Divine command theory by Plato can be found in his dialogue, Euthyphro. Called the Euthyphro dilemma, it goes as follows: "Is what is morally good commanded by God because it is morally good, or is it morally good because it is commanded by God?" The implication is that if the latter is true, then justice is beyond mortal understanding; if the former is true, then morality exists independently from God, and is therefore subject to the judgment of mortals. A response, popularized in two contexts by Immanuel Kant and C. S. Lewis, is that it is deductively valid to argue that the existence of an objective morality implies the existence of God and vice versa.
For advocates of the theory that justice is part of natural law (e.g., John Locke), it involves the system of consequences that naturally derives from any action or choice. In this, it is similar to the laws of physics: in the same way as the Third of Newton's laws of Motion requires that for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction, justice requires according individuals or groups what they actually deserve, merit, or are entitled to. Justice, on this account, is a universal and absolute concept: laws, principles, religions, etc., are merely attempts to codify that concept, sometimes with results that entirely contradict the true nature of justice.
In "Republic" by Plato, the character Thrasymachus argues that justice is the interest of the strong – merely a name for what the powerful or cunning ruler has imposed on the people.
Advocates of the social contract agree that justice is derived from the mutual agreement of everyone concerned; or, in many versions, from what they would agree to under "hypothetical" conditions including equality and absence of bias. This account is considered further below, under 'Justice as fairness'. The absence of bias refers to an equal ground for all people concerned in a disagreement (or trial in some cases).
According to utilitarian thinkers including John Stuart Mill, justice is not as fundamental as we often think. Rather, it is derived from the more basic standard of rightness, consequentialism: what is right is what has the best consequences (usually measured by the total or average welfare caused). So, the proper principles of justice are those that tend to have the best consequences. These rules may turn out to be familiar ones such as keeping contracts; but equally, they may not, depending on the facts about real consequences. Either way, what is important is those consequences, and justice is important, if at all, only as derived from that fundamental standard. Mill tries to explain our mistaken belief that justice is overwhelmingly important by arguing that it derives from two natural human tendencies: our desire to retaliate against those who hurt us, or the feeling of self-defense and our ability to put ourselves imaginatively in another's place, sympathy. So, when we see someone harmed, we project ourselves into their situation and feel a desire to retaliate on their behalf. If this process is the source of our feelings about justice, that ought to undermine our confidence in them.
Theories of distributive justice need to answer three questions:
Distributive justice theorists generally do not answer questions of "who has the right" to enforce a particular favored distribution. On the other hand, property rights theorists argue that there is no "favored distribution." Rather, distribution should be based simply on whatever distribution results from lawful interactions or transactions (that is, transactions which are not illicit).
This section describes some widely held theories of distributive justice, and their attempts to answer these questions.
Social justice is concerned with the just relationship between individuals and their society, often considering how privileges, opportunities, and wealth ought to be distributed among individuals. Social justice is also associated with social mobility, especially the ease with which individuals and families may move between social strata. Social justice is distinct from cosmopolitanism, which is the idea that all people belong to a single global community with a shared morality. Social justice is also distinct from egalitarianism, which is the idea that all people are equal in terms of status, value, or rights, as social justice theories do not all require equality. For example, sociologist George C. Homans suggested that the root of the concept of justice is that each person should receive rewards that are proportional to their contributions. Economist Friedrich Hayek argued that the concept of social justice was meaningless, saying that justice is a result of individual behavior and unpredictable market forces. Social justice is closely related to the concept of relational justice, which is concerned with the just relationship with individuals who possess features in common such as nationality, or who are engaged in cooperation or negotiation.
In his "A Theory of Justice", John Rawls used a social contract argument to show that justice, and especially distributive justice, is a form of fairness: an impartial distribution of goods. Rawls asks us to imagine ourselves behind a veil of ignorance that denies us all knowledge of our personalities, social statuses, moral characters, wealth, talents and life plans, and then asks what theory of justice we would choose to govern our society when the veil is lifted, if we wanted to do the best that we could for ourselves. We don't know who in particular we are, and therefore can't bias the decision in our own favour. So, the decision-in-ignorance models fairness, because it excludes selfish bias. Rawls argues that each of us would reject the utilitarian theory of justice that we should maximize welfare (see below) because of the risk that we might turn out to be someone whose own good is sacrificed for greater benefits for others. Instead, we would endorse Rawls's "two principles of justice":
This imagined choice justifies these principles as the principles of justice for us, because we would agree to them in a fair decision procedure. Rawls's theory distinguishes two kinds of goods – (1) the good of liberty rights and (2) social and economic goods, i.e. wealth, income and power – and applies different distributions to them – equality between citizens for (1), equality unless inequality improves the position of the worst off for (2).
In one sense, theories of distributive justice may assert that everyone should get what they deserve. Theories disagree on the meaning of what is "deserved". The main distinction is between theories that argue the basis of just deserts ought to be held equally by everyone, and therefore derive egalitarian accounts of distributive justice – and theories that argue the basis of just deserts is unequally distributed on the basis of, for instance, hard work, and therefore derive accounts of distributive justice by which some should have more than others.
According to "meritocratic" theories, goods, especially wealth and social status, should be distributed to match individual "merit", which is usually understood as some combination of talent and hard work. According to "needs"-based theories, goods, especially such basic goods as food, shelter and medical care, should be distributed to meet individuals' basic needs for them. Marxism is a needs-based theory, expressed succinctly in Marx's slogan "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". According to "contribution"-based theories, goods should be distributed to match an individual's contribution to the overall social good.
In "Anarchy, State, and Utopia", Robert Nozick argues that distributive justice is not a matter of the whole distribution matching an ideal "pattern", but of each individual entitlement having the right kind of "history". It is just that a person has some good (especially, some property right) if and only if they came to have it by a history made up entirely of events of two kinds:
If the chain of events leading up to the person having something meets this criterion, they are entitled to it: that they possess it is just, and what anyone else does or doesn't have or need is irrelevant.
On the basis of this theory of distributive justice, Nozick argues that all attempts to redistribute goods according to an ideal pattern, without the consent of their owners, are theft. In particular, redistributive taxation is theft.
Some property rights theorists (like Nozick) also take a consequentialist view of distributive justice and argue that property rights based justice also has the effect of maximizing the overall wealth of an economic system. They explain that voluntary (non-coerced) transactions always have a property called Pareto efficiency. The result is that the world is better off in an absolute sense and no one is worse off. Such consequentialist property rights theorists argue that respecting property rights maximizes the number of Pareto efficient transactions in the world and minimized the number of non-Pareto efficient transactions in the world (i.e. transactions where someone is made worse off). The result is that the world will have generated the greatest total benefit from the limited, scarce resources available in the world. Further, this will have been accomplished without taking anything away from anyone unlawfully.
According to the utilitarian, justice requires the maximization of the total or average welfare across all relevant individuals. This may require sacrifice of some for the good of others, so long as everyone's good is taken impartially into account. Utilitarianism, in general, argues that the standard of justification for actions, institutions, or the whole world, is "impartial welfare consequentialism", and only indirectly, if at all, to do with rights, property, need, or any other non-utilitarian criterion. These other criteria might be indirectly important, to the extent that human welfare involves them. But even then, such demands as human rights would only be elements in the calculation of overall welfare, not uncrossable barriers to action.
Theories of retributive justice are concerned with punishment for wrongdoing, and need to answer three questions:
This section considers the two major accounts of retributive justice, and their answers to these questions. "Utilitarian" theories look forward to the future consequences of punishment, while "retributive" theories look back to particular acts of wrongdoing, and attempt to balance them with deserved punishment.
According to the utilitarian, justice requires the maximization of the total or average welfare across all relevant individuals. Punishment fights crime in three ways:
So, the reason for punishment is the maximization of welfare, and punishment should be of whomever, and of whatever form and severity, are needed to meet that goal. This may sometimes justify punishing the innocent, or inflicting disproportionately severe punishments, when that will have the best consequences overall (perhaps executing a few suspected shoplifters live on television would be an effective deterrent to shoplifting, for instance). It also suggests that punishment might turn out "never" to be right, depending on the facts about what actual consequences it has.
The retributivist will think consequentialism is mistaken. If someone does something wrong we must respond by punishing for the committed action itself, regardless of what outcomes punishment produces. Wrongdoing must be balanced or made good in some way, and so the criminal "deserves" to be punished. It says that all guilty people, and only guilty people, deserve appropriate punishment. This matches some strong intuitions about just punishment: that it should be "proportional" to the crime, and that it should be of "only" and "all of" the guilty. However, it is sometimes argued that retributivism is merely revenge in disguise. However, there are differences between retribution and revenge: the former is impartial and has a scale of appropriateness, whereas the latter is personal and potentially unlimited in scale.
Restorative justice (also sometimes called "reparative justice") is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of victims and offenders, instead of satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing the offender. Victims take an active role in the process, while offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, "to repair the harm they've done – by apologizing, returning stolen money, or community service". It is based on a theory of justice that considers crime and wrongdoing to be an offense against an individual or community rather than the state. Restorative justice that fosters dialogue between victim and offender shows the highest rates of victim satisfaction and offender accountability.
Some modern philosophers have argued that Utilitarian and Retributive theories are not mutually exclusive. For example, Andrew von Hirsch, in his 1976 book "Doing Justice", suggested that we have a moral obligation to punish greater crimes more than lesser ones. However, so long as we adhere to that constraint then utilitarian ideals would play a significant secondary role.
It has been argued that 'systematic' or 'programmatic' political and moral philosophy in the West begins, in Plato's Republic, with the question, 'What is Justice?' According to most contemporary theories of justice, justice is overwhelmingly important: John Rawls claims that "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought." In classical approaches, evident from Plato through to Rawls, the concept of 'justice' is always construed in logical or 'etymological' opposition to the concept of injustice. Such approaches cite various examples of injustice, as problems which a theory of justice must overcome. A number of post-World War II approaches do, however, challenge that seemingly obvious dualism between those two concepts.
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Jacob Abbott
Jacob Abbott (November 14, 1803 – October 31, 1879) was an American writer of children's books.
On November 14, 1803, Abbott was born in Hallowell, Maine. He attended the Hallowell Academy.
Abbott graduated from Bowdoin College in 1820. At some point during his years there, he supposedly added the second "t" to his surname, to avoid being "Jacob Abbot the 3rd" (although one source notes he did not actually begin signing his name with two t's until several years later).
Abbott studied at Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, 1822, and 1824. Abbott was tutor in 1824–1825.
From 1825 to 1829 was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst College; was licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826; founded the Mount Vernon School for Young Ladies in Boston in 1829, and was principal of it in 1829–1833; was pastor of Eliot Congregational Church (which he founded), at Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1834–1835; and was, with his brothers, a founder, and in 1843–1851 a principal of Abbott's Institute, and in 1845–1848 of the Mount Vernon School for Boys, in New York City.
He was a prolific author, writing juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies, religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science. He wrote 180 books and was a coauthor or editor of 31 more. He died in Farmington, Maine, where he had spent part of his time after 1839, and where his brother, Samuel Phillips Abbott, founded the Abbott School.
His "Rollo Books", such as "Rollo at Play, Rollo in Europe", etc., are the best known of his writings, having as their chief characters a representative boy and his associates. In them Abbott did for one or two generations of young American readers a service not unlike that performed earlier, in England and America, by the authors of "Evenings at Home", "The History of Sandford and Merton", and "The Parent's Assistant". To follow up his Rollo books, he wrote of "Uncle George", using him to teach the young readers about ethics, geography, history, and science. He also wrote 22 volumes of biographical histories and a 10 volume set titled the "Franconia Stories".
His brothers, John Stevens Cabot Abbott and Gorham Dummer Abbott, were also authors. His sons, Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Austin Abbott, both eminent lawyers, Lyman Abbott, and Edward Abbott, a clergyman, were also well-known authors.
See his "Young Christian, Memorial Edition, with a Sketch of the Author" by Edward Abbott with a bibliography of his works.
Other works of note: "Lucy Books", "Jonas Books", "Harper's Story Books", "Marco Paul", "Gay Family", and "Juno Books".
On May 18, 1828, Abbott married Harriet Vaughan. Abbott had four sons and they are Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Edward Abbott, Austin Abbott and Lyman Abbott.
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John Stevens Cabot Abbott
John Stevens Cabot Abbott (September 19, 1805 – June 17, 1877), an American historian, pastor, and pedagogical writer, was born in Brunswick, Maine to Jacob and Betsey Abbott.
He was a brother of Jacob Abbott, and was associated with him in the management of Abbott's Institute, New York City, and in the preparation of his series of brief historical biographies. Dr. Abbott graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825, prepared for the ministry at Andover Theological Seminary, and between 1830 and 1844, when he retired from the ministry in the Congregational Church, preached successively at Worcester, Roxbury and Nantucket, all in Massachusetts.
Owing to the success of his work, "The Mother at Home", he devoted himself from 1844 onwards, to literature. He was a voluminous writer of books on Christian ethics, and of popular histories, which were credited with cultivating a popular interest in history. He is best known as the author of the widely popular "History of Napoleon Bonaparte" (1855), in which the various elements and episodes in Napoleon's career are described. Abbott takes a very favourable view towards his subject throughout. Also among his principal works are: "History of the Civil War in America" (1863–1866),"History of Napoleon III Emperor of the French" (1868), and "The History of Frederick II, Called Frederick the Great" (New York, 1871). He also did a foreword to a book called Life of Boone by W.M. Bogart, about Daniel Boone in 1876.
In general, although he did not write juvenile fiction, his work in subject and style closely resembles that of his brother, Jacob Abbott.
On August 17, 1830 he married Jane Williams Bourne, daughter of Abner Bourne and Abagail Williams. Together they raised nine children:
As a part of the 1872 Iwakura Mission Abbott was given guardianship of Shige Nagai, a Japanese girl sent to the United States to be educated. She became one of the first piano teachers in Japan, and one of the first two Japanese women to attend a college.
Abbott died at Fair Haven, Connecticut. In 1910, a series of twenty short biographies of historical characters by J. S. C. and Jacob Abbott, was published. Their brother, Gorham Dummer Abbott, was also an author. Abbott's grandson, Willis Abbott, was a journalist and author and an editor of the "Christian Science Monitor".
Published after 1850 in the series "Illustrated History", with other titles by his brother Jacob Abbott. Later reissued in the "Famous Characters of History" series, and in the 1904 series "Makers of History":
The American Pioneers And Patriots set:
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J. E. B. Stuart
James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (February 6, 1833May 12, 1864) was a United States Army officer from Virginia who became a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb", from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use of cavalry in support of offensive operations. While he cultivated a cavalier image (red-lined gray cape, yellow sash, hat cocked to the side with an ostrich plume, red flower in his lapel, often sporting cologne), his serious work made him the trusted eyes and ears of Robert E. Lee's army and inspired Southern morale.
Stuart graduated from West Point in 1854, and served in Texas and Kansas with the U.S. Army. In 1855, he married Flora Cooke. His father-in-law was the "Father of the US Cavalry", Philip St. George Cooke. Stuart was a veteran of the frontier conflicts with American Indians and the violence of Bleeding Kansas, and he participated in the capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. He resigned when his home state of Virginia seceded to serve in the Confederate Army, first under Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, but then in increasingly important cavalry commands of the Army of Northern Virginia, playing a role in all of that army's campaigns until his death.
He established a reputation as an audacious cavalry commander and on two occasions (during the Peninsula Campaign and the Maryland Campaign) circumnavigated the Union Army of the Potomac, bringing fame to himself and embarrassment to the North. At the Battle of Chancellorsville, he distinguished himself as a temporary commander of the wounded Stonewall Jackson's infantry corps.
Stuart's most famous campaign, the Gettysburg Campaign, was flawed when his long separation from Lee's army left Lee unaware of Union troop movements so that Lee was surprised and almost trapped at the Battle of Gettysburg. Stuart received significant criticism from the Southern press as well as the proponents of the Lost Cause movement after the war. During the 1864 Overland Campaign, Union Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry launched an offensive to defeat Stuart, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern. Stuart's widow wore black for the rest of her life in remembrance of her deceased husband.
Stuart was born at Laurel Hill Farm, a plantation in Patrick County, Virginia, near the border with North Carolina. He was the eighth of eleven children and the youngest of the five sons to survive past early age. His father, Archibald Stuart, was a War of 1812 veteran, slaveholder, attorney, and politician who represented Patrick County in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, and also served one term in the United States House of Representatives. His mother Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart ran the family farm, and was known as a strict religious woman with a good sense for business.
He was of Scottish descent (including some Scots-Irish). His great-grandfather, Major Alexander Stuart, commanded a regiment at the Battle of Guilford Court House during the Revolutionary War. His father Archibald was a cousin of attorney Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart.
Stuart was educated at home by his mother and tutors until the age of twelve, when he left Laurel Hill to be educated by various teachers in Wytheville, Virginia, and at the home of his aunt Anne (Archibald's sister) and her husband Judge James Ewell Brown (Stuart's namesake) at Danville. He entered Emory and Henry College when he was fifteen, and attended from 1848 to 1850.
During the summer of 1848, Stuart attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army, but was rejected as underaged. He obtained an appointment in 1850 to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, from Representative Thomas Hamlet Averett, the man who had defeated his father in the 1848 election. Stuart was a popular student and was happy at the Academy. Although not handsome in his teen years, his classmates called him by the nickname "Beauty", which they described as his "personal comeliness in inverse ratio to the term employed." He quickly grew a beard after graduation and a fellow officer remarked that he was "the only man he ever saw that [a] beard improved."
Robert E. Lee was appointed superintendent of the academy in 1852, and Stuart became a friend of the family, seeing them socially on frequent occasions. Lee's nephew, Fitzhugh Lee, also arrived at the academy in 1852. In Stuart's final year, in addition to achieving the cadet rank of second captain of the corps, he was one of eight cadets designated as honorary "cavalry officers" for his skills in horsemanship. Stuart graduated 13th in his class of 46 in 1854. He ranked tenth in his class in cavalry tactics. Although he enjoyed the civil engineering curriculum at the academy and did well in mathematics, his poor drawing skills hampered his engineering studies, and he finished 29th in that discipline.
Stuart was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant and assigned to the U.S. Regiment of Mounted Riflemen in Texas. After an arduous journey, he reached Fort Davis on January 28, 1855, and was a leader for three months on scouting missions over the San Antonio to El Paso Road. He was soon transferred to the newly formed 1st Cavalry Regiment (1855) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, where he became regimental quartermaster and commissary officer under the command of Col. Edwin V. Sumner. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1855.
Also in 1855, Stuart met Flora Cooke, the daughter of the commander of the 2nd U.S. Dragoon Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke. Burke Davis described Flora as "an accomplished horsewoman, and though not pretty, an effective charmer," to whom "Stuart succumbed with hardly a struggle." They became engaged in September, less than two months after meeting. Stuart humorously wrote of his rapid courtship in Latin, ""Veni, Vidi, Victus sum"" (I came, I saw, I was conquered). Although a gala wedding was planned for Fort Riley, Kansas, the death of Stuart's father on September 20 caused a change of plans and the marriage on November 14 was small and limited to family witnesses. Their first child, a girl, had been born in 1856 but died the same day. On November 14, 1857, Flora gave birth to another daughter, whom the parents named Flora after her mother. The family relocated in early 1858 to Fort Riley, where they remained for three years. The couple owned two slaves until 1859, one inherited from his father's estate, the other purchased.
Stuart's leadership capabilities were soon recognized. He was a veteran of the frontier conflicts with American Indians and the antebellum violence of Bleeding Kansas. He was wounded on July 29, 1857, while fighting at Solomon River, Kansas, against the Cheyenne. Col. Sumner ordered a charge with drawn sabers against a wave of Indian arrows. Scattering the warriors, Stuart and three other lieutenants chased one down, whom Stuart wounded in the thigh with his pistol. The Cheyenne turned and fired at Stuart with an old-fashioned pistol, striking him in the chest with a bullet, which did little more damage than to pierce the skin. Stuart returned in September to Fort Leavenworth and was reunited with his wife.
In 1859, Stuart developed a new piece of cavalry equipment, for which he received patent number 25,684 on October 4—a saber hook, or an "improved method of attaching sabers to belts." The U.S. government paid Stuart $5,000 for a "right to use" license and Stuart contracted with Knorr, Nece and Co. of Philadelphia to manufacture his hook. While in Washington, D.C., to discuss government contracts, and in conjunction with his application for an appointment into the quartermaster department, Stuart heard about John Brown's raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Stuart volunteered to be aide-de-camp to Col. Robert E. Lee and accompanied Lee with a company of U.S. Marines from the Marine Barracks, 8th & I, Washington, DC. and four companies of Maryland militia. While delivering Lee's written surrender ultimatum to the leader of the group, who had been calling himself Isaac Smith, Stuart recognized "Old Osawatomie Brown" from his days in Kansas.
Stuart was promoted to captain on April 22, 1861, but resigned from the U.S. Army on May 3, 1861, to join the Confederate States Army, following the secession of Virginia. On June 26, 1860, Flora gave birth to a son, Philip St. George Cooke Stuart, but his father changed the name to James Ewell Brown Stuart, Jr. ("Jimmie"), in late 1861 out of disgust with his father-in-law. Upon learning that his father-in-law, Col. Cooke, would remain in the U.S. Army during the coming war, Stuart wrote to his brother-in-law (future Confederate Brig. Gen. John Rogers Cooke), "He will regret it but once, and that will be continuously."
Stuart was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel of Virginia Infantry in the Confederate Army on May 10, 1861. Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee, now commanding the armed forces of Virginia, ordered him to report to Colonel Thomas J. Jackson at Harper's Ferry. Jackson chose to ignore Stuart's infantry designation and assigned him on July 4 to command all the cavalry companies of the Army of the Shenandoah, organized as the 1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment. He was promoted to colonel on July 16.
After early service in the Shenandoah Valley, Stuart led his regiment in the First Battle of Bull Run (where Jackson got his nickname, "Stonewall"), and participated in the pursuit of the retreating Federals. He then commanded the Army's outposts along the upper Potomac River until given command of the cavalry brigade for the army then known as the Army of the Potomac (later named the Army of Northern Virginia). He was promoted to brigadier general on September 24, 1861.
In 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac began its Peninsula Campaign against Richmond, Virginia, and Stuart's cavalry brigade assisted Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army as it withdrew up the Virginia Peninsula in the face of superior numbers. Stuart fought at the Battle of Williamsburg, but in general the terrain and weather on the Peninsula did not lend themselves to cavalry operations.
However, when Gen. Robert E. Lee became commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, he requested that Stuart perform reconnaissance to determine whether the right flank of the Union army was vulnerable. Stuart set out with 1,200 troopers on the morning of June 12 and, having determined that the flank was indeed vulnerable, took his men on a complete circumnavigation of the Union army, returning after 150 miles on June 15 with 165 captured Union soldiers, 260 horses and mules, and various quartermaster and ordnance supplies. His men met no serious opposition from the more decentralized Union cavalry, coincidentally commanded by his father-in-law, Col. Cooke, and their total casualties amounted to one man killed. The maneuver was a public relations sensation and Stuart was greeted with flower petals thrown in his path at Richmond. He had become as famous as Stonewall Jackson in the eyes of the Confederacy.
Early in the Northern Virginia Campaign, Stuart was promoted to major general on July 25, 1862, and his command was upgraded to the Cavalry Division. He was nearly captured and lost his signature plumed hat and cloak to pursuing Federals during a raid in August, but in a retaliatory raid at Catlett's Station the following day, managed to overrun Union army commander Maj. Gen. John Pope's headquarters, and not only captured Pope's full uniform, but also intercepted orders that provided Lee with valuable intelligence concerning reinforcements for Pope's army.
At the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas), Stuart's cavalry followed the massive assault by Longstreet's infantry against Pope's army, protecting its flank with artillery batteries. Stuart ordered Brig. Gen. Beverly Robertson's brigade to pursue the Federals and in a sharp fight against Brig. Gen. John Buford's brigade, Col. Thomas T. Munford's 2nd Virginia Cavalry was overwhelmed until Stuart sent in two more regiments as reinforcements. Buford's men, many of whom were new to combat, retreated across Lewis's Ford and Stuart's troopers captured over 300 of them. Stuart's men harassed the retreating Union columns until the campaign ended at the Battle of Chantilly.
During the Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Stuart's cavalry screened the army's movement north. He bears some responsibility for Robert E. Lee's lack of knowledge of the position and celerity of the pursuing Army of the Potomac under George B. McClellan. For a five-day period, Stuart rested his men and entertained local civilians at a gala ball at Urbana, Maryland. His reports make no reference to intelligence gathering by his scouts or patrols. As the Union Army drew near to Lee's divided army, Stuart's men skirmished at various points on the approach to Frederick and Stuart was not able to keep his brigades concentrated enough to resist the oncoming tide. He misjudged the Union routes of advance, ignorant of the Union force threatening Turner's Gap, and required assistance from the infantry of Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill to defend the South Mountain passes in the Battle of South Mountain. His horse artillery bombarded the flank of the Union army as it opened its attack in the Battle of Antietam. By mid-afternoon, Stonewall Jackson ordered Stuart to command a turning movement with his cavalry against the Union right flank and rear, which if successful would be followed up by an infantry attack from the West Woods. Stuart began probing the Union lines with more artillery barrages, which were answered with "murderous" counterbattery fire and the cavalry movement intended by Jackson was never launched.
Three weeks after Lee's army had withdrawn back to Virginia, on October 10–12, 1862, Stuart performed another of his audacious circumnavigations of the Army of the Potomac, his Chambersburg Raid—126 miles in under 60 hours, from Darkesville, West Virginia to as far north as Mercersburg, Pennsylvania and Chambersburg and around to the east through Emmitsburg, Maryland and south through Hyattstown, Maryland and White's Ford to Leesburg, Virginia—once again embarrassing his Union opponents and seizing horses and supplies, but at the expense of exhausted men and animals, without gaining much military advantage. Jubal Early referred to it as "the greatest horse stealing expedition" that only "annoyed" the enemy. Stuart gave his friend Jackson a fine, new officer's tunic, trimmed with gold lace, commissioned from a Richmond tailor, which he thought would give Jackson more of the appearance of a proper general (something to which Jackson was notoriously indifferent).
McClellan pushed his army slowly south, urged by President Lincoln to pursue Lee, crossing the Potomac starting on October 26. As Lee began moving to counter this, Stuart screened Longstreet's Corps and skirmished numerous times in early November against Union cavalry and infantry around Mountville, Aldie, and Upperville. On November 6, Stuart received sad news by telegram that his daughter Flora had died just before her fifth birthday of typhoid fever on November 3.
In the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, Stuart and his cavalry—most notably his horse artillery under Major John Pelham—protected Stonewall Jackson's flank at Hamilton's Crossing. General Lee commended his cavalry, which "effectually guarded our right, annoying the enemy and embarrassing his movements by hanging on his flank, and attacking when the opportunity occurred." Stuart reported to Flora the next day that he had been shot through his fur collar but was unhurt.
After Christmas, Lee ordered Stuart to conduct a raid north of the Rappahannock River to "penetrate the enemy's rear, ascertain if possible his position & movements, & inflict upon him such damage as circumstances will permit." With 1,800 troopers and a horse artillery battery assigned to the operation, Stuart's raid reached as far north as four miles south of Fairfax Court House, seizing 250 prisoners, horses, mules, and supplies. Tapping telegraph lines, his signalmen intercepted messages between Union commanders and Stuart sent a personal telegram to Union Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs, "General Meigs will in the future please furnish better mules; those you have furnished recently are very inferior."
On March 17, 1863, Stuart's cavalry clashed with a Union raiding party at Kelly's Ford. The minor victory was marred by the death of Major Pelham, which caused Stuart profound grief, as he thought of him as close as a younger brother. He wrote to a Confederate Congressman, "The noble, the chivalric, the gallant Pelham is no more. ... Let the tears of agony we have shed, and the gloom of mourning throughout my command bear witness." Flora was pregnant at the time and Stuart told her that if it were a boy, he wanted him to be named John Pelham Stuart. (Virginia Pelham Stuart was born October 9.)
At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stuart accompanied Stonewall Jackson on his famous flanking march of May 2, 1863, and started to pursue the retreating soldiers of the Union XI Corps when he received word that both Jackson and his senior division commander, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill, had been wounded. Hill, bypassing the next most senior infantry general in the corps, Brig. Gen. Robert E. Rodes, sent a message ordering Stuart to take command of the Second Corps. Although the delays associated with this change of command effectively ended the flanking attack the night of May 2, Stuart performed credibly as an infantry corps commander the following day, launching a strong and well-coordinated attack against the Union right flank at Chancellorsville. When Union troops abandoned Hazel Grove, Stuart had the presence of mind to quickly occupy it and bombard the Union positions with artillery. Stuart relinquished his infantry command on May 6 when Hill returned to duty. Stephen W. Sears wrote:
Stonewall Jackson died on May 10 and Stuart was once again devastated by the loss of a close friend, telling his staff that the death was a "national calamity." Jackson's wife, Mary Anna, wrote to Stuart on August 1, thanking him for a note of sympathy: "I need not assure you of which you already know, that your friendship & admiration were cordially reciprocated by him. I have frequently heard him speak of Gen'l Stuart as one of his warm personal friends, & also express admiration for your Soldierly qualities."
Returning to the cavalry for the Gettysburg Campaign, Stuart endured the two low points in his career, starting with the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the war. By June 5, two of Lee's infantry corps were camped in and around Culpeper. Six miles northeast, holding the line of the Rappahannock River, Stuart bivouacked his cavalry troopers, mostly near Brandy Station, screening the Confederate Army against surprise by the enemy. Stuart requested a full field review of his troops by Gen. Lee. This grand review on June 5 included nearly 9,000 mounted troopers and four batteries of horse artillery, charging in simulated battle at Inlet Station, about two miles (three km) southwest of Brandy Station.
Lee was not able to attend the review, however, so it was repeated in his presence on June 8, although the repeated performance was limited to a simple parade without battle simulations. Despite the lower level of activity, some of the cavalrymen and the newspaper reporters at the scene complained that all Stuart was doing was feeding his ego and exhausting the horses. Lee ordered Stuart to cross the Rappahannock the next day and raid Union forward positions, screening the Confederate Army from observation or interference as it moved north. Anticipating this imminent offensive action, Stuart ordered his tired troopers back into bivouac around Brandy Station.
Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker interpreted Stuart's presence around Culpeper to be indicative of preparations for a raid on his army's supply lines. In reaction, he ordered his cavalry commander, Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, to take a combined arms force of 8,000 cavalrymen and 3,000 infantry on a "spoiling raid" to "disperse and destroy" the 9,500 Confederates. Pleasonton's force crossed the Rappahannock in two columns on June 9, 1863, the first crossing at Beverly's Ford (Brig. Gen. John Buford's division) catching Stuart by surprise, waking him and his staff to the sound of gunfire. The second crossing, at Kelly's Ford, surprised Stuart again, and the Confederates found themselves assaulted from front and rear in a spirited melee of mounted combat. A series of confusing charges and countercharges swept back and forth across Fleetwood Hill, which had been Stuart's headquarters the previous night. After ten hours of fighting, Pleasonton ordered his men to withdraw across the Rappahannock.
Although Stuart claimed a victory because the Confederates held the field, Brandy Station is considered a tactical draw, and both sides came up short. Pleasonton was not able to disable Stuart's force at the start of an important campaign and he withdrew before finding the location of Lee's infantry nearby. However, the fact that the Southern cavalry had not detected the movement of two large columns of Union cavalry, and that they fell victim to a surprise attack, was an embarrassment that prompted serious criticism from fellow generals and the Southern press. The fight also revealed the increased competency of the Union cavalry, and foreshadowed the decline of the formerly invincible Southern mounted arm.
Following a series of small cavalry battles in June as Lee's army began marching north through the Shenandoah Valley, Stuart may have had in mind the glory of circumnavigating the enemy army once again, desiring to erase the stain on his reputation of the surprise at Brandy Station. General Lee gave orders to Stuart on June 22 on how he was to participate in the march north. The exact nature of those orders has been argued by the participants and historians ever since, but the essence was that Stuart was instructed to guard the mountain passes with part of his force while the Army of Northern Virginia was still south of the Potomac, and that he was to cross the river with the remainder of the army and screen the right flank of Ewell's Second Corps. Instead of taking a direct route north near the Blue Ridge Mountains, however, Stuart chose to reach Ewell's flank by taking his three best brigades (those of Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton, Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, and Col. John R. Chambliss, the latter replacing the wounded Brig. Gen. W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee) between the Union army and Washington, moving north through Rockville to Westminster and on into Pennsylvania, hoping to capture supplies along the way and cause havoc near the enemy capital. Stuart and his three brigades departed Salem Depot at 1 a.m. on June 25.
Unfortunately for Stuart's plan, the Union army's movement was underway and his proposed route was blocked by columns of Federal infantry, forcing him to veer farther to the east than either he or General Lee had anticipated. This prevented Stuart from linking up with Ewell as ordered and deprived Lee of the use of his prime cavalry force, the "eyes and ears" of the army, while advancing into unfamiliar enemy territory.
Stuart's command crossed the Potomac River at 3 a.m. on June 28. At Rockville they captured a wagon train of 140 brand-new, fully loaded wagons and mule teams. This wagon train would prove to be a logistical hindrance to Stuart's advance, but he interpreted Lee's orders as placing importance on gathering supplies. The proximity of the Confederate raiders provoked some consternation in the national capital and two Union cavalry brigades and an artillery battery were sent to pursue the Confederates. Stuart supposedly said that were it not for his fatigued horses "he would have marched down the 7th Street Road [and] took Abe & Cabinet prisoners."
In Westminster on June 29, his men clashed briefly with and overwhelmed two companies of Union cavalry, chasing them a long distance on the Baltimore road, which Stuart claimed caused a "great panic" in the city of Baltimore. The head of Stuart's column encountered Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry as it passed through Hanover and scattered it on June 30; the Battle of Hanover ended after Kilpatrick's men regrouped and drove the Confederates out of town. Stuart's brigades had been better positioned to guard their captured wagon train than to take advantage of the encounter with Kilpatrick. After a 20-mile trek in the dark, his exhausted men reached Dover on the morning of July 1, as the Battle of Gettysburg was commencing without them.
Stuart headed next for Carlisle, hoping to find Ewell. He lobbed a few shells into town during the early evening of July 1 and burned the Carlisle Barracks before withdrawing to the south towards Gettysburg. He and the bulk of his command reached Lee at Gettysburg the afternoon of July 2. He ordered Wade Hampton to cover the left rear of the Confederate battle lines, and Hampton fought with Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Hunterstown before joining Stuart at Gettysburg.
When Stuart arrived at Gettysburg on the afternoon of July 2—bringing with him the caravan of captured Union supply wagons—he received a rare rebuke from Lee. No one witnessed the private meeting between Lee and Stuart, but reports circulated at headquarters that Lee's greeting was "abrupt and frosty." Colonel Edward Porter Alexander wrote, "Although Lee said only, 'Well, General, you are here at last,' his manner implied rebuke, and it was so understood by Stuart." On the final day of the battle, Stuart was ordered to move into the enemy's rear and disrupt its line of communications at the same time Pickett's Charge was sent against the Union positions on Cemetery Ridge, but his attack on East Cavalry Field was repulsed by Union cavalry under Brig. Gens. David Gregg and George Custer.
During the retreat from Gettysburg, Stuart devoted his full attention to supporting the army's movement, successfully screening against aggressive Union cavalry pursuit and escorting thousands of wagons with wounded men and captured supplies over difficult roads and through inclement weather. Numerous skirmishes and minor battles occurred during the screening and delaying actions of the retreat. Stuart's men were the final units to cross the Potomac River, returning to Virginia in "wretched condition—completely worn out and broken down."
The Gettysburg Campaign was the most controversial of Stuart's career. He became one of the scapegoats (along with James Longstreet) blamed for Lee's loss at Gettysburg by proponents of the postbellum Lost Cause movement, such as Jubal Early. This was fueled in part by opinions of less partisan writers, such as Stuart's subordinate, Thomas L. Rosser, who stated after the war that Stuart did, "on this campaign, "undoubtedly", make the fatal blunder which lost us the battle of Gettysburg." In General Lee's report on the campaign, he wrote
One of the most forceful postbellum defenses of Stuart was by Col. John S. Mosby, who had served under him during the campaign and was fiercely loyal to the late general, writing, "He made me all that I was in the war. ... But for his friendship I would never have been heard of." He wrote numerous articles for popular publications and published a book length treatise in 1908, a work that relied on his skills as a lawyer to refute categorically all of the claims laid against Stuart.
Historians remain divided on how much the defeat at Gettysburg was due to Stuart’s failure to keep Lee informed. Edward G. Longacre argues that Lee deliberately gave Stuart wide discretion in his orders. Edwin B. Coddington refers to the "tragedy" of Stuart in the Gettysburg Campaign and judges that when Fitzhugh Lee raised the question of "whether Stuart exercised the discretion "undoubtedly given to him, judiciously"," the answer is no. Agreeing that Stuart's absence permitted Lee to be surprised at Gettysburg, Coddington points out that the Union commander was just as surprised. Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi have concluded that there was "plenty of blame to go around" and the fault should be divided between Stuart, the lack of specificity in Lee's orders, and Richard S. Ewell, who might have tried harder to link up with Stuart northeast of Gettysburg. Jeffry D. Wert acknowledges that Lee, his officers, and fighting by the Army of the Potomac bear the responsibility for the Confederate loss at Gettysburg, but states that "Stuart failed Lee and the army in the reckoning at Gettysburg. ... Lee trusted him and gave him discretion, but Stuart acted injudiciously."
Although Stuart was not reprimanded or disciplined in any official way for his role in the Gettysburg campaign, it is noteworthy that his appointment to corps command on September 9, 1863, did not carry with it a promotion to lieutenant general. Edward Bonekemper wrote that since all other corps commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia carried this rank, Lee's decision to keep Stuart at major general rank, while at the same time promoting Stuart's subordinates Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee to major generals, could be considered an implied rebuke. Jeffry D. Wert wrote that there is no evidence Lee considered Stuart's performance during the Gettysburg Campaign and that it is "more likely that Lee thought the responsibilities in command of a cavalry corps did not equal those of an infantry corps."
Lee reorganized his cavalry on September 9, creating a Cavalry Corps for Stuart with two divisions of three brigades each. In the Bristoe Campaign, Stuart was assigned to lead a broad turning movement in an attempt to get into the enemy's rear, but General Meade skillfully withdrew his army without leaving Stuart any opportunities to take advantage of. On October 13, Stuart blundered into the rear guard of the Union III Corps near Warrenton, resulting in the First Battle of Auburn. Ewell's corps was sent to rescue him, but Stuart hid his troopers in a wooded ravine until the unsuspecting III Corps moved on, and the assistance was not necessary. As Meade withdrew towards Manassas Junction, brigades from the Union II Corps fought a rearguard action against Stuart's cavalry and the infantry of Brig. Gen. Harry Hays's division near Auburn on October 14. Stuart's cavalry boldly bluffed Warren's infantry and escaped disaster. After the Confederate repulse at Bristoe Station and an aborted advance on Centreville, Stuart's cavalry shielded the withdrawal of Lee's army from the vicinity of Manassas Junction. Judson Kilpatrick's Union cavalry pursued Stuart's cavalry along the Warrenton Turnpike, but were lured into an ambush near Chestnut Hill and routed. The Federal troopers were scattered and chased five miles (eight km) in an affair that came to be known as the "Buckland Races". The Southern press began to mute its criticism of Stuart following his successful performance during the fall campaign.
The Overland Campaign, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's offensive against Lee in the spring of 1864, began at the Battle of the Wilderness, where Stuart aggressively pushed Thomas L. Rosser's Laurel Brigade into a fight against George Custer's better-armed Michigan Brigade, resulting in significant losses. General Lee sent a message to Stuart: "It is very important to save your Cavalry & not wear it out. ... You must use your good judgment to make any attack which may offer advantages." As the armies maneuvered toward their next confrontation at Spotsylvania Court House, Stuart's cavalry fought delaying actions against the Union cavalry. His defense at Laurel Hill, also directing the infantry of Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw, skillfully delayed the advance of the Federal army for nearly 5 critical hours.
The commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George Meade, and his cavalry commander, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, quarreled about the Union cavalry's performance in the first two engagements of the Overland Campaign. Sheridan heatedly asserted that he wanted to "concentrate all of cavalry, move out in force against Stuart's command, and whip it." Meade reported the comments to Grant, who replied "Did Sheridan say that? Well, he generally knows what he is talking about. Let him start right out and do it." Sheridan immediately organized a raid against Confederate supply and railroad lines close to Richmond, which he knew would bring Stuart to battle.
Sheridan moved aggressively to the southeast, crossing the North Anna River and seizing Beaver Dam Station on the Virginia Central Railroad, where his men captured a train, liberating 3,000 Union prisoners and destroying more than one million rations and medical supplies destined for Lee's army. Stuart dispatched a force of about 3,000 cavalrymen to intercept Sheridan's cavalry, which was more than three times their numbers. As he rode in pursuit, accompanied by his aide, Maj. Andrew R. Venable, they were able to stop briefly along the way to be greeted by Stuart's wife, Flora, and his children, Jimmie and Virginia. Venable wrote of Stuart, "He told me he never expected to live through the war, and that if we were conquered, that he did not want to live."
The Battle of Yellow Tavern occurred May 11, at an abandoned inn located north of Richmond. The Confederate troops resisted from the low ridgeline bordering the road to Richmond, fighting for over three hours. After receiving a scouting report from Texas Jack Omohundro, Stuart led a countercharge and pushed the advancing Union troopers back from the hilltop. Stuart, on horseback, shouted encouragement from in front of Company K of the 1st Virginia Cavalry while firing his revolver at the Union troopers.
As the 5th Michigan Cavalry streamed in retreat past Stuart, a dismounted Union private, 44-year-old John A. Huff, turned and shot Stuart with his .44-caliber revolver from a distance of 10–30 yards. Huff's bullet struck Stuart in the left side. It then sliced through his stomach and exited his back, one inch to the right of his spine. Stuart fell into the arms of Company K's commander Gus W. Dorsey. Dorsey caught him and took him from his horse. Stuart told him: "Dorsey...save your men." Dorsey refused to leave him and brought Stuart to the rear.
He suffered great pain as an ambulance took him to Richmond to await his wife's arrival at the home of Dr. Charles Brewer, his brother-in-law. As he was being driven from the field in an ambulance wagon, Stuart noticed disorganized ranks of retreating men and called out to them his last words on the battlefield: "Go back, go back, and do your duty, as I have done mine, and our country will be safe. Go back, go back! I had rather die than be whipped."
Stuart ordered his sword and spurs be given to his son. As his aide Major McClellan left his side, Confederate President Jefferson Davis came in, took General Stuart's hand, and asked, "General, how do you feel?" Stuart answered "Easy, but willing to die, if God and my country think I have fulfilled my destiny and done my duty." His last whispered words were: "I am resigned; God's will be done." He died at 7:38 p.m. on May 12, the following day, before Flora Stuart reached his side. He was 31 years old. Stuart was buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. Upon learning of Stuart's death, General Lee is reported to have said that he could hardly keep from weeping at the mere mention of Stuart's name and that Stuart had never given him a bad piece of information. John Huff, the private who had fatally wounded Stuart, was killed in action just a few weeks later at the Battle of Haw's Shop.
Flora wore the black of mourning for the remainder of her life, and never remarried. She lived in Saltville, Virginia, for 15 years after the war, where she opened and taught at a school in a log cabin. She worked from 1880 to 1898 as principal of the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton, Virginia, a position for which Robert E. Lee had recommended her before his death ten years earlier. In 1907, the Institute was renamed Stuart Hall School in her honor. Upon the death of her daughter Virginia, from complications in childbirth in 1898, Flora resigned from the Institute and moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where she helped Virginia's widower, Robert Page Waller, in raising her grandchildren. She died in Norfolk on May 10, 1923, after striking her head in a fall on a city sidewalk. She is buried alongside her husband and their daughter, Little Flora, in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Like his intimate friend, Stonewall Jackson, General J.E.B. Stuart was a legendary figure and is considered one of the greatest cavalry commanders in American history. His friend from his federal army days, Union Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, said that Stuart was "the greatest cavalry officer ever foaled in America." Jackson and Stuart, both of whom were killed in battle, had colorful public images, although the latter seems to have been more deliberately crafted. Jeffry D. Wert wrote about Stuart:
Stuart's birthplace, Laurel Hill, located in Patrick County, Virginia, was purchased by the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc., in 1992 to preserve and interpret it. In December 2006, a personal Confederate battle flag, sewn by Flora Stuart, was sold in a Heritage Auction for a world-record price for any Confederate flag, for $956,000 (including buyer's premium). The 34-inch by 34-inch flag was hand-sewn for Stuart by Flora in 1862 and Stuart carried it into some of his most famous battles.
U.S. Route 58, in Virginia, is named the "J.E.B. Stuart Highway". In 1884 the town of Taylorsville, Virginia, was renamed Stuart. The British Army named two models of American-made World War II tanks, the M3 and M5, the Stuart tank in General Stuart's honor.
A middle school in Jacksonville, Florida is named for him. A high school named after him on Munson's Hill in Falls Church, Virginia, opened in 1959. In early 2017, Fairfax County Public Schools established an Ad Hoc Working Committee to assist the Fairfax County School Board in determining whether to rename the Stuart High School in Virginia, in response to suggestions from students and local community members that FCPS should not continue to honor a Confederate General who fought in support of a cause dedicated to maintaining the institution of slavery in Virginia and other states. The creation of the committee followed the circulation of a petition started by actress Julianne Moore and Bruce Cohen in 2016, which garnered over 35,000 signatures in support of changing the school's name to one honoring the late United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
In July 27, the Fairfax County School Board approved a measure to change the school name no later than the start of the 2019 school year. The measure asks that "Stuart High School" be considered as a possibility for the new name. On October 27, 2017, the Fairfax County School Board voted to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School to "Justice High School." Board member Sandy Evans from the Mason District said that the name will honor Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Barbara Rose Johns, Louis Gonzaga Mendez Jr. and all those who have fought for justice and equality. Johns was a Civil Rights leader. Mendez was a U.S. Army officer who joined the Virginia education department and lived for many years in Falls Church.
On June 18, 2018, the school board for Richmond Public Schools in Richmond, Virginia voted 6 - 1 to rename J.E.B Stuart Elementary School to Barack Obama Elementary School. On June 12, 2018, students of the school were given the opportunity to narrow down the choices for renaming the school from seven to three. Northside Elementary received 190 votes, Barack Obama Elementary earned 166 votes, and Wishtree Elementary received 127 votes. From there, the administration of Richmond Public Schools recommended to the school board that it rename the school after Barack Obama. Superintendent Jason Kamras said, "It's incredibly powerful that in the capital of the Confederacy, where we had a school named for an individual who fought to maintain slavery, that now we're renaming that school after the first black president. A lot of our kids, and our kids at J.E.B. Stuart, see themselves in Barack Obama." The student population of the newly named Barack Obama Elementary School is made up of more than 90 percent African-American children.
A statue of Stuart by sculptor Frederick Moynihan was dedicated on Richmond's Monument Avenue at Stuart Circle in 1907. Like General Stonewall Jackson, his equestrian statue faces north, indicating that he died in the war.
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John Hanson
John Hanson ( – November 15, 1783) was a merchant and public official from Maryland during the era of the American Revolution. In 1779, Hanson was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress after serving in a variety of roles for the Patriot cause in Maryland. He signed the Articles of Confederation in 1781 after Maryland finally joined the other states in ratifying them. In November 1781, he was elected as first President of the Confederation Congress (sometimes styled "President of the United States in Congress assembled"), following ratification of the articles. For this reason, some of Hanson's biographers have argued that he was actually the first holder of the office of president.
John Hanson was born in Port Tobacco Parish in Charles County in the Province of Maryland on April 14, 1721. Sources published prior to a 1940 genealogical study sometimes listed his birth date as April 13 or his year of birth as 1715.
Hanson was born on a plantation called "Mulberry Grove" into a wealthy and prominent family. His parents were Samuel (c. 1685–1740) and Elizabeth (Storey) Hanson (c. 1688–1764). Samuel Hanson was a planter who owned more than , and held a variety of political offices, including serving two terms in the Maryland General Assembly.
John Hanson's grandfather, also named John, came to Charles County, Maryland, as an indentured servant around 1661. In 1876, a writer named George Hanson placed John Hanson in his family tree of Swedish-Americans descended from four Swedish brothers who emigrated to New Sweden in 1642. This story was often repeated over the next century, but scholarly research in the late 20th century showed that John Hanson was not related to those Swedish-American Hansons.
Little is known about Hanson's early life; he was presumably privately tutored as was customary among the wealthy of his time and place. He followed his father's path as a planter, slave owner, and public official. He was often referred to as "John Hanson, Jr.", to distinguish him from an older man of the same name.
Hanson's career in public service began in 1750, when he was appointed sheriff of Charles County. In 1757 he was elected to represent Charles County in the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, where he served over the next twelve years, sitting on many important committees. Maryland was a proprietary colony, and Hanson aligned himself with the "popular" or "country" party, which opposed any expansion of the power of the proprietary governors at the expense of the popularly elected lower house. He was a leading opponent of the 1765 Stamp Act, chairing the committee that drafted the instructions for Maryland's delegates to the Stamp Act Congress. In protest of the Townshend Acts, in 1769 Hanson was one of the signers of a nonimportation resolution that boycotted British imports until the acts were repealed.
Hanson changed course in 1769, apparently to better pursue his business interests. He resigned from the General Assembly, sold his land in Charles County, and moved to Frederick County in western Maryland. There he held a variety of offices, including deputy surveyor, sheriff, and county treasurer.
When relations between Great Britain and the colonies became a crisis in 1774, Hanson became one of Frederick County's leading Patriots. He chaired a town meeting that passed a resolution opposing the Boston Port Act. In 1775, he was a delegate to the Maryland Convention, an extralegal body convened after the colonial assembly had been prorogued. With the other delegates, he signed the Association of Freemen on July 26, 1775, which expressed hope for reconciliation with Great Britain, but also called for military resistance to the enforcement of the Coercive Acts.
With hostilities underway, Hanson chaired the Frederick County Committee of Observation, part of the Patriot organization that assumed control of local governance. Responsible for recruiting and arming soldiers, Hanson proved to be an excellent organizer, and Frederick County sent the first southern troops to join George Washington's army. Because funds were scarce, Hanson frequently paid soldiers and others with his own money. In June 1776, Hanson chaired the Frederick County meeting that urged provincial leaders in Annapolis to instruct Maryland's delegates in the Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain. While Congress worked on the Declaration of Independence, Hanson was in Frederick County "making gunlocks, storing powder, guarding prisoners, raising money and troops, dealing with Tories, and doing the myriad other tasks which went with being chairman of the committee of observation".
Hanson was elected to the newly reformed Maryland House of Delegates in 1777, the first of five annual terms. In December 1779, the House of Delegates named Hanson as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress; he began serving in Congress in Philadelphia in June 1780. "Hanson came to Philadelphia with the reputation of having been the leading financier of the revolution in western Maryland, and soon he was a member of several committees dealing with finance."
When Hanson was elected to Congress, Maryland was holding up the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. The state, which did not have any claims on western land, refused to ratify the Articles until the other states had ceded their western land claims. When the other states finally did so, the Maryland legislature decided in January 1781 to ratify the Articles. When Congress received notice of this, Hanson joined Daniel Carroll in signing the Articles of Confederation on behalf of Maryland on March 1, 1781. With Maryland's endorsement, the Articles officially went into effect. Many years later, some Hanson biographers claimed that Hanson had been instrumental in arranging the compromise and thus securing ratification of the Articles, but, according to historian Ralph Levering, there is no documentary evidence of Hanson's opinions or actions in resolving the controversy.
On November 5, 1781, Congress elected Hanson as its president. Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States had no executive branch; the president of Congress was a mostly ceremonial position, but the office did require Hanson to serve as neutral discussion moderator, handle official correspondence, and sign documents. Hanson found the work tedious and considered resigning after just one week, citing his poor health and family responsibilities. Colleagues urged him to remain because Congress at that moment lacked a quorum to choose a successor. Out of a sense of duty, Hanson remained in office, although his term as a delegate to Congress was nearly expired. The Maryland Assembly reelected him as a delegate on November 28, 1781, and so Hanson continued to serve as president until November 4, 1782.
The Articles of Confederation stipulated that presidents of Congress serve one-year terms, and Hanson became the first to do so. Contrary to the claims of some of his later advocates, however, he was not the first president to serve under the Articles, nor the first to be elected under the Articles. When the Articles went into effect in March 1781, Congress did not bother to elect a new president; instead, Samuel Huntington continued serving a term that had already exceeded a year. On July 9, 1781, Samuel Johnston became the first man to be elected as president of Congress after the ratification of the Articles. He declined the office, however, perhaps to make himself available for North Carolina's gubernatorial election. After Johnston turned down the office, Thomas McKean was elected. McKean served just a few months, resigning in October 1781 after hearing news of the British surrender at Yorktown. Congress asked him to remain in office until November, when a new session of Congress was scheduled to begin. It was in that session that Hanson began to serve his one-year term. A highlight of Hanson's term was when George Washington presented Cornwallis's sword to Congress.
Hanson retired from public office after his one-year term as president of Congress. In poor health, he died on November 15, 1783, while visiting Oxon Hill Manor in Prince George's County, Maryland, the plantation of his nephew Thomas Hawkins Hanson. He was buried there. Hanson owned at least 223 acres of land and 11 slaves at the time of his death.
About 1744, he married Jane Contee (1728–1812), daughter of Alexander Contee (1692–1740). Together, John and Jane had eight children, including:
In 1898, Douglas H. Thomas, a descendant of Hanson, wrote a biography promoting Hanson as the first true President of the United States. Thomas became the "driving force" behind the selection of Hanson as one of the two people who would represent Maryland in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C. Hanson was not initially on the shortlist for consideration, but he was chosen after lobbying by the Maryland Historical Society. In 1903, bronze statues of Hanson and Charles Carroll by sculptor Richard E. Brooks were added to Statuary Hall; Hanson's is currently located on the 2nd floor of the Senate connecting corridor. Small versions of these two statues (maquettes) sit on the president's desk in the Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House.
Some historians have questioned the appropriateness of Hanson's selection for the honor of representing Maryland in Statuary Hall. According to historian Gregory Stiverson, Hanson was not one of Maryland's foremost leaders of the Revolutionary era. In 1975, historian Ralph Levering said that "Hanson shouldn't have been one of the two Marylanders" chosen, but he wrote that Hanson "probably contributed as much as any other Marylander to the success of the American Revolution". In the 21st century, Maryland lawmakers have considered replacing Hanson's statue in Statuary Hall with one of Harriet Tubman.
The idea that Hanson was the forgotten first president of the United States was further promoted in a 1932 biography of Hanson by journalist Seymour Wemyss Smith. Smith's book asserted that the American Revolution had two primary leaders: George Washington on the battlefield, and John Hanson in politics. Smith's book, like Douglas H. Thomas's 1898 book, was one of a number of biographies written seeking to promote Hanson as the "first President of the United States". Regarding the opinion, historian Ralph Levering stated: "They're not biographies by professional historians; they aren't based on research into primary sources." According to historian Richard B. Morris, if a president of Congress were to be called the "first" president of the United States, "a stronger case could be made for Peyton Randolph of Virginia, the first President of the first and second Continental Congresses, or for John Hancock, the President of Congress when that body declared its independence." The claim that Hanson was a forgotten president of the United States was revived on the Internet, sometimes with a new assertion that he was actually a black man; an anachronistic photograph of Senator John Hanson of Liberia has been used to support this claim.
In 1972, Hanson was depicted on a 6-cent US postal card, which featured his name and portrait next to the word "Patriot". Historian Irving Brant criticized the selection of Hanson for the card, arguing that it was a result of the "old hoax" promoting Hanson as the first president of the United States. In 1981, Hanson was featured on a 20-cent US postage stamp. U.S. Route 50 between Washington D.C. and Annapolis is named the John Hanson Highway in his honor. There are also middle schools located in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and Waldorf, Maryland, named after him. A former savings bank named for him was merged in the 1990s with Industrial Bank of Washington, D.C.
In the 1970s, a descendant of Hanson, John Hanson Briscoe, served as Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, which passed "a measure establishing April 14 as John Hanson Day." In 2009 the John Hanson Memorial Association was incorporated in Frederick, Maryland, to create the John Hanson National Memorial and to educate Americans about Hanson as well as to educate people about the many myths written about him. The Memorial includes a statue of President John Hanson and an interpretive setting in Frederick, Maryland, where Hanson lived between 1769 and his death in 1783. The Memorial is in the Frederick County Courthouse's courtyard at the corner of Court and West Patrick Streets. Leaders of the Memorial include President Peter Hanson Michael, Vice President Robert Hanson, and Director John C. Hanson. John Hanson Briscoe was also a director until his death in 2014.
Books, journals, and encyclopedias
Newspapers and online sources
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Jedi
The Jedi () are leaders and peacekeepers in the "Star Wars" universe. The Jedi Order are depicted as an ancient monastic, academic, meritocratic and quasi-militaristic organization whose origin dates back approximately 25,000 years before the events of the first film released in the franchise. It has been confirmed that at the high point of the Jedi Order there were approximately 250,000 Jedi in the "Star Wars" universe.
Jedi were powerful Force-wielders and adjudicators tasked by the Galactic Republic to be the guardians of peace and order in the "Star Wars" galaxy; they defend and protect all sapient life, never attack. The Order consisted of polymaths: teachers, philosophers, scientists, engineers, physicians, diplomats, negotiators, warriors, and peacekeepers. A level of diversity extends throughout the organization, composed of hundreds of different species, thousands of different worlds, and those outside the Republic itself. When operating beyond the limits of Republic territory, they act autonomously and make decisions with the potential to affect countless lives. They were often the first representatives of the Republic encountered by new species and nations.
The Jedi moral value system viewed purity of thought and detachment of emotions as essential to enlightenment. Jedi philosophy emphasized self-improvement through knowledge and wisdom, adherence to slave morality, and selfless service through acts of charity, citizenship, and volunteerism; this ideology is a recurring theme in the "Star Wars" universe. The Jedi denounce emotions as the root cause of mortal suffering; they believe fear, anger and love cause sentient beings to lash out in conflict and impede rational action to do what is objectively correct action. The Jedi are the opposite of the Sith, another group of force wielders, the Sith use their passion, and other strong emotions to fuel their power. Sith are "dark mirrors" to Jedi; Sith emphasize domination, while Jedi instead teach connecting with nature in the universe. A Jedi’s traditional weapon is the lightsaber, a device which generates a blade-like plasma powered by a Kyber crystal or other focusing item, ex. Krayt Pearl.
The fictional organization has inspired a real-world new religious movement, Jediism.
The word "Jedi" is said to have been adapted by George Lucas from Japanese 時代劇 (jidaigeki) (meaning 'period drama' motion pictures about samurai), or perhaps inspired by the words "Jed" (Leader) and "Jeddak" (King) in the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a series that Lucas considered adapting to film.
The film "Rogue One" suggests that within the "Star Wars" mythology itself, it relates to the planet Jedha, source of the crystals used in lightsabers.
George Lucas acknowledged Jedi, Sith, and other Force concepts have been inspired by many sources. These include: knighthood chivalry, paladinism, samurai bushido, Shaolin Monastery, Shamanism, Feudalism, Hinduism, Qigong, Chakra, Greek philosophy, Greek mythology, Roman history, Roman mythology, parts of the Abrahamic religions, Confucianism, Shintō, Buddhism, and Taoism, not to mention countless cinematic precursors. The works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and mythologist Joseph Campbell, especially his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949), directly influenced Lucas, and was what drove him to create the 'modern myth' of "Star Wars".
As depicted in the canon, the Jedi study and utilize the Force, in order to help and protect those in need. The Jedi members, known as Jedi Knights, respect all life by defending and protecting those who cannot do it for themselves, striving for peaceful and non-combative solutions to any altercations they encounter and fighting only in self-defense and for the defense of those they protect. By training the mind and the body, the Jedi seek to improve themselves by gaining unfettered access to the Force while also seeking to improve those individuals and groups they come in contact with. Like their evil counterparts, the Sith, the main weapon of the Jedi is the lightsaber. However, according to Lucas, "The Force really doesn't have anything to do with the lightsaber. Anybody can have a lightsaber. It's just a weapon like a pistol."
Qui-Gon Jinn gives us an insight into the Force in Episode I when he tells Anakin: "Your focus determines your reality." And later, he explains: "Midi-chlorians are microscopic lifeforms that reside within all of your cells. And we are symbionts with them. Lifeforms living together for mutual advantage. Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist and we would have no knowledge of The Force. They continually speak to us the telling us the will of The Force. When you learn to quiet your mind you’ll hear them speaking to you." In Episode IV, Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker: "The force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." ". . . a Jedi can feel the force flowing through him. It [partially] controls your actions, but it also obeys your commands."
The Jedi are first introduced in the 1977 motion picture "Star Wars" as an order of warrior monks who serve as "the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy" and embrace the mystical Force. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) explains that the Galactic Empire has all but exterminated the Jedi, and seeks to train Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to be the Jedi Order's last hope. Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) is also established as the Jedi's main enemy. By the end of the film, which depicts the Battle of Yavin, Luke is on the path to becoming a Jedi. In the sequel, "The Empire Strikes Back", Luke receives extensive Jedi training from the elderly (and only surviving) Jedi Master Yoda (Frank Oz), even as he learns that Vader is, in fact, his father, former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. The third film in the original trilogy, "Return of the Jedi", ends with Luke redeeming Vader and helping to destroy the Empire, thus fulfilling his destiny as a Jedi.
The two last Jedi Masters die during the events of the films, after which they return as Force ghosts to help Luke.
In the prequel trilogy, it shows the Jedi in their prime, headquartered at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and dealing with the rising presence of the dark side of the Force and the return of the Sith. In "" (1999), Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) discovers nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), whom he believes to be the "Chosen One" of a Jedi prophecy who is destined to bring balance to the Force. At the end of "The Phantom Menace", Anakin is paired with Qui-Gon's apprentice, the young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who promises to train him.
The sequel, "", establishes that the Jedi forswear all emotional attachments, including romantic love, which proves problematic when Anakin, now a young adult (Hayden Christensen), falls in love with Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman). The Clone Wars, first spoken of in the original 1977 film, begin with hundreds of Jedi participating in the Battle of Geonosis.
In "", Yoda confides to Mace Windu that the prophecy of the Chosen One could have been misread. Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who is revealed to be Darth Sidious, manipulates Anakin's love for Padmé and distrust of the Jedi in order to turn him to the dark side and become his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. The latter begins helping Palpatine hunt down and destroy the Jedi, who are nearly exterminated during the events of "Revenge of the Sith"; Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda are among a handful of Jedi that avoided the initial purge. As revealed in the "" series, each of the clones were implanted with chips that Palpatine would activate with the command Order 66: "Operation Knightfall", a law that states:
This resulted in clone troopers like Commander Cody to suddenly turn on their generals and kill them, and Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker leading the 501st Legion to carry out "Operation Knightfall" against the Jedi Temple, slaughtering all Jedi within including Temple-Defender Shaak Ti. Palpatine convinced the people of the Republic that the Jedi were corrupted warmongers responsible for prolonging the Clone Wars, labeling them criminals with bounties placed on them. Darth Vader continued to hunt and execute nearly every surviving Jedi during the early years of the Empire, in what is known as the Great Jedi Purge; only Yoda survived long enough to die of old age, and Ahsoka, who outlasted the Empire, while others like Obi-Wan and Kanan have died fighting the Empire years later.
In the sequel trilogy, Luke attempted to rebuild the Jedi Order, being the only present Jedi Knight after the fall of the Galactic Empire, but fails when his nephew Ben Solo, falls to the dark side, lured by the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke. Ben Solo takes on the name Kylo Ren and destroys all that Luke built. After Ren's fall and the destruction of the New Jedi Order, Luke goes into a self-imposed exile on Ahch-To, believing himself and the Jedi to be a negative influence on the galaxy as a whole.
In the sequel "", the scavenger Rey discovers Luke on Ahch-to and convinces him to train her in the ways of the Force. During her training, Luke describes the hubris of a full-fledged Jedi order, one that allowed Darth Sidious to rise to power and eliminate nearly all of them. She also discovers several ancient Jedi texts hidden away in a tree. Rey learns the truth about Ben's fall to the dark Side and believes herself to be his only chance of redemption. Luke does not go with her, staying on Ahch-To. Luke attempts to burn the tree down, but cannot bring himself to do so. However, Yoda appears as a Force Ghost and burns the tree, teaching him that failure is just as important as success, and that masters are defined by those who surpass them. When the First Order launches an attack on the Resistance on Crait, Luke appears to stall the oncoming forces. He and Kylo Ren engage in a duel on the battlefield, Ren apparently striking him down. Luke reveals to Ren that he has been projecting an image of himself across the galaxy. On Ahch-To, the exhausted Luke meditates, facing the binary sunset. He fades away and becomes one with the Force. Rey is shown to have taken the sacred Jedi texts before she left Ahch-To, in order to continue her training.
In the final film of the sequel trilogy, it is discovered that Emperor Palpatine, still lives and has been secretly pulling the strings behind everything, even the creation of Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order. In his last grand attempt to take over the galaxy he creates the Final Order, a fleet of hundreds of Star Destroyers each capable of planetary destruction. The death of Kylo Ren's mother, Leia Organa, sways his heart back to the light. Kylo Ren, now Ben Solo again, joins forces with Rey (who turns out to be Palpatine's granddaughter) to take on the Emperor, while the Resistance attempt to take down the Final Order with the help of volunteers from around the galaxy. The voices of past Jedi give Rey the strength to finally destroy Palpatine and the Sith for good. Ben becomes one with the Force when he heals Rey as she healed him. With peace and justice restored to the galaxy, Rey lives on to start the Jedi Order again.
In a deleted scene from "", the "Lost Twenty" is the name given to a group of Jedi Masters—numbering twenty in total—who left the Jedi Order throughout its history. The first 12 of these Lost Twenty became "Dark Jedi" who eventually founded the first Sith Empire. In the years preceding the Clone Wars, Jedi Master Dooku left the Jedi Order as a result of differences with his fellow Jedi, becoming the 20th Jedi Master in the history of the Order to do so. To showcase the failures of the Jedi they created statues of the fallen Jedi and placed them in the Jedi Temple Archives.
The animated television series "" depicts the battles of the Clone Wars, focusing on the Jedi and clone troopers they lead against the Separatists and its Sith leaders. The reveals that Anakin trained an apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, between "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith". Later arcs explore the foundations of Order 66 and Palpatine's manipulation of the Jedi Order.
The animated television series "Star Wars Rebels" reveals that Ahsoka and a Jedi named Kanan Jarrus survived the purge; the latter trains a new apprentice, Ezra Bridger. The series also reveals that, following the start of the purge with Order 66, the Emperor commissioned the Inquisitorius, a group of former Jedi who had turned to the Dark Side for various reasons, to aid Darth Vader in hunting down the remaining Jedi.
The canon video game "" introduces Cal Kestis, a former Padawan hiding from the Empire who accidentally exposes his Force abilities to aid someone putting him on the Inquisitors' radar. Kestis gets aid from Cere Junda, another Jedi Knight in hiding.
The exact size of the pre-purge Jedi's membership and operations are never specified. However, in the "Star Wars Rebels" episode "Path of the Jedi", Kanan Jarrus stated: ""...There were around 10,000 Jedi Knights defending the galaxy. Now, we are few. But in those days, we had small outposts, temples spread throughout the stars. The Empire sought out these temples and destroyed many of them...""
Not every "dark side"-user is a Sith; nor is every "light side"-user a Jedi. Within the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe, people of all species have demonstrated varying "force-sensitive" powers and abilities. These "force-wielders" are often depicted with little to no formal Jedi training in the Force, originating from primitive planets.
A dark side adept is someone with the power to use the dark side of the Force outside of the traditions of the Jedi or the Sith. They were often steeped in the lore of the dark side and opposed to those who used the light side, such as Jedi. While all Sith were technically dark side adepts, non-Sith individuals such as Asajj Ventress, Kylo Ren, and the Grand Inquisitor were also considered dark side adepts. Dark side adepts were referenced in passing in James Luceno's canon novel "Tarkin".
Bendu debuted in the Star Wars Rebels season 3 episode, ""Steps Into Shadow"". Bendu was a Force-sensitive individual who resided on the remote planet of Atollon and represented the "center" of the Force, between the light side and the dark side. "Jedi and Sith wield the "Ashla" and "Bogan". The light and the dark. I'm the one in the middle. The Bendu..." stated Bendu. He is depicted as one who seeks balance, and has been likened to Tom Bombadil of "The Lord of the Rings." The term "Bendu" first appears in the original script for Star Wars as the name of the Jedi Knights, the "Jedi-Bendu".
Most notably, Anakin Skywalker's padawan Ahsoka Tano left the Jedi Order, and continued to wield the Force, she never affiliated or created any Force sensitive organization.
The Jedi Code was a set of rules that governed the behavior of the Jedi Order. It taught its followers to not give in to feelings of anger toward other lifeforms, which would help them resist fear and prevent them from falling to the dark side of the Force.
The Four Branches of the Jedi Council are fictional institutions from the "Star Wars" universe. They serve the Jedi Order as an organized administrative body that provide the necessary auxiliary and support services that sustain and governed the Order's academies, temples, interests and organizations.
The Jedi High Council is the main ecclesiastical leadership of the Jedi Order. The Jedi High Council is made up of some of the strongest, wisest and most experienced members of the Jedi Order. They are elected to lead the Jedi.
The Council of First Knowledge administered the Temple-based academy and its curriculum, and funded scholars' scientific research. To this end, the Council guarded and maintained the Temple Archives and its holocron vaults, as well as the "Shadow program" at the Jedi Temple: Jedi Sentinels tasked with hunting down Sith artifacts.
The Council of Reconciliation dealt with the Galactic Senate and the Republic Diplomatic Corps in order to help bring diplomatic resolutions to conflicts and end political standoffs. The "first face" of the Republic presented to worlds interested in joining the Republic, this Council would dispatch Jedi diplomats and ambassadors to moderate debate and hammer out treaties
The Council of Reassignment administered the Jedi Service Corps and each of its branch councils. Organizing work for those Initiates who failed out of the academy and Knights with special talents, the Reassignment Council oversaw this branch's missions and assignments.
Every Jedi, regardless of species or world, is trained for their career at Jedi Academy. Entrance is determined by rigorous examination and psychological tests. When Jedi Sentinels discover or test a suitable "force-sensitive" candidate, they are taken to the Jedi Academy at the age of 5 (depending on the species and arbitrary years) with the parent's permission. Jedi scholarship educations are considered prestigious, as most parents are portrayed as either happy or proud of the opportunity presented to their child, who could never afford an education. However, parents also are generally sad since they know they are unlikely to see their child again before adulthood. Members of the Order progress through four educational stages, at times referred to as levels:
Initiation is the first part of Jedi training; they are mentored by Jedi Masters in rudimentary control over the Force and basic self-defense techniques.
Most Initiates were typically Younglings (a child Jedi-in-training), receiving early and first-class education. The first ten years of a youngling's training demands segregation from outside distractions and is deliberately designed to reinforce detachment from earthly emotions, including loyalty or love for their parents. This is why Yoda initially denied both Anakin and Luke Skywalker for being "too old for training".
Younglings were portrayed training under Jedi Master Yoda in a scene on "Attack of the Clones" and hiding during the assault on the Jedi Temple in "Revenge of the Sith".
The “Young Jedi” story arc and the episode “Path of the Jedi” explored the Jedi tradition called "The Gathering," where initiates traveled to the "Crystal Caves" to harvest kyber crystals, which they would use to build their first lightsabers. Crystals were attuned to individual Jedi and lacked color. The Force spoke to each of the younglings through their crystals. To find their crystal, each initiate had to learn a lesson: courage, hope, patience, trust, confidence, and selflessness.
An Initiate who successfully completes "fundamental training" is given a second-class education and then undergoes Padawan training under the tutelage of a Mentor (usually a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master). They are also called "Apprentices" and "Padawan learners". As a rite of passage and the final test before the trials to knighthood, Padawans must build their own lightsabers. In the Old Republic, Padawans usually wore a hair braid on the right side of their head which was removed with a lightsaber upon attaining knighthood. They also served as Commanders in the Clone Wars.
Disciplined and experienced, Jedi Knights become so only when they have completed "the trials" (final tests), they officially graduate, being eligible for specialized advance courses, and may continue to pursue a third-class education (see below) to obtain the equivalent of a habilitation or post-doctoral degree. As the most common rank, it is interchangeably referred to as "Jedi", "Jedi Knight" and "Master Jedi" (although the latter are honorifics used only by Younglings and Padawans when addressing Jedi Knights or above).
The five tests are usually known as "Trial of Skill", the "Trial of Courage", the "Trial of the Flesh", the "Trial of Spirit", and the "Trial of Insight (or Knowledge)". In "Return of the Jedi", Master Yoda gives his apprentice, Luke Skywalker, the trial of confronting Darth Vader for a second time so he might become a full-fledged Knight. Occasionally, performing an extraordinary (usually heroic) act can earn a Padawan learner Jedi status, such as when Obi-Wan Kenobi defeats the Sith Lord, Darth Maul. By the time of the Skywalker Saga films, distinct "battle classes" were not necessary as the Republic had not seen war in over a thousand years, and the title of Knight was simply a rank once again.
Jedi Master is a term of respect used by beings who respect the Jedi. Regarded as among the most accomplished and recognized polymaths in the "Star Wars" galaxy. Upon completion of vocational or postgraduate education, a Jedi Knight becomes a Jedi Master after successfully training a Padawan learner to Knight status, such as when Obi-Wan Kenobi became a Jedi Master after he successfully trained Anakin Skywalker to the point where he was able to complete the trials and become a Jedi Knight. Though this is the most common manner, there are other ways of attaining the rank.
Various careers, occupations, ranks and titles were available to all Jedi. Upon a Padawan's ascension to ""Knighthood"-status", a Jedi pursued higher education or vocational education and training in a field of expertise; choose a careers based on preference, personal talents and skills. Before the Great Jedi Purge, numerous divisions existed across the whole of the order, but most personnel are represented within the three order divisions: the Order of the Guardian, the Order of the Consular, or Order of the Sentinel. In addition to their specialization, in times of war, the High Council could demand that the members of the Order assume military ranks in order to defend the Republic.
Within the "Star Wars" universe, the Jedi are usually portrayed wearing simple robes and carrying specialized field gear for their missions. Their philosophical lifestyles mirror those of real-world religious vows and evangelical counsels, as their personal possessions are provided exclusively by the Jedi Order, and are only meant to allow self-sufficiency.
The most notable instrument wielded by a Jedi is the lightsaber. Both Jedi and Sith use lightsabers, though the former regard them as a tool, the latter, a weapon. The Jedi's lightsabers emit cool colors, usually blue or green blades (sometimes yellow, or purple, as seen in the case of Mace Windu), while the Sith emit warm colors (red). Lightsabers can be of many different colors depending on the crystal fixture. Most Jedi use naturally formed crystals, whereas Sith tend to use synthetic crystals, which are usually red in color.
Although rare, multi-bladed lightsabers can exist, especially among Sith such as Darth Maul's double bladed lightsaber, the Inqusitors' double-bladed/rotating ones, or Kylo Ren's crossguard-bladed one (due to a cracked kyber crystal).
Eta-2 Actis Jedi Interceptors first appeared in "Revenge of the Sith". Delta-7B Aethersprite Jedi starfighters appear in "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" and "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith". In "Attack of the Clones", Obi-Wan Kenobi travels via Jedi starfighter to Kamino to investigate the attempted assassination of Padmé Amidala; he also flies a Jedi starfighter to Geonosis in an attempt to track down the bounty hunter Jango Fett. Lacking a hyperdrive, the starfighter relies on an external sled to propel it through hyperspace. Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) fly updated Jedi starfighters (called Jedi Interceptors) in the opening sequence of "Revenge of the Sith". Later, Plo Koon (Matt Sloan) flies a "Revenge of the Sith"-era starfighter when he is shot down by clone troopers carrying out Emperor Palpatine's (Ian McDiarmid) Order 66.
The Jedi starfighter's triangular shape in "Attack of the Clones" stems from the shape of Imperial Star Destroyers in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Industrial Light & Magic designer Doug Chiang identified the Jedi starfighter as one of the first designs that bridges the aesthetic between the prequel and original trilogies. Chiang noted that viewers' familiarity with the Star Destroyer's appearance and Imperial affiliation gives added symbolism to the Jedi craft's appearance and foreshadows the Empire's rise to power. The starfighter seen in "Revenge of the Sith" is a cross between the previous film's vessel and the Empire's TIE fighters from the original trilogy. Hasbro's expanding wings in the "Attack of the Clones" Jedi starfighter toy inspired the opening wings in the "Revenge of the Sith" vessel. The starfighter in the "Revenge of the Sith" is called a Jedi Interceptor Starfighter.
The Jedi Archives, known as The Great Library of Ossus or The Great Library of the Jedi, contained the galaxy's most priceless and ancient of texts sacred to Jedi scholars and archaeologists. Among these were Sith artifacts, considered by the Jedi Order to be the most dangerous artifacts in the galaxy, that were accessible only to those able to control the Dark Side of the Force.
The Jedi archives of the Jedi Temple in the movie "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" bear a startling resemblance to the Long Room of the Trinity College Library in Dublin. This resemblance resulted in controversy as permission had not been sought to use the building's likeness in the film. However, Lucasfilm denied that the Long Room was the basis for the Jedi archives, and officials from Trinity College Library decided not to take any legal action.
The Jedi academies were established to train Force-sensitive beings accepted into the Jedi Order in the ways of the Force. Overseen by the Council of First Knowledge, each academy was governed by an advisory Council appointed by their superiors on Coruscant. Mainstreaming the majority of teachings at the Temple, certain practices were permitted to vary from world to world. However, at all sanctioned academies, a group of Jedi Masters would instruct Initiates to the Order in the ways of the Force. The size of the school varied from world to world; the smallest consisted of a single clan of younglings, and the largest was the main academy housed within the Jedi Temple of Coruscant. Most academies had been established during the Old Sith Wars and were located in the Galactic Rim. Some were located on or near Force-wellsprings or places significant to the Order like crystal caves or nexuses of dark side energies that needed constant monitoring.
In addition to the traditional academies established by the Order, the Exploration Corps maintained several spacefaring mobile academies such as the "Chu'unthor" so that roaming the galaxy and exploring new worlds could be achieved while still teaching traditional doctrine.
By the fall of the Galactic Republic in 19 BBY, many of the ancient academies had been shut down for decades, with the Council of First Knowledge preferring the central teachings of the Coruscant Temple. After the dissolution of the Order during the Great Jedi Purge, all orthodox Temples and academies were routed and burned in order to prevent any more Jedi from learning the secrets of the Force. However, the Galactic Empire's chokehold on Force-education did not last and the Order was reformed following the conclusion of the Galactic Civil War. When Grand Master Luke Skywalker's New Order became a single class of twelve students including his nephew Ben Solo, however it was reduced to only himself when his nephew turned to the darkside and became Kylo Ren.
In the prequel trilogy, the primary Jedi Temple is located on the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant. As the chief administrative headquarters, the Temple served the Order in three capacities: a monastery and library for the Jedi seeking enlightenment and to reflect on the will of the Force; an academy and training center for Jedi younglings and Padawans who endeavored to join the ranks of the Jedi Knights; and government, in which the Masters of the Jedi High Council guided the Order's direction. It was originally built atop an old "dark-side nexus" shrine during the birth of the Republic, so as to be symbolic to the Coruscant people that the tyrannical rule of the Sith was over.
In "Revenge of the Sith", the Jedi Temple is attacked by clone troopers of the 501st Legion, led by the newly christened Darth Vader, who butchered the Jedi within and set the Temple alight. After the fall of the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic, the Temple became the Palace of the Emperor and a location for his dark side artifacts. It would serve as Sidious' residence for over two decades until his death at the Battle of Endor. The Temple is visible in the celebrations on Coruscant at the end of "Return of the Jedi". After the destruction of the Sith, Luke Skywalker—the last of the Jedi—recovered fragments of a Force-sensitive tree that was once located at the heart of the Jedi Temple.
"Architects' Journal" rated the temple third on its top-ten architecture of "Star Wars" list behind the second Death Star and Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine, and ahead of Coruscant, the capital city of the Old Republic. The temple is described in the article as adapting "the robust typology of Mayan temples, with durasteel cladding specified for the external stone walls for improved defensive strength" and said to be a ziggurat that "is built above a Force-nexus and has ample room for training facilities, accommodation and the Jedi Archive." The temple has five towers, the tallest is Tranquility Spire, that are stylistically similar to the minarets surrounding the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. "Star Wars Insider" listed it as the one hundredth greatest thing about Star Wars in its one hundredth issue special.
With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, most of the licensed "Star Wars" novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film "Star Wars" were rebranded as "Star Wars Legends" and declared non-canon to the franchise in April 2014.
The Je'daii Order, precursors to the modern Jedi, studied and used both the light and dark sides of the Force equally. The preview issue of "Dawn of the Jedi" states that the Je'daii originated ten thousand years before the saga takes place (approximately 36,453 years BBY). They were more monk than warrior, and their capital was Tython in the Deep Core.
In novels set after the events of the film series, Luke Skywalker re-established the Jedi High Council as part of his New Jedi Order. The most notable difference between the format of the new council and the old is that only half of the council are made up of Jedi, while the other half consisted of politicians. Following the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Jedi withdrew their support from any one political entity and relocated to Ossus, where Luke had a full Jedi Council re-established.
In novels set after the events of the "original"-trilogy film series, The New Jedi Order was the restored and reformed Jedi organization, in the wake of the Great Jedi Purge and subsequent fall of the Galactic Empire. The Jedi Knights, reduced in number to only a handful, were slowly restored, primarily under the leadership of Grandmaster Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker abolished the traditional Master/Padawan system. He believed all Jedi should be both teachers and students; that they should both learn from and mentor each other, and not just from one Master.
Within the Expanded Universe, "The New Jedi Order" indicates that the Jedi Temple on Coruscant is no longer standing but it is rebuilt as a gift to Jedi for their services and achievements during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. The new temple is in the form of a massive pyramid made from stone and transparisteel that is designed to fit into the new look of Coruscant, though internally it is identical to the design seen in "Revenge of the Sith".
The United States Army had a group of officers in the early 1980s who promoted maneuver warfare tactics, and who were derisively referred to as Jedi by more conventional officers who were satisfied with attrition warfare tactics and methods.
In "Star Wars and Philosophy", William Stephens compares the Jedi to Stoicism:
Functionally, the Jedi order resembles a Praetorian Guard.
Jedi have made their way into certain areas of pop culture, such as "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "The Saga Begins", a parody of "American Pie". In the film "The Men Who Stare at Goats" (2009), a reporter follows a former soldier who claimed to be a "Jedi warrior", a nickname for psychic spies in the US military.
One of the enduring influences the "Star Wars" saga has had in popular culture is the idea of the fictional Jedi values being interpreted as a modern philosophical path or religion, spawning various movements such as the Jediism (religious) and the Jedi census phenomenon.
Footnotes
Citations
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16379
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James Tobin
James Tobin (March 5, 1918 – March 11, 2002) was an American economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisers and consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Harvard and Yale Universities. He developed the ideas of Keynesian economics, and advocated government intervention to stabilize output and avoid recessions. His academic work included pioneering contributions to the study of investment, monetary and fiscal policy and financial markets. He also proposed an econometric model for censored dependent variables, the well-known Tobit model.
Along with fellow neo-Keynesian economist James Meade in 1977, Tobin proposed nominal GDP targeting as a monetary policy rule in 1980. Tobin received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1981 for "creative and extensive work on the analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices."
Outside academia, Tobin was widely known for his suggestion of a tax on foreign exchange transactions, now known as the "Tobin tax". This was designed to reduce speculation in the international currency markets, which he saw as dangerous and unproductive.
Tobin was born on March 5, 1918, in Champaign, Illinois. His father was Louis Michael Tobin, (b. 1879) a journalist working at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His father had fought in World War I, was a member of the first Greek organization at Illinois (Delta Tau Delta fraternity Beta Upsilon chapter), and was credited as the inventor of 'Homecoming'. His mother, Margaret Edgerton Tobin (b. 1893), was a social worker. Tobin followed primary school at the University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, a laboratory school in the university's campus.
In 1935, on his father's advice, Tobin took the entrance exams for Harvard University. Despite no special preparation for the exams, he passed and was admitted with a national scholarship from the university. During his studies he first read Keynes' "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money", published in 1936. Tobin graduated "summa cum laude" in 1939 with a thesis centered on a critical analysis of Keynes' mechanism for introducing equilibrium involuntary unemployment. His first published article, in 1941, was based on this senior thesis.
Tobin immediately started graduate studies, also at Harvard, earning his AM degree in 1940. In 1941, he interrupted graduate studies to work for the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply and the War Production Board in Washington, D.C. The next year, after the United States entered World War II, he enlisted in the US Navy, spending the war as an officer on a destroyer, including, among possible others, the . At the end of the war he returned to Harvard and resumed studies, receiving his Ph.D. in 1947 with a thesis on the consumption function written under the supervision of Joseph Schumpeter. In 1947 Tobin was elected a Junior Fellow of Harvard's Society of Fellows, which allowed him the freedom and funding to spend the next three years studying and doing research.
In 1950 Tobin moved to Yale University, where he remained for the rest of his career. He joined the Cowles Foundation, which moved to Yale in 1955, also serving as its president between 1955–1961 and 1964–1965. His main research interest was to provide microfoundations to Keynesian economics, with a special focus on monetary economics. One of his frequent collaborators was his Yale colleague William Brainard. In 1957 Tobin was appointed Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale.
Besides teaching and research, Tobin was also strongly involved in the public life, writing on current economic issues and serving as an economic expert and policy consultant. During 1961–62, he served as a member of John F. Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisors, under the chairman Walter Heller, then acted as a consultant between 1962–68. Here, in close collaboration with Arthur Okun, Robert Solow and Kenneth Arrow, he helped design the Keynesian economic policy implemented by the Kennedy administration. Tobin also served for several terms as a member of the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System Academic Consultants and as a consultant of the US Treasury Department.
Tobin was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 1955 and, in 1981, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. He was a fellow of several professional associations, holding the position of president of the American Economic Association in 1971.
In 1972 Tobin, along with fellow Yale economics professor William Nordhaus, published "Is Growth Obsolete?", an article that introduced the Measure of Economic Welfare as the first model for economic sustainability assessment, and economic sustainability measurement.
In 1982–1983, Tobin was Ford Visiting Research Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1988 he formally retired from Yale, but continued to deliver some lectures as Professor Emeritus and continued to write. He died on March 11, 2002, in New Haven, Connecticut.
Tobin was a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security.
James Tobin married Elizabeth Fay Ringo, a former M.I.T. student of Paul Samuelson, on September 14, 1946. They had four children: Margaret Ringo (born in 1948), Louis Michael (born in 1951), Hugh Ringo (born in 1953) and Roger Gill (born in 1956). In late June, 2009, the family announced via a private email that Tobin's wife had died at the age of 90.
In August 2009 in a roundtable interview in Prospect "magazine", Adair Turner supported the idea of new global taxes on financial transactions, warning that the "swollen" financial sector paying excessive salaries had grown too big for society. Lord Turner's suggestion that a "Tobin tax" – named after James Tobin – should be considered for financial transactions made headlines around the world.
Tobin's Tobit model of regression with censored endogenous variables (Tobin 1958a) is a standard econometric technique. His "q" theory of investment (Tobin 1969), the Baumol–Tobin model of the transactions demand for money (Tobin 1956), and his model of liquidity preference as behavior toward risk (the asset demand for money) (Tobin 1958b) are all staples of economics textbooks.
In his 1958 article Tobin also led the way in showing how to deal with utility maximization under uncertainty with an infinite number of possible states. As Palda explains "One way to get out of the mess of figuring out asset prices using a model of maximizing the expected utility of investing in stocks is to make assumptions about either preferences or the probabilities of the different possible states of the world. Nobellist James Tobin (1958) took this line and discovered that in some cases you do not need to worry about the utility of income in thousands of states, and the attached probabilities, to solve the consumer's choice on how to spread income among states. When preferences contain only a linear and a squared term (a case of diminishing returns) or the probabilities of different stock returns follow a normal distribution (an equation that contains a linear and squared terms as parameters), a simple formulation of a person's investment choices becomes possible. Under Tobin's assumptions we can reformulate the person's decision problem as being one of trading off risk and expected return. Risk, or more precisely the variance of your investment portfolio creates spread in the returns you expect. People are willing to assume more risk only if compensated by a higher level of expected return. One can thus think of a tradeoff people are willing to make between risk and expected return. They invest in risky assets to the point at which their willingness to trade off risk and return is equal to the rate at which they able to trade them off. It is difficult to exaggerate how brilliant is the simplification of the investment problem that flows from these assumptions. Instead of worrying about the investor's optimization problem in potentially millions of possible states of the world, one need only worry about how the investor can trade off risk and return in the stock market."
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Julian Lennon
John Charles Julian Lennon (born 8 April 1963) is an English singer, musician, photographer and philanthropist. He is the founder of the White Feather Foundation.
He is the son of The Beatles member John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia, and was the direct inspiration for three Beatles' songs: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (1967), "Hey Jude" (1968), and "Good Night" (1968). His parents divorced in 1968.
He has produced a number of albums starting with "Valotte" (1984), he has also held exhibitions of his photography.
In 2006, Lennon produced the environmental documentary film "WhaleDreamers", and in 2020, Lennon also worked on the documentary film "Women of the White Buffalo," as one of the executive producers.
Julian Lennon was born on 8 April 1963 at Sefton General Hospital in Liverpool, to John Lennon and Cynthia Powell. He was named after his paternal grandmother, Julia Lennon, who died 5 years before his birth. The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, was his godfather. Lennon was educated at Ruthin School, a boarding independent school in the town of Ruthin in Denbighshire in North Wales.
Lennon inspired one of his father's most famous songs, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", whose lyrics describe a picture the boy had drawn, a watercolor painting of his friend, Lucy O'Donnell, from nursery school, surrounded by stars. Another composition of his father inspired by him was the lullaby "Good Night", the closing song of "The Beatles" (also known as The White Album). In 1967, at the age of four, he attended the set of the Beatles' film "Magical Mystery Tour".
When Julian was five years old in 1968, his parents divorced following his father's infidelity with Japanese multimedia artist Yoko Ono. John Lennon married Ono on 20 March 1969, and Julian has a younger half-brother, Sean Lennon.
Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" to console him over the divorce; originally called "Hey Jules", McCartney changed the name because he thought that "Jude" was an easier name to sing. After his parents' divorce, Julian had almost no contact with his father until the early 1970s when, at the request of his father's then-girlfriend, May Pang (Yoko Ono and Lennon had temporarily separated), he began to visit his father regularly. John Lennon bought him a Gibson Les Paul guitar and a drum machine for Christmas 1973, and encouraged his interest in music by showing him some chords.
Following his father's murder on 8 December 1980, Julian Lennon voiced anger and resentment towards him, saying, I've never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was with me. There was some very negative stuff talked about me ... like when he said I'd come out of a whiskey bottle on a Saturday night. Stuff like that. You think, where's the love in that? Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit ... more than Dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad.
Julian chafed at hearing his father's peace and love stance perpetually celebrated. He told the "Daily Telegraph", "I have to say that, from my point of view, I felt he was a hypocrite", he said, "Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son. How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces—no communication, adultery, divorce? You can't do it, not if you're being true and honest with yourself."
Julian was excluded from his father's will. However, a trust of £100,000 was created by his father to be shared between Julian and his half brother Sean. Julian sued his father's estate and in 1996 reached a settlement agreement reportedly worth £20 million.
By 2009, Julian's feelings toward his father had mellowed considerably. Recalling his renewed contact with his father in the mid-1970s, he said, Dad and I got on a great deal better then. We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot and had a great time in general when he was with May Pang. My memories of that time with Dad and May are very clear — they were the happiest time I can remember with him.
Lennon made his musical debut at age 11 on his father's album "Walls and Bridges" playing drums on "Ya-Ya", later saying, "Dad, had I known you were going to put it on the album, I would've played much better!" In the 1980s, according to AllMusic, he "parlayed a remarkable vocal similarity to his father into a successful singing career".
Lennon enjoyed immediate success with his debut album, "Valotte", released in 1984. Produced by Phil Ramone, it spawned two top 10 hits, the title track and "Too Late for Goodbyes", and earned Lennon a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1985. Music videos for the two hits were made by film director Sam Peckinpah and producer Martin Lewis. After the album's release, Paul McCartney sent Lennon a telegram wishing him good luck.
His second album, 1986's "The Secret Value of Daydreaming", was panned by critics. However, it reached number 32 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and produced the single "Stick Around", which was Lennon's first number 1 single on the US Album Rock Tracks chart. He recorded the song "Because", previously recorded by The Dave Clark Five, in the UK for Clark's 1986 musical "Time".
On 1 April 1987, Julian Lennon appeared as the Baker in Mike Batt's musical "The Hunting of the Snark" (based on Lewis Carroll's poem). The all-star lineup included Roger Daltrey, Justin Hayward and Billy Connolly, with John Hurt as the narrator. The performance, a musical benefit at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the deaf, was attended by the Duchess of York. Although Lennon never achieved the same level of success in the US as he had enjoyed with "Valotte", his 1989 single "Now You're in Heaven" peaked at number 5 in Australia and gave him his second number 1 hit on the Album Rock Tracks chart in the US.
In 1991, George Harrison played guitar on Lennon's album "Help Yourself", which included the single "Saltwater" although he was not directly credited. The single "Saltwater" reached number 6 in the UK and topped the Australian singles charts for four weeks. During this time, Lennon contributed a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" to the soundtrack of the television series "The Wonder Years".
Lennon left the music business for several years in the 1990s. He followed his interests in cooking, sailing and sculpting. After he began his performing career, there was occasionally unfounded media speculation that Lennon would undertake performances with McCartney, Harrison and Ringo Starr. In the "Beatles Anthology" series in 1995, the three surviving Beatles confirmed there was never an idea of having Julian sit in for his father as part of a Beatles reunion, with McCartney saying, "Why would we want to subject him to all of this?"
In May 1998, Lennon released the album "Photograph Smile" to little commercial success. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the album as "well-crafted and melodic", and concluded by saying that it was "the kind of music that would receive greater praise if it weren't made by the son of a Beatle". In 2002, he recorded a version of "When I'm Sixty-Four", from the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album, for an Allstate Insurance commercial.
In 2006 he ventured into Internet businesses, including MyStore.com with Todd Meagher and Bebo founder Michael Birch. In 2009 Lennon created a new partnership with Meagher and Birch called theRevolution, LLC. Through this company, Lennon released a tribute song and EP, "Lucy", honouring the memory of Lucy Vodden (née O'Donnell), the little girl who inspired the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", with 50 per cent of the proceeds going to fund Lupus research.
In October 2011, Lennon released the album "Everything Changes". In 2012 he worked with music film director Dick Carruthers on the feature-length video documentary "Through the Picture Window", which followed Lennon's journey in the making of "Everything Changes" and includes interviews with Steven Tyler, Bono, and Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile. "Through the Picture Window" was also released as an app in all formats with bespoke videos for all 14 tracks from the album.
Lennon's first-ever tour in early 1985 was documented as part of the film "Stand By Me: A Portrait Of Julian Lennon" — a film profile started by Sam Peckinpah, but completed by Martin Lewis after Peckinpah's death. Lennon has appeared in several other films including "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" (1996, but shot in 1968), "Cannes Man" (1996), "" (1988), "Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll" (1987), and a cameo in "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995) as a bartender. Julian provided the voice for the title role in the animated film "David Copperfield" (1993). He was also the voice of the main character Toby the Teapot in the animated special "The Real Story of I'm a Little Teapot" (1990).
Lennon is also the producer of the documentary called "WhaleDreamers" about an aboriginal tribe in Australia and its special relationship to whales. It also touches on many environmental issues. This film has received many awards and was shown at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2020, Lennon worked on the documentary film, "Women of the White Buffalo" as an executive producer. The documentary film focused on the Lakota women living Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, how they are used and how they preserve and protect their ancestral values and wisdom.
After photographing his half-brother Sean's music tour in 2007, Lennon took up a serious interest in photography.
On 17 September 2010, Lennon opened an exhibition of 35 photographs called "Timeless: The Photography of Julian Lennon" with help from long-time friend and fellow photographer Timothy White. Originally scheduled to run from 17 September to 10 October, the Morrison Hotel Gallery extended it a week to end 17 October. The photographs include shots of his brother Sean and U2 frontman Bono.
Lennon's "Horizons" series was featured at the Emmanuel Fremin Gallery, NYC, 12 March – 2 May 2015.
Shortly after the death of his father, Lennon began collecting Beatles memorabilia. In 2010, he published a book describing his collection, entitled: "Beatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection".
In 2017, Lennon began a New York Times Bestselling trilogy, "Touch the Earth, Heal the Earth" and "Love the Earth" which he completed in 2019.
A conversation Lennon once had with his father: "Dad once said to me that should he pass away, if there was some way of letting me know he was going to be OK – that we were all going to be OK – the message would come to me in the form of a white feather. ... the white feather has always represented peace to me" inspired him greatly. Then Lennon, while on a tour in Australia, received a white feather gift from an indigenous elderly member of the Mirning tribe in Australia, which also turned out to be an inspirational message to him. In 2007, he founded The White Feather Foundation (TWFF). Its mission "embraces environmental and humanitarian issues and in conjunction with partners from around the world helps to raise funds for the betterment of all life, and to honor those who have truly made a difference."
TWFF partners with philanthropists and charities around the world to raise funds for various environmental and humanitarian projects such as clean water, indigenous cultures, education and health. In 2008, the Prince of Monaco Albert II presented TWFF with the Better World Environmental Award.
In 2015, after the Nepal earthquake, TWFF contributed $106,347.52 to the Music for Relief's Nepal aid fund to support the victims of the earthquake.
Cynthia visited Kenya and Ethopia in 2014 to witness the education and environmental initiatives by TWFF. After her death, Lennon announced that he would be naming TWFF's scholarship program to Kenyan girls after his mother: "The Cynthia Lennon Scholarship for Girls".
In 2019, Julian contributed his voice and music to the soundtrack of narrative feature film “One Little Finger“, which has the initiative to spread awareness about ‘ability in disability’. It shows how important and powerful music is to support societal and cognitive development of people with disabilities.
Lennon has been quoted as having a reasonably "cordial" relationship with Ono, while getting along very well with her son, Julian’s half-brother Sean. Julian saw Sean perform live for the first time in Paris, on 12 November 2006 at La Boule Noire and he and Sean spent time together on Sean's tour in 2007.
Lennon has never married or had children, revealing that his difficult relationship with his famous father had discouraged him from doing so. He said that, unlike his father, he wanted to be mature enough to cope with fatherhood. "He was young and didn't know what the hell he was doing," Lennon said. "That's the reason I haven't had children yet. I didn't want to do the same thing. No, I'm not ready. I want to know who I am first."
In commemoration of John Lennon's 70th birthday and as a statement for peace, Lennon and his mother, Cynthia, unveiled the John Lennon Peace Monument in his home town of Liverpool, on 9 October 2010.
Lennon remains friends with his father's former bandmate, Paul McCartney, though they experienced a public falling out in 2011 when Lennon was not invited to McCartney's wedding to Nancy Shevell.
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FIFA World Cup Trophy
The World Cup is a gold trophy that is awarded to the winners of the FIFA World Cup association football tournament. Since the advent of the World Cup in 1930, two trophies have been used: the Jules Rimet Trophy from 1930 to 1970, and the FIFA World Cup Trophy from 1974 to the present day.
The first trophy, originally named "Victory", but later renamed in honour of FIFA president Jules Rimet, was made of gold plated sterling silver and lapis lazuli and depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Brazil won the trophy outright in 1970, prompting the commissioning of a replacement. The original Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 and never recovered.
The subsequent trophy, called the "FIFA World Cup Trophy", was introduced in 1974. Made of 18 carat gold with bands of malachite on its base, it stands 36.8 centimetres high and weighs 6.1 kilograms. The trophy was made by Stabilimento Artistico Bertoni company in Italy. It depicts two human figures holding up the Earth. The current holders of the trophy are France, winners of the 2018 World Cup.
The Jules Rimet Trophy was the original prize for winning the FIFA World Cup. Originally called "Victory", but generally known simply as the "World Cup" or "Coupe du Monde", it was renamed in 1946 to honour the FIFA President Jules Rimet who in 1929 passed a vote to initiate the competition. It was designed by French sculptor Abel Lafleur and made of gold-plated sterling silver on a lapis lazuli base. In 1954 this base was replaced with a taller version to accommodate more winner's details. It stood 35 centimetres (14 in) high and weighed 3.8 kilograms (8.4 lb). It comprised a decagonal cup, supported by a winged figure representing Nike, the ancient Greek goddess of victory. The Jules Rimet Trophy was taken to Uruguay for the first FIFA World Cup aboard the "Conte Verde", which set sail from Villefranche-sur-Mer, just southeast of Nice, on 21 June 1930. This was the same ship that carried Jules Rimet and the footballers representing France, Romania, and Belgium who were participating in the tournament that year. The first team to be awarded the trophy was Uruguay, the winners of the 1930 World Cup.
During World War II, the trophy was held by 1938 champion Italy. Ottorino Barassi, the Italian vice-president of FIFA and president of FIGC, secretly transported the trophy from a bank in Rome and hid it in a shoe-box under his bed to prevent the Nazis from taking it. The 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden marked the beginning of a tradition regarding the trophy. As Brazilian captain Hilderaldo Bellini heard photographers' requests for a better view of the Jules Rimet Trophy, he lifted it up in the air. Every Cup-winning captain ever since has repeated the gesture.
On 20 March 1966, four months before the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England, the trophy was stolen during a public exhibition at Westminster Central Hall. It was found just seven days later wrapped in newspaper at the bottom of a suburban garden hedge on Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, South London, by a black and white mongrel dog named Pickles.
As a security measure, The Football Association secretly manufactured a replica of the trophy for use in exhibitions rather than the original. This replica was used on subsequent occasions up until 1970 when the original trophy had to be handed back to FIFA for the next competition. Since FIFA had explicitly denied the FA permission to create a replica, the replica also had to disappear from public view and was for many years kept under its creator's bed. This replica was eventually sold at an auction in 1997 for £254,500, when it was purchased by FIFA. The high auction price, ten times the reserve price of £20,000–£30,000, was led by speculation that the auctioned trophy was not the replica trophy but the original itself. Subsequent testing by FIFA, however, confirmed the auctioned trophy was indeed a replica and FIFA soon afterwards arranged for the replica to be lent for display at the English National Football Museum, which was then based in Preston but is now in Manchester.
The Brazilian team won the tournament for the third time in 1970, allowing them to keep the real trophy in perpetuity, as had been stipulated by Jules Rimet in 1930. It was put on display at the Brazilian Football Confederation headquarters in Rio de Janeiro in a cabinet with a front of bullet-proof glass.
On 19 December 1983, the wooden rear of the cabinet was opened by force with a crowbar and the cup was stolen again. Four men were tried and convicted in absentia for the crime. The trophy has never been recovered, and it is widely believed to have been melted down and sold. Only one piece of the Jules Rimet Trophy has been found, the original base which FIFA had kept in a basement of the federation's Zürich headquarters prior to 2015.
The Confederation commissioned a replica of their own, made by Eastman Kodak, using of gold. This replica was presented to Brazilian military president João Figueiredo in 1984. The trophy was the subject of a 2014 documentary "Mysteries of the Rimet Trophy" shown as part of ESPN's series during the 2014 World Cup.
A replacement trophy was commissioned by FIFA for the 1974 World Cup. Fifty-three submissions were received from sculptors in seven countries. Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga was awarded the commission. The trophy stands tall and is made of of 18 carat (75%) gold, worth approximately US$161,000 in 2018, with a base in diameter containing two layers of malachite. It has been asserted by Sir Martyn Poliakoff of "Periodic Videos" that the trophy is hollow; if, as is claimed, it were solid, the trophy would weigh and would be too heavy to lift. Produced by "Bertoni, Milano" in Paderno Dugnano, it weighs in total and depicts two human figures holding up the Earth. Gazzaniga described the trophy thus, "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory". Miguel Delaney, football writer for "The Independent", wrote, "Those two arms on the trophy "stretching out to receive the world... at the stirring moment of victory" – in the words of designer Silvio Gazzinaga – are so representative in more ways than one. This is what everyone in the game is ultimately reaching for: immortality.”
The trophy has the engraving "FIFA World Cup" on its base. After the 1994 FIFA World Cup a plate was added to the bottom side of the trophy on which the names of winning countries are engraved, names therefore not visible when the trophy is standing upright. The inscriptions state the year in figures and the name of the winning nation in its national language; for example, "1974 Deutschland" or "1994 Brasil". In 2010, however, the name of the winning nation was engraved as "2010 Spain", in English, not in Spanish. As of 2018, twelve winners have been engraved on the base. The plate is replaced each World Cup cycle and the names of the trophy winners are rearranged into a spiral to accommodate future winners, with Spain on later occasions written in Spanish ("España"). FIFA's regulations now state that the trophy, unlike its predecessor, cannot be won outright: the winners of the tournament receive a bronze replica which is gold-plated rather than solid gold. Germany became the first nation to win the new trophy for the third time when they won the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Jules Rimet Trophy
FIFA World Cup Trophy
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John Belushi
John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American actor, comedian and singer, and one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL"). Throughout his career, Belushi had a close personal and artistic partnership with his fellow "SNL" star Dan Aykroyd, whom he met while they were both working at Chicago's The Second City comedy club.
Born in Chicago to Albanian American parents, Belushi started his own successful comedy troupe with Tino Insana and Steve Beshekas, called "The West Compass Trio". After being discovered by Bernard Sahlins, he performed with The Second City and met Aykroyd, Brian Doyle-Murray and Harold Ramis.
In 1975, Belushi was recommended to "SNL" creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels by Chevy Chase and Michael O'Donoghue, who accepted Belushi as a new cast member of the show after an audition. He developed a series of characters on the show that reached high success, including his performances as Henry Kissinger and Ludwig van Beethoven. After his breakout film role as John "Bluto" Blutarsky in "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978), Belushi later appeared in films such as "1941", "The Blues Brothers", and "Neighbors". He also pursued interests in music, creating with Aykroyd, Lou Marini, Tom Malone, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Paul Shaffer, the Blues Brothers, from which the film received its name.
In his personal life, Belushi struggled with heavy drug use that threatened his comedy career; he was dismissed and rehired at "SNL" on several occasions due to his behavior. In 1982, Belushi died from combined drug intoxication caused by Cathy Smith, who injected him with a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a speedball. He was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.
John Belushi's mother, Agnes Demetri (Samaras), was born in Ohio to Albanian immigrants, and his father, Adam Anastos Belushi, was an Albanian immigrant from Qytezë. Born in Humboldt Park, a neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, Belushi was raised in Wheaton, a suburb west of Chicago, along with his three siblings: younger brothers Billy and Jim, and sister Marian. Belushi was Eastern Orthodox Christian, attending the Albanian Orthodox Church and attended Wheaton
Central High School, where he met his future wife, Judith Jacklin.
In 1965, Belushi formed a band, the Ravens, together with four fellow high school students (Dick Blasucci, Michael Blasucci, Tony Pavolonis, and Phil Special). They recorded one single, "Listen to Me Now"/"Jolly Green Giant". Belushi played drums and sang vocals. The record was not successful, and the band broke up when he enrolled at the College of DuPage.
Belushi started his own comedy troupe in Chicago, The West Compass Trio (named after the improvisational cabaret revue Compass Players active from 1955–1958 in Chicago), with Tino Insana and Steve Beshekas. Their success piqued the interest of Bernard Sahlins, the founder of The Second City improvised comedy enterprise, who went to see them performing in 1971 and asked Belushi to join the cast. At Second City, he met and began working with Harold Ramis and Brian Doyle-Murray.
In 1972, Belushi was offered a role, together with Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest, in "National Lampoon Lemmings", a parody of Woodstock, which played Off-Broadway in 1972. Belushi and Jacklin moved to New York City. Belushi started working as a writer, director and actor for "The National Lampoon Radio Hour", a comedy radio show which was created, produced and written by staff from "National Lampoon" magazine. During a trip to Toronto to check out the local Second City cast in 1974, he met Dan Aykroyd. Jacklin became an associate producer for the show, and she and Belushi were married on December 31, 1976.
In 1975, Chase and writer Michael O'Donoghue recommended Belushi to Lorne Michaels as a potential member for a television show Michaels was about to produce called "NBC's Saturday Night", later "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL"). Michaels was initially undecided, as he was not sure if Belushi's physical humor would fit with what he was envisioning, but he changed his mind after giving Belushi an audition.
Over his four-year tenure at "SNL", Belushi developed a series of successful characters, including the belligerent Samurai Futaba, Henry Kissinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, the Greek owner of the Olympia Café, Captain James T. Kirk, and a contributor of furious opinion pieces on "Weekend Update", during which he coined his catchphrase, "But N-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O!" With Aykroyd, Belushi created Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers. Originally intended to warm up the crowd before the show, the Blues Brothers were eventually featured as musical guests. Belushi also reprised his Lemmings imitation of Joe Cocker. Cocker himself joined Belushi in 1976 to sing "Feelin' Alright?" together.
Like many of his fellow "SNL" cast members, Belushi began experimenting heavily with drugs in order to deal with the constant pressure of performing on the weekly program. His unpredictable temper caused him to be fired (and immediately re-hired) by Michaels a number of times. In "Rolling Stone"s February 2015 appraisal of all 141 "SNL" cast members to that time, Belushi received the top ranking. "Belushi was the 'live' in "Saturday Night Live"", they wrote, "the one who made the show happen on the edge ... Nobody embodied the highs and lows of "SNL" like Belushi."
In 1978, Belushi performed in the films "Old Boyfriends" (directed by Joan Tewkesbury), "Goin' South" (directed by Jack Nicholson), and "Animal House" (directed by John Landis). Upon its initial release, "Animal House" received generally mixed reviews from critics, but "Time" magazine and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the year's best. Filmed for $2.8 million, it is one of the most profitable movies of all time, garnering an estimated gross of more than $141 million in the form of theatrical rentals and home video, not including merchandising. "Animal House" was also largely responsible for defining and launching the gross-out genre of films, which became one of Hollywood's staples.
Following the success of the Blues Brothers on "SNL", Belushi and Aykroyd, with the help of pianist-arranger Paul Shaffer, started assembling studio talents to form a proper band. These included "SNL" saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini and trombonist-saxophonist Tom Malone, who had previously played in Blood, Sweat & Tears. At Shaffer's suggestion, guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, the powerhouse combo from Booker T and the M.G.'s, were signed as well. In 1978, the Blues Brothers released their debut album, "Briefcase Full of Blues", with Atlantic Records. The album reached #1 on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum. Two singles were released, "Rubber Biscuit", which reached number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Soul Man", which reached number 14.
In 1979, Belushi left "SNL" with Aykroyd to pursue a film career. They made three movies together, "1941" (directed by Steven Spielberg), "Neighbors" (directed by John Avildsen), and most notably "The Blues Brothers" (directed by John Landis). Released in the U.S. on June 20, 1980, "The Blues Brothers" received generally positive reviews. It earned just under $5 million in its opening weekend and went on to gross $115.2 million in theaters worldwide before its release on home video. The Blues Brothers band toured to promote the film, which led to a third album (and second live album), "Made in America", recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in 1980. The track "Who's Making Love" peaked at No 39.
The only film Belushi made without Aykroyd following his departure from "SNL" was the romantic comedy "Continental Divide" (directed by Michael Apted). Released in September 1981, it starred Belushi as Chicago hometown hero writer Ernie Souchack (loosely based on newspaper columnist and long-time family friend Mike Royko), who gets an assignment researching a scientist (played by Blair Brown) who studies birds of prey in the remote Rocky Mountains.
By 1980, Belushi had become a fan and advocate of the punk rock band Fear after seeing them perform in several after-hours New York City bars, and brought them to Cherokee Studios to record songs for the soundtrack of "Neighbors". Blues Brother band member Tom Scott, along with producing partner and Cherokee owner Bruce Robb, initially helped with the session but later pulled out due to conflicts with Belushi. The session was eventually produced by Cropper. Belushi orchestrated Fear being booked to play the Halloween 1981 episode of "SNL"; the telecast of the performance featured then-novel moshing and stage diving, and was cut short by NBC due to band's profanity. The "New York Post" published an account of these and other sensationalistic details of the event the following day.
At the time of his death, Belushi was pursuing several movie projects, including "Moon Over Miami" with Louis Malle, "National Lampoon's The Joy of Sex" with Penny Marshall, and "Noble Rot" with Jay Sandrich, based on a script he adapted and rewrote with former "SNL" writer Don Novello. He was also scheduled to work with Aykroyd on "Ghostbusters" and "Spies Like Us".
Belushi also made a "Guest Star Appearance" on an episode of the television series "Police Squad!" (1982), which showed him underwater wearing cement shoes. He died shortly before the episode aired, so the scene was cut and replaced by a segment with William Conrad.
Belushi had managed to refrain from drug use for a brief period in 1981, but severely relapsed during the production of "Neighbors". Less than four months after the shoot, the day before he died, he visited his long-time manager Bernie Brillstein and asked for money. Brillstein said no, suspecting Belushi wanted money for drugs. Later in the day, when Brillstein had another visitor, Belushi returned and again asked for money. Brillstein complied, reluctant to rebuke Belushi in front of another person. In the early morning hours on the day of his death, he was visited separately by friends Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, as well as Catherine Evelyn Smith.
At approximately 12:00pm PDT on Friday, March 5, 1982, Belushi's fitness trainer and occasional bodyguard Bill Wallace arrived at Belushi's bungalow at the Chateau Marmont to deliver a typewriter and audiocassette recorder because Belushi had requested them the previous day. Wallace found Belushi dead, with no one else present in the bungalow. The cause of death was combined drug intoxication involving cocaine and heroin, a drug combination known as a speedball. Belushi's death was investigated by forensic pathologist Michael Baden, among others, and while the findings were disputed, it was officially ruled a drug-related accident.
In an interview with the "National Enquirer" two months after Belushi’s death, Smith admitted that she had been with him at the Chateau Marmont on the night of his death and had given him the fatal speedball shot. After the appearance of the "Enquirer" article, the case was reopened. Smith was arrested, extradited from Ontario, Canada, and charged with first-degree murder. A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter, and she served fifteen months in prison.
Belushi's wife arranged for a traditional Orthodox Christian funeral that was conducted by an Albanian Orthodox priest. He was interred at Abel's Hill Cemetery in Chilmark, Massachusetts on Martha's Vineyard. Belushi's tombstone has a skull and crossbones with the inscription, "I may be gone but Rock and Roll lives on." His mother's tombstone at Elmwood Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois, has Belushi's name inscribed on it and thus serves as a cenotaph.
Six years after Belushi died, a book by actress Elizabeth Taylor was published in which she referred to a 1978 "Weekend Update" segment in which Belushi had appeared in drag to ridicule her obesity in light of a then-current (1978) news report of her almost choking to death on a chicken bone at a public event. ”How sad that that man went to such great lengths to satirize my excesses and then died of his own.”
Belushi's life was detailed in two books: the 1984 biography "Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi" by Bob Woodward and 1990's "Samurai Widow" by his wife Judith. Woodward's book was adapted into a 1989 film of the same name, which was denounced by Aykroyd and Judith Belushi and was given poor reviews by critics.
The thrash metal group Anthrax penned a song about Belushi on their 1987 album "Among the Living", titled "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)." Polish rock band Lady Pank recorded a song "John Belushi" for their 1988 album "Tacy sami", with references to his Albanian ancestry.
Belushi has been portrayed by actors Eric Siegel in "Gilda Radner: It's Always Something", Tyler Labine in "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy" (which also features his friendship with Robin Williams), Michael Chiklis in "Wired" and John Gemberling in "A Futile and Stupid Gesture". Chris Farley, whose life was heavily influenced by Belushi, died in 1997 at age 33 due to a drug overdose, similar to combined drug intoxication, which contribute to the comparisons between Belushi and Farley.
Belushi's widow later remarried and is now Judith Belushi Pisano. She and co-biographer Tanner Colby produced "", a collection of first-person interviews and photographs of John Belushi's life that was published in 2005.
Belushi's career and death were prominently featured in the 1999 memoir of his manager Bernie Brillstein, who wrote that he was haunted by the comedian's overdose and learned how to better deal with clients who abuse drugs or alcohol from handling Belushi.
In 2004, Belushi was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star located at 6355 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2006, Biography Channel aired an episode of "Final 24", a documentary following Belushi during the last twenty-four hours leading to his death. Four years later, Biography aired a full biography documentation of Belushi's life.
According to his "SNL" castmate Jane Curtin, who appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2011, Belushi was a misogynist who would deliberately sabotage the work of female writers and comics while working on "SNL". "So you'd go to a table read, and if a woman writer had written a piece for John, he would not read it in his full voice. He felt as though it was his duty to sabotage pieces written by women."
During the pre-production of "Ghostbusters", Ivan Reitman remarked Slimer was sort of like Bluto in the film "Animal House", like the ghost of John Belushi. Since then, Slimer has been described as "The Ghost of John Belushi" by Dan Aykroyd in many interviews.
At the conclusion of the first live "SNL" episode after Belushi's death (Robert Urich/Mink DeVille on March 20, 1982), Brian Doyle-Murray gave a tribute to him. The ABC Network's similar sketch comedy series "Fridays" aired a live episode the night of Belushi's death. Just before the final credits rolled cast member Maryedith Burrell paid tribute to him by saying, "We're all going to miss John Belushi."
Belushi was scheduled to present the first annual Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 1982 Academy Awards with Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd presented the award alone, and stated from the lectern: "My partner would have loved to have been here tonight to present this award, since he was a bit of a Visual Effect himself."
In 2015, Belushi was ranked by "Rolling Stone" as the greatest "SNL" cast member of all time.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16384
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Johann Philipp Abelin
Johann Philipp Abelin was a German chronicler whose career straddled the 16th and 17th centuries. He was born, probably, at Strasbourg, and died there between 1634 and 1637. He wrote numerous histories under the pseudonyms of Abeleus, Philipp Arlanibäus, Johann Ludwig Gottfried and Gotofredus.
He worked mainly as a translator for the publishing house of Lucas Jennisius, Matthäus Merian and Friedrich Hulsius in Frankfurt. Some of his works, such as a history of India, proved later to be translations of other works. His own works consisted mainly of compilations of historical records.
Abelin produced compilations of contemporary records and letters about the events of the wars of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden without further historical commentary:
In the same style, his best known work was "Theatrum Europaeum", a series of chronicles of the chief events in the history of the world down to 1619, reedited, updated and republished several times, including a translation into Dutch. Its coincidence with the needs and tastes of the time, made it a very popular work. Abelin was responsible for the first two volumes. It was continued by various writers and grew to 21 volumes (1633–1738). However, the main interest of the volumes are the beautiful copperplate engraved illustrations of Matthäus Merian (1593–1650).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16385
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Java virtual machine
A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally describes what is required in a JVM implementation. Having a specification ensures interoperability of Java programs across different implementations so that program authors using the Java Development Kit (JDK) need not worry about idiosyncrasies of the underlying hardware platform.
The JVM reference implementation is developed by the OpenJDK project as open source code and includes a JIT compiler called HotSpot. The commercially supported Java releases available from Oracle Corporation are based on the OpenJDK runtime. Eclipse OpenJ9 is another open source JVM for OpenJDK.
The Java virtual machine is an abstract (virtual) computer defined by a specification. The garbage-collection algorithm used and any internal optimization of the Java virtual machine instructions (their translation into machine code) are not specified. The main reason for this omission is to not unnecessarily constrain implementers. Any Java application can be run only inside some concrete implementation of the abstract specification of the Java virtual machine.
Starting with Java Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0, changes to the JVM specification have been developed under the Java Community Process as JSR 924. , changes to specification to support changes proposed to the class file format (JSR 202) are being done as a maintenance release of JSR 924. The specification for the JVM was published as the "blue book", The preface states:
One of Oracle's JVMs is named HotSpot, the other, inherited from BEA Systems is JRockit. Clean-room Java implementations include Kaffe, OpenJ9 and Skelmir's CEE-J. Oracle owns the Java trademark and may allow its use to certify implementation suites as fully compatible with Oracle's specification.
One of the organizational units of JVM byte code is a class. A class loader implementation must be able to recognize and load anything that conforms to the Java class file format. Any implementation is free to recognize other binary forms besides "class" files, but it must recognize "class" files.
The class loader performs three basic activities in this strict order:
In general, there are two types of class loader: bootstrap class loader and user defined class loader.
Every Java virtual machine implementation must have a bootstrap class loader, capable of loading trusted classes. The Java virtual machine specification doesn't specify how a class loader should locate classes.
The JVM operates on primitive values (integers and floating-point numbers) and references. The JVM is fundamentally a 32-bit machine. codice_1 and codice_2 types, which are 64-bits, are supported natively, but consume two units of storage in a frame's local variables or operand stack, since each unit is 32 bits. codice_3, codice_4, codice_5, and codice_6 types are all sign-extended (except codice_6 which is zero-extended) and operated on as 32-bit integers, the same as codice_8 types. The smaller types only have a few type-specific instructions for loading, storing, and type conversion. codice_3 is operated on as 8-bit codice_4 values, with 0 representing codice_11 and 1 representing codice_12. (Although codice_3 has been treated as a type since "The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Second Edition" clarified this issue, in compiled and executed code there is little difference between a codice_3 and a codice_4 except for name mangling in method signatures and the type of boolean arrays. codice_3s in method signatures are mangled as codice_17 while codice_4s are mangled as codice_19. Boolean arrays carry the type codice_20 but use 8 bits per element, and the JVM has no built-in capability to pack booleans into a bit array, so except for the type they perform and behave the same as codice_4 arrays. In all other uses, the codice_3 type is effectively unknown to the JVM as all instructions to operate on booleans are also used to operate on codice_4s.)
The JVM has a garbage-collected heap for storing objects and arrays. Code, constants, and other class data are stored in the "method area". The method area is logically part of the heap, but implementations may treat the method area separately from the heap, and for example might not garbage collect it. Each JVM thread also has its own call stack (called a "Java Virtual Machine stack" for clarity), which stores frames. A new frame is created each time a method is called, and the frame is destroyed when that method exits.
Each frame provides an "operand stack" and an array of "local variables". The operand stack is used for operands to computations and for receiving the return value of a called method, while local variables serve the same purpose as registers and are also used to pass method arguments. Thus, the JVM is both a stack machine and a register machine.
The JVM has instructions for the following groups of tasks:
The aim is binary compatibility. Each particular host operating system needs its own implementation of the JVM and runtime. These JVMs interpret the bytecode semantically the same way, but the actual implementation may be different. More complex than just emulating bytecode is compatibly and efficiently implementing the Java core API that must be mapped to each host operating system.
These instructions operate on a set of common rather the native data types of any specific instruction set architecture.
A JVM language is any language with functionality that can be expressed in terms of a valid class file which can be hosted by the Java Virtual Machine. A class file contains Java Virtual Machine instructions (Java byte code) and a symbol table, as well as other ancillary information. The class file format is the hardware- and operating system-independent binary format used to represent compiled classes and interfaces.
There are several JVM languages, both old languages ported to JVM and completely new languages. JRuby and Jython are perhaps the most well-known ports of existing languages, i.e. Ruby and Python respectively. Of the new languages that have been created from scratch to compile to Java bytecode, Clojure, Apache Groovy, Scala and Kotlin may be the most popular ones. A notable feature with the JVM languages is that they are compatible with each other, so that, for example, Scala libraries can be used with Java programs and vice versa.
Java 7 JVM implements "JSR 292: Supporting Dynamically Typed Languages" on the Java Platform, a new feature which supports dynamically typed languages in the JVM. This feature is developed within the Da Vinci Machine project whose mission is to extend the JVM so that it supports languages other than Java.
A basic philosophy of Java is that it is inherently safe from the standpoint that no user program can crash the host machine or otherwise interfere inappropriately with other operations on the host machine, and that it is possible to protect certain methods and data structures belonging to trusted code from access or corruption by untrusted code executing within the same JVM. Furthermore, common programmer errors that often led to data corruption or unpredictable behavior such as accessing off the end of an array or using an uninitialized pointer are not allowed to occur. Several features of Java combine to provide this safety, including the class model, the garbage-collected heap, and the verifier.
The JVM verifies all bytecode before it is executed. This verification consists primarily of three types of checks:
The first two of these checks take place primarily during the verification step that occurs when a class is loaded and made eligible for use. The third is primarily performed dynamically, when data items or methods of a class are first accessed by another class.
The verifier permits only some bytecode sequences in valid programs, e.g. a jump (branch) instruction can only target an instruction within the same method. Furthermore, the verifier ensures that any given instruction operates on a fixed stack location, allowing the JIT compiler to transform stack accesses into fixed register accesses. Because of this, that the JVM is a stack architecture does not imply a speed penalty for emulation on register-based architectures when using a JIT compiler. In the face of the code-verified JVM architecture, it makes no difference to a JIT compiler whether it gets named imaginary registers or imaginary stack positions that must be allocated to the target architecture's registers. In fact, code verification makes the JVM different from a classic stack architecture, of which efficient emulation with a JIT compiler is more complicated and typically carried out by a slower interpreter.
The original specification for the bytecode verifier used natural language that was incomplete or incorrect in some respects. A number of attempts have been made to specify the JVM as a formal system. By doing this, the security of current JVM implementations can more thoroughly be analyzed, and potential security exploits prevented. It will also be possible to optimize the JVM by skipping unnecessary safety checks, if the application being run is proven to be safe.
A virtual machine architecture allows very fine-grained control over the actions that code within the machine is permitted to take. It assumes the code is "semantically" correct, that is, it successfully passed the (formal) bytecode verifier process, materialized by a tool, possibly off-board the virtual machine. This is designed to allow safe execution of untrusted code from remote sources, a model used by Java applets, and other secure code downloads. Once bytecode-verified, the downloaded code runs in a restricted "sandbox", which is designed to protect the user from misbehaving or malicious code. As an addition to the bytecode verification process, publishers can purchase a certificate with which to digitally sign applets as safe, giving them permission to ask the user to break out of the sandbox and access the local file system, clipboard, execute external pieces of software, or network.
Formal proof of bytecode verifiers have been done by the Javacard industry (Formal Development of an Embedded Verifier for Java Card Byte Code)
For each hardware architecture a different Java bytecode interpreter is needed. When a computer has a Java bytecode interpreter, it can run any Java bytecode program, and the same program can be run on any computer that has such an interpreter.
When Java bytecode is executed by an interpreter, the execution will always be slower than the execution of the same program compiled into native machine language. This problem is mitigated by just-in-time (JIT) compilers for executing Java bytecode. A JIT compiler may translate Java bytecode into native machine language while executing the program. The translated parts of the program can then be executed much more quickly than they could be interpreted. This technique gets applied to those parts of a program frequently executed. This way a JIT compiler can significantly speed up the overall execution time.
There is no necessary connection between the Java programming language and Java bytecode. A program written in Java can be compiled directly into the machine language of a real computer and programs written in other languages than Java can be compiled into Java bytecode.
Java bytecode is intended to be platform-independent and secure. Some JVM implementations do not include an interpreter, but consist only of a just-in-time compiler.
At the start of the Java platform's lifetime, the JVM was marketed as a web technology for creating Rich Internet Applications. , most web browsers and operating systems bundling web browsers do not ship with a Java plug-in, nor do they permit side-loading any non-Flash plug-in. The Java browser plugin was deprecated in JDK 9.
The NPAPI Java browser plug-in was designed to allow the JVM to execute so-called Java applets embedded into HTML pages. For browsers with the plug-in installed, the applet is allowed to draw into a rectangular region on the page assigned to it. Because the plug-in includes a JVM, Java applets are not restricted to the Java programming language; any language targeting the JVM may run in the plug-in. A restricted set of APIs allow applets access to the user's microphone or 3D acceleration, although applets are not able to modify the page outside its rectangular region. Adobe Flash Player, the main competing technology, works in the same way in this respect.
As of May 2016, JavaPoly allows users to import unmodified Java libraries, and invoke them directly from JavaScript. JavaPoly allows websites to use unmodified Java libraries, even if the user does not have Java installed on their computer.
With the continuing improvements in JavaScript execution speed, combined with the increased use of mobile devices whose web browsers do not implement support for plugins, there are efforts to target those users through compilation to JavaScript. It is possible to either compile the source code or JVM bytecode to JavaScript.
Compiling the JVM bytecode, which is universal across JVM languages, allows building upon the language's existing compiler to bytecode. The main JVM bytecode to JavaScript compilers are TeaVM, the compiler contained in Dragome Web SDK, Bck2Brwsr, and j2js-compiler.
Leading compilers from JVM languages to JavaScript include the Java-to-JavaScript compiler contained in Google Web Toolkit, Clojurescript (Clojure), GrooScript (Apache Groovy), Scala.js (Scala) and others.
The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) released by Oracle is a freely available software distribution containing a stand-alone JVM (HotSpot), the Java standard library (Java Class Library), a configuration tool, and—until its discontinuation in JDK 9—a browser plug-in. It is the most common Java environment installed on personal computers in the laptop and desktop form factor. Mobile phones including feature phones and early smartphones that ship with a JVM are most likely to include a JVM meant to run applications targeting Micro Edition of the Java platform. Meanwhile, most modern smartphones, tablet computers, and other handheld PCs that run Java apps are most likely to do so through support of the Android operating system, which includes an open source virtual machine incompatible with the JVM specification. (Instead, Google's Android development tools take Java programs as input and output Dalvik bytecode, which is the native input format for the virtual machine on Android devices.)
The JVM specification gives a lot of leeway to implementors regarding the implementation details. Since Java 1.3, JRE from Oracle contains a JVM called HotSpot. It has been designed to be a high-performance JVM.
To speed-up code execution, HotSpot relies on just-in-time compilation. To speed-up object allocation and garbage collection, HotSpot uses generational heap.
The "Java virtual machine heap" is the area of memory used by the JVM for dynamic memory allocation.
In HotSpot the heap is divided into "generations":
The "permanent generation" (or "permgen") was used for class definitions and associated metadata prior to Java 8. Permanent generation was not part of the heap. The "permanent generation" was removed from Java 8.
Originally there was no permanent generation, and objects and classes were stored together in the same area. But as class unloading occurs much more rarely than objects are collected, moving class structures to a specific area allowed significant performance improvements.
Oracle's JRE is installed on a large number of computers. End users with an out-of-date version of JRE therefore are vulnerable to many known attacks. This led to the widely shared belief that Java is inherently insecure. Since Java 1.7, Oracle's JRE for Windows includes automatic update functionality.
Before the discontinuation of the Java browser plug-in, any web page might have potentially run a Java applet, which provided an easily accessible attack surface to malicious web sites. In 2013 Kaspersky Labs reported that the Java plug-in was the method of choice for computer criminals. Java exploits are included in many exploit packs that hackers deploy onto hacked web sites. Java applets were removed in Java 11, released on September 25, 2018.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16389
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John Abercrombie (physician)
John Abercrombie (10 October 1780 – 14 November 1844) was a Scottish physician and philosopher. The "Chambers Biographical Dictionary" says of him that after James Gregory's death, he was "recognized as the first consulting physician in Scotland".
He was the official physician to Heriot's Hospital and Physician to the King for Scotland.
He was the son of George Abercrombie, the minister of East Church, Aberdeen, he was educated at the Grammar School and Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and after graduating as MD in 1803 he settled down to practise in that city, where he soon attained a leading position. In 1810 he was living at 43 York Place.
From 1816 he published various papers in the "Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal", which formed the basis of his more extensive works: "Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord", regarded as the first textbook in neuropathology, and "Researches on the Diseases of the Intestinal Canal, Liver and other Viscera of the Abdomen", both published in 1828. In 1821 he was elected to the Royal College of Surgeons. For his services as a physician and philanthropist he received many marks of distinction, including the Rectorship of Marischal College in 1835.
In 1831 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Thomas Charles Hope, and served as Vice-President of the Society from 1835 to 1844.
In 1831, whilst treating his colleague James Crawford Gregory, he contracted typhus, but appears to have recovered.
He also found time for philosophical speculations, and in 1830 he published his "Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers and the Investigation of Truth", which was followed in 1833 by a sequel, "The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings". Both works achieved wide popularity at the time of their publication. The Inquiries (1830) has been widely cited in treatises on the law of evidence, due to its discussion of probability, (the sources of) certainty, and (doubts regarding) testimony .
An elder of the Church of Scotland, he also wrote "The man of faith: or the harmony of Christian faith and Christian character" (1835), which he distributed freely. In 1841, he was partially paralyzed, but was able to return to his practice of medicine.
He died at his home, 19 York Place, Edinburgh, in 1844 of a ruptured coronary artery.
He is buried against the east wall of St Cuthberts Churchyard adjacent to the gateway into Princes Street Gardens.
A year after his death his "Essays" (1845) on Christian ethics were published.
A bust of Abercrombie by John Steell is held at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16390
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Judgement of Paris
The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War and (in slightly later versions of the story) to the foundation of Rome.
As with many mythological tales, details vary depending on the source. The brief allusion to the Judgement in the "Iliad" (24.25–30) shows that the episode initiating all the subsequent action was already familiar to its audience; a fuller version was told in the "Cypria", a lost work of the Epic Cycle, of which only fragments (and a reliable summary) remain. The later writers Ovid ("Heroides" 16.71ff, 149–152 and 5.35f), Lucian ("Dialogues of the Gods" 20), Pseudo-Apollodorus "(Bibliotheca", E.3.2) and Hyginus ("Fabulae" 92), retell the story with skeptical, ironic or popularizing agendas. It appeared wordlessly on the ivory and gold votive chest of the 7th-century BC tyrant Cypselus at Olympia, which was described by Pausanias as showing:
The subject was favoured by painters of red-figure pottery as early as the sixth century BC, and remained popular in Greek and Roman art, before enjoying a significant revival, as an opportunity to show three female nudes, in the Renaissance.
It is recounted that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (parents of Achilles). However, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited, for it was believed she would have made the party unpleasant for everyone. Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration with a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides, which she threw into the proceedings as a prize of beauty. According to some later versions, upon the apple was the inscription "καλλίστῃ" ("kallistēi", "To/for the fairest one").
Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They asked Zeus to judge which of them was fairest, and eventually he, reluctant to favor any claim himself, declared that Paris, a Trojan mortal, would judge their cases, for he had recently shown his exemplary fairness in a contest in which Ares in bull form had bested Paris's own prize bull, and the shepherd-prince had unhesitatingly awarded the prize to the god.
Thus it happened that, with Hermes as their guide, the three candidates bathed in the spring of Ida, then confronted Paris on Mount Ida in the climactic moment that is the crux of the tale. After Paris failed to judge their beauty with their clothing on, the three goddesses stripped nude to convince him of their worthiness. While Paris inspected them, each attempted with her powers to bribe him; Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena offered wisdom and skill in war, and Aphrodite, who had the Charites and the Horai to enhance her charms with flowers and song (according to a fragment of the "Cypria" quoted by Athenagoras of Athens), offered the world's most beautiful woman (Euripides, "Andromache", l.284, "Helena" l. 676). This was Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris accepted Aphrodite's gift and awarded the apple to her, receiving Helen as well as the enmity of the Greeks and especially of Hera. The Greeks' expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in Troy is the mythological basis of the Trojan War.
The story of the Judgement of Paris naturally offered artists the opportunity to depict a sort of beauty contest between three beautiful female nudes, but the myth, at least since Euripides, rather concerns a choice among the gifts that each goddess embodies. The bribery involved is ironic and a late ingredient.
According to a tradition suggested by Alfred J. Van Windekens, objectively, "cow-eyed" Hera was indeed the most beautiful, not Aphrodite. However, Hera was the goddess of the marital order and of cuckolded wives, amongst other things. She was often portrayed as the shrewish, jealous wife of Zeus, who himself often escaped from her controlling ways by cheating on her with other women, mortal and immortal. She had fidelity and chastity in mind and was careful to be modest when Paris was inspecting her. Aphrodite, though not as objectively beautiful as Hera, was the goddess of sexuality, and was effortlessly more sexual and charming before him. Thus, she was able to sway Paris into judging her as the fairest. Athena's beauty is rarely commented in the myths, perhaps because Greeks held her up as an asexual being, able to "overcome" her "womanly weaknesses" to become both wise and talented in war (both considered male domains by the Greeks). Her rage at losing makes her join the Greeks in the battle against Paris's Trojans, a key event in the turning point of the war.
The subject became popular in art from the late Middle Ages onwards. All three goddesses were usually shown nude, though in ancient art only Aphrodite is ever unclothed, and not always. The opportunity for three female nudes was a large part of the attraction of the subject. It appeared in illuminated manuscripts and was popular in decorative art, including 15th-century Italian inkstands and other works in maiolica, and "cassoni". As a subject for easel paintings, it was more common in Northern Europe, although Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving of c. 1515, probably based on a drawing by Raphael, and using a composition derived from a Roman sarcophagus, was a highly influential treatment, which made Paris's Phrygian cap an attribute in most later versions.
The subject was painted many (supposedly 23) times by Lucas Cranach the Elder, and was especially attractive to Northern Mannerist painters. Rubens painted several compositions of the subject at different points in his career. Watteau and Angelica Kauffman were among the artists who painted the subject in the 18th century. The Judgement of Paris was painted frequently by academic artists of the 19th century, and less often by their more progressive contemporaries such as Renoir and Cézanne. Later artists who have painted the subject include André Lhote, Enrique Simonet ("El Juicio de Paris" 1904), and Salvador Dalí.
Ivo Saliger (1939), Adolf Ziegler (1939), and Joseph Thorak (1941) also used the classic myth to propagate German renewal during the Nazi period.
Kallistēi is the word of the Ancient Greek language inscribed on the Golden Apple of Discord by Eris. In Greek, the word is "καλλίστῃ" (the dative singular of the feminine superlative of καλος, beautiful). Its meaning can be rendered "to the fairest one".
Calliste (Καλλίστη; Mod. Gk. Kallisti) is also an ancient name for the isle of Thera.
The word "Kallisti" (Modern Greek) written on a golden apple, has become a principal symbol of Discordianism, a post-modernist religion. In non-philological texts (such as Discordian ones) the word is usually spelled as "καλλιστι". Most versions of "Principia Discordia" actually spell it as καλλιχτι, but this is definitely incorrect; in the afterword of the 1979 Loompanics edition of "Principia", Gregory Hill says that was because on the IBM typewriter he used, not all Greek letters coincided with Latin ones, and he didn't know enough of the letters to spot the mistake. Zeus' failure to invite Eris is referred to as "The Original Snub" in Discordian mythology.
The story is the basis of an opera, "The Judgement of Paris", with a libretto by William Congreve, that was set to music by four composers in London, 1700–1701. Thomas Arne composed a highly successful score to the same libretto in 1742. The opera "Le Cinesi" ("The Chinese Women") by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1754) concludes with a ballet, "The Judgement of Paris", sung as a vocal quartet. Francesco Cilea's 1902 opera "Adriana Lecouvreur" also includes a "Judgement of Paris" ballet sequence.
The story is the basis of an earlier opera, "Il pomo d'oro", in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra (1611-1668). It was first performed before the imperial court in a specially constructed open-air theatre Vienna in 1668. The work was so long it had to be staged over the course of two days: the Prologue, Acts One and Two were given on July 12; Acts Three, Four and Five on July 14. The staging was unprecedented for its magnificence (and expense). The designer Ludovico Ottavio Burnacini provided no fewer than 24 sets and there were plenty of opportunities for spectacular stage machinery, including shipwrecks and collapsing towers.
Novelist Gore Vidal named his 1952 book, "The Judgment of Paris", after this story.
The Judgement of Paris was burlesqued in the 1954 musical "The Golden Apple". In it, the three goddesses have been reduced to three town biddies in smalltown Washington state. They ask Paris, a traveling salesman, to judge the cakes they have made for the church social. Each woman (the mayor's wife, the schoolmarm, and the matchmaker) makes appeals to Paris, who chooses the matchmaker. The matchmaker, in turn, sets him up with Helen, the town floozy, who runs off with him.
The Judgement of Paris is featured in the 2003 TV miniseries "Helen of Troy". The event is brief, and only Hera and Aphrodite offer bribes. All three goddesses remain fully clothed. Aphrodite gives Paris a vision of Helen, while Helen has a reciprocal vision of Paris.
In the "" series, the contest is altered somewhat with Aphrodite and Athena entering but Artemis is the third goddess contestant instead of Hera (offering the one who chooses her the chance to be renowned as a great warrior). The Golden Apple appears as a gift from Aphrodite with the ability to make any mortal woman fall in love with the man holding it and to make a mortal man and woman soul mates if they simultaneously touch it. The other major differences beside the presence of Artemis and the role of the apple are the fact that it is Iolaus who is the judge and the goddesses appear in swimsuits and not nude.
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Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin "" 'law' + "" 'declaration') is the practical authority granted to a legal body to administer justice, as defined by the kind of case, and the location of the issue (its situs). In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
Colloquially it is used to refer to the geographical area to which such authority applies, e.g., the court has jurisdiction over all of Colorado. The legal term refers only to the granted authority, not to a geographical area.
Jurisdiction draws its substance from international law, conflict of laws, constitutional law, and the powers of the executive and legislative branches of government to allocate resources to best serve the needs of society.
Generally, international laws and treaties provide agreements which nations agree to be bound to. Such agreements are not always established or maintained. The exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction by three principles outlined in the UN charter. These are equality of states, territorial sovereignty and non-intervention. This raises the question of when can many states prescribe or enforce jurisdiction. The Lotus case establishes two key rules to the prescription and enforcement of jurisdiction. The case outlines that jurisdiction is territorial and that a state may not exercise its jurisdiction in the territory of another state unless there is a rule that permits this. On that same note, states enjoy a wide measure of discretion to prescribe jurisdiction over persons, property and acts within their own territory unless there was a rule that prohibits this.
Supranational organizations provide mechanisms whereby disputes between nations may be resolved through arbitration or mediation. When a country is recognized as "de jure", it is an acknowledgment by the other "de jure" nations that the country has sovereignty and the right to exist.
However, it is often at the discretion of each nation whether to co-operate or participate. If a nation does agree to participate in activities of the supranational bodies and accept decisions, the nation is giving up its sovereign authority and thereby allocating power to these bodies.
Insofar as these bodies or nominated individuals may resolve disputes through judicial or quasi-judicial means, or promote treaty obligations in the nature of laws, the power ceded to these bodies cumulatively represents its own jurisdiction. But no matter how powerful each body may appear to be, the extent to which any of their judgments may be enforced, or proposed treaties and conventions may become, or remain, effective within the territorial boundaries of each nation is a political matter under the sovereign control each nation.
The fact that international organizations, courts and tribunals have been created raises the difficult question of how to co-ordinate their activities with those of national courts. If the two sets of bodies do not have "concurrent" jurisdiction but, as in the case of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the relationship is expressly based on the principle of "complementarity", i.e., the international court is subsidiary or complementary to national courts, the difficulty is avoided. But if the jurisdiction claimed is concurrent, or as in the case of International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the international tribunal is to prevail over national courts, the problems are more difficult to resolve politically.
The idea of universal jurisdiction is fundamental to the operation of global organizations such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which jointly assert the benefit of maintaining legal entities with jurisdiction over a wide range of matters of significance to nations (the ICJ should not be confused with the ICC and this version of "universal jurisdiction" is not the same as that enacted in the War Crimes Law (Belgium) which is an assertion of extraterritorial jurisdiction that will fail to gain implementation in any other state under the standard provisions of public policy). Under Article 34 Statute of the ICJ only nations may be parties in cases before the Court and, under Article 36, the jurisdiction comprises all cases which the parties refer to it and all matters specially provided for in the Charter of the United Nations or in treaties and conventions in force. But, to invoke the jurisdiction in any given case, all the parties have to accept the prospective judgment as binding. This reduces the risk of wasting the Court's time.
Despite the safeguards built into the constitutions of most of these organizations, courts and tribunals, the concept of universal jurisdiction is controversial among those nations which prefer unilateral to multilateral solutions through the use of executive or military authority, sometimes described as realpolitik-based diplomacy.
Within other international contexts, there are intergovernmental organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) that have socially and economically significant dispute resolution functions but, again, even though their jurisdiction may be invoked to hear the cases, the power to enforce their decisions is at the will of the nations affected, save that the WTO is permitted to allow retaliatory action by successful nations against those nations found to be in breach of international trade law. At a regional level, groups of nations can create political and legal bodies with sometimes complicated patchworks of overlapping provisions detailing the jurisdictional relationships between the member states and providing for some degree of harmonization between their national legislative and judicial functions, for example, the European Union and African Union both have the potential to become federated nations although the political barriers to such unification in the face of entrenched nationalism will be very difficult to overcome. Each such group may form transnational institutions with declared legislative or judicial powers. For example, in Europe, the European Court of Justice has been given jurisdiction as the ultimate appellate court to the member states on issues of European law. This jurisdiction is entrenched and its authority could only be denied by a member nation if that member nation asserts its sovereignty and withdraws from the union.
The standard treaties and conventions leave the issue of implementation to each nation, i.e. there is no general rule in international law that treaties have direct effect in municipal law, but some nations, by virtue of their membership of supranational bodies, allow the direct incorporation of rights or enact legislation to honor their international commitments. Hence, citizens in those nations can invoke the jurisdiction of local courts to enforce rights granted under international law wherever there is incorporation. If there is no direct effect or legislation, there are two theories to justify the courts incorporating international into municipal law:
In the United States, the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution makes all treaties that have been ratified under the authority of the United States and customary international law a part of the "Supreme Law of the Land" (along with the Constitution itself and acts of Congress passed pursuant to it) (U.S. Const.art. VI Cl. 2) and, as such, the law of the land is binding on the federal government as well as on state and local governments. According to the Supreme Court of the United States, the treaty power authorizes Congress to legislate under the Necessary and Proper Clause in areas beyond those specifically conferred on Congress ("Missouri v. Holland", 252 U.S. 416 (1920)).
This concerns the relationships both between courts in different jurisdictions, and between courts within the same jurisdiction. The usual legal doctrine under which questions of jurisdiction are decided is termed "forum non conveniens".
To deal with the issue of forum shopping, nations are urged to adopt more positive rules on conflict of laws. The Hague Conference and other international bodies have made recommendations on jurisdictional matters, but litigants with the encouragement of lawyers on a contingent fee continue to shop for forums.
Jurisdiction Principles
Under international law there are different principles that are recognized to establish a States ability to exercise criminal jurisdiction when it comes to a person. There is no hierarchy when it comes to any of the principle and does require that States work together to solve issues of who may exercise their jurisdiction when it comes to issues of multiple principles being allowed. The principles are Territorial Principle, Nationality Principle, Passive Personality Principle, Protective Principle, Universality Principle
Territorial Principle: The principle states that the State where the crime has been committed may exercise jurisdiction. This is one of the most straight forward and least controversial of the principles. This is also the only principle that is territorial in nature, all other forms are extraterritorial.
Nationality Principle: This principle is based around a person nationality and allows States to exercise jurisdiction when it comes to their nationality, both within and outside the State's territory. Seeing as the territoriality principle already gives the State the right to exercise jurisdiction, this principle is primarily used as a justification when prosecuting crimes committed abroad by their people.
Passive Personality Principle: This principle allows States to exercise jurisdiction against foreign nationals that effects their own nationals. Similar in style to the nationality principle, except that the idea is to protect your nationals (the victim) from others.
Protective Principle: This principle allows States to exercise jurisdiction when it comes to foreign nationals for acts committed outside their territory that have or intended to have a prejudicial impact upon the State. It is especially used when it comes to matters of national security.
Universality Principle: This is the broadest of the principles. The bases is that a State has the right, and sometimes even an obligation, to exercise jurisdiction when it comes to criminal law. The principle goes even further then the other principles as there is attached to it the obligation to prosecute the accused or extradite to a State that will, known as aut dedere aut judicare.
At a supranational level, countries have adopted a range of treaty and convention obligations to relate the right of individual litigants to invoke the jurisdiction of national courts and to enforce the judgments obtained. For example, the member nations of the EEC signed the Brussels Convention in 1968 and, subject to amendments as new nations joined, it represents the default law for all twenty-seven Member States of what is now termed the European Union on the relationships between the courts in the different countries. In addition, the Lugano Convention (1988) binds the European Union and the European Free Trade Association.
In effect from 1 March 2002, all the member states of the EU except Denmark accepted Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001, which makes major changes to the Brussels Convention and is directly effective in the member nations. Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001 now also applies as between the rest of the EU Member States and Denmark due to an agreement reached between the European Community and Denmark. In some legal areas, at least, the CACA enforcement of foreign judgments is now more straightforward. At a national level, the traditional rules still determine jurisdiction over persons who are not domiciled or habitually resident in the European Union or the Lugano area.
Many nations are subdivided into states or provinces (i.e. a subnational "state"). In a federation — as can be found in Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and the United States) — such subunits will exercise "jurisdiction" through the court systems as defined by the executives and legislatures.
When the jurisdictions of government entities overlap one another—for example between a state and the federation to which it belongs—their jurisdiction is a "shared" or "concurrent" jurisdiction.
Otherwise, one government entity will have exclusive jurisdiction over the shared area. When jurisdiction is concurrent, one government entity may have supreme jurisdiction over the other entity if their laws conflict. If the executive or legislative powers within the jurisdiction are not restricted, or have only limited restrictions, these government branches have plenary power such as a national policing power.
Otherwise, an enabling act grants only limited or enumerated powers.
Child custody cases in the U.S. are a prime example of jurisdictional dilemmas caused by different states under a federal alignment. When parents and children are in different states, there is the possibility of different state court orders over-ruling each other. The U.S. solved this problem by adopting the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. The act established criteria for determining which state has primary jurisdiction which allows courts to defer the hearing of a case if an appropriate administrative agency determines so.
The primary distinctions between areas of jurisdiction are codified at a national level. As a common law system, jurisdiction is conceptually divided between jurisdiction over the "subject matter" of a case (called "in rem)" and jurisdiction over the person (called "in personam"). A court may use jurisdiction over property located within the perimeter of its powers without regard to personal jurisdiction over the litigants; this is an example of "in rem jurisdiction".
A court whose subject matter jurisdiction is limited to certain types of controversies (for example, suits in admiralty or suits where the monetary amount sought is less than a specified sum, is sometimes referred to as a "court of special jurisdiction" or "court of limited jurisdiction".
A court whose subject matter is not limited to certain types of controversy is referred to as a "court of general jurisdiction". In the U.S. states, each state has courts of general jurisdiction; most states also have some courts of limited jurisdiction. Federal courts (those operated by the federal government) are courts of limited jurisdiction. Federal jurisdiction is divided into federal question jurisdiction and diversity jurisdiction. The United States district courts may hear only cases arising under federal law and treaties, cases involving ambassadors, admiralty cases, controversies between states or between a state and citizens of another state, lawsuits involving citizens of different states, and against foreign states and citizens.
Certain courts, particularly the United States Supreme Court and most state supreme courts, have discretionary jurisdiction, meaning that they can choose which cases to hear from among all the cases presented on appeal. Such courts generally only choose to hear cases that would settle important and controversial points of law. Though these courts have discretion to deny cases they otherwise could adjudicate, no court has the discretion to hear a case that falls outside of its subject matter jurisdiction.
It is also necessary to distinguish between original jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction. A court of original jurisdiction has the power to hear cases as they are first initiated by a plaintiff, while a court of appellate jurisdiction may only hear an action after the court of original jurisdiction (or a lower appellate court) has heard the matter. For example, in United States federal courts, the United States district courts have original jurisdiction over a number of different matters (as mentioned above), and the United States court of appeals have appellate jurisdiction over matters appealed from the district courts. The U.S. Supreme Court, in turn, has appellate jurisdiction (of a discretionary nature) over the Courts of Appeals, as well as the state supreme courts, by means of writ of certiorari.
However, in a special class of cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has the power to exercise original jurisdiction. Under , the Supreme court has original and exclusive jurisdiction over controversies between two or more states, and original (but non-exclusive) jurisdiction over cases involving officials of foreign states, controversies between the federal government and a state, actions by a state against the citizens of another state or foreign country.
As a practical example of court jurisdiction, as of 2013 Utah has five types of courts, each for different legal matters and different physical territories. One-hundred-and-eight judges oversee Justice Courts, which handle traffic and parking citations, misdemeanor crimes, and most small claims cases. Seventy-one judges preside over District Courts, which deal with civil cases exceeding small claims limits, probate law, felony criminal cases, divorce and child custody cases, some small claims, and appeals from Justice Courts. Twenty-eight judges handle Juvenile Court, which oversees most people under 18 years old who are accused of a crime, as well as cases of alleged child abuse or neglect; serious crimes committed by 16 or 17 year old persons may be referred to the District Courts. Seven judges in the Appeals Court hear most criminal appeals from District Courts, all appeals from juvenile court and all domestic/divorce cases from District Court, as well as some cases transferred to them by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court seats five judges who hear appeals on first-degree felonies (the most serious) including capital crimes, as well as all civil cases from District Court (excepting divorce/domestic cases). The Supreme Court also oversees cases involving interpretation of the state Constitution, election matters, judicial conduct, and alleged misconduct by lawyers. This example shows how matters arising in the same physical territory might be seen in different courts. A minor traffic infraction originating in Orem, Utah is handled by the Orem Justice Court. However, a second-degree felony arrest and a first-degree felony arrest in Orem would be under the jurisdiction of the District Court in Provo, Utah. If both the minor traffic offense and the felony arrests resulted in guilty verdicts, the traffic conviction could be appealed to the District Court in Provo, while the second-degree felony appeal would be heard by the Appeals Court in Salt Lake City and the first-degree felony appeal would be heard by the Supreme Court. Similarly for civil matters, a small claims case arising in Orem would probably be heard in the Orem Justice Court, while a divorce filed by an Orem resident would be heard by the District Court in Provo. The above examples apply only to cases of Utah state law; any case under Federal jurisdiction would be handled by a different court system. All Federal cases arising in Utah are under the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the District of Utah, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and would be heard in one of three Federal courthouses.
The word "jurisdiction" is also used, especially in informal writing, to refer to a state or political subdivision generally, or to its government, rather than to its legal authority.
In the history of English common law, a jurisdiction could be held as a form of property (or more precisely an incorporeal hereditament) called a franchise. Traditional franchise jurisdictions of various powers were held by municipal corporations, religious houses, guilds, early universities, the Welsh Marches, and counties palatine. Types of franchise courts included courts baron, courts leet, merchant courts, and the stannary courts which dealt with disputes involving the tin miners of Cornwall. The original royal charters of the American colonies included broad grants of franchise jurisdiction along with other governmental powers to corporations or individuals, as did the charters for many other colonial companies such as the British East India Company and British South Africa Company. Analogous jurisdiction existed in medieval times on the European Continent. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, franchise jurisdictions were largely eliminated. Several formerly important franchise courts were not officially abolished until Courts Act of 1971.
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John Abernethy (surgeon)
John Abernethy FRS (3 April 1764 – 20 April 1831) was an English surgeon. He is popularly remembered today for having given his name to the Abernethy biscuit, a coarse-meal baked good meant to aid digestion.
He was a grandson of the Reverend John Abernethy. He was born in Coleman Street in the City of London on 3 April 1764, where his father was a merchant. Educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School, he was apprenticed in 1779 to Sir Charles Blicke (1745–1815), a surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He attended the anatomical lectures of Sir William Blizard (1743–1835) at the London Hospital, and was employed to assist as "demonstrator"; he also attended Percivall Pott's surgical lectures at St Bartholomew's Hospital, as well as the lectures of John Hunter. On Pott's resignation of the office of surgeon of St Bartholomew's, Sir Charles Blicke, who was assistant-surgeon, succeeded him, and Abernethy was elected assistant-surgeon in 1787.
In this capacity he began to give lectures at his house in Bartholomew Close, which were so well attended that the governors of the hospital built a theatre (1790–1791), and Abernethy thus became the founder of the medical school of St Bartholomew's. He held the office of assistant-surgeon for twenty-eight years, till, in 1815, he was elected principal surgeon. He had before that time been appointed lecturer in anatomy to the Royal College of Surgeons (1814). Abernethy was not a great operator, though his name is associated with the treatment of aneurysm by ligature of the external iliac artery.
His "Surgical Observations on the Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases" (1809) – known as "My Book", from the great frequency with which he referred his patients to it, and to page 72 of it in particular, under that name – was one of the earliest popular works on medical science. So great was his zeal in encouraging patients to read the book that he earned the nickname ""Doctor My-Book"". He taught that local diseases were frequently the results of disordered states of the digestive organs, and were to be treated by purging and attention to diet. As a lecturer he was exceedingly attractive, and his success in teaching was largely attributable to the persuasiveness with which he enunciated his views. It has been said, however, that the influence he exerted on those who attended his lectures was not beneficial in this respect, that his opinions were delivered so dogmatically, and all who differed from him were disparaged and denounced so contemptuously, as to repress instead of stimulating inquiry. The celebrity he attained in his practice was due not only to his great professional skill, but also in part to his eccentricity. He was very blunt with his patients, treating them often brusquely and sometimes even rudely. He resigned his position at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1827, and died at his residence at Enfield on 20 April 1831.
Abernethy believed that a variety of diseases originated in a disordered state of the digestive organs, and that treating underlying maldigestion and dyspepsia was essential to restoring health. He invented, or at least gave his name to, a digestive biscuit called the Abernethy biscuit that he promoted from about 1829 until his death.
He contributed articles to "Rees's Cyclopædia" on Anatomy and Physiology, but the topics are not known. A collected edition of his works was published in 1830. A biography, "Memoirs of John Abernethy", by George Macilwain (1797–1882), appeared in 1853.
John Abernethy is mentioned in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter" (1844).
His debate with Sir William Lawrence is believed by Marilyn Butler to have influenced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
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Jacques Maroger
Jacques Maroger (; 1884–1962) was a painter and the technical director of the Louvre Museum's laboratory in Paris. He devoted his life to understanding the oil-based media of the Old Masters. He emigrated to the United States in 1939 and became an influential teacher. His book, "The Secret Formulas and Techniques of the Masters", has been criticized by some modern writers on painting who say that the painting medium Maroger promoted is unsound.
In 1907, Maroger began to study with Louis Anquetin and worked under his direction until Anquetin's death in 1932. Anquetin worked closely and exhibited with the artists Vincent van Gogh, Charles Angrand, Émile Bernard, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He was very active in the Impressionist movement of the time. In his later years, Anquetin became very interested in the works of the Flemish masters. As Maroger's teacher, Anquetin provided guidance in the study of drawing, anatomy and master painting techniques. Maroger began to become famous around 1931, when the National Academy of Design in New York City reported Maroger's painting discoveries.
From 1930 to 1939, Maroger started to work at the Louvre Museum in Paris as Technical Director of the Louvre Laboratory. He served as a professor at the Louvre School, a Member of the Conservation Committee, General Secretary of the International Experts, and President of the Restorers of France. In 1937, he received the Légion d'honneur, and his pride at the honor is reflected in his self-portrait of the time, in which one can see his Legion pin on his lapel.
He emigrated to the United States in 1939 and became a lecturer at the Parsons School of Design in New York. His New York students, Reginald Marsh, John Koch, Fairfield Porter and Frank Mason adopted his Old Master painting techniques, and taught it in turn to their own students.
In 1942, Maroger became a Professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and established a school of painting. At the Maryland Institute he led a group of painters who came to be known as the Baltimore Realists, including the painters Earl Hofmann, Thomas Rowe, Joseph Sheppard, Ann Didusch Schuler, Frank Redelius, John Bannon, Evan Keehn, and Melvin Miller.
Maroger published "The Secret Formulas and Techniques of the Masters" in 1948. When Maroger's book became available, Reginald Marsh drew on Maroger's book-jacket an airplane dropping an atomic bomb on the Maryland Art Institute, a reference to the controversy Maroger was causing in the local press over the abstract art versus realism debate.
Maroger's formula and techniques have been studied by many modern painters who wish to obtain the paint quality of the Old Masters. The "secret formula" that Maroger devised during his lifetime included the main ingredient white lead. White lead when cooked into linseed oil acts as a drying agent, accelerating the polymerization of the oil film.
Maroger claimed to have introduced to the modern day artist what the masters achieved centuries before in their paintings, a way to ensure permanence and color quality in oils without sacrificing fluid and subtle paint handling. Equipped with these formulas, the artist could once again blend his paint easily without losing control of his brush. The paint stays where it is applied and does not run off the panel. It dries very fast so that he can paint on the same areas the very next day, which speeds up painting.
Frank Redelius, one of Maroger's protégés from the Baltimore Realists group, wrote a book that updates, builds upon and revises Jacques Maroger's research of the painting techniques and formulas of the Old Masters. Redelius was assisting Maroger with a revision of "The Secret Formulas and Techniques of the Masters" before Maroger's death in 1962. Frank Redelius' book, published in 2009, is titled "The Master Keys: A Painter's Treatise On The Pictorial Technique Of Oil Painting".
Maroger has been criticized by some modern writers on painting because of his bold claims about having found the secret formulas of the Masters. The most commonly used of Maroger's recipes today is in fact nothing other than a renamed version of the ages-old "megilp", also known as "macguilp", "meglip", "meguilp", and a variety of other names. Megilp/maroger medium is simply the thixotropic gel resulting from the equal combination of mastic varnish and black oil. Megilp and related media have been in use for centuries, and such media were readily available from many artists' colormen during the time of Maroger's research.
The archival quality of the medium itself is controversial in art circles, in part because its documented use dates back less than a century. This is from Michael Skalka, Conservation Administrator,
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.:
See the work of Lance Mayer and Gay Myers for more information on Curry and Maroger.
This criticism can be misleading, however. Many of the media involved in Curry's work (and other followers of Maroger) bear no resemblance whatsoever to the modern mastic varnish/black oil recipe. Maroger medium which is not made properly may contain a large amount of dirt and impurities from improperly filtered mastic varnish, or the black oil may be overcooked, both of which would contribute to darkening and weakening of the work. In addition the overuse of megilp media (or any medium for that matter) tends to create weak paint films. Conservation science has shown that the presence of natural resins like mastic in the paint film causes embrittlement, darkening, and continued solubility. See the work of Leslie Carlyle or Joyce Townsend for problems related to 18th-century painting that contain megilp.
The majority of these recipes are not employed today, as there are few companies that produce them. The primary form of "Maroger medium" known today is black oil ("Giorgione's" medium) and mastic varnish combined in approximately equal parts to form a gel.
While Maroger medium is usually mixed directly with oil paints, its proportion should be kept to no more than 20% of the mixture. A useful technique is to rub a very thin film of Maroger medium over the area to be painted and paint into that—known as "painting into the couch." This lubricates the brush stroke. Maroger medium (or any other painting medium, for that matter) should never be used as a final picture varnish, as Maroger requires reaction by admixture with oil paint in order to dry.
The reduced availability of lead, combined with injunctions against lead use in household products and other factors has caused most major paint makers to discontinue the production of Maroger's medium. Many paint makers now offer faux-maroger's media or faux-megilps, generally made by substituting different materials, such as lime, for genuine lead, or (as in the case of Gamblin's Neo-Megilp) by creating a similar product out of specially thickened alkyd medium. These products produce effects similar to, but not the same as those of real Maroger medium, which depends on specific chemical reactions between leaded oil, mastic resin, and turpentine (the mastic varnish vehicle).
The white gingerbread cottage that was Maroger's home in Baltimore is found on the east campus of Loyola College in Maryland and is used for drawing and painting courses. The building, created in the style of a Parisian studio, is aptly called the Maroger Art Studio.
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Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.
Joseph Greenberg was born on May 28, 1915 to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. His first great interest was music. At the age of 14, he gave a piano concert in Steinway Hall. He continued to play the piano frequently throughout his life.
After finishing high school, he decided to pursue a scholarly career rather than a musical one. He enrolled at Columbia University in New York. During his senior year, he attended a class taught by Franz Boas concerning American Indian languages. With references from Boas and Ruth Benedict, he was accepted as a graduate student by Melville J. Herskovits at Northwestern University in Chicago. During the course of his graduate studies, Greenberg did fieldwork among the Hausa people of Nigeria, where he learned the Hausa language. The subject of his doctoral dissertation was the influence of Islam on a Hausa group that, unlike most others, had not converted to it.
During 1940, he began postdoctoral studies at Yale University. These were interrupted by service in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, for which he worked as a codebreaker and participated with the landing at Casablanca. Before leaving for Europe during 1943, Greenberg married Selma Berkowitz, whom he had met during his first year at Columbia University.
After the war, Greenberg taught at the University of Minnesota before returning to Columbia University in 1948 as a teacher of anthropology. While in New York, he became acquainted with Roman Jakobson & André Martinet. They introduced him to the Prague school of structuralism, which influenced his work.
In 1962, Greenberg relocated to the anthropology department at Stanford University in California, where he continued working for the rest of his life. In 1965 Greenberg served as president of the African Studies Association. In 1996 he received the highest award for a scholar in Linguistics, the Gold Medal of Philology.
Greenberg's reputation rests partly on his contributions to synchronic linguistics and the quest to identify linguistic universals. During the late 1950s, Greenberg began to examine languages covering a wide geographic and genetic distribution. He located a number of interesting potential universals as well as many strong cross-linguistic tendencies.
In particular, Greenberg conceptualized the idea of "implicational universal", which has the form, "if a language has structure X, then it must also have structure Y." For example, X might be "mid front rounded vowels" and Y "high front rounded vowels" (for terminology see phonetics). Many scholars adopted this kind of research following Greenberg's example and it remains important in synchronic linguistics.
Like Noam Chomsky, Greenberg sought to discover the universal structures on which human language is based. Unlike Chomsky, Greenberg's method was functionalist, rather than formalist. An argument to reconcile the Greenbergian and Chomskyan methods can be found in "Linguistic Universals" (2006), edited by Ricardo Mairal and Juana Gil.
Many who are strongly opposed to Greenberg's methods of language classification (see below) acknowledge the importance of his typological work. In 1963 he published an article that was extremely influential: "Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements".
Greenberg rejected the opinion, prevalent among linguists since the mid-20th century, that comparative reconstruction was the only method to discover relationships between languages. He argued that genetic classification is methodologically prior to comparative reconstruction, or the first stage of it: one cannot engage in the comparative reconstruction of languages until one knows which languages to compare (1957:44).
He also criticized the prevalent opinion that comprehensive comparisons of two languages at a time (which commonly take years to perform) could establish language families of any size. He argued that, even for 8 languages, there are already 4,140 ways to classify them into distinct families, while for 25 languages there are 4,749,027,089,305,918,018 ways (1957:44). For comparison, the Niger–Congo family is said to have some 1,500 languages. He thought language families of any size needed to be established by some scholastic means other than bilateral comparison. The theory of mass comparison is an attempt to demonstrate such means.
Greenberg argued for the virtues of breadth over depth. He advocated restricting the amount of material to be compared (to basic vocabulary, morphology, and known paths of sound change) and increasing the number of languages to be compared to all the languages in a given area. This would make it possible to compare numerous languages reliably. At the same time, the process would provide a check on accidental resemblances through the sheer number of languages under review. The mathematical probability that resemblances are accidental decreases strongly with the number of languages concerned (1957:39).
Greenberg used the premise that mass "borrowing" of basic vocabulary is unknown. He argued that borrowing, when it occurs, is concentrated in cultural vocabulary and clusters "in certain semantic areas", making it easy to detect (1957:39). With the goal of determining broad patterns of relationship, the idea was not to get every word right but to detect patterns. From the beginning with his theory of mass comparison, Greenberg addressed why chance resemblance and borrowing were not obstacles to its being useful. Despite that, critics consider those phenomena caused difficulties for his theory.
Greenberg first termed his method "mass comparison" in an article of 1954 (reprinted in Greenberg 1955). As of 1987, he replaced the term "mass comparison" with "multilateral comparison", to emphasize its contrast with the bilateral comparisons recommended by linguistics textbooks. He believed that multilateral comparison was not in any way opposed to the comparative method, but is, on the contrary, its necessary first step (Greenberg, 1957:44). According to him, comparative reconstruction should have the status of an explanatory theory for facts already established by language classification (Greenberg, 1957:45).
Most historical linguists (Campbell 2001:45) reject the use of mass comparison as a method for establishing genealogical relationships between languages. Among the most outspoken critics of mass comparison have been Lyle Campbell, Donald Ringe, William Poser, and the late R. Larry Trask.
Greenberg is known widely for his development of a classification system for the languages of Africa, which he published as a series of articles in the "Southwestern Journal of Anthropology" from 1949 to 1954 (reprinted together as a book, "The Languages of Africa", in 1955). He revised the book and published it again during 1963, followed by a nearly identical edition of 1966 (reprinted without change during 1970). A few more changes of the classification were made by Greenberg in an article during 1981.
Greenberg grouped the hundreds of African languages into four families, which he dubbed Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger–Congo, and Khoisan. During the course of his work, Greenberg invented the term "Afroasiatic" to replace the earlier term "Hamito-Semitic", after showing that the Hamitic group, accepted widely since the 19th century, is not a valid language family. Another major feature of his work was to establish the classification of the Bantu languages, which occupy much of sub-Saharan Africa, as a part of the Niger–Congo family, rather than as an independent family as many Bantuists had maintained.
Greenberg's classification rested largely in evaluating competing earlier classifications. For a time, his classification was considered bold and speculative, especially the proposal of a Nilo-Saharan language family. Now, apart from Khoisan, it is generally accepted by African specialists and has been used as a basis for further work by other scholars.
Greenberg's work on African languages has been criticised by Lyle Campbell and Donald Ringe, who do not believe that his classification is justified by his data and request a re-examination of his macro-phyla by "reliable methods" (Ringe 1993:104). Harold Fleming and Lionel Bender, who were sympathetic to Greenberg's classification, acknowledged that at least some of his macrofamilies (particularly the Nilo-Saharan and the Khoisan macrofamiles) are not accepted completely by most linguists and may need to be divided (Campbell 1997). Their objection was methodological: if mass comparison is not a valid method, it cannot be expected to have brought order successfully out of the confusion of African languages.
By contrast, some linguists have sought to combine Greenberg's four African families into larger units. In particular, Edgar Gregersen (1972) proposed joining Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan into a larger family, which he termed Kongo-Saharan. Roger Blench (1995) suggests Niger–Congo is a subfamily of Nilo-Saharan.
During 1971 Greenberg proposed the Indo-Pacific macrofamily, which groups together the Papuan languages (a large number of language families of New Guinea and nearby islands) with the native languages of the Andaman Islands and Tasmania but excludes the Australian Aboriginal languages. Its principal feature was to reduce the manifold language families of New Guinea to a single genetic unit. This excludes the Austronesian languages, which have been established as associated with a more recent migration of people.
Greenberg's subgrouping of these languages has not been accepted by the few specialists who have worked on the classification of these languages. However, the work of Stephen Wurm (1982) and Malcolm Ross (2005) has provided considerable evidence for his once-radical idea that these languages form a single genetic unit. Wurm stated that the lexical similarities between Great Andamanese and the West Papuan and Timor–Alor families "are quite striking and amount to virtual formal identity [...] in a number of instances." He believes this to be due to a linguistic substratum.
Most linguists concerned with the native languages of the Americas classify them into 150 to 180 independent language families. Some believe that two language families, Eskimo–Aleut and Na-Dené, were distinct, perhaps the results of later migrations into the New World.
Early on, Greenberg (1957:41, 1960) became convinced that many of the language groups considered unrelated could be classified into larger groupings. In his 1987 book "Language in the Americas", while agreeing that the Eskimo–Aleut and Na-Dené groupings as distinct, he proposed that all the other Native American languages belong to a single language macro-family, which he termed Amerind.
"Language in the Americas" has generated lively debate, but has been criticized strongly; it is rejected by most specialists of indigenous languages of the Americas and also by most historical linguists. Specialists of the individual language families have found extensive inaccuracies and errors in Greenberg's data, such as including data from non-existent languages, erroneous transcriptions of the forms compared, misinterpretations of the meanings of words used for comparison, and entirely spurious forms.
Historical linguists also reject the validity of the method of multilateral (or mass) comparison upon which the classification is based. They argue that he has not provided a convincing case that the similarities presented as evidence are due to inheritance from an earlier common ancestor rather than being explained by a combination of errors, accidental similarity, excessive semantic latitude in comparisons, borrowings, onomatopoeia, etc.
However, Harvard geneticist David Reich notes that recent genetic studies have identified patterns that support Greenberg's Amerind classification: the “First American” category. “The cluster of populations that he predicted to be most closely related based on language were in fact verified by the genetic patterns in populations for which data are available.” Nevertheless, this category of “First American” people also interbred with and contributed a significant amount of genes to the ancestors of both Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dené populations, with 60% and 90% "First American" DNA respectively constituting the genetic makeup of the two groups.
Later in his life, Greenberg proposed that nearly all of the language families of northern Eurasia belong to a single higher-order family, which he termed Eurasiatic. The only exception was Yeniseian, which has been related to a wider Dené–Caucasian grouping, also including Sino-Tibetan. During 2008 Edward Vajda related Yeniseian to the Na-Dené languages of North America as a Dené–Yeniseian family.
The Eurasiatic grouping resembles the older Nostratic groupings of Holger Pedersen and Vladislav Illich-Svitych by including Indo-European, Uralic, and Altaic. It differs by including Nivkh, Japonic, Korean, and Ainu (which the Nostraticists had excluded from comparison because they are single languages rather than language families) and in excluding Afroasiatic. At about this time, Russian Nostraticists, notably Sergei Starostin, constructed a revised version of Nostratic. It was slightly larger than Greenberg's grouping but it also excluded Afroasiatic.
Recently, a consensus has been emerging among proponents of the Nostratic hypothesis. Greenberg basically agreed with the Nostratic concept, though he stressed a deep internal division between its northern 'tier' (his Eurasiatic) and a southern 'tier' (principally Afroasiatic and Dravidian).
The American Nostraticist Allan Bomhard considers Eurasiatic a branch of Nostratic, alongside other branches: Afroasiatic, Elamo-Dravidian, and Kartvelian. Similarly, Georgiy Starostin (2002) arrives at a tripartite overall grouping: he considers Afroasiatic, Nostratic and Elamite to be roughly equidistant and more closely related to each other than to any other language family. Sergei Starostin's school has now included Afroasiatic in a broadly defined Nostratic. They reserve the term Eurasiatic to designate the narrower subgrouping, which comprises the rest of the macrofamily. Recent proposals thus differ mainly on the precise inclusion of Dravidian and Kartvelian.
Greenberg continued to work on this project after he was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer and until he died during May 2001. His colleague and former student Merritt Ruhlen ensured the publication of the final volume of his Eurasiatic work (2002) after his death.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16399
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Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr (), an early Christian apologist, is regarded as the foremost exponent of the Divine Word, the Logos, in the second century. He was martyred, alongside some of his students, and is venerated as saint by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The "First Apology", his most well known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life, and provides various ethical and philosophical arguments to convince the Roman emperor, Antoninus, to abandon the persecution of the Church. Further, he also indicates, as St. Augustine would later regarding the "true religion" that predated Christianity, that the "seeds of Christianity" (manifestations of the Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ's incarnation. This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as unknowing Christians.
Justin Martyr was born around AD 100 at Flavia Neapolis (today Nablus) in Samaria into a pagan family, and defined himself as a Gentile. His grandfather, Bacchius, had a Greek name, while his father, Priscus, bore a Latin name, which has led to speculations that his ancestors may have settled in Neapolis soon after its establishment or that they were descended from a Roman "diplomatic" community that had been sent there.
In the opening of the "Dialogue", Justin describes his early education, stating that his initial studies left him unsatisfied due to their failure to provide a belief system that would afford theological and metaphysical inspiration to their young pupil. He says he tried first the school of a Stoic philosopher, who was unable to explain God's being to him. He then attended a Peripatetic philosopher but was put off because the philosopher was too eager for his fee. Then he went to hear a Pythagorean philosopher who demanded that he first learn music, astronomy, and geometry, which he did not wish to do. Subsequently, he adopted Platonism after encountering a Platonist thinker who had recently settled in his city.
Some time afterwards, he chanced upon an old man, possibly a Syrian Christian, in the vicinity of the seashore, who engaged him in a dialogue about God and spoke of the testimony of the prophets as being more reliable than the reasoning of philosophers.
Moved by the aged man's argument, Justin renounced both his former religious faith and his philosophical background, choosing instead to re-dedicate his life to the service of the Divine. His newfound convictions were only bolstered by the ascetic lives of the early Christians and the heroic example of the martyrs, whose piety convinced him of the moral and spiritual superiority of Christian doctrine. As a result, he thenceforth decided that the only option for him was to travel throughout the land, spreading the knowledge of Christianity as the "true philosophy." His conversion is commonly assumed to have taken place at Ephesus though it may have occurred anywhere on the road from "Syria Palestina" to Rome.
He then adopted the dress of a philosopher himself and traveled about teaching. During the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161), he arrived in Rome and started his own school. Tatian was one of his pupils. In the reign of Marcus Aurelius, after disputing with the cynic philosopher Crescens, he was denounced by the latter to the authorities, according to Tatian (Address to the Greeks 19) and Eusebius (HE IV 16.7–8). Justin was tried, together with six companions, by Junius Rusticus, who was urban prefect from 163–167, and was beheaded. Though the precise year of his death is uncertain, it can reasonably be dated by the prefectoral term of Rusticus (who governed from 162 and 168). The martyrdom of Justin preserves the court record of the trial.
The church of St. John the Baptist in Sacrofano, a few miles north of Rome, claims to have his relics.
The Church of the Jesuits in Valletta, Malta, founded by papal decree in 1592 also boasts relics of this second century Saint.
A case is also made that the relics of St. Justin are buried in Annapolis, Maryland. During a period of unrest in Italy, a noble family in possession of his remains sent them in 1873 to a priest in Baltimore for safekeeping. They were displayed in St. Mary's Church for a period of time before they were again locked away for safekeeping. The remains were rediscovered and given a proper burial at St. Mary's, with Vatican approval, in 1989.
In 1882 Pope Leo XIII had a Mass and an Office composed for his feast day, which he set at 14 April, one day after the date of his death as indicated in the Martyrology of Florus; but since this date quite often falls within the main Paschal celebrations, the feast was moved in 1968 to 1 June, the date on which he has been celebrated in the Byzantine Rite since at least the 9th century.
The earliest mention of Justin is found in the "Oratio ad Graecos" by Tatian who, after calling him "the most admirable Justin", quotes a saying of his and says that the Cynic Crescens laid snares for him. Irenaeus speaks of Justin's martyrdom and of Tatian as his disciple. Irenaeus quotes Justin twice and shows his influence in other places. Tertullian, in his "Adversus Valentinianos", calls Justin a philosopher and a martyr and the earliest antagonist of heretics. Hippolytus and Methodius of Olympus also mention or quote him. Eusebius of Caesarea deals with him at some length, and names the following works:
Eusebius implies that other works were in circulation; from St Irenaeus he knows of the apology "Against Marcion," and from Justin's "Apology" of a "Refutation of all Heresies ". Epiphanius and St Jerome mention Justin.
Rufinus borrows from his Latin original of Hadrian's letter.
After Rufinus, Justin was known mainly from St Irenaeus and Eusebius or from spurious works. The "Chronicon Paschale" assigns his martyrdom to the year 165. A considerable number of other works are given as Justin's by Arethas, Photius, and other writers, but this attribution is now generally admitted to be spurious. The "Expositio rectae fidei" has been assigned by Draseke to Apollinaris of Laodicea, but it is probably a work of as late as the 6th century. The "Cohortatio ad Graecos" has been attributed to Apollinaris of Laodicea, Apollinaris of Hierapolis, as well as others. The "Epistola ad Zenam et Serenum", an exhortation to Christian living, is dependent upon Clement of Alexandria, and is assigned by Pierre Batiffol to the Novatian Bishop Sisinnius (c. 400). The extant work under the title "On the Sovereignty of God" does not correspond with Eusebius' description of it, though Harnack regards it as still possibly Justin's, and at least of the 2nd century. The author of the smaller treatise "To the Greeks" cannot be Justin, because he is dependent on Tatian; Harnack places it between 180 and 240.
The "Dialogue" is a later work than the "First Apology"; the date of composition of the latter, judging from the fact that it was addressed to Antoninus Pius and his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, must fall between 147 and 161. In the "Dialogue with Trypho", after an introductory section, Justin undertakes to show that Christianity is the new law for all men.
Justin's dialogue with Trypho is unique in that he provides information on tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus of the second century (Dial. 47:2–3). and in acknowledging the existence of a range, and a variety, of attitudes toward the beliefs and traditions of the Jewish believers in Jesus .
The treatise "On the Resurrection" exists in extensive fragments that are preserved in the "Sacra parallela". The fragments begin with the assertion that the truth, and God the author of truth, need no witness, but that as a concession to the weakness of men it is necessary to give arguments to convince those who gainsay it. It is then shown, after a denial of unfounded deductions, that the resurrection of the body is neither impossible nor unworthy of God, and that the evidence of prophecy is not lacking for it. Another fragment takes up the positive proof of the resurrection, adducing that of Christ and of those whom he recalled to life. In yet another fragment the resurrection is shown to be that of what has gone down, i.e., the body; the knowledge concerning it is the new doctrine, in contrast to that of the old philosophers. The doctrine follows from the command to keep the body in moral purity.
The authenticity of the treatise is not so generally accepted as are Justin's other works. Even so, earlier than the "Sacra parallela", it is referred to by Procopius of Gaza (c. 465–528). Methodius appeals to Justin in support of his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 15:50 in a way that makes it natural to assume the existence of a treatise on the subject, to say nothing of other traces of a connection in thought both here in Irenaeus (V., ii.-xiii. 5) and in Tertullian, where it is too close to be anything but a conscious following of the Greek. The "Against Marcion" is lost, as is the "Refutation of all Heresies" to which Justin himself refers in "Apology", i. 26; Hegesippus, besides perhaps Irenaeus and Tertullian, seems to have used it.
Flacius discovered "blemishes" in Justin's theology, which he attributed to the influence of pagan philosophers; and in modern times Semler and S.G. Lange have made him out a thorough Hellene, while Semisch and Otto defend him from this charge.
In opposition to the school of Ferdinand Christian Baur, who considered him a Jewish Christian, Albrecht Ritschl has pointed out that it was precisely because he was a Gentile Christian that he did not fully understand the Old Testament foundation of Paul's teaching, and explained in this way the modified character of his Paulinism and his legal mode of thought.
M. von Engelhardt has attempted to extend this line of treatment to Justin's entire theology, and to show that his conceptions of God, of free will and righteousness, of redemption, grace, and merit prove the influence of the cultivated Greek pagan world of the 2nd century, dominated by the Platonic and Stoic philosophy.
But he admits that Justin is a Christian in his unquestioning adherence to the Church and its faith, his unqualified recognition of the Old Testament, and his faith in Christ as the Son of God the Creator, made manifest in the flesh, crucified, and risen, through which belief he succeeds in getting away from the dualism of both pagan and Gnostic philosophy.
Justin was confident that his teaching was that of the Church at large. He knows of a division among the orthodox only on the question of the millennium and on the attitude toward the milder Jewish Christianity, which he personally is willing to tolerate as long as its professors in their turn do not interfere with the liberty of the Gentile converts; his millenarianism seems to have no connection with Judaism, but he believes firmly in a millennium, and generally in the Christian eschatology.
After collaborating with a Jewish convert to assist him with Hebrew, Justin published an attack on Judaism based upon a no-longer-extant text of a Midrash. This Midrash was reconstructed and published by Saul Lieberman.
Opposition to Judaism was common among church leaders in his day, however Justin Martyr was hostile towards Jewry and regarded Jews as an accursed people. His anti-Judaic polemics have been cited as an origin of Christian antisemitism, he was the first to argue that the Romans bore no responsibility for the death of Jesus, supporting the idea of Jewish deicide. However his views elaborated in the "Dialogue with Trypho" were comparatively tame to those of John Chrysostom and others.
Justin, like others, thought that the Greek philosophers had derived, if not borrowed, the most essential elements of truth found in their teaching from the Old Testament. But at the same time he adopted the Stoic doctrine of the "seminal word," and so philosophy was to him an operation of the Word—in fact, through his identification of the Word with Christ, it was brought into immediate connection with him.
Thus he does not scruple to declare that Socrates and Heraclitus were Christians ("Apol.", i. 46, ii. 10). His aim was to emphasize the absolute significance of Christ, so that all that ever existed of virtue and truth may be referred to him. The old philosophers and law-givers had only a part of the Logos, while the whole appears in Christ.
While the gentile peoples, seduced by devils, had deserted the true God for idols, the Jews and Samaritans possessed the revelation given through the prophets and awaited the Messiah. However, the law, while containing commandments intended to promote the true fear of God, had other prescriptions of a purely pedagogic nature, which necessarily ceased when Christ, their end, appeared; of such temporary and merely relative regulations were circumcision, animal sacrifices, the Sabbath, and the laws as to food. Through Christ, the abiding law of God has been fully proclaimed. In his character, as the teacher of the new doctrine and promulgator of the new law, lies the essential nature of his redeeming work.
The idea of an economy of grace, of a restoration of the union with God which had been destroyed by sin, is not foreign to him. It is noteworthy that in the "Dialogue" he no longer speaks of a "seed of the Word" in every man, and in his non-apologetic works the emphasis is laid upon the redeeming acts of the life of Christ rather than upon the demonstration of the reasonableness and moral value of Christianity, though the fragmentary character of the latter works makes it difficult to determine exactly to what extent this is true and how far the teaching of Irenaeus on redemption is derived from him.
The 1913 "Catholic Encyclopedia" notes that scholars have differed on whether Justin's writings on the nature of God were meant to express his firm opinion on points of doctrine, or to speculate on these matters. Specific points Justin addressed include that the Logos is "numerically distinct from the Father" though "born of the very substance of the Father," and that "through the Word, God has made everything." Justin used the metaphor of fire to describe the Logos as spreading like a flame, rather than "dividing" the substance of the Father. He also defended the Holy Spirit as a member of the Trinity, as well as the birth of Jesus to Mary when she was a virgin. The Encyclopedia states that Justin places the genesis of the Logos as a voluntary act of the Father at the beginning of creation, noting that this is an "unfortunate" conflict with later Christian teachings.
Justin Martyr, in his "First Apology" (c. 155) and "Dialogue with Trypho" (c. 160), sometimes refers to written sources consisting of narratives of the life of Jesus and quotations of the sayings of Jesus as "memoirs of the apostles" (Greek: ἀπομνημονεύματα τῶν ἀποστόλων; transliteration: "apomnêmoneúmata tôn apostólôn") and less frequently as gospels (Greek: εὐαγγέλιον; transliteration: "euangélion") which, Justin says, were read every Sunday in the church at Rome ("1 Apol". 67.3 – "and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are being read as long as it is allowable").
The designation "memoirs of the apostles" occurs twice in Justin's "First Apology" (66.3, 67.3–4) and thirteen times in the "Dialogue", mostly in his interpretation of Psalm 22, whereas the term "gospel" is used only three times, once in "1 Apol." 66.3 and twice in the "Dialogue". The single passage where Justin uses both terms ("1 Apol." 66.3) makes it clear that "memoirs of the apostles" and "gospels" are equivalent, and the use of the plural indicates Justin's awareness of more than one written gospel. ("The apostles in the memoirs which have come from them, which are also called gospels, have transmitted that the Lord had commanded..."). Justin may have preferred the designation "memoirs of the apostles" as a contrast to the "gospel" of his contemporary Marcion to emphasize the connections between the historical testimony of the gospels and the Old Testament prophecies which Marcion rejected.
The origin of Justin's use of the name "memoirs of the apostles" as a synonym for the gospels is uncertain. Scholar David E. Aune has argued that the gospels were modeled after classical Greco-Roman biographies, and Justin's use of the term "apomnemoneumata" to mean all the Synoptic Gospels should be understood as referring to a written biography such as the "Memorabilia of Xenophon" because they preserve the authentic teachings of Jesus. However, scholar Helmut Koester has pointed out the Latin title "Memorabilia" was not applied to Xenophon's work until the Middle Ages, and it is more likely "apomnemoneumata" was used to describe the oral transmission of the sayings of Jesus in early Christianity. Papias uses a similar term meaning "remembered" ("apomnemoneusen") when describing how Mark accurately recorded the "recollections of Peter", and Justin also uses it in reference to Peter in "Dial." 106.3, followed by a quotation found only in the Gospel of Mark (Mk 3:16–17). Therefore, according to Koester, it is likely that Justin applied the name "memoirs of the apostles" analogously to indicate the trustworthy recollections of the apostles found in the written record of the gospels.
Justin expounded on the gospel texts as an accurate recording of the fulfillment of prophecy, which he combined with quotations of the prophets of Israel from the LXX to demonstrate a proof from prophecy of the Christian kerygma. The importance which Justin attaches to the words of the prophets, which he regularly quotes with the formula "it is written", shows his estimate of the Old Testament Scriptures. However, the scriptural authority he attributes to the "memoirs of the apostles" is less certain. Koester articulates a majority view among scholars that Justin considered the "memoirs of the apostles" to be accurate historical records but not inspired writings, whereas scholar Charles E. Hill, though acknowledging the position of mainstream scholarship, contends that Justin regarded the fulfillment quotations of the gospels to be equal in authority.
Justin uses material from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) in the composition of the "First Apology" and the "Dialogue", either directly, as in the case of Matthew, or indirectly through the use of a gospel harmony, which may have been composed by Justin or his school. However, his use, or even knowledge, of the Gospel of John is uncertain. One possible reference to John is a saying that is quoted in the context of a description of Christian baptism ("1 Apol". 61.4 – "Unless you are reborn, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."). However, Koester contends that Justin obtained this saying from a baptismal liturgy rather than a written gospel. Justin's possible knowledge of John's gospel may be suggested by verbal similarities to John 3:4 directly after the discussion about the new birth ("Now, that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter their mother's womb is manifest to all"). Justin also uses language very similar to that of John 1:20 and 1:28. Furthermore, by employing the term "memoirs of the apostles" and distinguishing them from the writings of their "followers", Justin must have been of the belief that at least two gospels were written by actual apostles.
Justin does not quote from the Book of Revelation directly, yet he clearly refers to it, naming John as its author ("Dial". 81.4 "Moreover also among us a man named John, one of the apostles of Christ, prophesied in a revelation made to him that those who have believed on our Christ will spend a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that hereafter the general and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all will likewise take place"). Scholar Brooke Foss Westcott notes that this reference to the author of the single prophetic book of the New Testament illustrates the distinction Justin made between the role of prophecy and fulfillment quotations from the gospels, as Justin does not mention any of the individual canonical gospels by name.
Reflecting his opposition to Marcion, Justin's attitude toward the Pauline epistles generally corresponds to that of the later Church. In Justin's works, distinct references are found to Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians, and possible ones to Philippians, Titus, and 1 Timothy. It seems likely that he also knew Hebrews and 1 John.
The apologetic character of Justin's habit of thought appears again in the Acts of his martyrdom, the genuineness of which is attested by internal evidence.
According to scholar Oskar Skarsaune, Justin relies on two main sources for his proofs from prophecy that probably circulated as collections of scriptural testimonies within his Christian school. He refers to Justin's primary source for demonstrating scriptural proofs in the "First Apology" and parallel passages in the "Dialogue" as a "kerygma source". A second source, which was used only in the "Dialogue", may be identical to a lost dialogue attributed to Aristo of Pella on the divine nature of the Messiah, the "Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus" (c. 140). Justin brings in biblical quotes verbatim from these sources, and he often appears to be paraphrasing his sources very closely, even in his interpretive remarks.
Justin occasionally uses the Gospel of Matthew directly as a source for Old Testament prophecies to supplement his testimony sources. However, the fulfillment quotations from these sources most often appear to be harmonizations of the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Koester suggests that Justin had composed an early harmony along the lines of his pupil Tatian's "Diatesseron". However, the existence of a harmony independent of a collection of sayings for exposition purposes has been disputed by scholar Arthur Bellinzoni. The question of whether the harmonized gospel materials found in Justin's writings came from a preexisting gospel harmony or were assembled as part of an integral process of creating scriptural prooftexts is an ongoing subject of scholarly investigation.
The following excerpt from "1 Apol". 33:1,4–5 (partial parallel in "Dial". 84) on the annunciation and virgin birth of Jesus shows how Justin used harmonized gospel verses from Matthew and Luke to provide a scriptural proof of the messiahship of Jesus based on fulfillment of the prophecy of .
According to Skarsaune, the harmonized gospel narratives of Matthew and Luke were part of a tradition already circulating within Justin's school that expounded on the life and work of Jesus as the Messiah and the apostolic mission. Justin then rearranged and expanded these testimonia to create his "First Apology". The "kerygma source" of prooftexts (contained within "1 Apol". 31–53) is believed to have had a Two Parousias Christology, characterized by the belief that Jesus first came in humility, in fulfillment of prophecy, and will return in glory as the Messiah to the Gentiles. There are close literary parallels between the Christology of Justin's source and the "Apocalypse of Peter".
The following excerpts from the "Dialogue with Trypho" of the baptism ("Dial". 88:3,8) and temptation ("Dial". 103:5–6) of Jesus, which are believed to have originated from the "Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus", illustrate the use of gospel narratives and sayings of Jesus in a testimony source and how Justin has adopted these "memoirs of the apostles" for his own purposes.
The quotations refer to the fulfillment of a prophecy of Psalm 2:7 found in the Western text-type of Luke 3:22. Justin's mention of the fire on the Jordan without comment suggests that he was relying on an intermediate source for these gospel quotations, and his literal interpretation of a pseudo-etymology of the Hebrew word Satan indicates a dependence on a testimony source with a knowledge of Hebrew, which was probably the "Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus".
The "Dialogue" attributed to Aristo of Pella is believed to have furnished Justin with scriptural prooftexts on the divinity of the Messiah by combining a Wisdom Christology – Christ as the incarnation of preexistent Wisdom – with a Second Adam Christology – the first Adam was conquered by Satan, but this Fall of Man is reversed by Christ as the Second Adam who conquers Satan. This is implied in the pseudo-etymology in "Dial". 103:5–6 linking the name of Satan to the "apostate-serpent". The Christology of the source is close to that of the "Ascension of Isaiah".
Justin quotes many sayings of Jesus in "1 Apol". 15–17 and smaller sayings clusters in "Dial". 17:3–4; 35:3; 51:2–3; and 76:4–7. The sayings are most often harmonizations of Matthew and Luke that appear to be grouped together topically and organized into sayings collections, including material that probably originated from an early Christian catechism.
The following example of an ethical teaching On Swearing Oaths in "1 Apol". 16:5 shows a combination of sayings material found in Matthew and the Epistle of James:
Do not swear at all (Mt 5:34). Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No (Jas 5:12). Everything beyond these is from evil (Mt 5:37).
The saying "Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No" from James 5:12 is interpolated into a sayings complex from Matthew 5:34,37. The text appears in a large number of Patristic quotations and twice in the Clementine Homilies ("Hom". 3:55, 19:2). Thus, it is likely that Justin was quoting this harmonized text from a catechism.
The harmonization of Matthew and Luke is evident in the following quotations of Mt 7:22–23 and Lk 13:26–27, which are used by Justin twice, in "1 Apol". 16:11 and "Dial". 76:5:
Many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not in your name eat and drink and do powerful deeds?' And then I shall say to them, 'go away from me, workers of lawlessness'.
Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not in your name eat and drink and prophecy and drive out demons?' And I shall say to them, 'go away from me'.
In both cases, Justin is using the same harmonized text of Matthew and Luke, although neither of the quotations includes the entire text of those gospel passages. The last phrase, "workers of lawlessness", has an exact parallel with 2 Clement 4:5. This harmonized text also appears in a large number of quotations by the Church Fathers. "1 Apol". 16:11 is part of a larger unit of sayings material in "1 Apol" 16:9–13 which combines a warning against being unprepared with a warning against false prophets. The entire unit is a carefully composed harmony of parallel texts from Matthew and Luke. This unit is part of a larger collection of sayings found in "1 Apol". 15–17 that appear to have originated from a catechism used by Justin's school in Rome, which may have had a wide circulation. Justin excerpted and rearranged the catechetical sayings material to create "Apol". 15–17 and parallel passages in the "Dialogue".
Justin includes a tract on Greek mythology in "1 Apol". 54 and "Dial". 69 which asserts that myths about various pagan deities are imitations of the prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament. There is also a small tract in "1 Apol". 59–60 on borrowings of the philosophers from Moses, particularly Plato. These two tracts may be from the same source, which may have been an early Christian "Apology".
Justin's writings constitute a storehouse of early interpretation of the prophetic Scriptures.
The truth of the prophets, he declares, compels assent. He considered the Old Testament an inspired guide and counselor. He was converted by a Christian philosopher whom he paraphrased as saying:
Then Justin told his own experience:
Justin listed the following events as fulfillments of Bible prophecy
Justin connected the Second Advent with the climax of the prophecy of Daniel 7.
The second advent Justin placed close upon the heels of the appearance of the Antichrist, or "man of apostasy." His interpretation of prophecy is less clear and full than that of others who followed him.
Daniel's "time, times, and a half", Justin believed, was nearing its consummation, when Antichrist would speak his blasphemies against the Most High.
Justin's statements are some of the earliest Christian expressions on the Eucharist.
Greek texts:
English translations:
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George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman (November 16, 1889June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals for the Marx Brothers and others. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical "Of Thee I Sing" (with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin) in 1932, and won again in 1937 for the play "You Can't Take It with You" (with Moss Hart). He also won the Tony Award for Best Director in 1951 for the musical "Guys and Dolls".
George S. Kaufman was born to Joseph S. Kaufman, a hatband manufacturer, and Nettie Meyers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He had a younger sister, Ruth. His other sister was Helen, nicknamed "Helse." Kaufman's family were Jewish. He graduated from high school in 1907 and studied law for three months. He grew disenchanted and took on a series of odd jobs, selling silk and working in wholesale ribbon sales.
Kaufman began contributing humorous material to the column that Franklin P. Adams wrote for the "New York Mail". He became close friends with Adams, who helped him get his first newspaper job—humor columnist for "The Washington Times"—in 1912. By 1915 he was a drama reporter on "The New York Tribune", working under Heywood Broun. In 1917 Kaufman joined "The New York Times", becoming drama editor and staying with the newspaper until 1930.
Kaufman took his editorial responsibilities seriously. According to legend, on one occasion a press agent asked: "How do I get our leading lady's name in the "Times"?" Kaufman: "Shoot her."
Kaufman's Broadway debut was September 4, 1918 at the Knickerbocker Theatre, with the premiere of the melodrama "Someone in the House". He coauthored the play with Walter C. Percival, based on a magazine story written by Larry Evans. The play opened on Broadway (running for only 32 performances) during that year's serious flu epidemic, when people were being advised to avoid crowds. With "dour glee", Kaufman suggested that the best way to avoid crowds in New York City was to attend his play.
In every Broadway season from 1921 through 1958, there was a play written or directed by Kaufman. Since Kaufman's death in 1961, there have been revivals of his work on Broadway in the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s, the 2000s and the 2010s. Kaufman wrote only one play alone, "The Butter and Egg Man" in 1925. With Marc Connelly, he wrote "Merton of the Movies", "Dulcy", and "Beggar on Horseback"; with Ring Lardner he wrote "June Moon"; with Edna Ferber he wrote "The Royal Family", "Dinner at Eight", and "Stage Door"; with John P. Marquand he wrote a stage adaptation of Marquand's novel "The Late George Apley"; and with Howard Teichmann he wrote "The Solid Gold Cadillac". According to his biography on PBS, "he wrote some of the American theater's most enduring comedies" with Moss Hart. Their work includes "Once in a Lifetime" (in which he also performed), "Merrily We Roll Along", "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and "You Can't Take It with You", which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937.
For a period, Kaufman lived at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The building later would be the setting for "Stage Door". It is now the Park Savoy Hotel and for many years was considered a single room occupancy hotel.
Despite his claim that he knew nothing about music and hated it in the theatre, Kaufman collaborated on many musical theatre projects. His most successful of such efforts include two Broadway shows crafted for the Marx Brothers, "The Cocoanuts", written with Irving Berlin, and "Animal Crackers", written with Morrie Ryskind, Bert Kalmar, and Harry Ruby. According to Charlotte Chandler, "By the time "Animal Crackers" opened ... the Marx Brothers were becoming famous enough to interest Hollywood. Paramount signed them to a contract". Kaufman was one of the writers who excelled in writing intelligent nonsense for Groucho Marx, a process that was collaborative, given Groucho's skills at expanding upon the scripted material. Though the Marx Brothers were notoriously critical of their writers, Groucho and Harpo Marx expressed admiration and gratitude towards Kaufman. Dick Cavett, introducing Groucho onstage at Carnegie Hall in 1972, told the audience that Groucho considered Kaufman to be "his god".
While "The Cocoanuts" was being developed in Atlantic City, Irving Berlin was hugely enthusiastic about including the song "Always", which he had written as a wedding present for his bride. Kaufman was less enthusiastic, and refused to rework the libretto to include this number. The song ultimately became a huge hit for Berlin, recorded by many popular performers. According to Laurence Bergreen, "Kaufman's lack of enthusiasm caused Irving to lose confidence in the song, and 'Always' was deleted from the score of "The Cocoanuts" – though not from its creator's memory. ... Kaufman, a confirmed misogynist, had had no use for the song in "The Cocoanuts" but his disapproval did not deter Berlin from saving it for a more important occasion." "The Cocoanuts" would remain Irving Berlin's only Broadway musical – until his last one, "Mr. President" – that did not include at least one eventual hit song.
Humor derived from political situations was of particular interest to Kaufman. He collaborated on the hit musical "Of Thee I Sing", which won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize, the first musical so honored, and its sequel "Let 'Em Eat Cake", as well as one troubled but eventually successful satire that had several incarnations, "Strike Up the Band". Working with Kaufman on these ventures were Ryskind, George Gershwin, and Ira Gershwin. Also, Kaufman, with Moss Hart, wrote the book to "I'd Rather Be Right", a musical starring George M. Cohan as Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the U.S. president at the time), with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. He also co-wrote the 1935 comedy-drama "First Lady". In 1945, Kaufman adapted "H.M.S. Pinafore" into "Hollywood Pinafore".
Kaufman also contributed to major New York revues, including "The Band Wagon" (which shared songs but not plot with the 1953 film version) with Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz. His often anthologized sketch "The Still Alarm" from the revue "The Little Show" lasted long after the show closed. Another well-known sketch of his is "If Men Played Cards As Women Do." There have also been musicals based on Kaufman properties, such as the 1981 musical version of "Merrily We Roll Along", adapted by George Furth and Stephen Sondheim. The musical "Sherry!" (1967) was based on his play "The Man Who Came to Dinner".
Kaufman directed the original or revival stage productions of many plays and musicals, including"The Front Page" by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht (1928), "Of Thee I Sing" (1931 and 1952), "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck (1937), "My Sister Eileen" by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov (1940), "Hollywood Pinafore" (1945), "The Next Half Hour" (1945), "Park Avenue" (1946, also co-wrote the book), "Town House" (1948), "Bravo!" (1948, also co-wrote the script), "Metropole" (1949), the Frank Loesser musical "Guys and Dolls", for which he won the 1951 Best Director Tony Award, "The Enchanted" (1950), "The Small Hours" (1951, also co-wrote the script), "Fancy Meeting You Again" (1952, also co-wrote the script), "The Solid Gold Cadillac" (1953, also co-wrote the script), and "Romanoff and Juliet" by Peter Ustinov (1957).
Kaufman produced many of his own plays as well as those of other writers. For a short time, approximately from 1940 to circa 1946, Kaufman, with Moss Hart and Max Gordon, owned and operated the Lyceum Theatre.
Many of Kaufman's plays were adapted into Hollywood films. Among the more well-received were "Dinner At Eight", "Stage Door" (almost completely rewritten by others for the film version) and "You Can't Take It with You" (changed significantly by others for the film version), which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1938. He also occasionally wrote directly for the movies, most significantly the screenplay for "A Night at the Opera" for the Marx Brothers. His only credit as a film director was "The Senator Was Indiscreet" (1947) starring William Powell.
From 1949 until midway through the 1952–1953 season, he appeared as a panelist on the CBS television series "This Is Show Business". Kaufman made a remark about the excessive airing of "Silent Night" during the Christmas season, "Let's make this one program," he said, "on which no one sings 'Silent Night'." The resulting public outcry prompted his dismissal by CBS. In response, Fred Allen said, "There were only two wits on television: Groucho Marx and George S. Kaufman. Without Kaufman, television has reverted to being half-witted." It would be more than a year before Kaufman appeared on TV again.
Kaufman was a prominent player of bridge, probably both auction bridge and contract bridge. "The New Yorker" published many of his humorous items about the card game; at least some have been reprinted more than once, including:
His first wife Beatrice Bakrow Kaufman was also an avid bridge player, and an occasional poker player with Algonquin men, who wrote at least one "New Yorker" article on bridge herself, in 1928.
In the 1920s, Kaufman was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of writers and show business people. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Kaufman was as well known for his personality as he was for his writing. In the Moss Hart autobiography "Act One", Hart portrayed Kaufman as a morose and intimidating figure, uncomfortable with any expressions of affection between human beings—in life or on the page. Hart writes that Max Siegel said: "Maybe I should have warned you. Mr Kaufman hates any kind of sentimentality—can't stand it!"
This perspective, along with a number of taciturn observations made by Kaufman himself, led to a simplistic but commonly held belief that Hart was the emotional soul of the creative team while Kaufman was a misanthropic writer of punchlines. Kaufman preferred never to leave Manhattan. He once said: "I never want to go any place where I can't get back to Broadway and 44th by midnight."
Called "Public Lover Number One", he "dated some of the most beautiful women on Broadway". Kaufman found himself in the center of a scandal in 1936 when, in the midst of a child custody suit, the former husband of actress Mary Astor threatened to publish one of Astor's diaries purportedly containing extremely explicit details of an affair between Kaufman and the actress. The diary was eventually destroyed unread by the courts in 1952, but details of the supposed contents were published in "Confidential" magazine, "Hollywood Babylon" by Kenneth Anger, and various other scandal sheets. Some of the sexually explicit portion, involving Kaufman, were reprinted in "New York" magazine in 2012 and "Vanity Fair" magazine in 2016. Kaufman had an affair with actress Natalie Schafer during the 1940s.
Kaufman joined the theatre club, The Lambs, in 1944.
Kaufman was married to his first wife Beatrice from 1917 until her death in 1945. They had one daughter, Anne Kaufman (Booth). Four years later, he married actress Leueen MacGrath on May 26, 1949, with whom he collaborated on a number of plays before their divorce in August 1957. Kaufman died in New York City on June 2, 1961, at the age of 71. His granddaughter, Beatrice Colen, was an actress who had recurring appearances on both "Happy Days" and "Wonder Woman".
In 1979, Donald Oliver compiled and edited a collection of Kaufman's humorous pieces, with a foreword by Dick Cavett.
Kaufman was portrayed by the actor David Thornton in the 1994 film "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" and by Jason Robards in the 1963 film "Act One". In the 2014 Broadway adaptation of the latter by James Lapine, he was played by Tony Shalhoub.
The title character of the 1991 Coen brothers film "Barton Fink" bears a strong physical resemblance to Kaufman.
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Gilbert N. Lewis
Gilbert Newton Lewis (October 25 (or 23), 1875 – March 23, 1946) was an American physical chemist and a former Dean of the College of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. Lewis was best known for his discovery of the covalent bond and his concept of electron pairs; his Lewis dot structures and other contributions to valence bond theory have shaped modern theories of chemical bonding. Lewis successfully contributed to chemical thermodynamics, photochemistry, and isotope separation, and is also known for his concept of acids and bases. Lewis also researched on relativity and quantum physics, and in 1926 he coined the term "photon" for the smallest unit of radiant energy.
G. N. Lewis was born in 1875 in Weymouth, Massachusetts. After receiving his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University and studying abroad in Germany and the Philippines, Lewis moved to California in 1912 to teach chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became the Dean of the College of Chemistry and spent the rest of his life. As a professor, he incorporated thermodynamic principles into the chemistry curriculum and reformed chemical thermodynamics in a mathematically rigorous manner accessible to ordinary chemists. He began measuring the free energy values related to several chemical processes, both organic and inorganic. In 1916, he also proposed his theory of bonding and added information about electrons in the periodic table of the chemical elements. In 1933, he started his research on isotope separation. Lewis worked with hydrogen and managed to purify a sample of heavy water. He then came up with his theory of acids and bases, and did work in photochemistry during the last years of his life.
Though he was nominated 41 times, G. N. Lewis never won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, resulting in a major Nobel Prize controversy. On the other hand, Lewis mentored and influenced numerous Nobel laureates at Berkeley including Harold Urey (1934 Nobel Prize), William F. Giauque (1949 Nobel Prize), Glenn T. Seaborg (1951 Nobel Prize), Willard Libby (1960 Nobel Prize), Melvin Calvin (1961 Nobel Prize) and so on, turning Berkeley into one of the world's most prestigious centers for chemistry. On March 23, 1946, Lewis was found dead in his Berkeley laboratory where he had been working with hydrogen cyanide; many postulated that the cause of his death was suicide. After Lewis' death, his children followed their father's career in chemistry, and the Lewis Hall on the Berkeley campus is named after him.
Lewis was born in 1875 and raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts, where there exists a street named for him, G.N. Lewis Way, off Summer Street. Additionally, the wing of the new Weymouth High School Chemistry department has been named in his honor. Lewis received his primary education at home from his parents, Frank Wesley Lewis, a lawyer of independent character, and Mary Burr White Lewis. He read at age three and was intellectually precocious. In 1884 his family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, and in 1889 he received his first formal education at the university preparatory school.
In 1893, after two years at the University of Nebraska, Lewis transferred to Harvard University, where he obtained his B.S. in 1896. After a year of teaching at Phillips Academy in Andover, Lewis returned to Harvard to study with the physical chemist T. W. Richards and obtained his Ph.D. in 1899 with a dissertation on electrochemical potentials. After a year of teaching at Harvard, Lewis took a traveling fellowship to Germany, the center of physical chemistry, and studied with Walther Nernst at Göttingen and with Wilhelm Ostwald at Leipzig. While working in Nernst's lab, Lewis apparently developed a lifelong enmity with Nernst. In the following years, Lewis started to criticize and denounce his former teacher on many occasions, calling Nernst's work on his heat theorem ""a regrettable episode in the history of chemistry"". A Swedish friend of Nernst's, , was a member of the Nobel Chemistry Committee. There is evidence that he used the Nobel nominating and reporting procedures to block a Nobel Prize for Lewis in thermodynamics by nominating Lewis for the prize three times, and then using his position as a committee member to write negative reports.
After his stay in Nernst's lab, Lewis returned to Harvard in 1901 as an instructor for three more years. He was appointed instructor in thermodynamics and electrochemistry. In 1904 Lewis was granted a leave of absence and became Superintendent of Weights and Measures for the Bureau of Science in Manila, Philippines. The next year he returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) appointed him to a faculty position, in which he had a chance to join a group of outstanding physical chemists under the direction of Arthur Amos Noyes. He became an assistant professor in 1907, associate professor in 1908, and full professor in 1911.
G. N. Lewis left MIT in 1912 to become a professor of physical chemistry and Dean of the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. On June 21, 1912, he married Mary Hinckley Sheldon, daughter of a Harvard professor of Romance languages. They had two sons, both of whom became chemistry professors, and a daughter. In 1913, he joined the Alpha Chi Sigma at Berkeley, the professional chemistry fraternity.
While at Berkeley, Lewis mentored and influenced numerous future Nobel laureates including Harold Urey (1934 Nobel Prize), William F. Giauque (1949 Nobel Prize), Glenn T. Seaborg (1951 Nobel Prize), Willard Libby (1960 Nobel Prize), Melvin Calvin (1961 Nobel Prize) and so on. Due to his efforts, the College of Chemistry at Berkeley became one of the top chemistry centers in the world. In 1913, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He resigned in 1934, refusing to state the cause for his resignation; it has been speculated that it was due to a dispute over the internal politics of that institution or to the failure of those he had nominated to be elected. His decision to resign may have been sparked by resentment over the award of the 1934 Nobel Prize for chemistry to his student, Harold Urey, for the discovery of deuterium, a prize Lewis almost certainly felt he should have shared for his work on purification and characterization of heavy water.
In 1946, a graduate student found Lewis's lifeless body under a laboratory workbench at Berkeley. Lewis had been working on an experiment with liquid hydrogen cyanide, and deadly fumes from a broken line had leaked into the laboratory. The coroner ruled that the cause of death was coronary artery disease, because of a lack of any signs of cyanosis, but some believe that it may have been a suicide. Berkeley Emeritus Professor William Jolly, who reported the various views on Lewis's death in his 1987 history of UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry, "From Retorts to Lasers", wrote that a higher-up in the department believed that Lewis had committed suicide.
If Lewis's death was indeed a suicide, a possible explanation was depression brought on by a lunch with Irving Langmuir. Langmuir and Lewis had a long rivalry, dating back to Langmuir's extensions of Lewis's theory of the chemical bond. Langmuir had been awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on surface chemistry, while Lewis had not received the Prize despite having been nominated 41 times. On the day of Lewis's death, Langmuir and Lewis had met for lunch at Berkeley, a meeting that Michael Kasha recalled only years later. Associates reported that Lewis came back from lunch in a dark mood, played a morose game of bridge with some colleagues, then went back to work in his lab. An hour later, he was found dead. Langmuir's papers at the Library of Congress confirm that he had been on the Berkeley campus that day to receive an honorary degree.
Lewis Hall at Berkeley, built in 1948, is named in his honor.
Most of Lewis’ lasting interests originated during his Harvard years. The most important was thermodynamics, a subject in which Richards was very active at that time. Although most of the important thermodynamic relations were known by 1895, they were seen as isolated equations, and had not yet been rationalized as a logical system, from which, given one relation, the rest could be derived. Moreover, these relations were inexact, applying only to ideal chemical systems. These were two outstanding problems of theoretical thermodynamics. In two long and ambitious theoretical papers in 1900 and 1901, Lewis tried to provide a solution. Lewis introduced the thermodynamic concept of activity and coined the term "fugacity". His new idea of fugacity, or "escaping tendency", was a function with the dimensions of pressure which expressed the tendency of a substance to pass from one chemical phase to another. Lewis believed that fugacity was the fundamental principle from which a system of real thermodynamic relations could be derived. This hope was not realized, though fugacity did find a lasting place in the description of real gases.
Lewis’ early papers also reveal an unusually advanced awareness of J. W. Gibbs's and P. Duhem's ideas of free energy and thermodynamic potential. These ideas were well known to physicists and mathematicians, but not to most practical chemists, who regarded them as abstruse and inapplicable to chemical systems. Most chemists relied on the familiar thermodynamics of heat (enthalpy) of Berthelot, Ostwald, and Van’t Hoff, and the calorimetric school. Heat of reaction is not, of course, a measure of the tendency of chemical changes to occur, and Lewis realized that only free energy and entropy could provide an exact chemical thermodynamics. He derived free energy from fugacity; he tried, without success, to obtain an exact expression for the entropy function, which in 1901 had not been defined at low temperatures. Richards too tried and failed, and not until Nernst succeeded in 1907 was it possible to calculate entropies unambiguously. Although Lewis’ fugacity-based system did not last, his early interest in free energy and entropy proved most fruitful, and much of his career was devoted to making these useful concepts accessible to practical chemists.
At Harvard, Lewis also wrote a theoretical paper on the thermodynamics of blackbody radiation in which he postulated that light has a pressure. He later revealed that he had been discouraged from pursuing this idea by his older, more conservative colleagues, who were unaware that Wilhelm Wien and others were successfully pursuing the same line of thought. Lewis’ paper remained unpublished; but his interest in radiation and quantum theory, and (later) in relativity, sprang from this early, aborted effort. From the start of his career, Lewis regarded himself as both chemist and physicist.
About 1902 Lewis started to use unpublished drawings of cubical atoms in his lecture notes, in which the corners of the cube represented possible electron positions. Lewis later cited these notes in his classic 1916 paper on chemical bonding, as being the first expression of his ideas.
A third major interest that originated during Lewis’ Harvard years was his valence theory. In 1902, while trying to explain the laws of valence to his students, Lewis conceived the idea that atoms were built up of a concentric series of cubes with electrons at each corner. This “cubic atom” explained the cycle of eight elements in the periodic table and was in accord with the widely accepted belief that chemical bonds were formed by transfer of electrons to give each atom a complete set of eight. This electrochemical theory of valence found its most elaborate expression in the work of Richard Abegg in 1904, but Lewis’ version of this theory was the only one to be embodied in a concrete atomic model. Again Lewis’ theory did not interest his Harvard mentors, who, like most American chemists of that time, had no taste for such speculation. Lewis did not publish his theory of the cubic atom, but in 1916 it became an important part of his theory of the shared electron pair bond.
In 1916, he published his classic paper on chemical bonding ""The Atom and the Molecule"" in which he formulated the idea of what would become known as the covalent bond, consisting of a shared pair of electrons, and he defined the term odd molecule (the modern term is free radical) when an electron is not shared. He included what became known as Lewis dot structures as well as the cubical atom model. These ideas on chemical bonding were expanded upon by Irving Langmuir and became the inspiration for the studies on the nature of the chemical bond by Linus Pauling.
In 1923, he formulated the electron-pair theory of acid–base reactions. In this theory of acids and bases, a "Lewis acid" is an "electron-pair acceptor" and a "Lewis base" is an "electron-pair donor". This year he also published a monograph on his theories of the chemical bond.
Based on work by J. Willard Gibbs, it was known that chemical reactions proceeded to an equilibrium determined by the free energy of the substances taking part. Lewis spent 25 years determining free energies of various substances. In 1923 he and Merle Randall published the results of this study, which helped formalize modern chemical thermodynamics.
Lewis was the first to produce a pure sample of deuterium oxide (heavy water) in 1933 and the first to study survival and growth of life forms in heavy water. By accelerating deuterons (deuterium nuclei) in Ernest O. Lawrence's cyclotron, he was able to study many of the properties of atomic nuclei. During the 1930s, he was mentor to Glenn T. Seaborg, who was retained for post-doctoral work as Lewis' personal research assistant. Seaborg went on to win the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and have the element seaborgium named in his honor while he was still alive.
In 1924, by studying the magnetic properties of solutions of oxygen in liquid nitrogen, Lewis found that O4 molecules were formed. This was the first evidence for tetratomic oxygen.
In 1908 he published the first of several papers on relativity, in which he derived the mass-energy relationship in a different way from Albert Einstein's derivation. In 1909, he and Richard C. Tolman combined his methods with special relativity. In 1912 Lewis and Edwin Bidwell Wilson presented a major work in mathematical physics that not only applied synthetic geometry to the study of spacetime, but also noted the identity of a spacetime squeeze mapping and a Lorentz transformation.
In 1926, he coined the term "photon" for the smallest unit of radiant energy (light). Actually, the outcome of his letter to "Nature" was not what he had intended. In the letter, he proposed a photon being a structural element, not energy. He insisted on the need for a new variable, "the number of photons". Although his theory differed from the quantum theory of light introduced by Albert Einstein in 1905, his name was adopted for what Einstein had called a light quantum (Lichtquant in German).
In 1921, Lewis was the first to propose an empirical equation describing the failure of strong electrolytes to obey the law of mass action, a problem that had perplexed physical chemists for twenty years. His empirical equations for what he called ionic strength were later confirmed to be in accord with the Debye–Hückel equation for strong electrolytes, published in 1923.
Over the course of his career, Lewis published on many other subjects besides those mentioned in this entry, ranging from the nature of light quanta to the economics of price stabilization. In the last years of his life, Lewis and graduate student Michael Kasha, his last research associate, established that phosphorescence of organic molecules involves emission of light from one electron in an excited triplet state (a state in which two electrons have their spin vectors oriented in the "same" direction, but in different orbitals) and measured the paramagnetism of this triplet state.
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Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which "H.M.S. Pinafore", "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The Mikado" are among the best known.
Gilbert, who wrote the libretti for these operas, created fanciful "topsy-turvy" worlds where each absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion—fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates emerge as noblemen who have gone astray. Sullivan, six years Gilbert's junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos.
Their operas have enjoyed broad and enduring international success and are still performed frequently throughout the English-speaking world. Gilbert and Sullivan introduced innovations in content and form that directly influenced the development of musical theatre through the 20th century. The operas have also influenced political discourse, literature, film and television and have been widely parodied and pastiched by humorists. Producer Richard D'Oyly Carte brought Gilbert and Sullivan together and nurtured their collaboration. He built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 to present their joint works (which came to be known as the Savoy Operas) and founded the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which performed and promoted Gilbert and Sullivan's works for over a century.
Gilbert was born in London on 18 November 1836. His father, William, was a naval surgeon who later wrote novels and short stories, some of which included illustrations by his son. In 1861, to supplement his income, the younger Gilbert began writing illustrated stories, poems and articles of his own, many of which would later be mined as inspiration for his plays and operas, particularly Gilbert's series of illustrated poems, the "Bab Ballads".
In the "Bab Ballads" and his early plays, Gilbert developed a unique "topsy-turvy" style in which humour was derived by setting up a ridiculous premise and working out its logical consequences, however absurd. Director and playwright Mike Leigh described the "Gilbertian" style as follows:
Gilbert developed his innovative theories on the art of stage direction, following theatrical reformer Tom Robertson. At the time Gilbert began writing, theatre in Britain was in disrepute. Gilbert helped to reform and elevate the respectability of the theatre, especially beginning with his six short family-friendly comic operas, or "entertainments", for Thomas German Reed.
At a rehearsal for one of these entertainments, "Ages Ago", in 1870, the composer Frederic Clay introduced Gilbert to his friend, the young composer Arthur Sullivan. Over the next year, before the two first collaborated, Gilbert continued to write humorous verse, stories and plays, including the comic operas "Our Island Home" (1870) and "A Sensation Novel" (1871), and the blank verse comedies "The Princess" (1870), "The Palace of Truth" (1870) and "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871).
Sullivan was born in London on 13 May 1842. His father was a military bandmaster, and by the time Arthur had reached the age of eight, he was proficient with all the instruments in the band. In school he began to compose anthems and songs. In 1856, he received the first Mendelssohn Scholarship and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then at Leipzig, where he also took up conducting. His graduation piece, completed in 1861, was a suite of incidental music to Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Revised and expanded, it was performed at the Crystal Palace in 1862 and was an immediate sensation. He began building a reputation as England's most promising young composer, composing a symphony, a concerto, and several overtures, among them the "Overture di Ballo", in 1870.
His early major works for the voice included "The Masque at Kenilworth" (1864); an oratorio, "The Prodigal Son" (1869); and a dramatic cantata, "On Shore and Sea" (1871). He composed a ballet, "L'Île Enchantée" (1864) and incidental music for a number of Shakespeare plays. Other early pieces that were praised were his "Symphony in E", "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra", and "Overture in C (In Memoriam)" (all three of which premiered in 1866). These commissions, however, were not sufficient to keep Sullivan afloat. He worked as a church organist and composed numerous hymns, popular songs, and parlour ballads.
Sullivan's first foray into comic opera was "Cox and Box" (1866), written with librettist F. C. Burnand for an informal gathering of friends. Public performance followed, with W. S. Gilbert (then writing dramatic criticism for the magazine "Fun") saying that Sullivan's score "is, in many places, of too high a class for the grotesquely absurd plot to which it is wedded." Nonetheless, it proved highly successful, and is still regularly performed today. Sullivan and Burnand's second opera, "The Contrabandista" (1867) was not as successful.
In 1871, producer John Hollingshead brought Gilbert and Sullivan together to produce a Christmas entertainment, "Thespis", at his Gaiety Theatre, a large West End house. The piece was an extravaganza in which the classical Greek gods, grown elderly, are temporarily replaced by a troupe of 19th-century actors and actresses, one of whom is the eponymous Thespis, the Greek father of the drama. Its mixture of political satire and grand opera parody mimicked Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld" and "La belle Hélène", which (in translation) then dominated the English musical stage.
"Thespis" opened on Boxing Day and ran for 63 performances. It outran five of its nine competitors for the 1871 holiday season, and its run was extended beyond the length of a normal run at the Gaiety, but no one at the time anticipated that this was the beginning of a great collaboration. Unlike the later Gilbert and Sullivan works, it was hastily prepared, and its nature was more risqué, like Gilbert's earlier burlesques, with a broader style of comedy that allowed for improvisation by the actors. Two of the male characters were played by women, whose shapely legs were put on display in a fashion that Gilbert later condemned. The musical score to "Thespis" was never published and is now lost, except for one song that was published separately, a chorus that was re-used in "The Pirates of Penzance", and the Act II ballet music.
Over the next three years, Gilbert and Sullivan did not have occasion to work together again, but each man became more eminent in his field. Gilbert worked with Frederic Clay on "Happy Arcadia" (1872) and with Alfred Cellier on "Topsyturveydom" (1874), and wrote "The Wicked World" (1873) "Sweethearts" (1874) and several other libretti, farces, extravaganzas, fairy comedies, dramas and adaptations. Sullivan completed his "Festival Te Deum" (1872); another oratorio, "The Light of the World" (1873); his only song cycle, "The Window; or, The Song of the Wrens" (1871); incidental music to "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1874); and more songs, parlour ballads, and hymns, including "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1872). At the same time, the audience for theatre was growing because of the rapidly expanding British population; improvement in education and the standard of living, especially of the middle class; improving public transportation; and installation of street lighting, which made travel home from the theatre safer. The number of pianos manufactured in England doubled between 1870 and 1890 as more people began to play parlour music at home and more theatres and concert halls opened.
In 1874, Gilbert wrote a short libretto on commission from producer-conductor Carl Rosa, whose wife would have played the leading role, but her death in childbirth cancelled the project. Not long afterwards, Richard D'Oyly Carte was managing the Royalty Theatre and needed a short opera to be played as an afterpiece to Offenbach's "La Périchole". Carte knew about Gilbert's libretto for Rosa and suggested that Sullivan write a score for it. Gilbert read the piece to Sullivan in February 1875, and the composer was delighted with it; "Trial by Jury" was composed and staged in a matter of weeks.
The piece is one of Gilbert's humorous spoofs of the law and the legal profession, based on his short experience as a barrister. It concerns a breach of promise of marriage suit. The defendant argues that damages should be slight, since "he is such a very bad lot," while the plaintiff argues that she loves the defendant fervently and seeks "substantial damages." After much argument, the judge resolves the case by marrying the lovely plaintiff himself. With Sullivan's brother, Fred, as the Learned Judge, the opera was a runaway hit, outlasting the run of "La Périchole". Provincial tours and productions at other theatres quickly followed.
Fred Sullivan was the prototype for the "patter" (comic) baritone roles in the later operas. F. C. Burnand wrote that he "was one of the most naturally "comic little men" I ever came across. He, too, was a first-rate practical musician... As he was the most absurd person, so was he the very kindliest..." Fred's creation would serve as a model for the rest of the collaborators' works, and each of them has a crucial "comic little man" role, as Burnand had put it. The "patter" baritone (or "principal comedian", as these roles later were called) would often assume the leading role in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, and was usually allotted the speedy patter songs.
After the success of "Trial by Jury", Gilbert and Sullivan were suddenly in demand to write more operas together. Over the next two years, Richard D'Oyly Carte and Carl Rosa were two of several theatrical managers who negotiated with the team but were unable to come to terms. Carte proposed a revival of "Thespis" for the 1875 Christmas season, which Gilbert and Sullivan would have revised, but he was unable to obtain financing for the project. In early 1876, Carte requested that Gilbert and Sullivan create another one-act opera on the theme of burglars, but this was never completed.
Carte's real ambition was to develop an English form of light opera that would displace the bawdy burlesques and badly translated French operettas then dominating the London stage. He assembled a syndicate and formed the Comedy Opera Company, with Gilbert and Sullivan commissioned to write a comic opera that would serve as the centrepiece for an evening's entertainment.
Gilbert found a subject in one of his own short stories, "The Elixir of Love," which concerned the complications arising when a love potion is distributed to all the residents of a small village. The leading character was a Cockney businessman who happened to be a sorcerer, a purveyor of blessings (not much called for) and curses (very popular). Gilbert and Sullivan were tireless taskmasters, seeing to it that "The Sorcerer" (1877) opened as a fully polished production, in marked contrast to the under-rehearsed "Thespis". While "The Sorcerer" won critical acclaim, it did not duplicate the success of "Trial by Jury". Nevertheless, Carte and his syndicate were sufficiently encouraged to commission another full-length opera from the team.
Gilbert and Sullivan scored their first international hit with "H.M.S. Pinafore" (1878), satirising the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority and poking good-natured fun at the Royal Navy and the English obsession with social status (building on a theme introduced in "The Sorcerer", love between members of different social classes). As with many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise twist changes everything dramatically near the end of the story.
Gilbert oversaw the designs of sets and costumes, and he directed the performers on stage. He sought realism in acting, shunned self-conscious interaction with the audience, and insisted on a standard of characterisation where the characters were never aware of their own absurdity. Gilbert insisted that his actors know their words perfectly and obey his stage directions, which was something new to many actors of the day. Sullivan personally oversaw the musical preparation. The result was a new crispness and polish in the English musical theatre. As Jessie Bond wrote later:
"H.M.S. Pinafore" ran in London for 571 performances, the second longest run of any musical theatre piece in history up to that time (after the operetta "Les cloches de Corneville"). Hundreds of unauthorised, or "pirated", productions of "Pinafore" appeared in America. During the run of "Pinafore", Richard D'Oyly Carte split up with his former investors. The disgruntled former partners, who had invested in the production with no return, staged a public fracas, sending a group of thugs to seize the scenery during a performance. Stagehands successfully managed to ward off their backstage attackers. This event cleared the way for Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan to form the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which then produced all of their succeeding operas.
The libretto of "H.M.S. Pinafore" relied on stock character types, many of which were familiar from European opera (and some of which grew out of Gilbert's earlier association with the German Reeds): the heroic protagonist (tenor) and his love-interest (soprano); the older woman with a secret or a sharp tongue (contralto); the baffled lyric baritone—the girl's father; and a classic villain (bass-baritone). Gilbert and Sullivan added the element of the comic patter-singing character. With the success of "H.M.S. Pinafore", the D'Oyly Carte repertory and production system was cemented, and each opera would make use of these stock character types. Before "The Sorcerer", Gilbert had constructed his plays around the established stars of whatever theatre he happened to be writing for, as had been the case with "Thespis" and "Trial by Jury". Building on the team he had assembled for "The Sorcerer", Gilbert no longer hired stars; he created them. He and Sullivan selected the performers, writing their operas for ensemble casts rather than individual stars.
The repertory system ensured that the comic patter character who performed the role of the sorcerer, John Wellington Wells, would become the ruler of the Queen's navy as Sir Joseph Porter in "H.M.S. Pinafore", then join the army as Major-General Stanley in "The Pirates of Penzance", and so on. Similarly, Mrs. Partlet in "The Sorcerer" transformed into Little Buttercup in "Pinafore", then into Ruth, the piratical maid-of-all-work in "Pirates". Relatively unknown performers whom Gilbert and Sullivan engaged early in the collaboration would stay with the company for many years, becoming stars of the Victorian stage. These included George Grossmith, the principal comic; Rutland Barrington, the lyric baritone; Richard Temple, the bass-baritone; and Jessie Bond, the mezzo-soprano soubrette.
"The Pirates of Penzance" (New Year's Eve, 1879) also poked fun at grand opera conventions, sense of duty, family obligation, the "respectability" of civilisation and the peerage, and the relevance of a liberal education. The story also revisits "Pinafore"s theme of unqualified people in positions of authority, in the person of the "modern Major-General" who has up-to-date knowledge about everything except the military. The Major-General and his many daughters escape from the tender-hearted Pirates of Penzance, who are all orphans, on the false plea that he is an orphan himself. The pirates learn of the deception and re-capture the Major-General, but when it is revealed that the pirates are all peers, the Major-General bids them: "resume your ranks and legislative duties, and take my daughters, all of whom are beauties!"
The piece premiered in New York rather than London, in an (unsuccessful) attempt to secure the American copyright, and was another big success with both critics and audiences. Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte tried for many years to control the American performance copyrights over their operas, without success. Nevertheless, "Pirates" was a hit both in New York, again spawning numerous imitators, and then in London, and it became one of the most frequently performed, translated and parodied Gilbert and Sullivan works, also enjoying successful 1981 Broadway and 1982 West End revivals by Joseph Papp that continue to influence productions of the opera.
In 1880, Sullivan's cantata "The Martyr of Antioch" premiered at the Leeds Triennial Music Festival, with a libretto modified by Gilbert from an 1822 epic poem by Henry Hart Milman concerning the 3rd century martyrdom of St. Margaret of Antioch. Sullivan became the conductor of the Leeds festival beginning in 1880 and conducted the performance. The Carl Rosa Opera Company staged the cantata as an opera in 1898.
"Patience" (1881) satirised the aesthetic movement in general and its colourful poets in particular, combining aspects of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, James McNeill Whistler and others in the rival poets Bunthorne and Grosvenor. Grossmith, who created the role of Bunthorne, based his makeup, wig and costume on Swinburne and especially Whistler, as seen in the adjacent photo. The work also lampoons male vanity and chauvinism in the military. The story concerns two rival "aesthetic" poets, who attract the attention of the young ladies of the village, who had been engaged to the members of a cavalry regiment. But both poets are in love with Patience, the village milkmaid, who detests one of them and feels that it is her duty to avoid the other despite her love for him. Richard D'Oyly Carte was the booking manager for Oscar Wilde, a then lesser-known proponent of aestheticism, and dispatched Wilde on an American lecture tour in conjunction with the opera's U.S. run, so that American audiences might better understand what the satire was all about.
During the run of "Patience", Carte built the large, modern Savoy Theatre, which became the partnership's permanent home. It was the first theatre (indeed the world's first public building) to be lit entirely by electric lighting. "Patience" moved into the Savoy after six months at the Opera Comique and ran for a total of 578 performances, surpassing the run of "H.M.S. Pinafore" and becoming the second longest-running work of musical theatre up to that time in history.
"Iolanthe" (1882) was the first of the operas to open at the Savoy. The fully electric Savoy made possible numerous special effects, such as sparkling magic wands for the female chorus of fairies. The opera poked fun at English law and the House of Lords and made much of the war between the sexes. The critics felt that Sullivan's work in "Iolanthe" had taken a step forward. "The Daily Telegraph" wrote, "The composer has risen to his opportunity, and we are disposed to account "Iolanthe" his best effort in all the Gilbertian series." Similarly, the "Theatre" asserted that "the music of "Iolanthe" is Dr Sullivan's "chef d'oeuvre". The quality throughout is more even, and maintained at a higher standard, than in any of his earlier works..."
"Iolanthe" is one of a number of Gilbert's works, including "The Wicked World" (1873), "Broken Hearts" (1875), "Princess Ida" (1884) and "Fallen Fairies" (1909), where the introduction of men and "mortal love" into a tranquil world of women wreaks havoc with the status quo. Gilbert had created several "fairy comedies" at the Haymarket Theatre in the early 1870s. These plays, influenced by the fairy work of James Planché, are founded upon the idea of self-revelation by characters under the influence of some magic or some supernatural interference.
In 1882, Gilbert had a telephone installed in his home and at the prompt desk at the Savoy Theatre so that he could monitor performances and rehearsals from his home study. Gilbert had referred to the new technology in "Pinafore" in 1878, only two years after the device was invented and before London even had telephone service. Sullivan had one installed as well, and on 13 May 1883, at a party to celebrate the composer's 41st birthday, the guests, including the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), heard a direct relay of parts of "Iolanthe" from the Savoy. This was probably the first live "broadcast" of an opera.
During the run of "Iolanthe", in 1883, Sullivan was knighted by Queen Victoria. Although it was the operas with Gilbert that had earned him the broadest fame, the honour was conferred for his services to serious music. The musical establishment, and many critics, believed that this should put an end to his career as a composer of comic opera—that a musical knight should not stoop below oratorio or grand opera. Sullivan, despite the financial security of writing for the Savoy, increasingly viewed his work with Gilbert as unimportant, beneath his skills, and repetitious. Furthermore, he was unhappy that he had to simplify his music to ensure that Gilbert's words could be heard. But paradoxically, in February 1883, just after "Iolanthe" opened, Sullivan had signed a five-year agreement with Gilbert and Carte requiring him to produce a new comic opera on six months' notice.
"Princess Ida" (1884) spoofed women's education and male chauvinism and continued the theme from "Iolanthe" of the war between the sexes. The opera is based on Tennyson's poem "The Princess: A Medley". Gilbert had written a blank verse farce based on the same material in 1870, called "The Princess", and he reused a good deal of the dialogue from his earlier play in the libretto of "Princess Ida". "Ida" is the only Gilbert and Sullivan work with dialogue entirely in blank verse and is also the only one of their works in three acts. Lillian Russell had been engaged to create the title role, but Gilbert did not believe that she was dedicated enough, and when she missed a rehearsal, he dismissed her.
"Princess Ida" was the first of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas that, by the partnership's previous standards, was not a success. A particularly hot summer in London did not help ticket sales. The piece ran for a comparatively short 246 performances and was not revived in London until 1919. Sullivan had been satisfied with the libretto, but two months after "Ida" opened, Sullivan told Carte that "it is impossible for me to do another piece of the character of those already written by Gilbert and myself." As "Princess Ida" showed signs of flagging, Carte realised that, for the first time in the partnership's history, no new opera would be ready when the old one closed. On 22 March 1884, he gave Gilbert and Sullivan contractual notice that a new opera would be required in six months' time. In the meantime, when "Ida" closed, Carte produced a revival of "The Sorcerer".
The most successful of the Savoy Operas was "The Mikado" (1885), which made fun of English bureaucracy, thinly disguised by a Japanese setting. Gilbert initially proposed a story for a new opera about a magic lozenge that would change the characters, which Sullivan found artificial and lacking in "human interest and probability", as well as being too similar to their earlier opera, "The Sorcerer". As dramatised in the film "Topsy-Turvy", the author and composer were at an impasse until 8 May 1884, when Gilbert dropped the lozenge idea and agreed to provide a libretto without any supernatural elements.
The story focuses on a "cheap tailor", Ko-Ko, who is promoted to the position of Lord High Executioner of the town of Titipu. Ko-Ko loves his ward, Yum-Yum, but she loves a musician, who is really the son of the emperor of Japan (the Mikado) and who is in disguise to escape the attentions of the elderly and amorous Katisha. The Mikado has decreed that executions must resume without delay in Titipu. When news arrives that the Mikado will be visiting the town, Ko-Ko assumes that he is coming to ascertain whether Ko-Ko has carried out the executions. Too timid to execute anyone, Ko-Ko cooks up a conspiracy to misdirect the Mikado, which goes awry. Eventually, Ko-Ko must persuade Katisha to marry him to save his own life and the lives of the other conspirators.
With the opening of trade between England and Japan, Japanese imports, art and styles became fashionable, and a Japanese village exhibition opened in Knightsbridge, London, making the time ripe for an opera set in Japan. Gilbert said, "I cannot give you a good reason for our... piece being laid in Japan. It... afforded scope for picturesque treatment, scenery and costume, and I think that the idea of a chief magistrate, who is... judge and actual executioner in one, and yet would not hurt a worm, may perhaps please the public."
Setting the opera in Japan, an exotic locale far away from Britain, allowed Gilbert and Sullivan to satirise British politics and institutions more freely by clothing them in superficial Japanese trappings. Gilbert wrote, "The Mikado of the opera was an imaginary monarch of a remote period and cannot by any exercise of ingenuity be taken to be a slap on an existing institution." G. K. Chesterton compared it to Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels": "Gilbert pursued and persecuted the evils of modern England till they had literally not a leg to stand on, exactly as Swift did... I doubt if there is a single joke in the whole play that fits the Japanese. But all the jokes in the play fit the English. ... About England Pooh-bah is something more than a satire; he is the truth." Several of the later operas are similarly set in foreign or fictional locales, including "The Gondoliers", "Utopia Limited" and "The Grand Duke".
"The Mikado" became the partnership's longest-running hit, enjoying 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre, which was the second longest run for any work of musical theatre (surpassing the 571 performances of "Pinafore" and 576 of "Patience") and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. "The Mikado" remains the most frequently performed Savoy Opera. It has been translated into numerous languages and is one of the most frequently played musical theatre pieces in history.
"Ruddigore" (1887), a topsy-turvy take on Victorian melodrama, was less successful than most of the earlier collaborations with a run of 288 performances. The original title, "Ruddygore", together with some of the plot devices, including the revivification of ghosts, drew negative comments from critics. Gilbert and Sullivan respelled the title and made a number of changes and cuts. Nevertheless, the piece was profitable, and the reviews were not all bad. For instance, the "Illustrated London News" praised the work and both Gilbert and, especially, Sullivan: "Sir Arthur Sullivan has eminently succeeded alike in the expression of refined sentiment and comic humour. In the former respect, the charm of graceful melody prevails; while, in the latter, the music of the most grotesque situations is redolent of fun." Further changes were made, including a new overture, when Rupert D'Oyly Carte revived "Ruddigore" after the First World War, and the piece was regularly performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company thereafter.
Some of the plot elements of "Ruddigore" were introduced by Gilbert in his earlier one-act opera, "Ages Ago" (1869), including the tale of the wicked ancestor and the device of the ghostly ancestors stepping out of their portraits. When "Ruddigore" closed, no new opera was ready. Gilbert again proposed a version of the "lozenge" plot for their next opera, and Sullivan reiterated his reluctance to set it. While the two men worked out their artistic differences, and Sullivan finished other obligations, Carte produced revivals of such old favourites as "H.M.S. Pinafore", "The Pirates of Penzance", and "The Mikado".
"The Yeomen of the Guard" (1888), their only joint work with a serious ending, concerns a pair of strolling players—a jester and a singing girl—who are caught up in a risky intrigue at the Tower of London during the 16th century. The dialogue, though in prose, is quasi-early modern English in style, and there is no satire of British institutions. For some of the plot elements, Gilbert had reached back to his 1875 tragedy, "Broken Hearts". "The Times" praised the libretto: "It should... be acknowledged that Mr. Gilbert has earnestly endeavoured to leave familiar grooves and rise to higher things." Although not a grand opera, the new libretto provided Sullivan with the opportunity to write his most ambitious score to date. The critics, who had recently lauded the composer for his successful oratorio, "The Golden Legend", considered the score to "Yeomen" to be Sullivan's finest, including its overture, which was written in sonata form, rather than as a sequential pot-pourri of tunes from the opera, as in most of his other overtures. The "Daily Telegraph" wrote:
"Yeomen" was a hit, running for over a year, with strong New York and touring productions. During the run, on 12 March 1889, Sullivan wrote to Gilbert,
Sullivan insisted that the next opera must be a grand opera. Gilbert did not feel that he could write a grand opera libretto, but he offered a compromise that Sullivan eventually accepted. The two would write a light opera for the Savoy, and at the same time, Sullivan a grand opera ("Ivanhoe") for a new theatre that Carte was constructing to present British grand opera. After a brief impasse over the choice of subject, Sullivan accepted an idea connected with Venice and Venetian life, as "this seemed to me to hold out great chances of bright colour and taking music."
"The Gondoliers" (1889) takes place partly in Venice and partly in a kingdom ruled by a pair of gondoliers who attempt to remodel the monarchy in a spirit of "republican equality." Gilbert recapitulates a number of his earlier themes, including the satire of class distinctions figuring in many of his earlier librettos. The libretto also reflects Gilbert's fascination with the "Stock Company Act", highlighting the absurd convergence of natural persons and legal entities, which plays an even larger part in the next opera, "Utopia Limited". Press accounts were almost entirely favourable. The "Illustrated London News" reported:
Sullivan's old collaborator on "Cox and Box" (later the editor of "Punch" magazine), F. C. Burnand, wrote to the composer: "Magnificento!...I envy you and W.S.G. being able to place a piece like this on the stage in so complete a fashion." The opera enjoyed a run longer than any of their other joint works except for "H.M.S. Pinafore", "Patience" and "The Mikado". There was a command performance of "The Gondoliers" for Queen Victoria and the royal family at Windsor Castle in 1891, the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera to be so honoured. "The Gondoliers" was Gilbert and Sullivan's last great success.
Though Gilbert and Sullivan's working relationship was mostly cordial and even friendly, especially during their later operas, it sometimes became strained, partly because each man saw himself as allowing his work to be subjugated to the other's, and partly caused by the opposing personalities of the two: Gilbert was often confrontational and notoriously thin-skinned (though prone to acts of extraordinary kindness), while Sullivan eschewed conflict. Gilbert imbued his libretti with "topsy-turvy" situations in which the social order was turned upside down. After a time, these subjects were often at odds with Sullivan's desire for realism and emotional content. Gilbert's political satire often poked fun at the wealthy and powerful whom Sullivan sought out for friendship and patronage.
Gilbert and Sullivan disagreed several times over the choice of a subject. After both "Princess Ida" and "Ruddigore", which were less successful than the seven other operas from "H.M.S. Pinafore" to "The Gondoliers", Sullivan asked to leave the partnership, saying that he found Gilbert's plots repetitive and that the operas were not artistically satisfying to him. While the two artists worked out their differences, Carte kept the Savoy open with revivals of their earlier works. On each occasion, after a few months' pause, Gilbert responded with a libretto that met Sullivan's objections, and the partnership was able to continue.
In April 1890, during the run of "The Gondoliers", Gilbert challenged Carte over the expenses of the production. Among other items to which Gilbert objected, Carte had charged the cost of a new carpet for the Savoy Theatre lobby to the partnership. Gilbert believed that this was a maintenance expense that should be charged to Carte alone. Gilbert confronted Carte, who refused to reconsider the accounts. Gilbert stormed out and wrote to Sullivan that "I left him with the remark that it was a mistake to kick down the ladder by which he had risen". Helen Carte wrote that Gilbert had addressed Carte "in a way that I should not have thought you would have used to an offending menial". As scholar Andrew Crowther has explained:
Things soon degraded, a legal hearing was held, and Sullivan supported Carte by making an affidavit erroneously stating that there were minor legal expenses outstanding from a battle Gilbert had in 1884 with Lillian Russell. On 5 May 1890, Gilbert had written to Sullivan: "The time for putting an end to our collaboration has at last arrived." Gilbert later asked Sullivan to say he had been mistaken in his affidavit, but Sullivan refused. Gilbert felt it was a moral issue and could not look past it. Sullivan felt that Gilbert was questioning his good faith, and in any event Sullivan had other reasons to stay in Carte's good graces: Carte was building a new theatre, the Royal English Opera House, to produce Sullivan's only grand opera, "Ivanhoe". Gilbert brought suit, and after "The Gondoliers" closed in 1891, he withdrew the performance rights to his libretti, vowing to write no more operas for the Savoy.
Gilbert next wrote "The Mountebanks" with Alfred Cellier and the flop "Haste to the Wedding" with George Grossmith, and Sullivan wrote "Haddon Hall" with Sydney Grundy. Gilbert eventually won the lawsuit, but his actions and statements had been hurtful to his partners. Nevertheless, the partnership had been so profitable that, after the financial failure of the Royal English Opera House, Carte and his wife sought to reunite the author and composer. In late 1891, after many failed attempts at reconciliation, Gilbert and Sullivan's music publisher, Tom Chappell, stepped in to mediate between two of his most profitable artists, and within two weeks he had succeeded, eventually leading to two further collaborations between Gilbert and Sullivan.
"Utopia, Limited" (1893), their penultimate opera, was a very modest success, and their last, "The Grand Duke" (1896), was an outright failure. Neither work entered the canon of regularly performed Gilbert and Sullivan works until the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company made the first complete professional recordings of the two operas in the 1970s. Gilbert had also offered Sullivan another libretto, "His Excellency" (1894), but Gilbert's insistence on casting Nancy McIntosh, his protege from "Utopia", led to Sullivan's refusal, and "His Excellency" was instead composed by F. Osmond Carr. Meanwhile, the Savoy Theatre continued to revive the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, in between new pieces, and D'Oyly Carte touring companies also played them in repertory.
After "The Grand Duke", the partners saw no reason to work together again. A last unpleasant misunderstanding occurred in 1898. At the premiere of Sullivan’s opera "The Beauty Stone" on 28 May, Gilbert arrived at the Savoy Theatre with friends, assuming that Sullivan had reserved some seats for him. Instead, he was informed that Sullivan objected to his presence. The composer later denied that this was true. The last time they met was at the Savoy Theatre on 17 November 1898 at the celebration of the 21st anniversary of the first performance of "The Sorcerer". They did not speak to each other. Sullivan, by this time in exceedingly poor health, died in 1900, although to the end he continued to write new comic operas for the Savoy with other librettists, most successfully with Basil Hood in "The Rose of Persia" (1899). Gilbert also wrote several works, some with other collaborators, in the 1890s. By the time of Sullivan's death in 1900, Gilbert wrote that any memory of their rift had been "completely bridged over," and "the most cordial relations existed between us." He stated that "Sullivan ... because he was a composer of the rarest genius, was as modest and as unassuming as a neophyte should be, but seldom is...I remember all that he has done for me in allowing his genius to shed some of its lustre upon my humble name."
Richard D'Oyly Carte died in 1901, and his widow, Helen, continued to direct the activities of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy and on tour. Gilbert went into semi-retirement, although he continued to direct revivals of the Savoy Operas and wrote new plays occasionally. Between 1906 and 1909, he assisted Mrs. Carte in staging two repertory seasons at the Savoy Theatre. These were very popular and revived interest in the works. Gilbert was knighted during the first repertory season. After Sullivan's death, Gilbert wrote only one more comic opera, "Fallen Fairies" (1909; music by Edward German), which was not a success.
Gilbert died in 1911, and Richard's son, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, took over the opera company upon his step-mother's death in 1913. His daughter, Bridget, inherited the company upon his death in 1948. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company toured nearly year-round, except for its many London seasons and foreign tours, performing exclusively the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, until it closed in 1982. During the 20th century, the company gave well over 35,000 performances. The Savoy operas, from the beginning, were produced extensively in North America and Australasia, and soon afterwards in Germany, Russia, and elsewhere in Europe and around the world.
In 1922, Sir Henry Wood explained the enduring success of the collaboration as follows:
G. K. Chesterton similarly praised the combination of the two artists, anticipating the operas' success into the "remote future". He wrote that Gilbert's satire was "too intelligent to be intelligible" by itself, and that perhaps only Sullivan could have given "wings to his words ... in exactly the right degree frivolous and exactly the right degree fastidious. [The words'] precise degree of levity and distance from reality ... seemed to be expressed ... in the very notes of the music; almost ... in the note of the laughter that followed it." In 1957, a review in "The Times" gave this rationale for "the continued vitality of the Savoy operas":
Because of the unusual success of the operas, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company were able, from the start, to license the works to other professional companies, such as the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and to amateur troupes. For almost a century, until the British copyrights expired at the end of 1961, and even afterwards, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company influenced productions of the operas worldwide, creating a "performing tradition" for most of the operas that is still referred to today by many directors, both amateur and professional. Indeed, Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte had an important influence on amateur theatre. Cellier and Bridgeman wrote in 1914 that, prior to the creation of the Savoy operas, amateur actors were treated with contempt by professionals. After the formation of amateur Gilbert and Sullivan companies in the 1880s licensed to perform the operas, professionals recognised that the amateur performing groups "support the culture of music and the drama. They are now accepted as useful training schools for the legitimate stage, and from the volunteer ranks have sprung many present-day favourites." Cellier and Bridgeman attributed the rise in quality and reputation of the amateur groups largely to "the popularity of, and infectious craze for performing, the Gilbert and Sullivan operas". The National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) was founded in 1899. It reported, in 1914, that nearly 200 British troupes were performing Gilbert and Sullivan that year, constituting most of the amateur companies in the country (this figure included only the societies that were members of NODA). The association further reported that almost 1,000 performances of the Savoy operas had been given in Britain that year, many of them to benefit charities. Cellier and Bridgeman noted that strong amateur groups were performing the operas in places as far away as New Zealand. In the U.S., and elsewhere where British copyrights on the operas were not enforced, both professional and amateur companies performed the works throughout the 20th century – the Internet Broadway Database counts about 150 productions on Broadway alone from 1900 to 1960. The Savoy Company, an amateur group formed in 1901 in Philadelphia, continues to perform today. In 1948, "Life" magazine reported that about 5,000 performances of Gilbert and Sullivan operas were given annually in the US, exceeding the number of performances of Shakespeare plays.
After the copyrights on the operas expired, other professional companies were free to perform and record the operas. Many performing companies arose to produce the works, such as Gilbert and Sullivan for All in Britain and Light Opera Works in the U.S., and existing companies, such as English National Opera, Carl Rosa Opera Company and Australian Opera, added Gilbert and Sullivan to their repertories. In 1980, a Broadway and West End production of "Pirates" produced by Joseph Papp brought new audiences to Gilbert and Sullivan. Between 1988 and 2003, the revived D'Oyly Carte Opera Company revived the operas on tour and on the West End. Today, many professional repertory companies, such as NYGASP, Opera della Luna, Opera a la Carte, National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company Opera North, Ohio Light Opera and other small opera companies, and numerous amateur societies, churches, schools and universities continue to produce the works. The most popular G&S works also continue to be performed from time to time by major opera companies, and recordings of the operas, overtures and songs from the operas continue to be released. Since 1994, the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival has been held every August in England, with some two dozen or more performances of the operas given on the main stage, and several dozen related "fringe" events given in smaller venues. The Festival records and offers videos of its most popular professional and amateur productions. In connection with the 2009 festival, a contemporary critic wrote, "The appeal of G&S’s special blend of charm, silliness and gentle satire seems immune to fashion." There continue to be hundreds of amateur companies performing the Gilbert and Sullivan works worldwide.
The first commercial recordings of individual numbers from the Savoy operas began in 1898. In 1917 the Gramophone Company (HMV) produced the first album of a complete Gilbert and Sullivan opera, "The Mikado", followed by recordings of eight more. Electrical recordings of most of the operas were then issued by HMV and Victor, beginning in the late 1920s, supervised by Rupert D'Oyly Carte. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued to produce well-regarded recordings until 1979, helping to keep the operas popular through the decades. Many of these recordings have been reissued on CD. After the company was revived in 1988, it recorded seven of the operas.
After the copyrights on the operas expired, numerous companies around the world released popular audio and video recordings of the operas. In 1966 and again in the 1980s, BBC Radio presented complete cycles of the thirteen extant Gilbert and Sullivan operas, with dialogue. Ad hoc casts of operatic singers conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent in the 1950s and 60s and Sir Charles Mackerras in the 1990s have made audio sets of several Savoy operas, and in the 1980s Alexander Faris conducted video recordings of eleven of the operas (omitting the last two) with casts including show-business stars as well as professional singers. Joseph Papp's Broadway production of "The Pirates of Penzance" was put on record in 1981. Since 1994, the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival has released numerous professional and amateur CDs and videos of its productions. Ohio Light Opera has recorded several of the operas in the 21st century.
In the past 125 years, Gilbert and Sullivan have pervasively influenced popular culture in the English-speaking world, and lines and quotations from their operas have become part of the English language (even if not originated by Gilbert), such as "short, sharp shock", "What never? Well, hardly ever!", "let the punishment fit the crime", and "A policeman's lot is not a happy one". The operas have influenced political style and discourse, literature, film and television, have been widely parodied by humorists, and have been quoted in legal rulings.
The American and British musical owes a tremendous debt to G&S, who were admired and copied by early musical theatre authors and composers such as Ivan Caryll, Adrian Ross, Lionel Monckton, P. G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton and Victor Herbert, and later Jerome Kern, Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Irving Berlin, Ivor Novello, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Gilbert's lyrics served as a model for such 20th-century Broadway lyricists as Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, and Lorenz Hart. Noël Coward wrote: "I was born into a generation that still took light music seriously. The lyrics and melodies of Gilbert and Sullivan were hummed and strummed into my consciousness at an early age. My father sang them, my mother played them, my nurse, Emma, breathed them through her teeth... My aunts and uncles... sang them singly and in unison at the slightest provocation..."
Professor Carolyn Williams has noted, however: "The influence of Gilbert and Sullivan – their wit and sense of irony, the send ups of politics and contemporary culture – goes beyond musical theater to comedy in general. Allusions to their work have made their way into our own popular culture". Gilbert and Sullivan expert and enthusiast Ian Bradley agrees:
The works of Gilbert and Sullivan are themselves frequently pastiched and parodied. Well known examples of this include Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" and "Clementine"; Allan Sherman's "I'm Called Little Butterball", "When I Was a Lad", "You Need an Analyst" and "The Bronx Bird-Watcher"; and The Two Ronnies' 1973 Christmas Special. Other comedians have used Gilbert and Sullivan songs as a key part of their routines, including Hinge and Bracket, Anna Russell, and the "HMS Yakko" episode of the animated TV series "Animaniacs". Songs from Gilbert and Sullivan are often pastiched in advertising, and elaborate advertising parodies have been published, as have the likenesses of various Gilbert and Sullivan performers throughout the decades. Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas are commonly referenced in literature, film and television in various ways that include extensive use of Sullivan's music or where action occurs during a performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, such as in the film "The Girl Said No". There are also a number of Gilbert and Sullivan biographical films, such as Mike Leigh's "Topsy-Turvy" (2000) and "The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan" (1953), as well as shows about the partnership, including a 1938 Broadway show, "Knights of Song" and a 1975 West End show called "Tarantara! Tarantara!"
It is not surprising, given the focus of Gilbert on politics, that politicians and political observers have often found inspiration in these works. Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist added gold stripes to his judicial robes after seeing them used by the Lord Chancellor in a production of "Iolanthe". Alternatively, Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer is recorded as objecting so strongly to "Iolanthe"'s comic portrayal of Lord Chancellors that he supported moves to disband the office. British politicians, beyond quoting some of the more famous lines, have delivered speeches in the form of Gilbert and Sullivan pastiches. These include Conservative Peter Lilley's speech mimicking the form of "I've got a little list" from "The Mikado", listing those he was against, including "sponging socialists" and "young ladies who get pregnant just to jump the housing queue".
The overtures from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas remain popular, and there are many recordings of them. Most of them are structured as a "potpourri" of tunes from the operas. They are generally well-orchestrated, but not all of them were composed by Sullivan. However, even those delegated to his assistants were based on an outline he provided, and in many cases incorporated his suggestions or corrections. Sullivan invariably conducted them (as well as the entire operas) on opening night, and they were included in the published scores approved by Sullivan.
Those Sullivan wrote himself include the overtures to "Thespis", "Iolanthe", "Princess Ida", "The Yeomen of the Guard", "The Gondoliers" and "The Grand Duke". Sullivan's authorship of the overture to "Utopia, Limited" cannot be verified with certainty, as his autograph score is now lost, but it is likely attributable to him, as it consists of only a few bars of introduction, followed by a straight copy of music heard elsewhere in the opera (the Drawing Room scene). "Thespis" is now lost, but there is no doubt that Sullivan wrote its overture. Very early performances of "The Sorcerer" used a section of Sullivan's incidental music to Shakespeare's "Henry the VIII", as he did not have time to write a new overture, but this was replaced in 1884 by one executed by Hamilton Clarke. Of those remaining, the overtures to "H.M.S. Pinafore" and "The Pirates of Penzance" are by Alfred Cellier, the overture to "Patience" is by Eugene d'Albert, and those to "The Mikado" and "Ruddigore" are by Hamilton Clarke (although the "Ruddigore" overture was later replaced by one written by Geoffrey Toye).
Most of the overtures are in three sections: a lively introduction, a slow middle section, and a concluding allegro in sonata form, with two subjects, a brief development, a recapitulation and a coda. However, Sullivan himself did not always follow this pattern. The overture to "Princess Ida", for instance, has only an opening fast section and a concluding slow section. The overture to "Utopia Limited" is dominated by a slow section, with only a very brief original passage introducing it.
In the 1920s, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company commissioned its musical director at the time, Geoffrey Toye, to write new overtures for "Ruddigore" and "The Pirates of Penzance". Toye's "Ruddigore" overture entered the general repertory, and today is more often heard than the original overture by Clarke. Toye's "Pirates" overture, however, did not last long and is now presumed lost. Sir Malcolm Sargent devised a new ending for the overture to "The Gondoliers", adding the "cachucha" from the second act of the opera. This gave the "Gondoliers" overture the familiar fast-slow-fast pattern of most of the rest of the Savoy Opera overtures, and this version has competed for popularity with Sullivan's original version.
Gilbert and Sullivan operas have been translated into many languages, including Portuguese, Yiddish, Hebrew, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Estonian, Hungarian, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish (reportedly including a version of "Pinafore" transformed into zarzuela style), Catalan and others.
There are many German versions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including the popular "Der Mikado". There is even a German version of "The Grand Duke". Some German translations were made by Friedrich Zell and Richard Genée, librettists of "Die Fledermaus" and other Viennese operettas, who even translated one of Sullivan's lesser-known operas, "The Chieftain", as "(Der Häuptling)".
Gilbert adapted the stories of "H.M.S. Pinafore" and "The Mikado" into children's books called "The Pinafore Picture Book" and "The Story of The Mikado" giving, in some cases, backstory that is not found in the librettos. Many other children's books have since been written retelling the stories of the operas or adapting characters or events from them. In the 19th century, the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan songs and music were adapted as dance pieces.
Many musical theatre and film adaptations of the operas have been produced, including the following:
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Garfield
Garfield is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as "Jon" in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as "Garfield", it chronicles the life of the title character, Garfield the cat; Jon Arbuckle, his human owner; and Odie, the dog. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals, and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.
Though this is rarely mentioned in print, "Garfield" is set in Jim Davis' hometown of Muncie, Indiana, according to the television special "Happy Birthday, Garfield". Common themes in the strip include Garfield's laziness, obsessive eating, love of coffee and lasagne, disdain of Mondays and diets. Garfield is also shown to manipulate people to get whatever he wants. The strip's focus is mostly on the interactions among Garfield, Jon, and Odie, but other recurring minor characters appearing as well. Originally created with the intentions to "come up with a good, marketable character", "Garfield" has spawned merchandise earning $750 million to $1 billion annually. In addition to the various merchandise and commercial tie-ins, the strip has spawned several animated television specials, two animated television series, two theatrical feature-length live-action/CGI animated films, and three fully CGI animated direct-to-video movies.
Part of the strip's broad pop cultural appeal is due to its lack of social or political commentary; though this was Davis's original intention, he also admitted that his "grasp of politics isn't strong", joking that, for many years, he thought "OPEC was a denture adhesive".
On August 6, 2019, New York City-based ViacomCBS announced that it would acquire Paws, Inc., including the rights to the "Garfield" franchise (the comics, merchandise and animated cartoons). Jim Davis will continue to make comics, and a new Garfield animated series is in production for ViacomCBS subsidiary Nickelodeon.
In 1973, while working as an assistant for T.K. Ryan's "Tumbleweeds", Jim Davis created the comic strip "Gnorm Gnat", which ran only in the "Pendleton Times" of Pendleton, Indiana from 1972 to 1975 and met with little success. One editor famously said "[Davis'] art was good, his gags were great, [but] nobody can identify with bugs."
Davis decided to take a long, hard look at current comic strips to determine what species of animal star characters might be more popular. He felt that dogs were doing well, but noticed no prominent cats. Davis figured he could create a cat star, having grown up on a farm with twenty-five cats. Thus was created the character of Garfield.
Garfield, the star, was based on the cats Davis grew up around; he took his name and personality from Davis' grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, who was—in Davis' words—"a large, cantankerous man." The name Jon Arbuckle came from a 1950s coffee commercial. Jon's roommate Lyman, added to give Jon someone to talk with, carried on the name of an earlier "Gnorm Gnat" character. The final character was Lyman's dog Spot, who was later renamed Odie. From 1976 to early 1978, these characters appeared in a strip called "Jon" which also ran in the "Times". The early prototype strips were not generally well documented and were considered to be lost media until 2019 where a YouTube channel by the name of Quinton Reviews was able to retrieve several digital scans of the "Jon" publications from the Pendleton Community Library after gathering information via an obscure blogpost source within a lost media Wiki site. This strip first appeared in the "Pendleton Times" on January 8, 1976, just two weeks after "Gnorm Gnat" ended.
United Feature Syndicate accepted the strip for national distribution, which had been retitled "Garfield" on September 1, 1977, in March 1978 (ending its run in the "Times" on the 2nd) and made its nationwide debut in 41 newspapers on June 19 of that year (however, after a test run, the "Chicago Sun-Times" dropped it, only to reinstate it after readers' complaints).
The "Garfield" Sunday strip was launched on June 25, 1978; it was available only at a third-page size until March 22, 1981. A half-page debuted the following Sunday, March 29. The Sunday strips for March 14 and 21, 1982, tried out a unique nine-panel format, but UFS curtailed further use of it. (UFS did, however, allow Davis to use the format for his later "U.S. Acres" strip.)
The strip underwent stylistic changes, evolving from the style of the 1976–83 strips, to a more cartoonish look from 1984 onward. This change has mainly affected Garfield's design, which underwent a "Darwinian evolution" in which he began walking on his hind legs, "slimmed down", and "stopped looking ... through squinty little eyes" His evolution, according to Davis, was to make it easier to "push Odie off the table" or "reach for a piece of pie."
"Garfield" quickly became a commercial success. In 1981, less than three years after its nationwide launch, the strip appeared in 850 newspapers and accumulated over $15 million in merchandise. To manage the merchandise, Davis founded Paws, Inc. In 1982 the strip was appearing in more than 1,000 newspapers.
By 2002, "Garfield" became the world's most syndicated strip, appearing in 2,570 newspapers with 263 million readers worldwide; by 2004, "Garfield" appeared in nearly 2,600 newspapers and sold from $750 million to $1 billion worth of merchandise in 111 countries. In 1994, Davis's company, Paws, Inc., purchased all rights to the strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature. The strip is currently distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, while rights for the strip remain with Paws.
While retaining creative control and being the only signer, Davis now only writes and usually does the rough sketches. Since the late 1990s most of the work has been done by long-time assistants Brett Koth and Gary Barker. Inking and coloring work is done by other artists, while Davis spends most of the time supervising production and merchandising the characters.
"Garfield" was originally created by Davis with the intention to come up with a "good, marketable character". Now the world's most syndicated comic strip, "Garfield" has spawned a "profusion" of merchandise including clothing, toys, games, books, Caribbean cruises, credit cards, dolls, DVDs of the movies or the TV series, and related media.
Garfield.com is the strip's official website, which contains archives of past strips along with games and an online store. Jim Davis has also collaborated with Ball State University and Pearson Digital Learning to create www.ProfessorGarfield.org, an educational website with interactive games focusing on math and reading skills, and with Children's Technology Group to create MindWalker, a web browser that allows parents to limit the websites their children can view to a pre-set list.
A variety of edited "Garfield" strips have been made available on the Internet, some hosted on their own unofficial, dedicated sites. Dating from 2005, a site called the "Garfield Randomizer" created a three-panel strip using panels from previous "Garfield" strips. Another approach, known as "Silent Garfield", involves removing Garfield's thought balloons from the strips. Some examples date from 2006. A webcomic called "Arbuckle" does the above but also redraws the originals in a different art style. The "Arbuckle" website creator writes: "'Garfield' changes from being a comic about a sassy, corpulent feline, and becomes a compelling picture of a lonely, pathetic, delusional man who talks to his pets. Consider that Jon, according to Garfield canon, cannot hear his cat's thoughts. This is the world as he sees it. This is his story". Another variation along the same lines, called "Realfield" or "Realistic Garfield", is to redraw Garfield as a real cat as well as removing his thought balloons. Still another approach to editing the strips involves removing Garfield and other main characters from the originals completely, leaving Jon talking to himself. While strips in this vein can be found online as early as 2006, the 2008 site "Garfield Minus Garfield" by Dan Walsh received enough online attention to be covered by news media. Reception was largely positive: at its peak, the site received as many as 300,000 hits per day. Fans connected with Jon's "loneliness and desperation" and found his "crazy antics" humorous; Jim Davis himself called Walsh's strips an "inspired thing to do" and said that "some of [the strips] work better [than the originals]". Ballantine Books, which publishes the "Garfield" books, released a volume of "Garfield Minus Garfield" strips on October 28, 2008. The volume retains Davis as author and features a foreword by Walsh.
Garfield's animation debut was on "The Fantastic Funnies", which aired on CBS on May 15, 1980, voiced by actor Scott Beach. "Garfield" was one of the strips featured, introduced as a newcomer (the strip was only two years old at the time). From 1982 to 1991, twelve primetime "Garfield" cartoon specials and one hour-long primetime documentary celebrating the character's 10th anniversary were aired; Lorenzo Music voiced Garfield in all of them. A Saturday morning cartoon show, "Garfield and Friends", aired for seven seasons from 1988 to 1994; this adaption also starred Music as the voice of Garfield. "The Garfield Show", a CGI series, started development in 2007 to coincide with the strip's 30th anniversary the following year. It premiered in France in December 2008 and made its U.S. debut on Cartoon Network on November 2, 2009. A new series is currently in development at Nickelodeon after the rights were acquired from Nickelodeon's parent company ViacomCBS.
"" was released in theaters on June 11, 2004. Its sequel, "", was released on June 16, 2006. Garfield was voiced by actor Bill Murray in both films. Three direct-to-video films were released, "Garfield Gets Real" on August 9, 2007, "Garfield's Fun Fest" on August 5, 2008, and "Garfield's Pet Force" on June 16, 2009. On May 24, 2016, it was announced that Alcon Entertainment will develop a new CG animated Garfield movie with John Cohen and Steven P. Wegner ready to produce and to be directed by Mark Dindal, director of "Cats Don't Dance", "The Emperor's New Groove" and "Chicken Little". In August 2019, Viacom acquired the rights to Garfield, leaving the status of the movie uncertain.
A "Garfield" video game was developed by Atari, Inc. for its Atari 2600 home video game system and appears in their 1984 catalog. However, after Atari's spinoff and sale of its home games and computers division, owner Jack Tramiel decided the character's royalties were too expensive given the declining state of the video game industry at the time, and the game was cancelled. A ROM image of the game was however released with Jim Davis' blessing.
"" is a 1987 video game for the Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and the Amiga based on the comic strip. Towa Chiki made "A Week of Garfield" for the Family Computer, released only in Japan in 1989. Sega also made video games based on Garfield for the Genesis ("") and Windows 3.1 computers. Other companies made games, such as "" for the DS, published by Game Factory, "Garfield's Nightmare" for DS, "Garfield's Funfest" for DS, and "Garfield Labyrinth" for Game Boy. On PlayStation 2 were "Garfield" and "Garfield 2" (known in the US as "Garfield, a Tale of Two Kitties"). "Garfield Lasagna World Tour" was also made for PS2. And recent additions for mobile devices are "Garfield's Diner" and "Garfield's Zombie Defense".
Konami also released a Garfield "Handheld electronic game" titled "Lasagnator" in 1991, which met with mild success.
In 2012, a series of Garfield video games was launched by French publisher Anuman Interactive, including "My Puzzles with Garfield!", "Multiplication Tables with Garfield", "Garfield Kart", and "Garfield's Match Up".
Joseph Papp, producer of "A Chorus Line", discussed making a Garfield stage musical, but due to some complications, it never got off ground. A full-length stage musical, titled "Garfield Live", was planned to kick off its US tour in September 2010, but got moved to January 18, 2011, where it premiered in Muncie, Indiana. The book was written by Jim Davis, with music and lyrics by Michael Dansicker and Bill Meade, and it was booked by AWA Touring Services. The opening song, "Cattitude" can be heard on the national tour's website, along with two more, "On the Fence", and "Going Home!". When the North-American tour concluded in 2012, it toured throughout Asia.
In agreement with Paws, Boom! Studios launched in May 2012 a monthly "Garfield" comic book, with the first issue featuring a story written by Mark Evanier (who has supervised "Garfield and Friends" and "The Garfield Show") and illustrated by Davis's long-time assistant Gary Barker.
In 2016, Hermes Press signed an agreement with Paws, Inc to publish an art book on the art of author Jim Davis, titled "The Art of Jim Davis' Garfield". The book includes an essay by author R.C. Harvey and other original material, and was released in July 2016 for the San Diego Comic-Con.
In 2018, a ghost restaurant themed after the franchise known as GarfieldEATS was opened in Dubai. The restaurant has been described by its founder and "Chief Entergage Officer" Nathen Mazri as a "quick mobile restaurant". Mazri claims that the restaurant is "entergaging", a portmanteau of the words "entertaining" and "engaging". Customers order food through the official mobile app, which also contains games and allows users to purchase episodes of "Garfield and Friends". The restaurant serves lasagna, Garfield-shaped pizza, "Garfuccinos", and Garfield-shaped dark chocolate bars. A second location opened in Toronto in 2019.
Through the Garfield strips, there have been many additional characters, but the main ones are described here.
First appearance: June 19, 1978
Garfield is an orange, fuzzy tabby cat born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant (later revealed in the television special "" to be Mama Leoni's Italian Restaurant) who immediately ate all the pasta and lasagna in sight, thus developing his love and obsession for lasagna and pizza.
Gags in the strips commonly deal with Garfield's obesity (in one strip, Jon jokes, "I wouldn't say Garfield is fat, but the last time he got on a Ferris wheel, the two guys on top starved to death"), and his disdain of any form of exertion or work. He is known for saying "breathing is exercise".
Though Garfield can be very cynical, he does have a soft side for his teddy bear, Pooky, food and sleep, and in one Christmas he says, "they say I have to get up early, be nice to people, skip breakfast ... I wish it would never end."
However, in the feature film "Garfield Gets Real" and its sequels, Garfield is better behaved, friendlier towards Jon and Odie, less self-centered, and more sympathetic.
It has been wondered by many readers if Garfield can actually be understood by the human characters around him. Sometimes, it seems like Jon can hear him. However, it is mentioned in more than one strip that Jon cannot understand Garfield. However, in the feature film Garfield Gets Real and its sequels, Garfield and the other animals save for Odie are able to talk to, and be understood by, Jon and the other humans. In the April 1, (April Fools' Day) 1997 strip drawn by the artists of "Blondie" as part of the comic strip switcheroo, Garfield, still with thought balloons, can be understood by Jon.
To break the fourth wall, June 19 is celebrated within the strip as Garfield's birthday. The appearance in 1979 claimed it to be his first birthday, although in the first appearance of the strip (June 19, 1978), he was portrayed as a fully-grown cat, implying that the birthday is of the strip itself.
First appearance: June 19, 1978
Jon (Jonathan Q. Arbuckle) is Garfield's owner, usually depicted as an awkward clumsy geek who has trouble finding a date. Jon had a crush on Liz (Garfield's veterinarian) and is now dating her. Jon disapproves of Garfield's "don't care, not interested", attitude, and often encourages his pet to take an interest in the world around him, sometimes stating an interesting fact, or asking a philosophical question in an attempt to prompt Garfield into thought, Garfield tends to brush this off with a simple, yet logical remark, and despite the trouble Garfield causes, Jon has a heart of gold and is very tolerant of Garfield's shortcomings, a fact which Garfield often takes advantage of. In the December 23, 1980 strip, Jon states that he is thirty years old (nominally meaning he should presently be in his sixties, although he has not aged physically). His birthday is July 28.
Jon loves (or occasionally hates) Garfield and all cats. Many gags focus on this; his inability to get a date is usually attributed to his lack of social skills, his poor taste in clothes (Garfield remarked in one strip after seeing his closet that "two hundred moths committed suicide"; in another, the "geek police" ordered Jon to "throw out his tie"), and his eccentric interests which range from stamp collecting to measuring the growth of his toenails to watching movies with "polka ninjas". Other strips portray him as lacking intelligence (he is seen reading a pop-up book in one strip).
Jon was born on a farm that apparently contained few amenities; in one strip, his father, upon seeing indoor plumbing, remarks, "Woo-ha! Ain't science something?" Jon occasionally visits his parents, brother and grandmother at their farm. It was implied that Jon is inspired by a drawing of Davis himself when he was first drawing the strip. Jon was portrayed as a cartoonist in the first strip and occasional others in the early years; Davis stated his intent had been to express his own frustrations as a cartoonist. Ultimately, Jon's job has been referenced far more frequently in Garfield animated series than in the strip.
First appearance: August 8, 1978
Odie is a yellow, long-eared beagle with a large, slobbering tongue, who walks on all four legs, though occasionally he will walk on two like Garfield. He was originally owned by Jon's friend Lyman, though Jon adopted him after Lyman was written out of the strip. The book "Garfield: His 9 Lives" (1984) retcons Odie's origin: there is no mention of Lyman, and Odie was a puppy when he was acquired by Jon as company for Garfield (when Garfield was a kitten). Odie is younger than Garfield and usually portrayed as naïve, happy, affectionate and blissfully unaware of Garfield's cynical, sadistic nature, despite the physical abuse Garfield exhibits toward him, including regularly kicking him off the kitchen table or tricking him into going over the edge himself. On some occasions, however, he is depicted more intelligently, as one strip, in which he holds a heavy rock to prevent Garfield from doing this, and actually hurts Garfield's foot. In one strip when Garfield and Jon are out of the house, Odie is seen reading "War and Peace" and watching "An Evening With Mozart" on television. Odie has only talked once. In another strip, published on January 28, 2010, he is seen solving Jon's sudoku puzzle.
First appearance: June 26, 1979
Dr. Liz Wilson is Garfield and Odie's sarcastic veterinarian and a long time crush of Jon Arbuckle. She has a somewhat deadpan, sardonic persona and almost always reacts negatively to Jon's outlandish and goofball behavior but can even find it endearing on occasion. Jon often attempted to ask her out on a date, but rarely succeeded; however, in an extended story arc from June 19 to July 29, 2006 (the main event on July 28), Liz and Jon kiss, and have been a couple ever since.
Many of the gags focus on Garfield's obsessive eating and obesity; his dislike of spiders; his hatred of Mondays, diets, and any form of exertion; his constant shedding (which annoys Jon); and his abuse of Odie and Jon as well as his obsession with mailing Nermal to Abu Dhabi, or simply throwing him "through" the front door. Though he will eat nearly anything (with the exception of raisins and spinach), Garfield is particularly fond of lasagna; he also enjoys eating Jon's houseplants and other pets (mainly birds and fish). He also has odd relationships with household pests; Garfield generally spares mice, and even cooperates with them to cause mischief (much to Jon's chagrin), but will readily swat or pound spiders flat. Other gags focus on Jon's poor social skills and inability to get a date; before he started dating Liz, he often tried to get dates, usually without success (in one strip, after failing to get a date with "Nancy", he tries getting a date with her mother and grandmother; he ended up getting "shot down by three generations"). When he does get a date, it usually goes awry; Jon's dates have slashed his tires, been tranquilized, and called the police when he stuck carrots in his ears. The storylines featuring Jon's dates rarely appear now. Before, he had dates with many odd characters, whereas now, he exclusively dates Liz.
Garfield's world has specific locations that appear normally on the comic strips, like the Vet's office, a place he loathes. Irma's Diner is another occasional setting. Irma is a chirpy but slow-witted and unattractive waitress/manager, and one of Jon's few friends. The terrible food is the center of most of the jokes, along with the poor management. Jon periodically visits his parents and brother on the farm. This results in week-long comical displays of stupidity by Jon and his family, and their interactions. There is a comic strip where Jon's brother Doc Boy is watching two socks in the dryer spinning and Doc Boy calls it entertainment. On the farm, Jon's mother will cook huge dinners; Garfield hugs her for this. Jon has a grandmother who, in a strip, kicked Odie; Garfield subsequently hugged her. Jon's parents have twice visited Jon, Garfield, and Odie in the city. Jon's father drove into town on his tractor (which he double-parked) and brought a rooster to wake him up. As Garfield has a love for food, they will often eat out at restaurants. Most trips end up embarrassing because Garfield will pig out, or Jon will do something stupid, including wearing an ugly shirt, which happened one night when he took Liz on a date. When Jon takes Liz on a date, Garfield occasionally tags along—once, he ate the bread and other food at an Italian restaurant they went to. Frequently, the characters break the fourth wall, mostly to explain something to the readers, talk about a subject that often sets up the strip's punchline (like Jon claiming that pets are good for exercise right before he finds Garfield in the kitchen and chases him out), or give a mere glare when a character is belittled or not impressed. Sometimes, this theme revolves around the conventions of the strip; for example, in one strip, Garfield catches a cold and complains about it, noting that his thoughts are stuffed up.
One particular semi-recurring storyline features Jon and Liz on a date in a restaurant. They sometimes are waited on by the Italian Armando, who is refined and sophisticated and shows a great loathing towards Jon, presumably for his immature and uncouth behavior at the prestigious eatery. On other occasions, the couple receives a different waiter, such as a large ogre-like man who intimidates Jon when he is about to report a complaint about the food.
Another commonly recurring character, although hardly ever seen, is Jon's neighbor, Mrs. Feeny. Garfield seems to take both enormous pride and excess zeal in doing whatever it takes to harass her, to the point the she even erects an electric fence (which of course, does not stop him).
Other unique themes are things like "Garfield's Believe it or Don't", "Garfield's Law", "Garfield's History of Dogs", and "Garfield's History of Cats", which show science, history, and the world from Garfield's point of view. Another particular theme is "National Fat Week", where Garfield spends the week making fun of skinny people. Also, there was a storyline involving Garfield catching Odie eating his food and "kicking Odie into next week". Soon, Garfield realizes that "Lunch isn't the same without Odie. He always slips up behind me, barks loudly and makes me fall into my food" (Garfield subsequently falls into his food by himself). A few days after the storyline began, Garfield is lying in his bed with a "nagging feeling I'm forgetting something", with Odie landing on Garfield in the next panel. Jon and Liz began to go out more frequently, Jon has started hiring pet sitters to look after Garfield and Odie, though they do not always work out. Two particular examples are Lillian, an eccentric (and very nearsighted) old lady with odd quirks, and Greta, a muscle bound woman who was hired to look after the pets during New Year's Eve. Most of December is spent preparing for Christmas, with a predictable focus on presents. Other Christmas themed strips include Jon's attempts at decorating the tree and house, or the attempt to buy the tree. Some years, the Christmas strips started as early as the end of November. Another example is "Splut Week", when Garfield tries to avoid pies that are thrown at him. For most of Garfield's history, being hit with a pie has inevitably resulted in the onomatopoeia "splut", hence the name.
Every week before June 19, the strip focuses on Garfield's birthday, which he dreads because of his fear of getting older. This started happening after his sixth birthday. However, before his 29th birthday, Liz put Garfield on a diet. On June 19, 2007, Garfield was given the greatest birthday present: "I'M OFF MY DIET!" Occasionally the strip celebrates Halloween as well with scary-themed jokes, such as mask gags. There are also seasonal jokes, with snow-related gags common in January or February and beach- or heat-themed jokes in the summer.
One storyline, which ran the week before Halloween in 1989, is unique among Garfield strips in that it is not meant to be humorous. It depicts Garfield awakening in a future in which the house is abandoned and he no longer exists. In Garfield's "Twentieth Anniversary Collection", in which the strips are reprinted, Jim Davis discusses the genesis for this series:
One of the recurring storylines involves Garfield getting lost or running away. The longest one of these lasted for over a month (in 1986 August 25 to September 28); it began with Jon telling Garfield to go get the newspaper. Garfield walks outside to get it, but speculates about what will happen if he wanders off – and decides to find out. Jon notices Garfield has been gone too long, so he sends Odie out to find him. He quickly realizes his mistake (Odie, being not too bright, also gets lost). Jon starts to get lonely, so he offers a reward for the return of Garfield and Odie. He is not descriptive, so animals including an elephant, monkeys, a seal, a snake, a kangaroo and joey, and turtles are brought to Jon's house for the reward. After a series of events, including Odie being adopted by a small girl, both pets meeting up at a circus that they briefly joined, and both going to a pet shop, Garfield and Odie make it back home.
Another story involved Jon going away on a business trip around Christmas time, leaving Garfield a week's worth of food, which he devoured instantly. Garfield then leaves the house and gets locked out. He then reunites with his mother, and eventually makes it back home in the snow on Christmas Eve (December 3–23, 1984). Part of this storyline was taken from the 1983 Emmy-winning special "Garfield on the Town".
Paws, Inc. was founded in 1981 by Jim Davis to support the Garfield comic strip and its licensing. It is located in Muncie, Indiana, and has a staff of nearly 50 artists and licensing administrators. In 1994, the company purchased all rights to the Garfield comic strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature Syndicate. However, the original black and white daily strips and original color Sunday strips remain copyrighted to United Feature Syndicate. The full color daily strips and recolored Sunday strips are copyrighted to Paws as they are considered a different product. Though rights to the strip remain with Paws, Inc., it is currently distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. In August 2019, Davis sold Paws, Inc. to Viacom, who has placed Garfield under the Nickelodeon banner.
Davis attracted criticism from the media for a "Garfield" strip in which the last panel appeared to be a negative reference to Veterans Day that appeared in newspapers on November 11, 2010. In the strip, a spider who is about to be squashed by Garfield boasts that if he is squished, he will get a holiday in his remembrance. The next panel shows a classroom of spiders in which a teacher asks the students why spiders celebrate "National Stupid Day", implying that the spider was squished. Davis quickly apologized for the poorly timed comic strip, saying that it had been written a year in advance and that both his brother and son were veterans.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13022
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Graham Chapman
Graham Arthur Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was an English comedian, writer, actor, author, and one of the six members of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python. He played authority figures such as the Colonel and the lead role in two Python films, "Holy Grail" (1975) and "Life of Brian" (1979).
Chapman was born in Leicester and was raised in Melton Mowbray. He enjoyed science, acting and comedy and, after graduating from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, he turned down a career as a doctor to be a comedian instead. Chapman eventually established a writing partnership with John Cleese, which reached its critical peak with Monty Python during the 1970s. He subsequently left Britain for Los Angeles, where he attempted to be a success on American television, speaking on the college circuit and producing the pirate film "Yellowbeard" (1983), before returning to Britain in the early 1980s.
In his personal life, Chapman was openly homosexual and a strong supporter of gay rights, and was in a long-term partnership with David Sherlock. He was an alcoholic during his time at Cambridge and the Python years, but quit drinking shortly before working on "Life of Brian". He later became an enthusiast and patron of the Dangerous Sports Club. Chapman died of tonsil cancer on 4 October 1989, on the eve of Monty Python's 20th anniversary. His life and legacy were commemorated at a private memorial service at St Bartholomew's with the other five Pythons.
Graham Arthur Chapman was born on 8 January 1941 at the Stoneygate Nursing Home, Stoneygate, Leicester, the son of policeman Walter Chapman and Edith Towers. Walter Chapman was a police constable at the time of Graham's birth; he ended his career as a chief inspector. He had been trained as a French polisher for a coffin-maker before entering the police force in the 1930s.
Chapman had an elder brother, John, who was born in 1936. They had, according to Chapman and his brother, an "extremely poor upbringing". One of Chapman's earliest memories was seeing the remains of Polish airmen who had suffered an aeroplane accident near Leicester, later saying the sights of this remained in his memory.
Chapman was educated at Melton Mowbray Grammar School. He showed a strong affinity for science, sports and amateur dramatics, and was singled out for attention when a local paper reviewed his performance of Mark Antony in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". Graham and his brother John were both avid fans of radio comedy, being especially fond of "The Goon Show" and Robert Moreton's skill of telling jokes the wrong way round and reversing punchlines. Biographer Jim Yoakum said "the radio shows didn't necessarily make him laugh".
In 1959, Chapman began to study medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He joined the Cambridge Footlights, where he first began writing with John Cleese. Following graduation, Chapman joined the Footlights show "Cambridge Circus" and toured New Zealand, deferring his medical studies for a year. After the tour, he continued his studies at St Bartholomew's Medical College, but became torn between whether to pursue a career in medicine or acting. His brother John later said, "He [Graham] wasn't ever driven to go into medicine...it wasn't his life's ambition."
Following their Footlights success, Chapman and Cleese began to write professionally for the BBC, initially for David Frost but also for Marty Feldman. Frost had recruited Cleese, and in turn Cleese decided he needed Chapman as a sounding board. Chapman also contributed sketches to the radio series "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again" and wrote material on his own and with Bill Oddie. He wrote for "The Illustrated Weekly Hudd" (starring Roy Hudd), "Cilla Black", "This Is Petula Clark", and "This Is Tom Jones". Chapman, Cleese, and Tim Brooke-Taylor later joined Feldman in the television comedy series "At Last the 1948 Show". It was Chapman's first significant role as a performer as well as a writer and he displayed a gift for deadpan comedy (such as in the sketch "The Minister Who Falls to Pieces") and imitating various British dialects. The series was the first to feature Chapman's sketch of wrestling with himself.
Despite the series’ success, Chapman was still unsure about abandoning his medical career. In between the two series of "At Last The 1948 Show", he completed his studies at St. Bartholomew's, and became professionally registered as a doctor. Chapman and Cleese also wrote for the long-running television comedy series "Doctor in the House", and both appeared on a one-off television special, "How to Irritate People" alongside Brooke-Taylor and future Python member Michael Palin. One of Cleese and Chapman's sketches, featuring a used car salesman refusing to believe a customer's model had broken down, became the inspiration for the Dead Parrot sketch. Chapman also co-wrote several episodes of "Doctor in the House" follow up, "Doctor in Charge", with Bernard McKenna.
In 1969, Chapman and Cleese joined the other Pythons, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, for their sketch comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus". The group's writing was split into well-defined teams, with Chapman collaborating almost exclusively with Cleese. Chapman was particularly keen to remove stereotypical punchlines in sketches and created The Colonel, who would stop them in mid-flow by saying they were "too silly".
Although the pair were officially equal partners, Cleese later thought that Chapman contributed comparatively little in the way of direct writing, saying "he would come in, say something marvellous and then drift off in his own mind". The other Pythons have said that Chapman's biggest contribution in the writing room was an intuition for what was funny. Gilliam later recalled that "Graham would do the nudge that would push it into something extraordinary". The series was an immediate success, and Chapman was delighted to learn that medical students at St. Bartholomew's crowded round the television in the bar to watch it. Chapman was frequently late for rehearsing or recording, leading to the other Pythons calling him "the late Graham Chapman".
Chapman's main contribution to the "Dead Parrot sketch", derived from the piece within "How to Irritate People" and involving a customer returning a faulty toaster, was "How can we make this "madder"?", turning the toaster into a dead Norwegian Blue parrot. Cleese later said he and Chapman believed that "there was something very funny there, if we could find the right context for it". Cleese was in particular concerned that the Cheese Shop sketch simply was not funny, in that it was just mainly a man listing different makes of cheese. Chapman urged his partner to continue with it, telling him "Trust me, it's funny." When it was read out at the next script meeting, Cleese found that the others, particularly Palin, thought it was hilarious. The group felt that Chapman had the best acting skills among them. Cleese complimented Chapman by saying that he was "particularly a wonderful actor".
Chapman played the lead role in two Python films, "Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian". He was chosen to play the lead in "Holy Grail" because of the group's respect towards his straight acting skills, and because the other members wanted to play lesser, funnier characters. Chapman did not mind being filmed fully nude in front of a crowd in "Life of Brian", but the scene, filmed in Tunisia, caused problems with the female Muslim extras.
In 1975, Chapman and Douglas Adams wrote a pilot for a television series, entitled "Out of the Trees", but it received poor ratings after being broadcast at the same time as "Match of the Day" and only the initial episode was produced. In 1978, Chapman co-wrote the comedy film "The Odd Job" with McKenna, and starred as one of the main characters. Chapman wanted his friend Keith Moon to play a co-lead role alongside him, but Moon could not pass an acting test, so the part went to David Jason who had previously appeared on "Do Not Adjust Your Set" with Pythons Idle, Jones, and Palin. The film was moderately successful.
During the 1970s, Chapman became increasingly concerned about the Pythons' income and finances. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s to avoid British income tax. He guest-starred on several television series including "The Big Show".
In 1976, Chapman began writing a pirate film, "Yellowbeard" (1983), which came out of conversations between Chapman and Moon while in Los Angeles. Moon had always wanted to play Long John Silver, so Chapman began to write a script for him. Moon died in 1978 and the work stalled, eventually being rewritten by McKenna, then by Peter Cook. The film, which starred Chapman as the eponymous pirate, also featured appearances from Cook, Marty Feldman, Cleese, Idle, Spike Milligan, and Cheech & Chong. It marked the last appearance of Feldman, who suffered a fatal heart attack in December 1982. The project was fraught with financial difficulties, and at times there was not enough money to pay the crew. It was released to mixed reviews. David Robinson, reviewing the film in "The Times", said that "the Monty Python style of comic anarchy requires more than scatology, rude words and funny faces".
Chapman published his memoirs, "A Liar's Autobiography", in 1980, choosing the title because he said "it's almost "impossible" to tell the truth". He returned to Britain permanently after "Yellowbeard" was released. He became involved with the extreme sports club Dangerous Sports Club, which popularised bungee jumping. Chapman was scheduled to perform a bungee jump himself, but it was cancelled due to safety concerns.
After reuniting with the other Pythons in the film "The Meaning of Life" (1983), Chapman began a lengthy series of US college tours, talking about The Pythons, the Dangerous Sports Club and his friend Moon, among other subjects. "Saturday Night Live" creator and Python fan Lorne Michaels persuaded Chapman to star in "The New Show".
In 1988, Chapman appeared in the Iron Maiden video "Can I Play with Madness". The same year, he starred in a pilot of a proposed television series, "Jake's Journey", but financial problems prevented a full series from being made. In 1988, he also appeared on stage with three other Pythons (Gilliam, Jones and Palin) at the 41st British Academy Film Awards where Monty Python received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema.
Broadcast in November 1989, the 20th anniversary television special, "Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python", hosted by Python fan Steve Martin, was Chapman's final onscreen appearance with the other five Python members. Chapman was intended to be cast in the "Red Dwarf" episode "Timeslides", but died before shooting could begin.
Chapman first met his long-term partner David Sherlock in Ibiza in 1966. He later described realising he was homosexual as "an important moment in my life". He told close friends about his relationship, including Cleese and Feldman, the following year. Chapman and Sherlock moved to Belsize Park in 1968, and the pair enjoyed visiting gay clubs in Central London.
Chapman first disclosed his homosexuality in public in 1972, on a television show fronted by British jazz musician George Melly, becoming one of the first celebrities to do so. He was a vocal spokesman for gay rights, supporting the Gay Liberation Front. In 1972, Chapman supported the newspaper "Gay News", which listed him as one of the publication's "special friends" in recognition. During a college tour, Chapman mentioned that a television audience member had written to The Pythons to complain about them having a gay member, adding that the Bible said; any man who lies with a man should be taken out and stoned. With the other Pythons already aware of his sexual orientation, Idle jokingly replied that they had found the perpetrator and killed him.
In 1971, Chapman and Sherlock adopted John Tomiczek as their son. Chapman met Tomiczek when the adolescent was a run-away from Liverpool, aged 14. After discussions with Tomiczek's father, it was agreed that Chapman would become Tomiczek's legal guardian. Both Sherlock and Tomiczek remained a constant in Chapman's life. In the mid-1980s, having resettled in Britain, the three moved to Maidstone, Kent. Tomiczek later became Chapman's business manager, and got engaged, but died of a heart attack in 1992.
Chapman took up pipe smoking aged 15, which became a lifelong habit. He began drinking heavily during his time at Cambridge and St. Bartholomew's, favouring gin. By the time Monty Python went out on tour in 1973, Chapman's drinking had begun to affect his performance, causing him to miss cues to go on stage. He stopped drinking during Christmas 1977, concerned at being able to act in "Life of Brian" successfully, and remained sober for the rest of his life.
In 1988, Chapman made a routine visit to a dentist, who found a small but malignant tumour on one of his tonsils, leading to both being removed via a tonsillectomy. The following year, the cancer had spread into Chapman's spinal cord, where another tumour was surgically removed. Chapman had several chemotherapy treatments and surgeries during the final months of his life, but ultimately the cancer was declared inoperable. According to his brother, Chapman was visibly upset by the death of his mother that July, by which time he was terminally ill. Shortly afterwards, Chapman filmed scenes for the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of "Monty Python’s Flying Circus", the final time he appeared on television.
Chapman died on 4 October 1989 in Maidstone Hospital. At the time of his death, he was being visited by Sherlock, brother John and his sister-in-law, and fellow Pythons Palin and Cleese, the latter of whom had to be led out of the room to deal with his grief. Peter Cook had intended to visit, but arrived too late and was visibly shaken by the news. Chapman's death occurred on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of The Pythons’ collective debut on British television, and Jones called it "the worst case of party-pooping in all history".
The five surviving Python members had decided to stay away from Chapman's private funeral to prevent it from becoming a media circus and to give his family some privacy. They sent a wreath in the shape of the Python foot, with the message: "To Graham from the other Pythons with all our love. PS: Stop us if we're getting too silly". The Rolling Stones also sent a floral arrangement, saying "Thanks for all the laughs."
A public memorial service was held at St. Bartholomew's on 3 December, two months after his death. The service began with a chorus of the hymn "Jerusalem" sung in Engrish with a mock Chinese accent. Cleese delivered a eulogy to Chapman with shock humour that he believed Chapman would have appreciated, and later became the first person at a televised British memorial service to say "fuck". Palin also delivered a eulogy to Chapman, as did Idle, quipping that Chapman had decided to die rather than listen to Palin once again. Idle led the other surviving Pythons and Chapman's close friends and family in a rendition of the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", from "Life of Brian", and later closed his remarks by saying: "I'd just like to be the last person at this meeting to say 'fuck'."
Ten years after Chapman's death, his ashes were first rumoured to have been "blasted into the skies in a rocket" with assistance from the Dangerous Sports Club. In a second rumour, Chapman's ashes had been scattered on the mountains of Snowdonia, Wales, where he had visited regularly as a climber.
Following Chapman's death, reformations of the Pythons have included an urn said to contain his ashes. At the 1998 Aspen Comedy Arts festival, the urn, brought onstage by a stiff English butler, was "accidentally" knocked over by Terry Gilliam, spilling the "ashes" on-stage. The apparently cremated remains were then removed with a dust-buster. Idle recalled meeting Sherlock, saying "I wish he [Chapman] was here now" and Sherlock replied "Oh, but he is. He's in my pocket!"
Asteroid 9617 Grahamchapman, named in Chapman's honour, is one of six asteroids named after the Python members.
In 1997, Sherlock allowed Jim Yoakum to start the 'Graham Chapman Archives'. Later that year, the novel "Graham Crackers: Fuzzy Memories, Silly Bits, and Outright Lies" was released. It is a semi-sequel to "A Liar's Autobiography", with Chapman's works compiled by Yoakum. A compendium of writings, "Calcium Made Interesting: Sketches, Letters, Essays & Gondolas", also compiled and edited by Yoakum, was published in 2005 in association with the David Sherlock and John Tomiczeck trust. In 2000, Chapman's play "O Happy Day" was performed by Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia, with the assistance of Cleese and Palin. In 2006, the album and DVD release "Looks Like Another Brown Trouser Job" came out, featuring a college lecture recorded in April 1988.
In June 2011, it was announced that Cleese, Jones, Gilliam and Palin would perform in a 3-D animated version of Chapman's memoir "A Liar's Autobiography: Volume VI". Co-director Jeff Simpson worked closely with Chapman's estate and the surviving Python members to "get this exactly right". The film, titled "", was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2012 and premiered in the UK the following month as part of the BFI London Film Festival. The voices of Cleese, Gilliam, Jones, and Palin were spliced into commentary recorded by Chapman reading from his memoir and taped shortly before his death. The film's official trailer quoted Chapman as saying, "This is the best film I've been in since I died."
In September 2012, a British Comedy Society blue plaque, to commemorate Chapman, was unveiled at The Angel pub in Highgate, North London, by Jones, Palin, Barry Cryer, Ray Davies and Carol Cleveland. Palin said, "Highgate was his patch, and he should be celebrated because he was a very good, brilliant, funny, nice, wise, kind man, who occasionally drank too much." In December 2014, a green plaque funded by Leicestershire County Council was placed on Chapman's former home in Burton Road, Melton Mowbray. A year later, a blue plaque at the entrance of Chapman's old school, King Edward VII School was reported as stolen, but was later found inside the building. In March 2017, the plaque was relocated to Melton Mowbray town centre.
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Gray whale
The gray whale ("Eschrichtius robustus"), also known as the grey whale, gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, or California gray whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of , a weight of up to 45 tons, (90,000 lbs) and lives between 55 and 70 years, although one female was estimated to be 75-80 years of age. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales were once called devil fish because of their fighting behavior when hunted. The gray whale is the sole living species in the genus Eschrichtius, which in turn is the sole living genus in the family Eschrichtiidae. This mammal is descended from filter-feeding whales that appeared at the beginning of the Oligocene, over 30 million years ago.
The gray whale is distributed in an eastern North Pacific (North American), and an endangered western North Pacific (Asian), population. North Atlantic populations were extirpated (perhaps by whaling) on the European coast before AD 500, and on the American coast around the late 17th to early 18th centuries. Even so, on May 8, 2010, a sighting of a gray whale was confirmed off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea, leading some scientists to think they might be repopulating old breeding grounds that have not been visited for centuries. In May and June 2013, a gray whale was sighted off the coast of Namibia – the first confirmed in the Southern Hemisphere. The round-trip journey of one gray whale has set a new record for the longest mammal migration, covering a distance of more than 22,000 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean. Her migration has shown new insight into how endangered species are making drastic changes in their life style.
The gray whale is traditionally placed as the only living species in its genus and family, "Eschrichtius" and Eschrichtiidae, but an extinct species was discovered and placed in the genus in 2017, the Akishima whale ("E. akishimaensis"). Some recent DNA analyses have suggested that certain rorquals of the family Balaenopteridae, such as the humpback whale, "Megaptera novaeangliae", and fin whale, "Balaenoptera physalus", are more closely related to the gray whale than they are to some other rorquals, such as the minke whales. But other recent studies place gray whales as being outside the rorqual clade, but as the closest relatives to the rorquals.
John Edward Gray placed it in its own genus in 1865, naming it in honour of physician and zoologist Daniel Frederik Eschricht. The common name of the whale comes from its coloration. The subfossil remains of now extinct gray whales from the Atlantic coasts of England and Sweden were used by Gray to make the first scientific description of a species then surviving only in Pacific waters. The living Pacific species was described by Cope as "Rhachianectes glaucus" in 1869. Skeletal comparisons showed the Pacific species to be identical to the Atlantic remains in the 1930s, and Gray's naming has been generally accepted since. Although identity between the Atlantic and Pacific populations cannot be proven by anatomical data, its skeleton is distinctive and easy to distinguish from that of all other living whales.
Many other names have been ascribed to the gray whale, including desert whale, devilfish, gray back, mussel digger and rip sack. The name "Eschrichtius gibbosus" is sometimes seen; this is dependent on the acceptance of a 1777 description by Erxleben.
The gray whale has a dark slate-gray color and is covered by characteristic gray-white patterns, scars left by parasites which drop off in its cold feeding grounds. Individual whales are typically identified using photographs of their dorsal surface and matching the scars and patches associated with parasites that have fallen off the whale or are still attached. They have two blowholes on top of their head, which can create a distinctive heart-shaped blow at the surface in calm wind conditions.
Gray whales measure from in length for newborns to for adults (females tend to be slightly larger than adult males). Newborns are a darker gray to black in color. A mature gray whale can reach , with a typical range of , making them the ninth largest sized species of cetacean.
Notable features that distinguish the gray whale from other mysticetes include its baleen that is variously described as cream, off-white, or blond in color and is unusually short. Small depressions on the upper jaw each contain a lone stiff hair, but are only visible on close inspection. Its head's ventral surface lacks the numerous prominent furrows of the related rorquals, instead bearing two to five shallow furrows on the throat's underside. The gray whale also lacks a dorsal fin, instead bearing 6 to 12 dorsal crenulations ("knuckles"), which are raised bumps on the midline of its rear quarter, leading to the flukes. This is known as the dorsal ridge. The tail itself is across and deeply notched at the center while its edges taper to a point.
The two populations of Pacific gray whales (east and west) are morphologically and phylogenically different. Other than DNA structures, differences in proportions of several body parts and body colors including skeletal features, and length ratios of flippers and baleen plates have been confirmed between Eastern and Western populations, and some claims that the original eastern and western groups could have been much more distinct than previously thought, enough to be counted as subspecies. Since the original Asian and Atlantic populations have become extinct, it is difficult to determine the unique features among whales in these stocks. However, there have been observations of some whales showing distinctive, blackish body colors in recent years. This corresponds with the DNA analysis of last recorded stranding in China. Differences were also observed between Korean and Chinese specimens.
Two Pacific Ocean populations are known to exist: one population that is very low, whose migratory route is presumed to be between the Sea of Okhotsk and southern Korea, and a larger one with a population of about 27,000 individuals in the eastern Pacific traveling between the waters off northernmost Alaska and Baja California Sur. Mothers make this journey accompanied by their calves, usually hugging the shore in shallow kelp beds, and fight viciously to protect their young if they are attacked, earning gray whales the moniker, devil fish.
The western population has had a very slow growth rate despite heavy conservation action over the years, likely due to their very slow reproduction rate. The state of the population hit an all-time low in 2010, when no new reproductive females were recorded, resulting in a minimum of 26 reproductive females being observed since 1995. Even a very small number of additional annual female deaths will cause the subpopulation to decline. However, as of 2018, evidence has indicated that the western population is markedly increasing in number, especially off Sakhalin Island. Following this, the IUCN downlisted the population's conservation status from critically endangered to endangered.
The gray whale became extinct in the North Atlantic in the 18th century. Other than speculations, large portions of historical characteristic of migration and distribution are unclear such as locations of calving grounds, existences of resident groups, and occurrences within the Black and Azov seas.
They had been seasonal migrants to coastal waters of both sides of Atlantic, including the Baltic Sea, Wadden Sea, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, Hudson Bay (possibly),
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13026
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Gary Busey
William Gary Busey (; born June 29, 1944) is an American actor. As a character actor, Busey has appeared in over 150 films, including "Lethal Weapon" (1987), "Predator 2" (1990), "Point Break" (1991), "Under Siege" (1992), "The Firm" (1993), "Carried Away" (1996), "Black Sheep" (1996), "Lost Highway" (1997), "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998), "The Gingerdead Man" (2005), "Quigley" (2003), and "Piranha 3DD" (2012). Gary also made guest appearances on television shows such as "Gunsmoke", "Walker, Texas Ranger", "Law & Order", "Scrubs", "Impractical Jokers", and "Entourage".
For portraying Buddy Holly in "The Buddy Holly Story" (1978), Busey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor.
Busey was born in Goose Creek, Texas, the son of Sadie Virginia (née Arnett), a homemaker, and Delmer Lloyd Busey, a construction design manager. While he was in fourth grade, Busey moved from Goose Creek to Tulsa, where he later attended Bell Junior High School, then attended and graduated from Nathan Hale High School. Busey attended Coffeyville Community college before attending Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas on a football scholarship, where he became interested in acting. He then transferred to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma where he quit school just one class short of graduation.
Busey began his show business career as a drummer in The Rubber Band. He appears on several Leon Russell recordings, credited as playing drums under the names "Teddy Jack Eddy" and "Sprunk", a character he created when he was a cast member of a local television comedy show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called "The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting" on station KTUL (which starred fellow Tulsan Gailard Sartain as "Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi"). For his skits on Uncanny Film Festival, Busey drew on his American Hero, belligerent, know-it-all character. When he told Gailard Sartain his character needed a name, Sartain replied, "Take three: Teddy, Jack and Eddy."
He played in a band called Carp, which released one album on Epic Records in 1969. Busey continued to play several small roles in both film and television during the 1970s. In 1975, as the character "Harvey Daley," he was the last person killed on the series "Gunsmoke" (in the third-to-last episode, No. 633 – "The Busters").
In 1974, Busey made his major film debut with a supporting role in Michael Cimino's buddy action caper "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot", starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.
In 1976, he was hired by Barbra Streisand and her producer-boyfriend Jon Peters to play Bobby Ritchie, road manager to Kris Kristofferson's character in the remake film "A Star is Born". On the DVD commentary of the film, Streisand says Busey was great and that she had seen him on a TV series and thought he had the right qualities to play the role.
In 1978, he starred as rock legend Buddy Holly in "The Buddy Holly Story" with Sartain as The Big Bopper. For his performance, Busey received the greatest critical acclaim of his career and the movie earned Busey an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and the National Society of Film Critics' Best Actor award. In the same year he also starred in the small yet acclaimed drama "Straight Time" and the surfing movie "Big Wednesday", which is now a minor cult classic.
In the 1980s, Busey's roles included the critically acclaimed western "Barbarosa", the comedies "D.C. Cab" and "Insignificance", and the Stephen King adaptation "Silver Bullet". He played one of the primary antagonists opposite Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the action comedy "Lethal Weapon".
In the 1990s, he had prominent supporting roles in successful action films such as "Predator 2", "Point Break" and "Under Siege". He also appeared in "Rookie of the Year", "The Firm", "Black Sheep", "Lost Highway", and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".
Busey sang the song "Stay All Night" on "Saturday Night Live" in March 1979 (season 4, episode 14), and on the "Late Show with David Letterman" in the 1990s.
In 2002, Busey voiced the character Phil Cassidy in the video game
"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" and later reprises the role in the prequel "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories" in 2006. He received much praise from critics and fans for his portrayal of the outlandish character.
In 2003, Busey starred in a Comedy Central reality show, "I'm with Busey". In 2005, he also voiced himself in an episode of "The Simpsons" and appeared in the popular miniseries "Into the West". Busey controversially appeared in the 2006 Turkish nationalist film "," (Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak, in Turkish), which was accused of fascism, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
In 2007, he appeared as himself in a prominent recurring role on HBO's "Entourage", in which he parodied his eccentric image, ultimately appearing on three episodes of the show.
In 2008, he joined the second season of the reality show "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew". Busey returned to reality television in "Celebrity Apprentice 4", which premiered in March 2011, and appeared again in "Celebrity Apprentice 6". There, he briefly reprised his role as Buddy Holly by performing "Not Fade Away".
In a series of 2010 YouTube advertisements for Vitamin Water, Busey appeared as Norman Tugwater, a lawyer who defends professional athletes' entitlements to a cut from Fantasy Football team owners.
In 2014, he became a celebrity spokesperson for Amazon Fire TV. That August, he appeared in, and became the first American winner of the fourteenth series of the UK version of "Celebrity Big Brother".
In 2015, he appeared in a plane ride along with Geoff Ramsey and Michael Jones of Achievement Hunter. The two aforementioned described their displeasure of him repetitively not hearing the other conversant.
On September 1, 2015, it was announced that he would be competing on the 21st season of "Dancing with the Stars". He was paired with professional dancer Anna Trebunskaya. Busey and Trebunskaya made it to Week 4 of competition but were then eliminated and finished in 10th place.
On June 17, 2019, he was announced to star as God in the Off-Broadway musical Only Human at the Theatre at St. Clements in New York. The production is scheduled to begin performances October 8, 2019 and officially open October 21. The plot of Only Human is described as follows: "Before they were enemies, they were co-workers. Jesus and Lucifer never saw eye-to-eye, but when an extreme case of creative differences gets the best of them, all hell breaks loose. Literally." In a statement on playing God in the upcoming production, he said, "God is everything love is and that love becomes the beginning of blessings and miracles. Playing this role of God is easy because I’m not acting, I’m just believing."
In 1971, Busey's wife Judy Helkenberg gave birth to their son, William Jacob "Jake" Busey. Busey and Helkenberg divorced when Jake was 19 years old. Busey has a daughter named Alectra from a previous relationship.
On December 4, 1988, Busey was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in which he was not wearing a helmet. His skull was fractured, and he suffered permanent brain damage.
In 1996, Busey publicly announced that he was a Christian, saying: "I am proud to tell Hollywood I am a Christian. For the first time I am now free to be myself." Busey cites the motorcycle accident, as well as a 1995 cocaine overdose, as events that strengthened his religious faith. Also in 1996, he married actress Tiani Warden, who was in three movies with Gary – "The Chain", "The Rage", and "Plato's Run". They divorced in 2001.
In 1997, Busey underwent successful surgery to remove a cancerous, plum-sized tumor from his sinus cavity. The growth was found after Busey began suffering nose bleeds.
During the filming of the second season of "Celebrity Rehab" in 2008, Busey was referred to psychiatrist Charles Sophy. Sophy suspected that Busey's brain injury has had a greater effect on him than realized. He described it as essentially weakening his mental "filters" and causing him to speak and act impulsively. Sophy recommended Busey take valproic acid (Depakote), with which Busey agreed.
In February 2010, Busey's fiancée Steffanie Sampson gave birth to their son.
In early 2015, Busey supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid saying, "For the American people, vote for Donald Trump come election night." In late 2015, he again expressed support for Trump's candidacy for president.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13030
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-gry puzzle
The "-gry" puzzle is a popular word puzzle that asks for the third English word that ends with the letters "-gry" other than "angry" and "hungry". Specific wording varies substantially, but the puzzle has no clear answer, as there are no other common English words that end in "-gry". Interpretations of the puzzle suggest it is either an answerless hoax; a trick question; a sincere question asking for an obscure word; or a corruption of more straightforward puzzle, which may have asked for words containing "gry" (such as "gryphon"). Of these, countless trick question variants and obscure English words (or nonce words) have been proposed. The lack of a conclusive answer has ensured the enduring popularity of the puzzle, and it has become one of the most frequently asked word puzzles.
The ultimate origin and original form of the puzzle is unknown, but it was popularized in 1975, starting in the New York area, and has remained popular into the 21st century. Various similar puzzles exist, though these have straightforward answers. The most notable is "words ending in "-dous"", which has been popular since the 1880s.
Various proposed answers exist, stating that the question is one of the following:
This topic is a source of lively interest, both to lovers of word puzzles and lovers of words. Intriguingly, there are members of the latter group who have little or no interest in the puzzle, per se; the challenge is in the list (of words). For both groups, much of the appeal lies in the quest, either to trace the origin of the puzzle or compile a complete list of words ending in "-gry".
More recently, the word "hangry"—a portmanteau of 'hungry' and 'angry'—has been used to refer to an irritable state induced by lack of food. Oxford Dictionaries (controlled by, but more lax than, the Oxford English Dictionary) added "hangry" on 27 August 2015, and the full Oxford English Dictionary added "hangry" in 2018.
There are anecdotal reports of various forms of the puzzle dating to the 1950s or earlier; the ultimate origin is presumably an oral tradition or a lost book of puzzles. However, the first documented evidence is from early 1975 in the New York metropolitan area, and the puzzle rapidly gained popularity in this year. The most likely source is the talk show of Bob Grant, from some program in early or mid March 1975.
Merriam-Webster, publishers of the leading American dictionaries, first heard of this puzzle in a letter dated March 17, 1975, from Patricia Lasker of Brooklyn, New York. Lasker says her plant manager heard the question on an unnamed quiz show. Since that time Merriam-Webster has received about four letters each year asking the question.
The puzzle first appears in print in Anita Richterman's "Problem Line" column in "Newsday" on April 29, 1975. One "M.Z." from Wantagh, New York states that the problem was asked on a TV quiz program. Richterman states that she asked a learned professor of English for help when she first received the inquiry, and he did not respond for over a month. This agrees with the Merriam-Webster report, suggesting a quiz show in early or mid March 1975.
In Anita Richterman's column on May 9, 1975, several correspondents reported that they had heard the puzzle on the Bob Grant radio talk show on WMCA in New York City. This suggests either that the earlier claims of a (TV) quiz show confused a talk show with a quiz show, or that there was another unspecified quiz show that was then repeated by Grant. The majority of readers gave the answer "gry," an obsolete unit of measure invented by John Locke. It is unclear whether this was the answer given on the Grant show, or what the precise wording had been.
By fall 1975 the puzzle had reached the Delaware Valley, again apparently by radio, by which time the puzzle seems to have mutated to a form in which the missing word is an adjective that describes the state of the world.
The puzzle has had occasional bouts of popularity: after its initial popularity in 1975, it was popular in 1978, then again in 1995–1996.
The most credible report of an early version was given on Stumpers-L, which reported a trick question formulation from an eight-page pamphlet entitled "Things to Think About", probably dating to the 1940s:
The remaining versions are a form of meta-puzzle, in the sense that they make no use of the actual letters "gry" themselves, which therefore are a red herring. The red herring only works because there is another puzzle that does use these letters (even though that puzzle has no good answer).
There are numerous similar puzzles, giving letter sequences that rarely occur in words. The most-notable of these is the "-dous" puzzle of finding words ending in "-dous", which was popular in the 1880s. This took various forms, sometimes simply listing all words or all common words, sometimes being posed as a riddle, giving the three common words, "tremendous", "stupendous", and "hazardous", and requesting the rarer fourth, which is "jeopardous". This form originated in 1883, with an A.A. of Glasgow writing to George Augustus Henry Sala in his "Echoes of the Week" column in the "Illustrated London News."
This question has had enduring popularity, even inspiring a contest, though the words have proven less stable: today "jeopardous" is considered too rare, and the formerly unpopular "horrendous" has taken its place; this change occurred as early as 1909. At times other words such as "hybridous" have been accepted. Today "hazardous" is typically the omitted word, and differs from the others in being a visible compound "hazard" + "-ous." This puzzle has continued in popularity through the end of the 20th century, with recent versions giving it as an alternative to the gry puzzle.
Another similar one is words ending in "-cion", of which the common words are "coercion", "scion", and "suspicion".
The most similar to the gry puzzle in form is to find three words that contain the letter sequence "shion", to which the answer is "cushion", "fashion", and "parishioner"; this is typically stated by giving "cushion" and "fashion", and requesting the third word, namely "parishioner". This can be modified to finding words "ending" with "-shion", in which case the answer is the obsolete word "parishion", which is a synonymous variant of "parishioner". This has not been nearly as popular as the gry puzzle.
The standard way to solve such puzzles is to use a reverse dictionary, or to perform an exhaustive search through a dictionary, either manually, which is tedious and error-prone, or using computer tools such as grep, which requires an electronic word list. At the origin of the gry puzzle, the standard reverse dictionary in modern English was the "Air Force Reverse Dictionary" (formally the "Normal and Reverse Word List", compiled under the direction of A. F. Brown), which did not have additional answers for gry. The most plausible answer at the time was "meagry", found in the "Oxford English Dictionary". A more elaborate strategy is to list words that have endings similar to gry, such as "-gary", and then search a larger dictionary for obsolete variants ending in "-gry", for example "begry" for "beggary".
From around 1980 electronic word lists became widely available on Unix systems, and searching for answers to the gry puzzle was an occasional benchmark; this also turned up "gryphon" in some cases, if match is not required to be at the end. This is now easily done in milliseconds on modern personal computers:
grep gry$ /usr/share/dict/words # Search for words ending in gry
grep gry /usr/share/dict/words # Search for words containing gry
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13031
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Geyser
A geyser (, ) is a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Earth. Generally all geyser field sites are located near active volcanic areas, and the geyser effect is due to the proximity of magma. Generally, surface water works its way down to an average depth of around where it contacts hot rocks. The resultant boiling of the pressurized water results in the geyser effect of hot water and steam spraying out of the geyser's surface vent (a hydrothermal explosion).
A geyser's eruptive activity may change or cease due to ongoing mineral deposition within the geyser plumbing, exchange of functions with nearby hot springs, earthquake influences, and human intervention. Like many other natural phenomena, geysers are not unique to planet Earth. Jet-like eruptions, often referred to as cryogeysers, have been observed on several of the moons of the outer solar system. Due to the low ambient pressures, these eruptions consist of vapor without liquid; they are made more easily visible by particles of dust and ice carried aloft by the gas. Water vapor jets have been observed near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus, while nitrogen eruptions have been observed on Neptune's moon Triton. There are also signs of carbon dioxide eruptions from the southern polar ice cap of Mars. In the latter two cases, instead of being driven by geothermal energy, the eruptions seem to rely on solar heating via a solid-state greenhouse effect.
The term 'geyser' dates in English to the late 18th century originating from Icelandic "Geysir", the name of a particular spring in Iceland. It is related to the Icelandic word "geysa" ‘to gush’.
Geysers are nonpermanent geological features. Geysers are generally associated with volcanic areas. As the water boils, the resulting pressure forces a superheated column of steam and water to the surface through the geyser's internal plumbing. The formation of geysers specifically requires the combination of three geologic conditions that are usually found in volcanic terrain.
The heat needed for geyser formation comes from magma that needs to be close to the surface of the earth. In order for the heated water to form a geyser, a plumbing system made of fractures, fissures, porous spaces, and sometimes cavities is required. This includes a reservoir to hold the water while it is being heated. Geysers are generally aligned along faults.
Geyser activity, like all hot spring activity, is caused by surface water gradually seeping down through the ground until it meets rock heated by magma. The geothermally heated water then rises back toward the surface by convection through porous and fractured rocks. Geysers differ from non-eruptive hot springs in their subterranean structure; many consist of a small vent at the surface connected to one or more narrow tubes that lead to underground reservoirs of water and pressure tight rock.
As the geyser fills, the water at the top of the column cools off, but because of the narrowness of the channel, convective cooling of the water in the reservoir is impossible. The cooler water above presses down on the hotter water beneath, not unlike the lid of a pressure cooker, allowing the water in the reservoir to become superheated, i.e. to remain liquid at temperatures well above the standard-pressure boiling point.
Ultimately, the temperatures near the bottom of the geyser rise to a point where boiling begins which forces steam bubbles to rise to the top of the column. As they burst through the geyser's vent, some water overflows or splashes out, reducing the weight of the column and thus the pressure on the water below. With this release of pressure, the superheated water flashes into steam, boiling violently throughout the column. The resulting froth of expanding steam and hot water then sprays out of the geyser vent.
A key requirement that enables a geyser to erupt is a material called geyserite found in rocks nearby the geyser. Geyserite—mostly silicon dioxide (SiO2), is dissolved from the rocks and gets deposited on the walls of the geyser's plumbing system and on the surface. The deposits make the channels carrying the water up to the surface pressure-tight. This allows the pressure to be carried all the way to the top and not be leaked out into the loose gravel or soil that are normally under the geyser fields.
Eventually the water remaining in the geyser cools back to below the boiling point and the eruption ends; heated groundwater begins seeping back into the reservoir, and the whole cycle begins again. The duration of eruptions and time between successive eruptions vary greatly from geyser to geyser; Strokkur in Iceland erupts for a few seconds every few minutes, while Grand Geyser in the United States erupts for up to 10 minutes every 8–12 hours.
There are two types of geysers: "fountain geysers" which erupt from pools of water, typically in a series of intense, even violent, bursts; and "cone geysers" which erupt from cones or mounds of siliceous sinter (including geyserite), usually in steady jets that last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Old Faithful, perhaps the best-known geyser at Yellowstone National Park, is an example of a cone geyser. Grand Geyser, the tallest predictable geyser on earth, (although Geysir in Iceland is taller, it is not predictable), also at Yellowstone National Park, is an example of a fountain geyser.
There are many volcanic areas in the world that have hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles, but very few have erupting geysers. The main reason for their rarity is because multiple intense transient forces must occur simultaneously for a geyser to exist. For example, even when other necessary conditions exist, if the rock structure is loose, eruptions will erode the channels and rapidly destroy any nascent geysers.
As a result, most geysers form in places where there is volcanic rhyolite rock which dissolves in hot water and forms mineral deposits called siliceous sinter, or geyserite, along the inside of the plumbing systems which are very slender. Over time, these deposits strengthen the channel walls by cementing the rock together tightly, thus enabling the geyser to persist.
Geysers are fragile phenomena and if conditions change, they may go dormant or extinct. Many have been destroyed simply by people throwing debris into them while others have ceased to erupt due to dewatering by geothermal power plants. However, the Geysir in Iceland has had periods of activity and dormancy. During its long dormant periods, eruptions were sometimes artificially induced—often on special occasions—by the addition of surfactant soaps to the water.
The specific colours of geysers derive from the fact that despite the apparently harsh conditions, life is often found in them (and also in other hot habitats) in the form of thermophilic prokaryotes. No known eukaryote can survive over .
In the 1960s, when the research of the biology of geysers first appeared, scientists were generally convinced that no life can survive above around —the upper limit for the survival of cyanobacteria, as the structure of key cellular proteins and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) would be destroyed. The optimal temperature for thermophilic bacteria was placed even lower, around .
However, the observations proved that it is actually possible for life to exist at high temperatures and that some bacteria even prefer temperatures higher than the boiling point of water. Dozens of such bacteria are known.
Thermophiles prefer temperatures from , whilst hyperthermophiles grow better at temperatures as high as . As they have heat-stable enzymes that retain their activity even at high temperatures, they have been used as a source of thermostable tools, that are important in medicine and biotechnology, for example in manufacturing antibiotics, plastics, detergents (by the use of heat-stable enzymes lipases, pullulanases and proteases), and fermentation products (for example ethanol is produced). Among these, the first discovered and the most important for biotechnology is "Thermus aquaticus".
Geysers are quite rare, requiring a combination of water, heat, and fortuitous plumbing. The combination exists in few places on Earth.
Yellowstone is the largest geyser locale, containing thousands of hot springs, and approximately 300 to 500 geysers. It is home to half of the world's total number of geysers in its nine geyser basins. It is located mostly in Wyoming, USA, with small portions in Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone includes the world's tallest active geyser (Steamboat Geyser in Norris Geyser Basin).
The Valley of Geysers () located in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia is the only geyser field in Eurasia and the second largest concentration of geysers in the world. The area was discovered and explored by Tatyana Ustinova in 1941. Approximately 200 geysers exist in the area along with many hot-water springs and perpetual spouters. The area was formed due to a vigorous volcanic activity. The peculiar way of eruptions is an important feature of these geysers. Most of the geysers erupt at angles, and only very few have the geyser cones that exist at many other of the world's geyser fields. On June 3, 2007, a massive mudflow influenced two thirds of the valley. It was then reported that a thermal lake was forming above the valley. Few days later, waters were observed to have receded somewhat, exposing some of the submerged features. Velikan Geyser, one of the field's largest, was not buried in the slide and has recently been observed to be active.
The name "El Tatio" comes from the Quechua word for "oven". El Tatio is located in the high valleys on the Andes surrounded by many active volcanoes in Chile, South America at around above mean sea level. The valley is home to approximately 80 geysers at present. It became the largest geyser field in the Southern Hemisphere after the destruction of many of the New Zealand geysers (see below), and is the third largest geyser field in the world. The salient feature of these geysers is that the height of their eruptions is very low, the tallest being only high, but with steam columns that can be over high. The average geyser eruption height at El Tatio is about .
The Taupo Volcanic Zone is located on New Zealand's North Island. It is long by and lies over a subduction zone in the Earth's crust. Mount Ruapehu marks its southwestern end, while the submarine Whakatane volcano ( beyond White Island) is considered its northeastern limit. Many geysers in this zone were destroyed due to geothermal developments and a hydroelectric reservoir, but several dozen geysers still exist. In the beginning of the 20th century, the largest geyser ever known, the Waimangu Geyser existed in this zone. It began erupting in 1900 and erupted periodically for four years until a landslide changed the local water table. Eruptions of Waimangu would typically reach and some superbursts are known to have reached . Recent scientific work indicates that the Earth's crust below the zone may be as little as thick. Beneath this lies a film of magma wide and long.
Due to the high rate of volcanic activity in Iceland, it is home to some famous geysers in the world. There are around 20-29 active geysers in the country as well as numerous formerly active geysers. Icelandic geysers are distributed in the zone stretching from south-west to north-east, along the boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate. Most of the Icelandic geysers are comparatively short-lived, it is also characteristic that many geysers here are reactivated or newly created after earthquakes, becoming dormant or extinct after some years or some decades.
Two most prominent geysers of Iceland are located in Haukadalur. "The Great Geysir", which first erupted in the 14th century, gave rise to the word "geyser". By 1896, Geysir was almost dormant before an earthquake that year caused eruptions to begin again, occurring several times a day, but in 1916, eruptions all but ceased. Throughout much of the 20th century, eruptions did happen from time to time, usually following earthquakes. Some man-made improvements were made to the spring and eruptions were forced with soap on special occasions. Earthquakes in June 2000 subsequently reawakened the giant for a time but it is not currently erupting regularly. The nearby Strokkur geyser erupts every 5–8 minutes to a height of some .
Geysers are known to have existed in at least a dozen other areas on the island. Some former geysers have developed historical farms, which benefitted from the use of the hot water since medieval times.
There used to be two large geysers fields in Nevada—Beowawe and Steamboat Springs—but they were destroyed by the installation of nearby geothermal power plants. At the plants, geothermal drilling reduced the available heat and lowered the local water table to the point that geyser activity could no longer be sustained.
Many of New Zealand's geysers have been destroyed by humans in the last century. Several New Zealand geysers have also become dormant or extinct by natural means. The main remaining field is Whakarewarewa at Rotorua. Two thirds of the geysers at Orakei Korako were flooded by the Ohakuri hydroelectric dam in 1961. The Wairakei field was lost to a geothermal power plant in 1958. The Taupo Spa field was lost when the Waikato River level was deliberately altered in the 1950s. The Rotomahana field was destroyed by the Mount Tarawera eruption in 1886.
There are various other types of geysers which are different in nature compared to the normal steam-driven geysers. These geysers differ not only in their style of eruption but also in the cause that makes them erupt.
In a number of places where there is geothermal activity, wells have been drilled and fitted with impermeable casements that allow them to erupt like geysers. The vents of such geysers are artificial, but are tapped into natural hydrothermal systems. These so-called "artificial geysers", technically known as "erupting geothermal wells", are not true geysers. Little Old Faithful Geyser, in Calistoga, California, is an example. The geyser erupts from the casing of a well drilled in the late 19th century. According to Dr. John Rinehart in his book "A Guide to Geyser Gazing" (1976 p. 49), a man had drilled into the geyser in search for water. He had "simply opened up a dead geyser".
This is a natural hot spring that spouts water constantly without stopping for recharge. Some of these are incorrectly called geysers, but because they are not periodic in nature they are not considered true geysers.
Geysers are used for various activities such as electricity generation, heating and tourism. Many geothermal reserves are found all around the world. The geyser fields in Iceland are some of the most commercially viable geyser locations in the world. Since the 1920s hot water directed from the geysers has been used to heat greenhouses and to grow food that otherwise could not have been cultivated in Iceland's inhospitable climate. Steam and hot water from the geysers has also been used for heating homes since 1943 in Iceland. In 1979 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) actively promoted development of geothermal energy in the "Geysers-Calistoga Known Geothermal Resource Area" (KGRA) near Calistoga, California through a variety of research programs and the Geothermal Loan Guarantee Program. The Department is obligated by law to assess the potential environmental impacts of geothermal development.
There are many bodies in the Solar System where jet-like eruptions, often termed cryogeysers ("cryo" meaning "icy cold"), have been observed or are believed to occur. Despite the name and unlike geysers on Earth, these represent eruptions of volatiles, together with entrained dust or ice particles, without liquid. There is no evidence that the physical processes involved are similar to geysers. These plumes could more closely resemble fumaroles.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13034
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Gaussian elimination
Gaussian elimination, also known as row reduction, is an algorithm in linear algebra for solving a system of linear equations. It is usually understood as a sequence of operations performed on the corresponding matrix of coefficients. This method can also be used to find the rank of a matrix, to calculate the determinant of a matrix, and to calculate the inverse of an invertible square matrix. The method is named after Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855). Some special cases of the method - albeit presented without proof - were known to Chinese mathematicians as early as circa 179 CE.
To perform row reduction on a matrix, one uses a sequence of elementary row operations to modify the matrix until the lower left-hand corner of the matrix is filled with zeros, as much as possible. There are three types of elementary row operations:
Using these operations, a matrix can always be transformed into an upper triangular matrix, and in fact one that is in row echelon form. Once all of the leading coefficients (the leftmost nonzero entry in each row) are 1, and every column containing a leading coefficient has zeros elsewhere, the matrix is said to be in reduced row echelon form. This final form is unique; in other words, it is independent of the sequence of row operations used. For example, in the following sequence of row operations (where multiple elementary operations might be done at each step), the third and fourth matrices are the ones in row echelon form, and the final matrix is the unique reduced row echelon form.
Using row operations to convert a matrix into reduced row echelon form is sometimes called Gauss–Jordan elimination. Some authors use the term Gaussian elimination to refer to the process until it has reached its upper triangular, or (unreduced) row echelon form. For computational reasons, when solving systems of linear equations, it is sometimes preferable to stop row operations before the matrix is completely reduced.
The process of row reduction makes use of elementary row operations, and can be divided into two parts. The first part (sometimes called forward elimination) reduces a given system to "row echelon form", from which one can tell whether there are no solutions, a unique solution, or infinitely many solutions. The second part (sometimes called back substitution) continues to use row operations until the solution is found; in other words, it puts the matrix into "reduced" row echelon form.
Another point of view, which turns out to be very useful to analyze the algorithm, is that row reduction produces a matrix decomposition of the original matrix. The elementary row operations may be viewed as the multiplication on the left of the original matrix by elementary matrices. Alternatively, a sequence of elementary operations that reduces a single row may be viewed as multiplication by a Frobenius matrix. Then the first part of the algorithm computes an LU decomposition, while the second part writes the original matrix as the product of a uniquely determined invertible matrix and a uniquely determined reduced row echelon matrix.
There are three types of elementary row operations which may be performed on the rows of a matrix:
If the matrix is associated to a system of linear equations, then these operations do not change the solution set. Therefore, if one's goal is to solve a system of linear equations, then using these row operations could make the problem easier.
For each row in a matrix, if the row does not consist of only zeros, then the leftmost nonzero entry is called the "leading coefficient" (or "pivot") of that row. So if two leading coefficients are in the same column, then a row operation of type 3 could be used to make one of those coefficients zero. Then by using the row swapping operation, one can always order the rows so that for every non-zero row, the leading coefficient is to the right of the leading coefficient of the row above. If this is the case, then matrix is said to be in row echelon form. So the lower left part of the matrix contains only zeros, and all of the zero rows are below the non-zero rows. The word "echelon" is used here because one can roughly think of the rows being ranked by their size, with the largest being at the top and the smallest being at the bottom.
For example, the following matrix is in row echelon form, and its leading coefficients are shown in red:
It is in echelon form because the zero row is at the bottom, and the leading coefficient of the second row (in the third column), is to the right of the leading coefficient of the first row (in the second column).
A matrix is said to be in reduced row echelon form if furthermore all of the leading coefficients are equal to 1 (which can be achieved by using the elementary row operation of type 2), and in every column containing a leading coefficient, all of the other entries in that column are zero (which can be achieved by using elementary row operations of type 3).
Suppose the goal is to find and describe the set of solutions to the following system of linear equations:
The table below is the row reduction process applied simultaneously to the system of equations and its associated augmented matrix. In practice, one does not usually deal with the systems in terms of equations, but instead makes use of the augmented matrix, which is more suitable for computer manipulations. The row reduction procedure may be summarized as follows: eliminate from all equations below , and then eliminate from all equations below . This will put the system into triangular form. Then, using back-substitution, each unknown can be solved for.
The second column describes which row operations have just been performed. So for the first step, the is eliminated from by adding to . Next, is eliminated from by adding to . These row operations are labelled in the table as
Once is also eliminated from the third row, the result is a system of linear equations in triangular form, and so the first part of the algorithm is complete. From a computational point of view, it is faster to solve the variables in reverse order, a process known as back-substitution. One sees the solution is , , and . So there is a unique solution to the original system of equations.
Instead of stopping once the matrix is in echelon form, one could continue until the matrix is in "reduced" row echelon form, as it is done in the table. The process of row reducing until the matrix is reduced is sometimes referred to as Gauss–Jordan elimination, to distinguish it from stopping after reaching echelon form.
The method of Gaussian elimination appears - albeit without proof - in the Chinese mathematical text Chapter Eight: "Rectangular Arrays" of "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art". Its use is illustrated in eighteen problems, with two to five equations. The first reference to the book by this title is dated to 179 CE, but parts of it were written as early as approximately 150 BCE. It was commented on by Liu Hui in the 3rd century.
The method in Europe stems from the notes of Isaac Newton. In 1670, he wrote that all the algebra books known to him lacked a lesson for solving simultaneous equations, which Newton then supplied. Cambridge University eventually published the notes as "Arithmetica Universalis" in 1707 long after Newton had left academic life. The notes were widely imitated, which made (what is now called) Gaussian elimination a standard lesson in algebra textbooks by the end of the 18th century. Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1810 devised a notation for symmetric elimination that was adopted in the 19th century by professional hand computers to solve the normal equations of least-squares problems. The algorithm that is taught in high school was named for Gauss only in the 1950s as a result of confusion over the history of the subject.
Some authors use the term "Gaussian elimination" to refer only to the procedure until the matrix is in echelon form, and use the term Gauss–Jordan elimination to refer to the procedure which ends in reduced echelon form. The name is used because it is a variation of Gaussian elimination as described by Wilhelm Jordan in 1888. However, the method also appears in an article by Clasen published in the same year. Jordan and Clasen probably discovered Gauss–Jordan elimination independently.
Historically, the first application of the row reduction method is for solving systems of linear equations. Here are some other important applications of the algorithm.
To explain how Gaussian elimination allows the computation of the determinant of a square matrix, we have to recall how the elementary row operations change the determinant:
If Gaussian elimination applied to a square matrix produces a row echelon matrix , let be the product of the scalars by which the determinant has been multiplied, using the above rules. Then the determinant of is the quotient by of the product of the elements of the diagonal of :
Computationally, for an matrix, this method needs only arithmetic operations, while solving by elementary methods requires or operations. Even on the fastest computers, the elementary methods are impractical for above 20.
A variant of Gaussian elimination called Gauss–Jordan elimination can be used for finding the inverse of a matrix, if it exists. If is an square matrix, then one can use row reduction to compute its inverse matrix, if it exists. First, the identity matrix is augmented to the right of , forming an block matrix . Now through application of elementary row operations, find the reduced echelon form of this matrix. The matrix is invertible if and only if the left block can be reduced to the identity matrix ; in this case the right block of the final matrix is . If the algorithm is unable to reduce the left block to , then is not invertible.
For example, consider the following matrix:
To find the inverse of this matrix, one takes the following matrix augmented by the identity and row-reduces it as a 3 × 6 matrix:
By performing row operations, one can check that the reduced row echelon form of this augmented matrix is
One can think of each row operation as the left product by an elementary matrix. Denoting by the product of these elementary matrices, we showed, on the left, that , and therefore, . On the right, we kept a record of , which we know is the inverse desired. This procedure for finding the inverse works for square matrices of any size.
The Gaussian elimination algorithm can be applied to any matrix . In this way, for example, some 6 × 9 matrices can be transformed to a matrix that has a row echelon form like
where the stars are arbitrary entries, and are nonzero entries. This echelon matrix contains a wealth of information about : the rank of is 5, since there are 5 nonzero rows in ; the vector space spanned by the columns of has a basis consisting of its columns 1, 3, 4, 7 and 9 (the columns with in ), and the stars show how the other columns of can be written as linear combinations of the basis columns. This is a consequence of the distributivity of the dot product in the expression of a linear map as a matrix.
All of this applies also to the reduced row echelon form, which is a particular row echelon format.
The number of arithmetic operations required to perform row reduction is one way of measuring the algorithm's computational efficiency. For example, to solve a system of equations for unknowns by performing row operations on the matrix until it is in echelon form, and then solving for each unknown in reverse order, requires divisions, multiplications, and subtractions, for a total of approximately operations. Thus it has arithmetic complexity of ; see Big O notation. This arithmetic complexity is a good measure of the time needed for the whole computation when the time for each arithmetic operation is approximately constant. This is the case when the coefficients are represented by floating-point numbers or when they belong to a finite field. If the coefficients are integers or rational numbers exactly represented, the intermediate entries can grow exponentially large, so the bit complexity is exponential.
However, there is a variant of Gaussian elimination, called the Bareiss algorithm, that avoids this exponential growth of the intermediate entries and, with the same arithmetic complexity of , has a bit complexity of .
This algorithm can be used on a computer for systems with thousands of equations and unknowns. However, the cost becomes prohibitive for systems with millions of equations. These large systems are generally solved using iterative methods. Specific methods exist for systems whose coefficients follow a regular pattern (see system of linear equations).
To put an matrix into reduced echelon form by row operations, one needs arithmetic operations, which is approximately 50% more computation steps.
One possible problem is numerical instability, caused by the possibility of dividing by very small numbers. If, for example, the leading coefficient of one of the rows is very close to zero, then to row-reduce the matrix, one would need to divide by that number. This means that any error existed for the number that was close to zero would be amplified. Gaussian elimination is numerically stable for diagonally dominant or positive-definite matrices. For general matrices, Gaussian elimination is usually considered to be stable, when using partial pivoting, even though there are examples of stable matrices for which it is unstable.
Gaussian elimination can be performed over any field, not just the real numbers.
Buchberger's algorithm is a generalization of Gaussian elimination to systems of polynomial equations. This generalization depends heavily on the notion of a monomial order. The choice of an ordering on the variables is already implicit in Gaussian elimination, manifesting as the choice to work from left to right when selecting pivot positions.
Computing the rank of a tensor of order greater than 2 is NP-hard. Therefore, if , there cannot be a polynomial time analog of Gaussian elimination for higher-order tensors (matrices are array representations of order-2 tensors).
As explained above, Gaussian elimination transforms a given matrix into a matrix in row-echelon form.
In the following pseudocode, codice_1 denotes the entry of the matrix in row and column with the indices starting from 1. The transformation is performed "in place", meaning that the original matrix is lost for being eventually replaced by its row-echelon form.
This algorithm differs slightly from the one discussed earlier, by choosing a pivot with largest absolute value. Such a "partial pivoting" may be required if, at the pivot place, the entry of the matrix is zero. In any case, choosing the largest possible absolute value of the pivot improves the numerical stability of the algorithm, when floating point is used for representing numbers.
Upon completion of this procedure the matrix will be in row echelon form and the corresponding system may be solved by back substitution.
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Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO because of the abbreviation of "Guantanamo" or Gitmo because of the common pronunciation of this word by the U.S. military) is a United States military base and detention camp located on 120 square kilometers (45 sq mi) of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which the U.S. leased for use as a coaling station and naval base in 1903. The lease was $2,000 in gold per year until 1934, when the payment was set to match the value in gold in dollars; in 1974, the yearly lease was set to $4,085. The base is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas U.S. Naval Base. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Cuban government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil and called it illegal under international law, alleging that the base was imposed on Cuba by force.
Since 2002, the naval base has contained a military prison, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, for alleged unlawful combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places during the War on Terror. Cases of torture of prisoners by the U.S. military, and their denial of protection under the Geneva Conventions, have been condemned internationally.
Besides servicemembers, the base houses a large number of civilian contractors working for the military. Many of these contractors are migrant workers from Jamaica and the Philippines, and are thought to constitute up to 40% of the base's population.
Major contractors working at NSGB have included the following:
Ocean transportation is provided by Schuyler Line Navigation Company, a U.S. Flag Ocean Carrier. Schuyler Line operates under government contract to supply sustainment and building supplies to the base.
The area surrounding Guantanamo bay was originally inhabited by the Taíno people. On 30 April 1494, Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage, arrived and spent the night. The place where Columbus landed is now known as Fisherman's Point. Columbus declared the bay "Puerto Grande". The bay and surrounding areas came under British control during the War of Jenkins' Ear. Prior to British occupation, the bay was referred to as "Walthenham Harbor". The British renamed the bay "Cumberland Bay". The British retreated from the area after a failed attempt to march to Santiago de Cuba.
During the Spanish–American War, the U.S. fleet attacking Santiago secured Guantánamo's harbor for protection during the hurricane season of 1898. The Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay with naval support, and American and Cuban forces routed the defending Spanish troops. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris of 1898, in which Spain formally relinquished control of Cuba. Although the war was over, the United States maintained a strong military presence on the island. In 1901 the United States government passed the Platt Amendment as part of an Army Appropriations Bill. Section VII of this amendment read
After initial resistance by the Cuban Constitutional Convention, the Platt Amendment was incorporated into the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba in 1901. The Constitution took effect in 1902, and land for a naval base at Guantanamo Bay was granted to the United States the following year.
USS "Monongahela" (1862), an old warship which served as a storeship at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was totally destroyed by fire on 17 March 1908. A 4-inch gun was salvaged from her wreck and put on display at the Naval Station. Since the gun was deformed by the heat from the fire, it was nicknamed "Old Droopy". The gun was on display on Deer Point until the command disposed of it, judging its appearance less than exemplary of naval gunnery.
The 1903 lease agreement was executed in two parts. The first, signed in February, consisted of the following provisions:
The second part, signed five months later in July 1903, consisted of the following provisions:
SIGNED Theodore Roosevelt and Jose M Garcia Montes.
In 1934, the United States unilaterally changed the payment from gold coin to U.S. dollars per the Gold Reserve Act. The lease amount was set at US$3,386.25, based on the price of gold at the time. In 1973, the U.S. adjusted the lease amount to $3,676.50, and in 1974 to $4,085, based on further increases to the price of gold in USD. Payments have been sent annually, but only one lease payment has been accepted since the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro claimed that this check was deposited due to confusion in 1959. The Cuban government has not deposited any other lease checks since that time.
The 1903 Lease for Guantanamo has no fixed expiration date.
During World War II, the base was set up to use a nondescript number for postal operations. The base used the Fleet Post Office, Atlantic, in New York City, with the address: 115 FPO NY. The base was also an important intermediate distribution point for merchant shipping convoys from New York City and Key West, Florida, to the Panama Canal and the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Until the 1953–59 revolution, thousands of Cubans commuted daily from outside the base to jobs within it. In mid-1958, vehicular traffic was stopped; workers were required to walk through the base's several gates. Public Works Center buses were pressed into service almost overnight to carry the tides of workers to and from the gate.
During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the families of military personnel were evacuated from the base. Notified of the evacuation on 22 October, evacuees were told to pack one suitcase per family member, to bring evacuation and immunization cards, to tie pets in the yard, to leave the keys to the house on the dining table, and to wait in front of the house for buses. Dependents travelled to the airfield for flights to the United States, or to ports for passage aboard evacuation ships. After the crisis was resolved, family members were allowed to return to the base in December 1962.
From 1939, the base's water was supplied by pipelines that drew water from the Yateras River about northeast of the base. The U.S. government paid a fee for this; in 1964, it was about $14,000 a month for about per day. In 1964, the Cuban government stopped the flow. The base had about of water in storage, and strict water conservation was put into effect immediately. The U.S. first imported water from Jamaica by barge, then relocated a desalination plant from San Diego (Point Loma). When the Cuban government accused the United States of stealing water, base commander John D. Bulkeley ordered that the pipelines be cut and a section removed. A length of the diameter pipe and a length of the diameter pipe were lifted from the ground and the openings sealed.
The military facilities at Guantanamo Bay have over 8,500 U.S. sailors and Marines stationed there. It is the only military base the U.S. maintains in a communist country.
In 2005, the U.S. Navy completed a $12 million wind-power project at the base, erecting four 950-kilowatt, 275-foot-tall wind turbines, reducing the need for diesel fuel to power the existing diesel generators (the base's primary electricity generation). In 2006, the wind turbines reduced diesel fuel consumption by 650,000 gallons annually.
By 2006, only two elderly Cubans, Luis Delarosa and Harry Henry, still crossed the base's North East Gate daily to work on the base, because the Cuban government prohibited new recruitment since its revolution. They both retired at the end of 2012.
In January 2009, President Obama signed executive orders directing the CIA to shut what remains of its network of "secret" prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year. However, he postponed difficult decisions on the details for at least six months. On 7 March 2011, President Obama issued an executive order that permits ongoing indefinite detention of Guantánamo detainees. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 authorized indefinite detention of suspected terrorists, but enforcement of the relevant section was temporarily blocked by a federal court ruling in the case of "Hedges v. Obama" on 16 May 2012, a suit brought by a number of private citizens, including Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, and Birgitta Jónsdóttir. After a series of decisions and appeals, the lawsuit was vacated because the plaintiffs lacked standing to file the suit. , the detention center was in operation.
At the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2013, Cuba's Foreign Minister demanded the U.S. return the base and the "usurped territory" which the Cuban government considers to be occupied since the U.S. invasion of Cuba during the Spanish–American War in 1898.
The Naval Base is divided into three main geographical sections: Leeward Point, Windward Point, and Guantánamo Bay. Guantánamo Bay physically divides the Naval Station into sections. The bay extends past the boundaries of the base into Cuba, where the bay is then referred to as Bahía de Guantánamo. Guantánamo Bay contains several cays, which are identified as Hospital Cay, Medico Cay, North Toro Cay, and South Toro Cay.
Leeward Point of the Naval Station is the site of the active airfield. Major geographical features on Leeward Point include Mohomilla Bay and the Guantánamo River. Three beaches exist on the Leeward side. Two are available for use by base residents, while the third, Hicacal Beach, is closed.
Windward Point contains most of the activities at the Naval Station. There are nine beaches available to base personnel. The highest point on the base is John Paul Jones hill at a total of 495 feet. The geography of Windward Point is such that there are many coves and peninsulas along the bay shoreline providing ideal areas for mooring ships.
Cactus Curtain is a term describing the line separating the naval base from Cuban-controlled territory. After the Cuban Revolution, some Cubans sought refuge on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In the fall of 1961, Cuban troops planted an barrier of "Opuntia" cactus along the northeastern section of the fence surrounding the base to stop Cubans from escaping Cuba to take refuge in the United States. This was dubbed the "Cactus Curtain", an allusion to Europe's Iron Curtain, the Bamboo Curtain in East Asia or the similar Ice Curtain in the Bering Strait.
U.S. and Cuban troops placed some 55,000 land mines across the "no man's land" around the perimeter of the naval base creating the second-largest minefield in the world, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. On 16 May 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered the demining of the American field. They have since been replaced with motion and sound sensors to detect intruders on the base. The Cuban government has not removed its corresponding minefield outside the perimeter.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, the base was used to house Cuban and Haitian refugees intercepted on the high seas. In the early 1990s, it held refugees who fled Haiti after military forces overthrew president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. These refugees were held in a detainment area called Camp Bulkeley until United States district court Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. declared the camp unconstitutional on 8 June 1993. This decision was later vacated. The last Haitian migrants departed Guantanamo on 1 November 1995.
Beginning in 2002, some months after the War on Terror started in response to the September 11 attacks, a small portion of the base was used to detain several hundred enemy combatants at Camp Delta, Camp Echo, Camp Iguana, and the now-closed Camp X-Ray. The U.S. military has alleged without formal charge that some of these detainees are linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. In litigation regarding the availability of fundamental rights to those imprisoned at the base, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the detainees "have been imprisoned in territory over which the United States exercises exclusive jurisdiction and control." Therefore, the detainees have the fundamental right to due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. A district court has since held that the "Geneva Conventions applied to the Taliban detainees, but not to members of Al-Qaeda terrorist organization."
On 10 June 2006, the Department of Defense reported that three Guantanamo Bay detainees committed suicide. The military reported the men hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes. A study published by Seton Hall Law's Center for Policy and Research, while making no conclusions regarding what actually transpired, asserts that the military investigation failed to address significant issues detailed in that report.
On 6 September 2006, President George W. Bush announced that alleged or non-alleged combatants held by the CIA would be transferred to the custody of Department of Defense, and held at Guantanamo Prison. Of approximately 500 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, only 10 have been tried by the Guantanamo military commission, but all cases have been stayed pending the adjustments being made to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in "Hamdi v. Rumsfeld".
President Barack Obama said he intended to close the detention camp, and planned to bring detainees to the United States to stand trial by the end of his first term in office. On 22 January 2009, he issued three executive orders. Only one of these explicitly dealt with policy at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and directed the camp's closure within one year. All three could have possibly impacted the detention center, as well as how the United States holds detainees.
While mandating closure of the detention camp, the naval base as a whole is not subject to the order and will remain operational indefinitely. This plan was thwarted for the time being on 20 May 2009, when the United States Senate voted to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay open for the foreseeable future and forbid the transfer of any detainees to facilities in the United States. Senator Daniel Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii and chairman of the appropriations committee, said he initially favored keeping Guantanamo open until Obama produced a "coherent plan for closing the prison."
Despite the prohibition on the establishment of "commercial or other enterprises" as stated in Article 3 of the second part of the lease, several businesses have been opened in the military base. A Baskin-Robbins ice cream stand, which opened in the 1980s, was one of the first business franchises allowed on the base. In early 1986, the base added the first and only McDonald's restaurant within Cuba. A Subway restaurant was opened in 2002. In 2004, a combined KFC & A&W restaurant was opened at the bowling alley and a Pizza Hut Express was added to the Windjammer Restaurant. There is also a cafe that sells Starbucks coffee, and there is a combined KFC & Taco Bell restaurant.
All the restaurants on the installation are franchises owned and operated by the Department of the Navy. All proceeds from these restaurants are used to support morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) activities for service personnel and their families. These restaurants are located inside the base; as such, they are not accessible to Cubans.
There are two airfields within the base, Leeward Point Field and McCalla Field. Leeward Point Field is the active military airfield, with the ICAO code MUGM and IATA code NBW. McCalla Field was designated as the auxiliary landing field in 1970.
Leeward Point Field was constructed in 1953 as part of Naval Air Station (NAS) Guantanamo Bay. Leeward Point Field has a single active runway, 10/28, measuring . The former runway, 9/27 was . Currently, Leeward Point Field operates several aircraft and helicopters supporting base operations. Leeward Point Field was home to Fleet Composite Squadron 10 (VC-10) until the unit was phased out in 1993. VC-10 was one of the last active-duty squadrons flying the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk.
McCalla Field was established in 1931 and remained operational until 1970. Naval Air Station Guantanamo Bay was officially established 1 February 1941. Aircraft routinely operating out of McCalla included JRF-5, N3N, J2F, C-1 Trader, and dirigibles. McCalla Field is now listed as a closed airfield. The area consists of 3 runways: 1/19 at , 14/32 at , and 10/28 at . Camp Justice is now located on the grounds of the former airfield.
Access to the Naval Station is very limited and must be preapproved through the appropriate local chain of command with the Commander of the station as the final approval. Since berthing facilities are limited, visitors must be sponsored indicating that they have an approved residence for the duration of the visit.
Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) provides for the education of dependent personnel with two schools. Both schools are named for Rear Admiral William Thomas Sampson. W.T. Sampson Elementary School serves grades K–5 and W. T. Sampson High School serves grades 6–12. The Villamar Child Development Center provides child care for dependents from six weeks to five years old. MWR operates a Youth Center that provides activities for dependents.
Some former students of Guantánamo have shared stories of their experiences with the Guantánamo Public Memory Project. The 2013 documentary "Guantanamo Circus" directed by Christina Linhardt and Michael Rose reveals a glimpse of day-to-day life on GTMO as seen through the eyes of circus performers that visit the base. It is used as a reference by the Guantánamo Public Memory Project.
U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay has an annual rainfall of about 61.5 cm (24 in). The amount of rainfall has resulted in the base being classified as a semi-arid desert environment. The annual average high temperature on the base is , the annual average low is .
Notable people born at the naval base include actor Peter Bergman and American guitarist Isaac Guillory.
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Gladstone Gander
Gladstone Gander is a Walt Disney fictional character created in 1948 by comic artist and writer Carl Barks. He is an anthropomorphic male goose (or gander) who possesses exceptional good luck that grants him anything he desires as well as protecting him from any harm. This is in contrast to his cousin Donald Duck who is often characterized for having bad luck. Gladstone is also a rival of Donald for the affection of Daisy Duck. Gladstone dresses in a very debonair way, often in a suit; wearing a bow-tie, fedora and spats. He has a wavy hairstyle which is depicted either as white or blonde. In the story "Luck of the North" (December, 1949) he is described as having a brassy voice.
Gladstone Gander first appeared in "Wintertime Wager" in "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" #88 (January, 1948), written and drawn by Carl Barks. In that story he arrives at Donald Duck's house during a freezing cold Christmas Day to remind him of a wager Donald made the previous summer; that he could swim in the Frozenbear Lake during Christmas Day or forfeit his house to Gladstone. Donald eventually loses the wager but Gladstone later on loses a wager of his own, brought to light by Daisy Duck, and thus Donald's house is returned to him.
Barks gradually developed Gladstone's personality and demeanor after his first appearance and used him quite frequently—in 24 stories between 1948 and 1953, the first five years of his existence. In his first three appearances in 1948 ("Wintertime Wager", "Gladstone Returns", "Links Hijinks"), he was portrayed as the mirror image of Donald: an obstinate braggart, perhaps just a little bit more arrogant, but did not yet have his characteristic luck. In his next two appearances, "Rival Beachcombers" and "The Goldilocks Gambit", Gladstone is portrayed as merely lazy and irritable, and also gullible. The breakthrough of his lucky streak occurs in 1949, within the adventure story "Race to the South Seas!" ("March of Comics" #41). In that story Donald and Huey, Dewey and Louie set sails on a rescue mission from Duckburg to a remote Pacific island on which Scrooge McDuck is believed to have stranded, in an attempt gain their uncle's favor. For the same reason Gladstone is in hot pursuit as well but because he was "born lucky" as Donald explains to his nephews, without lifting a finger, is having a much easier time than them.
His and Donald's rivalry over Daisy is established in "Donald's Love Letters" (1949), "Wild About Flowers" (1950), and "Knightly Rivals" (1951), and as potential heirs to Scrooge's fortune in "Some Heir Over the Rainbow" (1953). After that, Barks felt unable to develop the character further, finding him basically unsympathetic, and began using him less frequently. But by then, Gladstone had found a steady place in the Duck universe as one of the main established characters; frequently used by other writers and artists both in the Americas and Europe. He was first used by an artist other than Barks in 1951: "Presents For All" by Del Connell and Bob Moore. He appears as a main character in the Big Little Book series book "Luck of the Ducks" (1969).
Gladstone's good luck defies probability and provides him with anything that would be to his benefit or enjoyment; as well as things he specifically wishes for, which are at times related to the plot of some stories. This could range from finding wallets and other valuables on the sidewalk to pieces of a ripped apart treasure map floating together in river to form it whole again; revealing the treasure’s location. His good luck also protects him from any harm. At times he might not even know that a situation will work out in his favor in a later stage and by then often feeling confused or at times even thinking his luck has abandoned him; just to learn that it has been with him all along.
There have been various explanations for Gladstone’s good luck over the years by various writers and artists. In Barks' story “Luck of the North” Gladstone proclaims: “I was born under a lucky star, and everything I do will bring me good fortune [...].” This is read from a horoscope book he owns which also has a map showing his lucky star conniving with the planet Neptunus. In many of the Italian comic books stories Gladstone is bestowed with his luck because Fortuna, the goddess of fortune, is in love with him. In Don Rosa's story "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink" (1997), he added the fact that Gladstone was born on the day of his mother Daphne's birthday in 1920, under the protection sign of the Triple Distelfink, thus inheriting his mother's luck. In some stories he also uses good luck charms like lucky horseshoes or rabbits foots.
However, for all his luck Gladstone has no achievements to be proud of and no true ambitions, as he is incapable of long-term planning. This is all because of that he does not have to make the slightest of efforts to get what he wants, as his good luck will just give it to him in the end. He also often do not learn any life lessons from any misfortunes he could experience. This leads him to be extremely lazy; at times even thinking that willfully wishing for something is hard work, and disconnected from the realities of ordinary life. All of this is in stark contrast to his relative Scrooge McDuck, who is also capable of taking advantage of opportunities but works hard to create situations favorable for him; is strongly motivated by his ambitions and takes pride in forming his fortune by his own efforts and experiences. Instead, Gladstone often shows pride in his effortlessness and expresses great anxiety if he would betray those ideals. This is something first explored in more detail in Carl Barks's story "Gladstone's Terrible Secret" (May, 1952). Comic artist and writer Don Rosa has commented has this on the character: "Gladstone is unwilling to make the slightest effort to gain something that his luck cannot give him, and, when things go wrong, he resigns immediately, certain that around the next corner a wallet, dropped by a passer-by, will be waiting for him".
Also because of his good fortune, Gladstone is most often characterized to be very snobbish and a gloat; especially (and in some stories exclusively) toward his cousin Donald to whom he also can be very aggravating. For all of these reasons, he and Donald have formed an intense rivalry with each other. Gladstone's outrageous luck and boastfulness toward his cousin, combined with Donald's own ego and belief he can still best him despite all odds---or as Don Rosa's version of Donald comments, "Donald's eternal tendency towards self-destruction"---have set the stage for many stories featuring the two cousins' confrontations. They have however worked together or at least tolerated each other at times but this is very rare and not without some tension that easily can turn into their ordinary rivalry.
Occasionally, he is a rival to Scrooge McDuck himself who resents his complete reliance on his uncanny good luck. In such stories, often the only way Gladstone can be believably defeated is to have him win by the letter of the original story preset while the heroes later on take the bigger prize. In Carl Barks' story "The Golden Nugget Boat" ("Uncle Scrooge" #35, September 1961), Gladstone and Scrooge are competing in a gold prospecting contest in which Gladstone finds a gold nugget the nephews fashioned from a gold item Scrooge already owns to stop him from killing himself from overexertion in the contest. Gladstone finds the nugget and returns to win, but Scrooge and his nephews then find a much bigger nugget they are able to fashion into a boat to return to civilization afterward with a monetary worth that is easily more than Gladstone's find. Another instance of this with his rivalry with Donald was in the "Salmon Derby" ("Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" #167, August 1954), where Gladstone catches the biggest fish and wins a new car but Donald manages to save a wealthy tycoon's daughter and is able to purchase a much bigger car. Another instance was when both Donald and Gladstone were competing for a job as a cameraman for a nature film director because Daisy was the director's assistant, Gladstone got the job but wished he had not because he wound up trudging through a swamp to film giant spiders while Daisy stayed behind in America, with Donald.
In more modern stories where he takes a more protagonistic role, writers most often downplay his unlikability to make him more relatable. For example, showing that he can learn from potential bad experiences, even if they never would become reality, and put more emphasis on his love for his family, even if he at times has a hard time expressing these feelings.
In many stories Gladstone is also considered among the prime candidates for Scrooge McDuck's succession. In "Some Heir Over the Rainbow" ("Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" #155, August 1953) by Carl Barks, Scrooge gives $1,000 to Donald, Gladstone, and Huey, Dewey and Louie to determine how they use it in order to be the most suitable heir to his fortune, Gladstone thinks of using the money to buy a television set until he finds a raffle ticket, in which he decides to save the money by placing it in a tree. Scrooge is unimpressed that Gladstone did not increase the money at all, but acknowledges that at least he still "had" it. Huey, Dewey and Louie infuriate Scrooge by investing their money in what Scrooge assumes was a scam. Finally, Scrooge thinks to himself, "I guess my heir will have to be Gladstone Gander! ... What an awful injustice to the world!" Soon afterwards, however, the children's decision proves to be the wisest, and they become Scrooge's heirs instead of Gladstone.
He is a rival of Donald for the love of Donald's girlfriend Daisy Duck. This is often portrayed either by showing Daisy uncertain of which one she likes the most or; the more common version, that she is angry with Donald and goes out with Gladstone instead to make Donald jealous. In modern comics this love-triangle is at times often more downplayed. However, despite having an eternal crush on Daisy Duck, Gladstone has appeared in love with other duck girls in Italian and Danish comic stories. One of those is Linda Paper, who really conquered Gladstone, making him want to give up all his luck, since she's unlucky and absolutely hates lucky people. She appeared in two subsequent comic stories. Another is Feather Mallard who is as lucky as Gladstone but whenever they are together they are instead experiencing bad luck. A number of recent Italian stories feature Gladstone's protector goddess Fortuna appearing in person. She appears in one noteworthy tale, "Gastone e il debole dalla Fortuna" ("Gladstone and the Struck of Luck"), by Enrico Faccini and Augusto Macchetto, first published on March 24, 1998. In this story, the Goddess takes mortal guise in order to be able to date her favorite gander, and appears to be love-struck with him.
His exact relation to the Duck Family Tree at its early stages was somewhat uncertain. In Carl Barks' original version of the family tree from the 1950s, Gladstone was the son of Luke the Goose and Daphne Duck who died by overeating at a free-lunch picnic. He was later adopted by Matilda McDuck and Goosetave Gander. Later, Barks is reported to have done away with the adoption, which was never featured in any story. (Of course, no stories denying the event were published.) In a more recent version of the family tree created by Don Rosa, with input from Barks, it was established that Daphne Duck (Donald's paternal aunt) married Goostave Gander and the two were Gladstone's parents. This is consistent with what Gladstone says in "Race to the South Seas": "Scrooge McDuck is my mother's brother's brother-in-law".
Gladstone has a nephew named Shamrock Gladstone who shares his propensity for luck. He also has a con artist cousin (not on Donald's side of the family) named Disraeli.
Gladstone makes two speaking appearances in the animated series "DuckTales", where he was voiced by Rob Paulsen. In these episodes he is not characterized as much of a braggart he is in the comics but rather focusing much more on his care-free nature, and additionally acting a bit more foolishly. In the episode "Dime Enough for Luck", Gladstone is an unwitting stooge for Magica De Spell in one of her attempts to steal Scrooge's Number One Dime. He returns in the episode "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. McDuck", where he accidentally bids on an item that turns out to be valuable. This inspires Scrooge to bid on the next item—a trunk containing Dr. Jekyll's formula—which sets the plot in motion. He also makes non-speaking cameo appearances in the episodes "Sweet Duck of Youth" and "Till Nephews Do Us Part", as well in episode of "House of Mouse" "Goofy For A Day". Gladstone appears in the 2000 computer game in his traditional role of Donald's rival for Daisy's affection, and every time a Boss Battle is about to start, Gladstone greets Donald, but always gets hurt, becoming squished by a giant bird, getting knocked off a building by a wrecking ball, being sent crashing to the bottom of a haunted mansion, and even gets sent back to Duckburg inside a pipe, and every time he gets hurt, he keeps saying that he's found a nickel. He also appears in the "DuckTales" reboot, first appearing in the episode "The House of the Lucky Gander!". In this series he is voiced by Paul F. Tompkins.
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Gordon Michael Woolvett
Gordon Michael Woolvett (born 1970) is a Canadian actor from Hamilton, Ontario.
Woolvett's most enduring role was as Seamus Zelazny Harper on the television series "Andromeda" (2000–2005). Prior to "Andromeda" he starred in another science fiction television series, "Deepwater Black". He was also credited as playing Mitch in the "Pariah" episode of the short-lived 1980s science-fiction/action series "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future". He was in two episodes of "Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal".
Woolvett was also one of the first program jockeys for YTV's "The Zone" (then called "The After-School Zone") and the original main host for a program called "Video & Arcade Top 10" which also aired on YTV. He acted in the 1999 made-for-TV film "Ultimate Deception" with Yasmine Bleeth. More recently, Woolvett could be seen on the Canadian television series "The Guard", which aired from 2008 to 2009 on Global Television Network.
In 1992, Woolvett was nominated for the Gemini Award for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor for his role in "Princes in Exile" (1990). He directed the documentary "Around the World in 80 Anthems", which won Best Documentary at the seventh International Film Festival Manhattan in 2017.
Woolvett was born in 1970 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He married Michele Morand on January 15, 2000. His brother is actor Jaimz Woolvett.
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Gypsum
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard/sidewalk chalk, and drywall. A massive fine-grained white or lightly tinted variety of gypsum, called alabaster, has been used for sculpture by many cultures including Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the Nottingham alabasters of Medieval England. Gypsum also crystallizes as translucent crystals of selenite. It also forms as an evaporite mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite.
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness defines hardness value 2 as gypsum based on scratch hardness comparison.
The word "gypsum" is derived from the Greek word γύψος ("gypsos"), "plaster". Because the quarries of the Montmartre district of Paris have long furnished burnt gypsum (calcined gypsum) used for various purposes, this dehydrated gypsum became known as plaster of Paris. Upon addition of water, after a few tens of minutes plaster of Paris becomes regular gypsum (dihydrate) again, causing the material to harden or "set" in ways that are useful for casting and construction.
Gypsum was known in Old English as "spærstān", "spear stone", referring to its crystalline projections. (Thus, the word spar in mineralogy is by way of comparison to gypsum, referring to any non-ore mineral or crystal that forms in spearlike projections). In the mid-18th century, the German clergyman and agriculturalist Johann Friderich Mayer investigated and publicized gypsum's use as a fertilizer. from contaminated waters.
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Growth factor
A growth factor is a naturally occurring substance capable of stimulating cellular growth, proliferation, healing, and cellular differentiation. Usually it is a protein or a steroid hormone. Growth factors are important for regulating a variety of cellular processes.
Growth factors typically act as signaling molecules between cells. Examples are cytokines and hormones that bind to specific receptors on the surface of their target cells.
They often promote cell differentiation and maturation, which varies between growth factors. For example, epidermal growth factor (EGF) enhances osteogenic differentiation, while fibroblast growth factors and vascular endothelial growth factors stimulate blood vessel differentiation (angiogenesis).
"Growth factor" is sometimes used interchangeably among scientists with the term "cytokine." Historically, cytokines were associated with hematopoietic (blood and lymph forming) cells and immune system cells (e.g., lymphocytes and tissue cells from spleen, thymus, and lymph nodes). For the circulatory system and bone marrow in which cells can occur in a liquid suspension and not bound up in solid tissue, it makes sense for them to communicate by soluble, circulating protein molecules. However, as different lines of research converged, it became clear that some of the same signaling proteins which the hematopoietic and immune systems use were also being used by all sorts of other cells and tissues, during development and in the mature organism.
While "growth factor" implies a positive effect on cell division, "cytokine" is a neutral term with respect to whether a molecule affects proliferation. While some cytokines can be growth factors, such as G-CSF and GM-CSF, others have an inhibitory effect on cell growth or proliferation. Some cytokines, such as Fas ligand, are used as "death" signals; they cause target cells to undergo programmed cell death or "apoptosis".
The growth factor was first discovered by Rita Levi-Montalcini, which won her a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Individual growth factor proteins tend to occur as members of larger families of structurally and evolutionarily related proteins. There are many families, some of which are listed below:
The alpha granules in blood platelets contain growth factors PDGF, IGF-1, EGF, and TGF-β which begin healing of wounds by attracting and activating macrophages, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells.
For the last two decades, growth factors have been increasingly used in the treatment of hematologic and oncologic diseases and cardiovascular diseasessuch as:
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Giuseppe Peano
Giuseppe Peano (; ; 27 August 1858 – 20 April 1932) was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation. The standard axiomatization of the natural numbers is named the Peano axioms in his honor. As part of this effort, he made key contributions to the modern rigorous and systematic treatment of the method of mathematical induction. He spent most of his career teaching mathematics at the University of Turin.
He also wrote an international auxiliary language, Latino sine flexione ("Latin without inflections"), which is a simplified version of Classical Latin. Most of his books and papers are in Latin sine flexione, others are in Italian.
Peano was born and raised on a farm at Spinetta, a hamlet now belonging to Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy. He attended the Liceo classico Cavour in Turin, and enrolled at the University of Turin in 1876, graduating in 1880 with high honors, after which the University employed him to assist first Enrico D'Ovidio, and then Angelo Genocchi, the Chair of calculus. Due to Genocchi's poor health, Peano took over the teaching of calculus course within two years. His first major work, a textbook on calculus, was published in 1884 and was credited to Genocchi. A few years later, Peano published his first book dealing with mathematical logic. Here the modern symbols for the union and intersection of sets appeared for the first time.
In 1887, Peano married Carola Crosio, the daughter of the Turin-based painter Luigi Crosio, known for painting the "Refugium Peccatorum Madonna". In 1886, he began teaching concurrently at the Royal Military Academy, and was promoted to Professor First Class in 1889. In that year he published the Peano axioms, a formal foundation for the collection of natural numbers. The next year, the University of Turin also granted him his full professorship. The Peano curve was published in 1890 as the first example of a space-filling curve which demonstrated that the unit interval and the unit square have the same cardinality. Today it is understood to be an early example of what is known as a fractal.
In 1890 Peano founded the journal "Rivista di Matematica", which published its first issue in January 1891. In 1891 Peano started the Formulario Project. It was to be an "Encyclopedia of Mathematics", containing all known formulae and theorems of mathematical science using a standard notation invented by Peano. In 1897, the first International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Zürich. Peano was a key participant, presenting a paper on mathematical logic. He also started to become increasingly occupied with "Formulario" to the detriment of his other work.
In 1898 he presented a note to the Academy about binary numeration and its ability to be used to represent the sounds of languages. He also became so frustrated with publishing delays (due to his demand that formulae be printed on one line) that he purchased a printing press.
Paris was the venue for the Second International Congress of Mathematicians in 1900. The conference was preceded by the First International Conference of Philosophy where Peano was a member of the patronage committee. He presented a paper which posed the question of correctly formed definitions in mathematics, "i.e." "how do you define a definition?". This became one of Peano's main philosophical interests for the rest of his life. At the conference Peano met Bertrand Russell and gave him a copy of "Formulario". Russell was struck by Peano's innovative logical symbols and after the conference he retired in the country "to study quietly every word written by him or his disciples."
Peano's students Mario Pieri and Alessandro Padoa had papers presented at the philosophy congress also. For the mathematical congress, Peano did not speak, but Padoa's memorable presentation has been frequently recalled. A resolution calling for the formation of an "international auxiliary language" to facilitate the spread of mathematical (and commercial) ideas, was proposed; Peano fully supported it.
By 1901, Peano was at the peak of his mathematical career. He had made advances in the areas of analysis, foundations and logic, made many contributions to the teaching of calculus and also contributed to the fields of differential equations and vector analysis. Peano played a key role in the axiomatization of mathematics and was a leading pioneer in the development of mathematical logic. Peano had by this stage become heavily involved with the "Formulario" project and his teaching began to suffer. In fact, he became so determined to teach his new mathematical symbols that the calculus in his course was neglected. As a result, he was dismissed from the Royal Military Academy but retained his post at Turin University.
In 1903 Peano announced his work on an international auxiliary language called "Latino sine flexione" ("Latin without inflexion," later called Interlingua, and the precursor of the Interlingua of the IALA). This was an important project for him (along with finding contributors for 'Formulario'). The idea was to use Latin vocabulary, since this was widely known, but simplify the grammar as much as possible and remove all irregular and anomalous forms to make it easier to learn. On 3 January 1908, he read a paper to the "Academia delle Scienze di Torino" in which he started speaking in Latin and, as he described each simplification, introduced it into his speech so that by the end he was talking in his new language.
The year 1908 was important for Peano. The fifth and final edition of the "Formulario" project, titled "Formulario mathematico", was published. It contained 4200 formulae and theorems, all completely stated and most of them proved. The book received little attention since much of the content was dated by this time. However, it remains a significant contribution to mathematical literature. The comments and examples were written in "Latino sine flexione".
Also in 1908, Peano took over the chair of higher analysis at Turin (this appointment was to last for only two years). He was elected the director of "Academia pro Interlingua". Having previously created Idiom Neutral, the Academy effectively chose to abandon it in favor of Peano's Latino sine flexione.
After his mother died in 1910, Peano divided his time between teaching, working on texts aimed for secondary schooling including a dictionary of mathematics, and developing and promoting his and other auxiliary languages, becoming a revered member of the international auxiliary language movement. He used his membership of the "Accademia dei Lincei" to present papers written by friends and colleagues who were not members (the Accademia recorded and published all presented papers given in sessions).
During the years 1913–1918, Peano published several papers that dealt with the remainder term for various numerical quadrature formulas, and introduced the Peano kernel.
In 1925 Peano switched Chairs unofficially from Infinitesimal Calculus to Complementary Mathematics, a field which better suited his current style of mathematics. This move became official in 1931. Giuseppe Peano continued teaching at Turin University until the day before he died, when he suffered a fatal heart attack.
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Gin and tonic
A gin and tonic is a highball cocktail made with gin and tonic water poured over a large amount of ice. The ratio of gin to tonic varies according to taste, strength of the gin, other drink mixers being added, etc., with most recipes calling for between a 1:1 to 1:3 ratio. It is usually garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. To preserve effervescence, the tonic can be poured down a bar spoon. The ice cools the gin, dulling the effect of the alcohol in the mouth and making the drink more pleasant to taste.
In some countries (e.g. UK), gin and tonic is also marketed pre-mixed in single-serving cans. In the United States, most bars use "soda out of a gun that in no way, shape, or form resembles quinine water", according to bartender Dale DeGroff. To get a real gin and tonic, DeGroff recommends specifying bottled tonic. Alternatively, one can add tonic syrup to soda water.
It is commonly referred to as a "G and T" in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. In some parts of the world, it is called a "gin tonic" (e.g. in Germany, Italy, France, Japan ( ジン・トニック, phonetically "jin tonikku"), the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey).
Gin and tonic is traditionally garnished with a slice or wedge of lime, often slightly squeezed into the drink before being placed in the glass. In most parts of the world lime remains the only usual garnish; however, lemon is often used as an alternative fruit. In the United Kingdom, the use of both lemon and lime together is known as an "Evans". Although the origins of the use of lemons are unknown, their use dates back at least as far as the late 1930s. In addition lemons are often more readily available, and cheaper to purchase, than limes. The use of lemon or lime is a debated issue – some leading brands, such as Gordon's, Tanqueray, and Bombay Sapphire, recommend the use of lime in their gin.
The cocktail was introduced by the army of the British East India Company in India. In India and other tropical regions, malaria was a persistent problem. In the 1700s Scottish doctor George Cleghorn studied how quinine, a traditional cure for malaria, could be used to prevent the disease. The quinine was drunk in tonic water, however the bitter taste was unpleasant. British officers in India in the early 19th century took to adding a mixture of water, sugar, lime and gin to the quinine in order to make the drink more palatable, thus gin and tonic was born. Soldiers in India were already given a gin ration, and the sweet concoction made sense. Since it is no longer used as an antimalarial, tonic water today contains much less quinine, is usually sweetened, and is consequently much less bitter.
Gin and tonic is a popular cocktail during the summer. A 2004 study found that after 12 hours, "considerable quantities (500 to 1,000 ml) of tonic water may, for a short period of time, lead to quinine plasma levels at the lower limit of therapeutic efficacy and may, in fact, cause transitory suppression of parasites". This method of consumption of quinine was impractical for malaria prophylaxis, as the amount of drug needed "can not be maintained with even large amounts of tonic". The authors conclude that it is not an effective form of treatment for malaria.
Mixers can include lime juice, lemon juice, orange juice and spiced simple syrup, grenadine, tea, etc.
Besides the classic lime wheel, garnishes can include, for example, orange peel, star anise, thyme-elderflower, a slice of ginger, pink grapefruit and rosemary, cucumber, mint and black peppercorns, strawberry and basil, strawberry syrup, chillies and lime, etc. Fruits such as kumquats or other citrus or cucumber can be muddled in it. A gin and tonic can also be mixed with a sorbet.
Some gin-and-tonic inspired drinks also have champagne (e.g. the Parisian), vermouth and Campari (e.g. the Sbagliato-nic), vermouth and bitters (e.g. the Posh G&T), super smokey whiskey (e.g. the Ol' Smokey), peach liqueur and grapefruit bitters (e.g. the Tonic Delight), mint bitters and chocolate liqueur (e.g. the Guilty Pleasure), etc.
In Spain, a variation on the drink called Gin-Tonic has become popular. This differs from a traditional gin and tonic as it is served in a balloon glass (copa de balon) or coupe glass with plenty of ice and a garnish tailored to the flavours of the gin. The drink could be fruit-based but the use of herbs and vegetables, reflecting the gin's botanicals, is increasingly popular. The balloon glass is used because the aromas of the drink can gather at its opening for the drinker to more easily appreciate.
The popularity of this variation of the gin and tonic has led to the establishment of Gin-Tonic bars, in which customers can choose their preferred gin, tonic, and garnish from a menu.
The transgalactic nature of the gin and tonic is imagined in Douglas Adams' novel "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", which describes how "85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian 'chinanto/mnigs' which is ordinary water served at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan 'tzjin-anthony-ks' which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds."
James Bond specifies a recipe for a gin and tonic while in Kingston, Jamaica, in the book "Dr. No". Unusually it involves the juice of a whole lime.
The first character described in the Billy Joel song "Piano Man" is said to be "making love to his tonic and gin."
The song "Supersonic" by English rock band Oasis references the drink.
In the movie "The Year of Living Dangerously", Colonel Henderson, when he first meets Guy Hamilton, complains when his gin and tonic is served with ice, explaining that only Americans drink it like that.
On the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", character Barney Stinson played by Neil Patrick Harris is often heard ordering a gin and tonic. On one occasion where he serves as a bartender, the audience learns that he does not know what the drink consists of.
Gin and tonic is one of John Constantine's drinks of choice in the "Hellblazer" comics. Gin and tonic is also the drink of choice for hero, Cat, in Jeaniene Frost's "Night Huntress" Series.
Founded in 2010, International Gin & Tonic Day is celebrated worldwide on 19 October.
Melanie Scrofano's character, Mrs. McMurray, prefers to drink gin and tonics in the Canadian TV comedy "Letterkenny".
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Geometric mean
In mathematics, the geometric mean is a mean or average, which indicates the central tendency or typical value of a set of numbers by using the product of their values (as opposed to the arithmetic mean which uses their sum). The geometric mean is defined as the th root of the product of numbers, i.e., for a set of numbers , the geometric mean is defined as
For instance, the geometric mean of two numbers, say 2 and 8, is just the square root of their product, that is, formula_2. As another example, the geometric mean of the three numbers 4, 1, and 1/32 is the cube root of their product (1/8), which is 1/2, that is, formula_3.
A geometric mean is often used when comparing different items—finding a single "figure of merit" for these items—when each item has multiple properties that have different numeric ranges. For example, the geometric mean can give a meaningful value to compare two companies which are each rated at 0 to 5 for their environmental sustainability, and are rated at 0 to 100 for their financial viability. If an arithmetic mean were used instead of a geometric mean, the financial viability would have greater weight because its numeric range is larger. That is, a small percentage change in the financial rating (e.g. going from 80 to 90) makes a much larger difference in the arithmetic mean than a large percentage change in environmental sustainability (e.g. going from 2 to 5). The use of a geometric mean normalizes the differently-ranged values, meaning a given percentage change in any of the properties has the same effect on the geometric mean. So, a 20% change in environmental sustainability from 4 to 4.8 has the same effect on the geometric mean as a 20% change in financial viability from 60 to 72.
The geometric mean can be understood in terms of geometry. The geometric mean of two numbers, formula_4 and formula_5, is the length of one side of a square whose area is equal to the area of a rectangle with sides of lengths formula_4 and formula_5. Similarly, the geometric mean of three numbers, formula_4, formula_5, and formula_10, is the length of one edge of a cube whose volume is the same as that of a cuboid with sides whose lengths are equal to the three given numbers.
The geometric mean applies only to positive numbers. It is also often used for a set of numbers whose values are meant to be multiplied together or are exponential in nature, such as data on the growth of the human population or interest rates of a financial investment.
The geometric mean is also one of the three classical Pythagorean means, together with the aforementioned arithmetic mean and the harmonic mean. For all positive data sets containing at least one pair of unequal values, the harmonic mean is always the least of the three means, while the arithmetic mean is always the greatest of the three and the geometric mean is always in between (see Inequality of arithmetic and geometric means.)
The geometric mean of a data set formula_11 is given by:
The above figure uses capital pi notation to show a series of multiplications. Each side of the equal sign shows that a set of values is multiplied in succession (the number of values is represented by "n") to give a total product of the set, and then the "n"th root of the total product is taken to give the geometric mean of the original set. For example, in a set of four numbers formula_13, the product of formula_14 is formula_15, and the geometric mean is the fourth root of 24, or ~ 2.213. The exponent formula_16 on the left side is equivalent to the taking "n"th root. For example, formula_17.
The geometric mean of a data set is less than the data set's arithmetic mean unless all members of the data set are equal, in which case the geometric and arithmetic means are equal. This allows the definition of the arithmetic-geometric mean, an intersection of the two which always lies in between.
The geometric mean is also the arithmetic-harmonic mean in the sense that if two sequences (formula_18) and (formula_19) are defined:
and
where formula_22 is the harmonic mean of the previous values of the two sequences, then formula_18 and formula_19 will converge to the geometric mean of formula_25 and formula_26.
This can be seen easily from the fact that the sequences do converge to a common limit (which can be shown by Bolzano–Weierstrass theorem) and the fact that geometric mean is preserved:
Replacing the arithmetic and harmonic mean by a pair of generalized means of opposite, finite exponents yields the same result.
The geometric mean can also be expressed as the exponential of the arithmetic mean of logarithms. By using logarithmic identities to transform the formula, the multiplications can be expressed as a sum and the power as a multiplication:
When formula_28
additionally, if negative values of the formula_30 are allowed,
where is the number of negative numbers.
This is sometimes called the log-average (not to be confused with the logarithmic average). It is simply computing the arithmetic mean of the logarithm-transformed values of formula_30 (i.e., the arithmetic mean on the log scale) and then using the exponentiation to return the computation to the original scale, i.e., it is the generalised f-mean with formula_33. For example, the geometric mean of 2 and 8 can be calculated as the following, where formula_5 is any base of a logarithm (commonly 2, formula_35 or 10):
Related to the above, it can be seen that for a given sample of points formula_37, the geometric mean is the minimizer of formula_38, whereas the arithmetic mean is the minimizer of formula_39. Thus, the geometric mean provides a summary of the samples whose exponent best matches the exponents of the samples (in the least squares sense).
The log form of the geometric mean is generally the preferred alternative for implementation in computer languages because calculating the product of many numbers can lead to an arithmetic overflow or arithmetic underflow. This is less likely to occur with the sum of the logarithms for each number.
The geometric mean of a non-empty data set of (positive) numbers is always at most their arithmetic mean. Equality is only obtained when all numbers in the data set are equal; otherwise, the geometric mean is smaller. For example, the geometric mean of 242 and 288 equals 264, while their arithmetic mean is 265. In particular, this means that when a set of non-identical numbers is subjected to a mean-preserving spread — that is, the elements of the set are "spread apart" more from each other while leaving the arithmetic mean unchanged — their geometric mean decreases.
In many cases the geometric mean is the best measure to determine the average growth rate of some quantity. (For example, if in one year sales increases by 80% and the next year by 25%, the end result is the same as that of a constant growth rate of 50%, since the geometric mean of 1.80 and 1.25 is 1.50.) In order to determine the average growth rate, it is not necessary to take the product of the measured growth rates at every step. Let the quantity be given as the sequence formula_40, where formula_41 is the number of steps from the initial to final state. The growth rate between successive measurements formula_42 and formula_43 is formula_44. The geometric mean of these growth rates is then just:
The fundamental property of the geometric mean, which does not hold for any other mean, is that for two sequences formula_46 and formula_47 of equal length,
This makes the geometric mean the only correct mean when averaging "normalized" results; that is, results that are presented as ratios to reference values. This is the case when presenting computer performance with respect to a reference computer, or when computing a single average index from several heterogeneous sources (for example, life expectancy, education years, and infant mortality). In this scenario, using the arithmetic or harmonic mean would change the ranking of the results depending on what is used as a reference. For example, take the following comparison of execution time of computer programs:
The arithmetic and geometric means "agree" that computer C is the fastest. However, by presenting appropriately normalized values "and" using the arithmetic mean, we can show either of the other two computers to be the fastest. Normalizing by A's result gives A as the fastest computer according to the arithmetic mean:
while normalizing by B's result gives B as the fastest computer according to the arithmetic mean but A as the fastest according to the harmonic mean:
and normalizing by C's result gives C as the fastest computer according to the arithmetic mean but A as the fastest according to the harmonic mean:
In all cases, the ranking given by the geometric mean stays the same as the one obtained with unnormalized values.
However, this reasoning has been questioned.
Giving consistent results is not always equal to giving the correct results. In general, it is more rigorous to assign weights to each of the programs, calculate the average weighted execution time (using the arithmetic mean), and then normalize that result to one of the computers. The three tables above just give a different weight to each of the programs, explaining the inconsistent results of the arithmetic and harmonic means (the first table gives equal weight to both programs, the second gives a weight of 1/1000 to the second program, and the third gives a weight of 1/100 to the second program and 1/10 to the first one). The use of the geometric mean for aggregating performance numbers should be avoided if possible, because multiplying execution times has no physical meaning, in contrast to adding times as in the arithmetic mean. Metrics that are inversely proportional to time (speedup, IPC) should be averaged using the harmonic mean.
The geometric mean can be derived from the generalized mean as its limit as formula_49 goes to zero. Similarly, this is possible for the weighted geometric mean.
The geometric mean is more appropriate than the arithmetic mean for describing proportional growth, both exponential growth (constant proportional growth) and varying growth; in business the geometric mean of growth rates is known as the compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The geometric mean of growth over periods yields the equivalent constant growth rate that would yield the same final amount.
Suppose an orange tree yields 100 oranges one year and then 180, 210 and 300 the following years, so the growth is 80%, 16.6666% and 42.8571% for each year respectively. Using the arithmetic mean calculates a (linear) average growth of 46.5079% (80% + 16.6666% + 42.8571%, that sum then divided by 3). However, if we start with 100 oranges and let it grow 46.5079% each year, the result is 314 oranges, not 300, so the linear average "over"-states the year-on-year growth.
Instead, we can use the geometric mean. Growing with 80% corresponds to multiplying with 1.80, so we take the geometric mean of 1.80, 1.166666 and 1.428571, i.e. formula_50; thus the "average" growth per year is 44.2249%. If we start with 100 oranges and let the number grow with 44.2249% each year, the result is 300 oranges.
The geometric mean has from time to time been used to calculate financial indices (the averaging is over the components of the index). For example, in the past the FT 30 index used a geometric mean. It is also used in the recently introduced "RPIJ" measure of inflation in the United Kingdom and in the European Union.
This has the effect of understating movements in the index compared to using the arithmetic mean.
Although the geometric mean has been relatively rare in computing social statistics, starting from 2010 the United Nations Human Development Index did switch to this mode of calculation, on the grounds that it better reflected the non-substitutable nature of the statistics being compiled and compared:
Not all values used to compute the HDI (Human Development Index) are normalized; some of them instead have the form formula_51. This makes the choice of the geometric mean less obvious than one would expect from the "Properties" section above.
The equally distributed welfare equivalent income associated with an Atkinson Index with an inequality aversion parameter of 1.0 is simply the geometric mean of incomes. For values other than one, the equivalent value is an Lp norm divided by the number of elements, with p equal to one minus the inequality aversion parameter.
In the case of a right triangle, its altitude is the length of a line extending perpendicularly from the hypotenuse to its 90° vertex. Imagining that this line splits the hypotenuse into two segments, the geometric mean of these segment lengths is the length of the altitude. This property is known as the geometric mean theorem.
In an ellipse, the semi-minor axis is the geometric mean of the maximum and minimum distances of the ellipse from a focus; it is also the geometric mean of the semi-major axis and the semi-latus rectum. The semi-major axis of an ellipse is the geometric mean of the distance from the center to either focus and the distance from the center to either directrix.
Distance to the horizon of a sphere is approximately equal to the geometric mean of the distance to the closest point of the sphere and the distance to the farthest point of the sphere when the distance to the closest point of the sphere is small.
Both in the approximation of squaring the circle according to S.A. Ramanujan (1914) and in the construction of the Heptadecagon according to ""sent by T. P. Stowell, credited to Leybourn's Math. Repository, 1818"", the geometric mean is employed.
The geometric mean has been used in choosing a compromise aspect ratio in film and video: given two aspect ratios, the geometric mean of them provides a compromise between them, distorting or cropping both in some sense equally. Concretely, two equal area rectangles (with the same center and parallel sides) of different aspect ratios intersect in a rectangle whose aspect ratio is the geometric mean, and their hull (smallest rectangle which contains both of them) likewise has the aspect ratio of their geometric mean.
In aspect ratio by the SMPTE, balancing 2.35 and 4:3, the geometric mean is formula_52, and thus formula_53... was chosen. This was discovered empirically by Kerns Powers, who cut out rectangles with equal areas and shaped them to match each of the popular aspect ratios. When overlapped with their center points aligned, he found that all of those aspect ratio rectangles fit within an outer rectangle with an aspect ratio of 1.77:1 and all of them also covered a smaller common inner rectangle with the same aspect ratio 1.77:1. The value found by Powers is exactly the geometric mean of the extreme aspect ratios, (1.33:1) and CinemaScope(2.35:1), which is coincidentally close to formula_54 (formula_55). The intermediate ratios have no effect on the result, only the two extreme ratios.
Applying the same geometric mean technique to 16:9 and 4:3 approximately yields the (formula_56...) aspect ratio, which is likewise used as a compromise between these ratios. In this case 14:9 is exactly the "arithmetic mean" of formula_54 and formula_58, since 14 is the average of 16 and 12, while the precise "geometric mean" is formula_59 but the two different "means", arithmetic and geometric, are approximately equal because both numbers are sufficiently close to each other (a difference of less than 2%).
In signal processing, spectral flatness, a measure of how flat or spiky a spectrum is, is defined as the ratio of the geometric mean of the power spectrum to its arithmetic mean.
In optical coatings, where reflection needs to be minimised between two media of refractive indices "n"0 and "n"2, the optimum refractive index "n"1 of the anti-reflective coating is given by the geometric mean: formula_60.
The spectral reflectance curve for paint mixtures (of equal tinting strength, opacity and dilution) is approximately the geometric mean of the paints' individual reflectance curves computed at each wavelength of their spectra.
The geometric mean filter is used as a noise filter in image processing.
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George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels, "Adam Bede" (1859), "The Mill on the Floss" (1860), "Silas Marner" (1861), "Romola" (1862–63), "Felix Holt, the Radical" (1866), "Middlemarch" (1871–72) and "Daniel Deronda" (1876), most of which are set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.
Although female authors were published under their own names during her lifetime, she wanted to escape the stereotype of women's writing being limited to lighthearted romances. She also wanted to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as an editor and critic. Another factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny, thus avoiding the scandal that would have arisen because of her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes.
"Middlemarch" has been described by the novelists Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.
Mary Ann Evans was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. She was the third child of Robert Evans (1773–1849) and Christiana Evans ("née" Pearson, 1788–1836), the daughter of a local mill-owner. Mary Ann's name was sometimes shortened to Marian. Her full siblings were Christiana, known as Chrissey (1814–59), Isaac (1816–1890), and twin brothers who died a few days after birth in March 1821. She also had a half-brother, Robert (1802–64), and half-sister, Fanny (1805–82), from her father's previous marriage to Harriet Poynton (?1780–1809). Her father Robert Evans, of Welsh ancestry, was the manager of the Arbury Hall Estate for the Newdigate family in Warwickshire, and Mary Ann was born on the estate at South Farm. In early 1820 the family moved to a house named Griff House, between Nuneaton and Bedworth.
The young Evans was a voracious reader and obviously intelligent. Because she was not considered physically beautiful, Evans was not thought to have much chance of marriage, and this, coupled with her intelligence, led her father to invest in an education not often afforded women. From ages five to nine, she boarded with her sister Chrissey at Miss Latham's school in Attleborough, from ages nine to thirteen at Mrs. Wallington's school in Nuneaton, and from ages thirteen to sixteen at Miss Franklin's school in Coventry. At Mrs. Wallington's school, she was taught by the evangelical Maria Lewis — to whom her earliest surviving letters are addressed. In the religious atmosphere of the Misses Franklin's school, Evans was exposed to a quiet, disciplined belief opposed to evangelicalism.
After age sixteen, Evans had little formal education. Thanks to her father's important role on the estate, she was allowed access to the library of Arbury Hall, which greatly aided her self-education and breadth of learning. Her classical education left its mark; Christopher Stray has observed that "George Eliot's novels draw heavily on Greek literature (only one of her books can be printed correctly without the use of a Greek typeface), and her themes are often influenced by Greek tragedy". Her frequent visits to the estate also allowed her to contrast the wealth in which the local landowner lived with the lives of the often much poorer people on the estate, and different lives lived in parallel would reappear in many of her works. The other important early influence in her life was religion. She was brought up within a low church Anglican family, but at that time the Midlands was an area with a growing number of religious dissenters.
In 1836 her mother died and Evans (then 16) returned home to act as housekeeper, but she continued correspondence with her tutor Maria Lewis. When she was 21, her brother Isaac married and took over the family home, so Evans and her father moved to Foleshill near Coventry. The closeness to Coventry society brought new influences, most notably those of Charles and Cara Bray. Charles Bray had become rich as a ribbon manufacturer and had used his wealth in the building of schools and in other philanthropic causes. Evans, who had been struggling with religious doubts for some time, became intimate friends with the radical, free-thinking Brays, whose "Rosehill" home was a haven for people who held and debated radical views. The people whom the young woman met at the Brays' house included Robert Owen, Herbert Spencer, Harriet Martineau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through this society Evans was introduced to more liberal and agnostic theologies and to writers such as David Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach, who cast doubt on the literal truth of Biblical stories. In fact, her first major literary work was an English translation of Strauss's "The Life of Jesus" (1846), which she completed after it had been left incomplete by another member of the "Rosehill Circle"; later she translated Feuerbach's "The Essence of Christianity" (1854). As a product of their friendship, Bray published some of Evans's earliest writing, such as reviews, in his newspaper the "Coventry Herald and Observer".
When Evans began to question her religious faith, her father threatened to throw her out of the house, but his threat was not carried out. Instead, she respectfully attended church and continued to keep house for him until his death in 1849, when she was 30. Five days after her father's funeral, she travelled to Switzerland with the Brays. She decided to stay on in Geneva alone, living first on the lake at Plongeon (near the present-day United Nations buildings) and then on the second floor of a house owned by her friends François and Juliet d'Albert Durade on the rue de Chanoines (now the rue de la Pelisserie). She commented happily that "one feels in a downy nest high up in a good old tree". Her stay is commemorated by a plaque on the building. While residing there, she read avidly and took long walks in the beautiful Swiss countryside, which was a great inspiration to her. François Durade painted her portrait there as well.
On her return to England the following year (1850), she moved to London with the intent of becoming a writer, and she began referring to herself as Marian Evans. She stayed at the house of John Chapman, the radical publisher whom she had met earlier at Rosehill and who had published her Strauss translation. Chapman had recently purchased the campaigning, left-wing journal "The Westminster Review". Evans became its assistant editor in 1851 after joining just a year earlier. Evans' writings for the paper were comments on her views of society and the Victorian way of Thinking. She was sympathetic to the lower classes and criticised organised religion throughout her articles and reviews and commented on contemporary ideas of the time. Much of this was drawn from her own experiences and knowledge and she used this to critique other ideas and organisations. This led to her writing being viewed as authentic and wise but not too obviously opinionated. Evans’ also focused on the business side of the Review with attempts to change its layout and design. Although Chapman was officially the editor, it was Evans who did most of the work of producing the journal, contributing many essays and reviews beginning with the January 1852 issue and continuing until the end of her employment at the "Review" in the first half of 1854. Eliot sympathized with the 1848 Revolutions throughout continental Europe, and even hoped that the Italians would chase the "odious Austrians" out of Lombardy and that "decayed monarchs" would be pensioned off, although she believed a gradual reformist approach to social problems was best for England.
Women writers were common at the time, but Evans's role as the female editor of a literary magazine was quite unusual. During this period, she formed a number of unreciprocated emotional attachments, including one with Chapman (who was married, but lived with both his wife and his mistress), and another with Herbert Spencer.
In 1850–51, Evans attended classes in mathematics at the Ladies College in Bedford Square, later known as Bedford College, London.
The philosopher and critic George Henry Lewes (1817–78) met Evans in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live together. Lewes was already married to Agnes Jervis, although in an open marriage. In addition to the three children they had together, Agnes also had four children by Thornton Leigh Hunt. In July 1854, Lewes and Evans travelled to Weimar and Berlin together for the purpose of research. Before going to Germany, Evans continued her theological work with a translation of Feuerbach's "The Essence of Christianity", and while abroad she wrote essays and worked on her translation of Baruch Spinoza's "Ethics", which she completed in 1856, but which was not published in her lifetime.
The trip to Germany also served as a honeymoon for Evans and Lewes, who subsequently considered themselves married. Evans began to refer to Lewes as her husband and to sign her name as Mary Ann Evans Lewes. Eventually, after Lewes' death, she legally changed her name to Mary Ann Evans Lewes. It was not unusual for men in Victorian society to have adulterous affairs; Charles Bray, John Chapman, Friedrich Engels, and Wilkie Collins all had adulterous affairs, conducted with discretion. By contrast, Lewes and Evans declined to conceal their relationship, and it was this refusal which perhaps gave an additional edge to the reproaches of contemporary moralists.
While continuing to contribute pieces to the "Westminster Review", Evans resolved to become a novelist, and set out a pertinent manifesto in one of her last essays for the "Review", "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" (1856). The essay criticised the trivial and ridiculous plots of contemporary fiction written by women. In other essays, she praised the realism of novels that were being written in Europe at the time, an emphasis on realistic storytelling confirmed in her own subsequent fiction. She also adopted a nom-de-plume, George Eliot; as she explained to her biographer J. W. Cross, George was Lewes's forename, and Eliot was "a good mouth-filling, easily pronounced word"
In 1857, when she was 37 years of age, "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton", the first of the three stories included in "Scenes of Clerical Life", and the first work of "George Eliot", was published in "Blackwood's Magazine". "The Scenes" (published as a 2-volume book in 1858), was well received, and was widely believed to have been written by a country parson, or perhaps the wife of a parson. Evans's first complete novel, published in 1859, was "Adam Bede". It was an instant success, and prompted yet more intense curiosity as to the author's identity: there was even a pretender to the authorship, one Joseph Liggins. This public interest subsequently led to Marian Evans Lewes's acknowledgment that it was she who stood behind the pseudonym George Eliot. "Adam Bede" is known for embracing a realist aesthetic inspired by Dutch visual art.
The revelations about Eliot's private life surprised and shocked many of her admiring readers, but this did not affect her popularity as a novelist. Her relationship with Lewes afforded her the encouragement and stability she needed to write fiction, but it would be some time before the couple were accepted into polite society. Acceptance was finally confirmed in 1877 when they were introduced to Princess Louise, the daughter of Queen Victoria. The queen herself was an avid reader of all of Eliot's novels and was so impressed with "Adam Bede" that she commissioned the artist Edward Henry Corbould to paint scenes from the book.
When the American Civil War broke out, Eliot expressed sympathy with the North, which was a minority stance among the English elite at the time. In 1868 she supported Richard Congreve's protests against Britain's imperial policy toward Ireland and her view of the growing movement in support of Irish Home Rule was positive.
She was influenced by the writings of John Stuart Mill and read all of his major works as they were published. In Mill's "Subjection of Women" (1869) she judged the second chapter excoriating the laws which oppress married women "excellent." She was supportive of Mill's parliamentary run, but believed that the electorate was unlikely to vote for a philosopher and was surprised when he won. While Mill served in parliament, she expressed her agreement with Mill's efforts on behalf of female suffrage, being "inclined to hope for much good from the serious presentation of women's claims before Parliament." In a letter to John Morley, she declared her support for plans "which held out reasonable promise of tending to establish as far as possible an equivalence of advantage for the two sexes, as to education and the possibilities of free development", and dismissed appeals to nature in explaining women's lower status. In 1870, she responded enthusiastically to Lady Amberley's feminist lecture on the claims of women for education, occupations, equality in marriage, and child custody.
After the success of "Adam Bede", Eliot continued to write popular novels for the next fifteen years. Within a year of completing "Adam Bede", she finished "The Mill on the Floss", dedicating the manuscript: "To my beloved husband, George Henry Lewes, I give this MS. of my third book, written in the sixth year of our life together, at Holly Lodge, South Field, Wandsworth, and finished 21 March 1860." "Silas Marner" (1861) and "Romola" (1863) soon followed, and later "Felix Holt, the Radical" (1866) and her most acclaimed novel, "Middlemarch" (1871–1872).
Her last novel was "Daniel Deronda", published in 1876, after which she and Lewes moved to Witley, Surrey. By this time Lewes's health was failing, and he died two years later, on 30 November 1878. Eliot spent the next two years editing Lewes's final work, "Life and Mind", for publication, and found solace and companionship with John Walter Cross, a Scottish commission agent 20 years her junior, whose mother had recently died.
On 16 May 1880 Eliot married John Walter Cross (1840–1924) and again changed her name, this time to Mary Ann Cross. While the marriage courted some controversy due to the difference in ages, it pleased her brother Isaac, who had broken off relations with her when she had begun to live with Lewes, and now sent congratulations. While the couple were honeymooning in Venice, Cross, in a fit of depression, jumped from the hotel balcony into the Grand Canal. He survived, and the newlyweds returned to England. They moved to a new house in Chelsea, but Eliot fell ill with a throat infection. This, coupled with the kidney disease with which she had been afflicted for several years, led to her death on 22 December 1880 at the age of 61.
Eliot was not buried in Westminster Abbey because of her denial of the Christian faith and her adulterous affair with Lewes. She was buried in Highgate Cemetery (East), Highgate, London, in the area reserved for societal outcasts, religious dissenters and agnostics, beside the love of her life, George Henry Lewes. The graves of Karl Marx and her friend Herbert Spencer are nearby. In 1980, on the centenary of her death, a memorial stone was established for her in the Poets' Corner.
Several landmarks in her birthplace of Nuneaton are named in her honour. These include The George Eliot School, Middlemarch Junior School, George Eliot Hospital (formerly Nuneaton Emergency Hospital), and George Eliot Road, in Foleshill, Coventry.
A statue of Eliot is in Newdegate Street, Nuneaton, and Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery has a display of artifacts related to her.
Throughout her career, Eliot wrote with a politically astute pen. From "Adam Bede" to "The Mill on the Floss" and "Silas Marner", Eliot presented the cases of social outsiders and small-town persecution. "Felix Holt, the Radical" and "The Legend of Jubal" were overtly political, and political crisis is at the heart of "Middlemarch", in which she presents the stories of a number of inhabitants of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832; the novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits. The roots of her realist philosophy can be found in her review of John Ruskin's "Modern Painters" in "Westminster Review" in 1856.
Readers in the Victorian era praised her novels for their depictions of rural society. Much of the material for her prose was drawn from her own experience. She shared with Wordsworth the belief that there was much value and beauty to be found in the mundane details of ordinary country life. Eliot did not, however, confine herself to stories of the English countryside. "Romola", an historical novel set in late fifteenth century Florence, was based on the life of the Italian priest Girolamo Savonarola. In "The Spanish Gypsy", Eliot made a foray into verse, but her poetry's initial popularity has not endured.
Working as a translator, Eliot was exposed to German texts of religious, social, and moral philosophy such as Friedrich Strauss’s "Life of Jesus", Feuerbach’s "The Essence of Christianity", and Spinoza’s "Ethics". Elements from these works show up in her fiction, much of which is written with her trademark sense of agnostic humanism. She had taken particular notice of Feuerbach’s conception of Christianity, positing that our understanding of the nature of the divine was to be found ultimately in the nature of humanity projected onto a divine figure. An example of this philosophy appeared in her novel "Romola", in which Eliot’s protagonist displayed a “surprisingly modern readiness to interpret religious language in humanist or secular ethical terms.” Though Eliot herself was not religious, she had respect for religious tradition and its ability to maintain a sense of social order and morality.
The religious elements in her fiction also owe much to her upbringing, with the experiences of Maggie Tulliver from "The Mill on the Floss" sharing many similarities with the young Mary Ann Evans. Eliot also faced a quandary similar to that of Silas Marner, whose alienation from the church simultaneously meant his alienation from society. Because Eliot retained a vestigial respect for religion, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche excoriated her system of morality for figuring sin as a debt that can be expiated through suffering, which he demeaned as characteristic of "little moralistic females à la Eliot."
She was at her most autobiographical in "Looking Backwards", part of her final published work "Impressions of Theophrastus Such". By the time of "Daniel Deronda", Eliot's sales were falling off, and she had faded from public view to some degree. This was not helped by the posthumous biography written by her husband, which portrayed a wonderful, almost saintly, woman totally at odds with the scandalous life people knew she had led. In the 20th century she was championed by a new breed of critics, most notably by Virginia Woolf, who called "Middlemarch" "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people". In 1994, literary critic Harold Bloom . In a 2007 authors' poll by "TIME", "Middlemarch" was voted the tenth greatest literary work ever written. In 2015, writers from outside the UK voted it first among all British novels "by a landslide". The various film and television adaptations of Eliot's books have re-introduced her to the wider reading public.
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