STORY OF FUN

Is the 'big, beautiful' trade agreement between the US and India in jeopardy?

2025-07-01T03:38:00.000-07:00

With merely days remaining before the 9 July deadline established by US President Donald Trump's administration, the prospects of securing an interim trade arrangement between Delhi and Washington continue to flicker but are becoming more mired in tough negotiations.

Although White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that the agreement was on the verge of completion, and Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's optimistic declaration that Delhi would embrace "a grand, splendid" deal - in response to Trump's assertion that a trade accord with Delhi is forthcoming and would "unveil" the Indian market - negotiators find themselves in arduous deliberations.

Essential points of contention linger, particularly regarding agricultural access, automotive parts, and tariffs on Indian steel.

Indian trade representatives have prolonged their visit to Washington for another round of discussions, even as Delhi indicates "significant red lines" on agricultural and dairy safeguards, with the US advocating for broader market openings. The atmosphere remains hopeful - but the timeframe to secure an agreement seems to be tightening.

Trump desires India to import US corn - but here's why that is likely to be unfeasible.
"The next week could dictate whether India and the US agree to a constrained 'mini-deal' or step away from negotiations - at least for the moment," states Ajay Srivastava, a former Indian trade representative who heads the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a think tank based in Delhi.

That unpredictability rests on a few crucial flashpoints - none more disputed than agriculture.

"There are two primary hurdles to finalizing a preliminary accord. First on the agenda is US access to the Indian market for fundamental agricultural commodities. India must safeguard its basic agricultural sector for economic and political reasons," Richard Rossow, who monitors India's economy at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, informed the BBC.

For years, Washington has advocated for expanded access to India's agricultural domain, viewing it as a significant unexploited market. However, India has ardently defended it, citing food security, the livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers, and interests.

Mr. Rossow points out that the "second challenge is India's non-tariff barriers. Factors such as India's expanding set of 'Quality Control Orders' (QCO) pose considerable obstacles to US market access and may prove challenging to effectively address in a trade pact."

The US has expressed concerns regarding what it perceives as India's burgeoning and onerous import-quality regulations. Over 700 QCOs - associated with the "self-reliant India" initiative - are intended to limit low-quality imports and foster domestic manufacturing. Suman Berry, a senior figure in the government think tank Niti Aayog, has similarly labeled these regulations a "malign intervention" that hampers imports and increases costs for local medium and small-scale industries.

A lengthy vote on Trump's "big beautiful bill" is held by the US Senate.

2025-07-01T01:55:00.000-07:00

Following weeks of tense discussions, the spending plan is in jeopardy as the US Senate has a protracted vote on a massive budget that is essential to President Donald Trump's agenda.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act's Republicans, who control both houses of Congress, disagree on how much to eliminate welfare programs in order to prolong tax incentives.

Elon Musk, a former close aide of Donald Trump, has once again criticized the legislation, which the president's party is rushing to approve by July 4.

The House of Representatives, which passed its own version of the bill last month by a single vote, will have to hold another vote if the proposals pass the Senate.

স্ট্যাটাস ( Status )

2014-04-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

স্ট্যাটাস

0. Dekhte dekhte lyf theke aro akta year chole gelo. Onek kisu peyesi this year a. Abar ase na pawa, haranor bedona. Shob miliye 2010 onek memorable hoye thakbe amr lyf a....

1. 'The Holy Bible' bought today. Gordonsville, American copy. Really interesting...

2. শুনেছি দেয়ালেরও নাকি কান আছে। কয়েকদিন পর শুনব দেয়াল হল আরেক প্রজাতির মানুষ!!

3. Meyeder hindi song er status gulo dekhle mejaj kharap hoye jay..Allah ki oder nij sence of hummer diye kisu lekhar khomota dey ni..!!

4. আমাকে আমার মত থাকতে দাও, আমি নিজেকে নিজের মত গুছিয়ে নিয়েছি। যেটা ছিলো না, ছিলো না। সেটা না পাওয়াই থাক। সব পেলে নষ্ট জীবন।

5. Saradin boshe vabi eto vebe lav ki...???

6. Love, lies and deception are all picture of a same dreadful ending... (Death of emotions)

7. মানুষের সামনে টাকা, টাকার পিছে জীবন । অতএব টাকাটা সব সময় সামনেই রয়ে যায়।

8. Njoyed SSC Receiption with lot of old school frndz. Feel tired, but so happy...

9. চারদিকে অনেক অনেক পরিবর্তন অনুভব করছি ... সবচেয়ে আশার কথা সবগুলোই মোটামুটি পজিটিভ ...

10. One man, one love...

11. এখন অনেক রাত, কে তুমি পড়িছ বসি আমার স্ট্যাটাস খানি

12. Status is that, wind is not in my side! I don't know what to do!

13. জীবন সহজ নয়, জটিলও নয় - জীবন জীবনের মত। আমরাই একে সহজ করি, জটিল করি।

14. love me less but love me long...

15. Bikkhato noy, desh gorar jonno khati manusher proyojon. Ashun amra sobai khati manush hobar shopoth ni..Shadhinotar swapno bastobayon kori...

16. বিজয়ের এই দিনে সবাইকে জানাই বিজয় দিবসের শুভেচছা

17. I think, First love is like playing with fire..

18. Pain, that is killing me inside. Where i could be alone & just may be this horrible feeling will go away.. I just keep trying to get out 4m this haven of music

19. Wikileaks? They just want to make lots of money from the mango peoples and nothing else..

20. I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

21. BD er char sreshtho sontan stage a je drama play korlo...erpor eder k oskar deya uchit...r Gazi saheb er dialogue shune to onekei amodito hoyesen, "I only speak Bangla..No Hindi..I no understand English..." Aha ki deshprem!! Amader jatir mukh dim light er nay ujjol hoilo....

22. Facebooking r valo lage na. Ato social hoye ki luv!

23. Shahrukh Khan je koto lucky seta ki se janto! Bangladesh er no.1 Shakib Khan er sathe same stage a perform,soja kotha! But alas!! SR Khan Shakib Khan er sathe dance korte disagree koresen..!! :P

24. Now I've 500 frnds. Ato rmv koreo kaj holo na. Akhono onekgulo frnd req jome ase...

25. Failure is the piller of success. Kalke exam a boroshoro akta success er piller bosaite hobe. Sobai doa raikho...

26. Cokkhu bole dainey cholo, Hridoy bole baye. Ami choli ultapalta, Dishehara paye...

27. Bol kothay harabi, dur akasher oi nilimay amay khuje pabi...

28. When we started walking. The paths started moving. These paths seem lovelier than destination. Come. Let's get lost. Let's get lost somewhere. Come.. Let's walk for miles. Where to go? It should be unknown.

29. Prithibita akta ghora, r porashona tar dim..!!

30. Amra jani goru colour blind. But goru red colour dekhle rege jay! Why?

31. পৃথিবীতে ১০ রকমের মানুষ রয়েছেঃ যারা বাইনারী বুঝে এবং যারা বাইনারী বুঝে না।

32. Nijei jelechi je agun Proti din barche digun Swapno vangar por bereche vangon Smritira kedeche nirghum....

33. Nijer sathei ovimaan Barche pahar soman Surjo uthar por sondha name Din rat nei bebodhan....

34. Janar kono sesh nai, janar chesta britha tai...!!

35. Hridoyer thikanay jotodur tumi jabe, amakei sathe pabe...

36. Ami bristy diye ghor banabo, tui je amar jol...

37. Nijeke kendro kore, priyo manush soman besardho niye, hridoyer upor je brittochap angkon kora hoy, take valobasa bole... Jamitic Valobasa

38. Silent luv is very painful, but silent dream is very powerful...

39. Eid kmon katlo tomader? K koto gosto khaiso??

40. Akhon goru kobaite jaitesi...

41. Sobaike Eid-Ul-Azhar shuveccha... Tomader sobar basay dawat roilo.....

42. 55 friends in chat...OMG!!!

43. স্বপ্ন সেটা না যেটা আপনি ঘুমের মাঝে দেখেন। স্বপ্ন সেটাই যেটা আপনাকে ঘুমাতে দেয় না !

44. Keu na januk mon to jane Monero je kosto ase Sei bedona lukiye rakhi hajar cholonay. Manush bolei jibon khatay Vuler hiseb patay patay Dur theke alo shobi Kase gele nai......

45. যখন ভালবাসা তোমার সবচেয়ে দুর্বল দিক, তখন তুমি পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে শক্তিশালী মানুষ !

46. Batase ful er sourov, pata jhorese, shit asbe bole, prithibi ghumie porese. Shirno nodir buke ajo uthe dheu, ami mlan chokhe tai cheye cheye dekhi......

47. My Favorite 15 English Songs : To The Moon & Back - Savage Garden Got To Believe - Sterling Knight Remember The Name - Fort Minor Blowin In The Wind - Bob Dylan Find Your Love - Drake Girl - The Beatles Leaving On A Jet Plane - John Denver Love The Way You Lie - Rihanna Unfaithful - Rihanna La Isla Bonita - Madona

48. Office seshe basay firbo, akhon jam a atke asi...Life ta pura pain...!!

49. I got my first real six-string

Bought it at the five-and-dime

Played 'til my fingers bled

It was summer of '69.....

50. Onekdin por aaj nijeke onek happy mone hocche...tnx for everything.....

51. Doctor: Your husband needs rest and peace. Here are some sleeping-pills.

Wife: When must I give them to him?

Doctor: They are for you.

52. Swapno ra meluk dana, ure jak swapno puroner pothe. Dusswapno gulo hariye jak oi dur akashe....

53. "5ta meye chupchap aksathe boshe ase." Ata ki jokes, naki bastobota!!??

54. Husband: Today is Saturday & I have to enjoy it. So I bought 3 movie tickets.

Wife: Why Three?

Husband: For you and your parents

55. Chailei ki akash ta k hath bariye choa jay? Bristy ta k icche holei pawa jay? Rongdhonu makha veja akash dekhi dure, tara vora rate dokhina batash badhi sur a, icche holei akash chui ami mone mone, icche holei bristy namai ami chokh theke kolponay mone mone.....

56. Ami take dekhi, Tar kache jai, Ador kore chute gelei she morichika hoye jay...

57. Lekhapora kori na Bap mar kotha shuni na Class a boshi last bench a Board a kisu dekhi na....

58. তুমি কোন দিকে যাও মন? আমার সাথেই তোমার কেন, এমন প্রহসন?

59. দেশে সুন্দরী কিন্তু "এনগেজড" নারী এবং "স্মার্ট" ব্যাচেলর পুরুষের সংখ্যা দিনে দিনে বাইরা যাইতেছে ...... আমরা (আমি) টেনসিত ......

60. তোমার আমার মাঝে কেন এই ধরণের ফারাক? চাইনা আমি এই দুজনের মাঝখানে কেউ দাঁড়াক।

61. I don't know what love is. I'm not sure love really exists or not. But, I'll try to be a better husband. I'll take you to the beach to watch the sun goes down. I'll never fall asleep to keep you awake at moonlit night. I promise, I'll never make you cry. I'll always be loyal to you. I\'ll always admire you & take care of you. I'll live my life with you and wanna die in your arms. Ohh my PRINCESS, Will You Marry Me :)

62. চোখ খুলি বা বন্ধ করি তুমি ই ভেসে আসো! মেয়ে তুমি আমায় কি এমনি ভালবাসো?

63. প্রেমিক : কী ব্যাপার , এত দুরে দাঁড়িয়ে গল্প করছ কেন? প্রেমিকা : মা আমাকে ছেলেদের কাছ থেকে দুরে থাকতে বলেছেন।

64. যখন আপনি একাকীত্ব বোধ করবেন, আয়নার সামনে যাবেন এবং বলবেন, " সত্যিই আমি অনেক সুন্দর"। আপনার খারাপ লাগা টা কমে যাবে। তবে এটাকে অভ্যাসে পরিণত করবেন না কারণ, জানেনইতো মিথ্যাবাদীরা নরকে যায়!

65. Priyo manush k kosto debar majhe ek dhoroner anondo ase....

66. 'গহীন জলে শ্যাওলা ভাসে, বন্ধু ভাসে মনে, নদীর পানি বাড়ে আমার চোখের বরিষণে। আমি সাঁতার না জানি, না বাইতে নাও - কেমনে যাইবো বন্ধুর বাড়ি; ও মাঝি আমায় নিয়া যাও।'

67. : মহাশূন্যে কী করা সম্ভব নয়? : গলায় দড়ি দেওয়া।

68. Slang chara jokes jome na...!! :|

69. ১ম বোনঃ জানিস তোর দুলাভাই য্তখন বাসায় না আসে আমি তার জন্য অপেক্ষা করি,ভাত খাই না!!

২য় বোনঃ তাহলেতো তোমাদের সম্পর্ক অতি মধুর!!!

১ম বোনঃ আরে রাখ তোর সম্পর্ক!! তোর দুলাভাই অফিস থেকে ফিরলে তাকে দিয়া ভাত রান্না করাই, তারপর খাই!

70. দুই বন্ধুর সংলাপ:

—মন খারাপ কেন তোমার?

—আমার বাসার আরশোলাগুলো প্রতিবেশীর আরশোলাদের সঙ্গে যুদ্ধ ঘোষণা করেছে।

—তাই নাকি! তো যুদ্ধের ফলাফল কী?

—আমার বাসার আরশোলারা জিতেছে।

—এ তো খুব ভালো খবর!

—ভালো খবর! কাল ওরা দুই হাজার যুদ্ধবন্দীকে নিয়ে এসেছে আমার বাসায়।

71. Ami jaani, ami thakbo na Somadhi dheke jabe kochi buno ghas a....

72. I can't blv this she is no more. Aaj class a sobai mon kharap kore bosechilo,keu kadchilo...Jedin o suicide koresilo sedin o amader sathe dustumi koresilo...Kivabe shob vule jabo jani na....

73. Amar onek close akta frnd gotokal rate mara gese. Aimatro jante parlam. Ami akhono believe korte parsi na. Purono smritigulo barbar chokhe vasche...

74. স্ত্রীঃ ওগো শুনছো, স্বর্গে নাকি স্বামী স্ত্রী একসাথে যেতে পারবে না?

স্বামীঃ হুমমম! এই কারণেই ওটা স্বর্গ!!

75. পিতা মশা তার সন্তান বাচ্চা মশাকে বলল পিতা মশাঃ যা একটু উড়ে আয় দেখ কেমন উড়তে পারিস? বাচ্চা মশা জন্মের পর এই প্রথম উড়তে বেরিয়েছে তাই বেশি দুর গেল না।কিছুক্ষন পর ফিরে এল।আসার পর পিতা মশা জিগ্গাসা করল পিতা মশাঃ কেমন উড়লি? বাচ্চা মশা খুশিতে ডগমগ হয়ে বললঃ খুউব ভাল উড়েছি ।আমার উড়া দেখে সব মানুষ হাততালি দিছ্ছিল।

76. তুমমিয় জীবনে অনিয়ম ধুম তাই আমার এরকম অসময়ে ঘুম.....

77. Hopes are like clouds Some pass by Others bring rain.....

78. পুরুষ দুই প্রকার,জীবিত এবং বিবাহিত। আর্থাৎ যাহা জীবিত তাহাই অবিবাহিত এবং যাহাই মৃত তাহাই বিবাহিত। ইহা অবশ্য আত্বিক মরন।অর্থাৎ কেবল শরীরখানা ক্লান্ত হইয়া বাচিয়া থাকে...

79. এক নাটাইয়ে আকাশ ছুঁয়ে, এসো হৃদয় ওড়াই, কিংবা চলো এক আগুনে হৃদয় দুটি পোড়াই.......

80. TV-তে সুন্দরী সুন্দরী সব মেয়ে দেখে আমার মা-বাবা খুব আক্ষেপ করলো, তাদের ভাইদের বিয়ের সময় কেনো এমন সুন্দরী ও ভালো মেয়ে পায় না। আসুন, আমরা সবাই মিলে দোয়া করি, তাদের ছেলেদের বিয়ের সময় যেনো তাদের এই আক্ষেপ না থাকে। সবাই বলুন, আমীন।।

81. জন্মের পর থেকে প্রতি World Cup –এর Final এ Asian কোনো Team কে দেখতেছি। 99 এ Pakistan, 2003 এ India, 2007 এ Sri Lanka Final -এ ছিলো। এইবার বাংলাদেশ World Cup Final খেলবে। তারা মাঠে লাল সবুজ পতাকা উড়াবে আর আমরা অন্তরে। একদিন বিশ্বজয় করবে বাংলাদেশ। তাদের এমন Regular Performance দেখে এতোটা আশা করতে আর ভয় পাই না। বাংলার সন্তানদের সালাম। আমার বাংলা মা, তোমায় সালাম।।

82. When everybody's gone

And I'm here all alone

I don't gotta hide

You've got to understand

That is is who I am

And it's where I shine....

83. আমার উপর হায়, বালিকার অবাক প্রতিশোধ

বলি তাকে মেঘ হয়ে যাও, সে হয়ে যায় রোদ....

84. Aaj amar life er onek memorable akta day.....

85. Bondhu toke miss korsi vision....

86. মাঝেমাঝে যা ইচ্ছে করে তার উল্টোটা করতে চাই । কিন্তু পারিনা ।মাঝেমাঝে যা ইচ্ছে তাই করতে চাই । সেটাও পারি না।

87. Onontokaler pothojatri hoye chute cholesi,,ei to r olpo kisudur jabar ase baki... Onontokaler kase eshe aaj vabte boshesi,niyotir khatay amar lekha ase ki.....

88. At this moment mone hocche Bangladesh worlds no1 cricket team. Unbelieveable!! Go ahead Bangladesh....

89. HAPPY BAINARY DAY!!

10/10/10

90. ইশ্!!! যদি ছোটোবেলা-টা আবার ফিরে পেতাম । তবে কতই না মজা হত। কোনো দুশ্চিন্তা থাকত না। পরাজয়ের গ্লানি থাকত না। হারাবার বেদনা থাকত না। বন্ধুদের সাথে সারা বিকাল মারামারি করে পরদিন আবার খেলতে যেতাম। কারো সাথে ঝগড়া করে মুখ দেখা বন্ধ হত না।নিজের পরিনতি বর্ণনা করতে এই ধরনের status লিখতে হত না।দয়াকরে কেউ কি আমার ছোটোবেলা-টা ফিরিয়ে দিতে পারো???

91. Amar ei gaan shudhu tomari

Tumi ki ta shunso?

Sesh bikeler rod a tumi hoyto boshe

onno kauke vabso...

Ei to jibon amar cholse jemon temon

Tomra keu ki dekheso?

Jiboner golpe ami boro klanto

Sohorer dukkhoi amar dukkho...

Chena dukkho niye

Ochena amar jibon.....

92. Today is John Lennon's 70th birhday. Tini chilen duniya kapano band Beatles er main vocal. Tar mrittu akhono amader kase rohosso. John Lennon mardered hoyesilen tar ek blind fan er hate. Marder korarar por marderer nijei deadbodyr pashe thaka obobstatei police k inform koren & surrender koren.....

93. The only way to achieve impossible is to believe it is possible...!!

94. প্লিজ আসুন আমরা একটি কুকুরের বদলে একটি মানুষের বাচ্চা পালি, একঝাক কবুতরের অন্ন সম্প্রদাণ কালে ভুখা পথ-শিশুটির কথা ভাবি।আমার খুব গা জ্বলে যখন দেখি এদেশে একদল শুয়রের বাচ্চা বিলাতি কুত্তা পালে। ক্ষুধার জ্বালা বড় জ্বালারে ভাই।আপনার এক্যুরিয়ামের মাছের ক্ষুধার চেয়ে, দুই টাকা দিয়ে পাশ কাটিয়ে আসা আভাগা-মানুষটির ক্ষুধা কোনো অংশে কম ছিলো না। KFC থেকে বেরিয়ে ওদের দূর দূর না করি।

95. facebook Amader Vikhari Koreche, Mobile Company 'r Malik-er Bou-der Koreche Rani...!!

96. is trying to be SERIOUS...!!

97. A man with a gun goes into a bank. Once he is given the money, he turns to a customer, 'Did you see me rob this bank?' 'Yes sir, I did.' The robber then shot him, killing him instantly. He then turned to a couple standing next to him and asked the man, 'Did you see me rob this bank?' The man replied, 'No Sir, I didn't, but my wife did!'

Moral - When Opportunity Knocks.... MAKE PROPER USE OF IT ! :)

98. Trust everyone, but don't trust the devil inside them...!!

99. Bondhura humki dise r besuro golay gan gaile gola kete nibe... :-(

100. Angelina Jolie to SALT banailo, Bangladeshi director der bolte hobe Apu Bishwas re nia SUGAR banaite...!!

101. Traffic Jam 'n Loadshedding!! what a nice combination!! I'm lovin' it ...!! :D

102. ভুল হয়ে যায় না ভুল করে ফেলি,বুঝি না।

103. চারদিকে এত মৃত মানুষ,নিজেকে জীবিত দেখে লজ্জা ই লাগে।

104. আমাদের বড় নদী

চলে সোজা সুজি

ফালগুন মাসে জল

থাকে মাঝা মাঝি ।

পার হয়ে যায় গরু

পার হয় না গাড়ী

দুই ধার নিচু তার

ভাংগা তার পাড়ি ।

চিক চিক করে না বালি

সব খানে কাদা

এক ধারে ঘাসফুল

জল কাদার গদা ।

105. Amar shorir jurey brishti naamey, ovimaaner nodir tirey.Shudhu tomay bolte valobashi, ami bare bar ashbo firey...

106. Tal-loy khuje firi,,dhukche amar kobi-giri....

107. Bondhusovay tumul adda diye aslam....

108. Purano sei diner kotha vulbi kire ay, o sei chokher dekha,praner kotha se ki vula jay? Ay arektibar ay re sokha, praner majhe ay. Mora sukher dukher kotha kobo pran jurabe tay....

109. প্রতিদিন মনে হয় এই বুঝি শেষ,তারপর দেখি,আবার নতুন করে শুরু ...।

110. Amar status gulo tomader kmon lage? Ami jani amr status gulo onek faltu & full of madness. Tobuo tomader kase jante chaisi....

111. যতই পালাতে কিংবা হারাতে চাও না কেন,সন্ধ্য হলে ঘরে ফিরতেই হবে । একেই বলে ট্রাজেডি।

112. Tumi bojhoni bondhutto ki, valobasa kake bole....

113. When I think of all the times

I tried so hard to leave her

She will turn to me and start to cry

And she promises the earth to me

And I believe her

After all this time I don't know why.....

114. সেসব ব্যাপার পারিনা, জানিনা যতটা মনোকষ্ট দেয়; যেসব ব্যাপার পারি, জানি ততটা প্রশান্তি দেয়না কেন?

115. আমি ভালো থাকতে চেষ্টা করি কতো?

হয়না থাকা, খুব বড় জোর

থাকি ভালোর মতো।

116. I want to be where the sun warms the sky

When it's time for siesta you can watch them go by

Beautiful faces, no cares in this world

Where a girl loves a boy, and a boy loves a girl.....

117. Ami hazar bosor dariye chilam, khara

Keu dilo na shara...

118. Thappor dia dater batti jalay dibo!!

119. Shit!! Icche kortese kochu gas a golay dori dei....

120. NBS Rockz!! Awesome moja holo. Aimatro basay firlam..so tired....

121. NBS Re-Union a heavby moja kortesi...

122. আকাশের গায়ে নীল রঙ নেই

আকাশের রঙ কালো

আমার সকল অগোছালো.....

123. আমরা যদি কোন প্রাণীর পাখা আছে বলি- তাহলে কি বুঝাই যে ওটা বাতাস সরাতে এবং তার মাধ্যমে বেগ পেতে সাহায্য করে- নাকি শুধু শূণ্যে বেগ পেতে বা দিক পরিবর্তন করতে সাহায্য করলেই সেটাকে পাখা বলতে পারি?

124. Bank a share IPO taka joma dite vorbela thekei dekhi bishal line, but lunch time er por thake pray faka. Bikele je line kom hoy onekei seta bujhte pare na....

125. "Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig."

____Robert A. Heinlein

126. "This world is like a funny stage,,where you,me,everyone are actor & actress."

____William Shakespeare

127. Manusher shokol chawa puron hote nei. Akjon manusher chawagulo puron kore dile se hobe duniyar shobcheye oshukhi manushder akjon. Tar shwapno bolte kisu thakbe na....

128. Atlast back 2 the pavillon after a month long.....

129. Manush sukher smriti gulo koto sohojei na vule jay! Othocho kostogulo protiniyoto shel hoye buker majhkhantay bidhe....

130. Now @ Bosundhara City level 8.....

131. Going 2 Dhaka again....

132. I'm so alone... gf na hok moner shob kotha share korar moto 1ta manush jodi thakto...!

133. I've become so numb....

134. Life iz 52 cards game...& u should must keep the trump card in ur hand.....

135. Aaj theke 2 years age Facebook use kora shuru koresilam. Tokhon FB er kono mobile verson chilo na, akhokar moto ato gathering chilo na, fake id chilo na. Shob miliye tokhon Facebook use korar mojatai chilo onnorokom....

136. NasirabadBoyz a frndz ra mile Sanmer5thFloor a protidin tumul adda ditam....Sei adda ta akhon vison miss korsi....

137. Oboseshe writer Zafar Iqbal sir er mobile a invitation pathiye mig33 account open korate parlam. Tomra chaile sir er mig

a join korte paro. username: www.mz-iqubal

138. Woman: Amar husband bazar e aloo

kinte gechhilo, 5 din hoye gelo ekhono fereni! Please kichhu korun!

Inspector: Thik achhe ami dekhchhi. Kintu… Etokkhon apni onno kichhu to ranna korte parten!

139. Jara saradin Star Plus,ZeeTV,SonyTV etc channel a bostapocha Hindi serial gulo dekhe tara amar frnd na....

140. money money, brighter than sunset,

money money, sweeter than honey...

takar premey pori ami moner preme noy,

takar manush amr priyo,

moner manush noy...

141. Jei diner jonno puro month jure preperation, sei din ta bujhi khub taratari sesh hoye gelo....

142. Bike a kore kotthin akta trip diye aslam...

143. Dhur! Eto selami dite hobe vabini...Shobai line dhore salam kosre...na jani aro kotojon k selami dite hobe... :P

144. Ki nisha lagaili!! Charidike khali dhua dekhtasi....

145. EID MUBARAK. Eid a tomader sobar basay amar dawat roilo...

146. EID MUBARAK

** Aga asla aga paben vittite salami deoa hobe

** Je joto besi somoi pa dhore rakhbe tar salami o sei porimane deoa hobe

** Ei offer agamikal bikal 6ta porjonto projojjo hobe

** Condition apply

147. Akta duto kore dekhte dekhte shobgulo rojai rekhe fellam. Onek valo lagse, abar roja sesh hoye jacche tai aktu kharap o lagse....

148. Tomar majhe nambo ami....

Tomar vetor DUB

Tomar majhe katbo shatar,

Vashbo ami KHUB

Tomar majhei jibon japon....

Shwapno dekha, shopno vangon!!!

149. Kno mon k bujhate pari na,je jay fire ase na..Kno fele asa otit kaday jontronay.....

150. Eider matro kodin baki..ator surma makhamakhi....

151. Aaj jhum bristite onekkhon pukur a satar katlam. Onekdiner akta icche puron holo....

152. Ovimaan niye din kete jay..Ovimaan kno okarone..A ovimaan koror jonne noy..nijer sathei....

153. Tonight iz holy Lailat-Ul-Kadar. I request to all my frndz to stop FB browsing,tv watching & all types of entertainments tonight...

154. I want an honest relationship. No secrets, no lies, & no cheating. Only luv.....

155. Frndz..tomader jader twitter,hi5,myspace or mig33 te account ase tara kindly username ta janao.....

156. I luv myself, & oviously money...

157. A real man doesn't love a million girls. He loves one girl in million ways.

158. Ghum hote namaj valo r tumi ghumeo na, thikmoto porle namaj beheshte tomar thikana....

159. 3ta mobile a miss call er jontronay rate shantite ghumateo pari na. Gadhigula kn je ato miss call mare..!!

160. Tumi bolo, bristy jhorse. Tumi hasho tai dekhe kno bujhi na. Ami boli, akash birohe kator,pete chay matir ador.....

161. Eka nastay,eka rastay,eka ghum,eka khawa...

Icche korei ekakitto ektu vulte chawa...

Eka josnay,eka surje,eka alo,eka adhar...

Eka shonggram,eka bodnam,bhengesi deyal badhar...

Emni korei thokte thokte ekai bachte sekha...

Abeger boshe bhulei chilam manush muloto eka.

162. Jokhon sobai ghumie thake tokhono ami eka, chad dube jay surjo othe pai na karo dekha.....

163. Ami share IPO lottery pai na!! Amar luck asolei khub kharap...

164. Ja chai vul kore chai, ja pai ta chai na....

165. Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.

___Erich Fromm

(Man for himself)

166. Ami keno akam kori...

167. Baba baba lage....

168. Think everyday is last day of your life & do your best.

169. Prithibite protiti chele-meyei porospor k nijer dike akorshon kore. Ei akorshon bol er man cheletir smartness o meyetir beautiness er gunfoler somanupatik,cheletir pocket amount er borger bastanupatik,ebong ei akorshon chele-meye dutir heart2heart borabor kriya kore. (MOINUL's THEORY)

170. Status update korlam...

171. I'm now @ Dhaka.

172. Love never cares destiny, destiny cares love.

173. পুরাতন সব স্মৃতির জাহাজ

গুনগুন কলরবে

ছাড়ছে বন্দর এক এক করে

সময় কি শেষ তবে?

174. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

__Steve Jobs,CEO,Apple Corporation

175. অন্ধকার ঘরে কাগজের টুকরো ছিড়ে

কেটে যায় আমার সময়

তুমি গেছো চলে

যাওনি বিস্মৃতির অতলে

যেমন শুকনো ফুল

বইয়ের ভাঁজে রয়ে যায়।

রেখেছিলাম তোমায় আমার

হৃদয় গভীরে

তবু চলে গেলে

এই সাজানো বাগান ছেড়ে

আমি রয়েছি তোমার অপেক্ষায় ......

176. Ato chai tobuo keno pai na otota chai ni jotota pabar noy......

177. Valobasa ondho kore, ghore fera bondho kore...keu bache, keu more...

178. Aktuku choa lage,aktuku kotha shuni..Tai diye mone mone rochi momo falguni.....

179. Arun aloy ranga chilo sedin chaitromash, tomar chokhe dekhechilam amar sorbonash.....

180. মুখ দিয়ে নয় হৃদয় দিয়ে

ভালবাসি বলতে চাই !

নৈঃশব্দের কোলাহলে

শব্দ নিয়ে খেলতে চাই!

181. Shobar akashe tara, amar akashe tara nei......

182. are vai...lagse khidha..kisher didha...cholo amra khai

183. ছেলেটা বাদাম ছিলিত,

মেয়েটা বাদাম গিলিত,

বাদাম হইল শেষ,

মেয়েটা নিরুদ্দেশ......

184. How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly

Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

185. Jibonta jodi hoy akta nodi, tobe bolo tar lokkho ta ki? Hariye jete chay se ojanay. Tobu barbar meshe mohonay. Joar vatar joy-porajoy soye amio sei nodi hote chai. Bindu bindu swapno gulo boye sobar mon sporsho kore jai. Valobasar sporsho kotha pai?

186. Birthday te ato wish pabo vabini. Many many thanx to all my frndz.....

187. Nijhum raat othoba basto din, tumi chara prithibi orthohin.....

188. Ami jotobar tomay vebesi totobar jodi tumi amay ful dite tahole amar sarati jibon kete jeto ful bagan a hathte hathte......

189. Time iz money, money iz everything.....

190. Girl friends r like a virus. They enter ur life, scan ur pocket, edit ur mind, download problems, delete ur happiness. So, b careful....

191. Fanush hoye jonmo tomar, tara hoye moron.....

192. Tomar hashi te sukh khuje pai,tomar majhe harai..eminivabe aaj bujhesi valobasi.....

193. Heaven iz when u have German Car,American Salary,Chinese Food n Bangladeshi Wife. Hell iz when Car iz Chinese,Food iz German,Wife iz American n Salary iz Bangladeshi...!!!

194. Amar buk a agun thake,chokhe thake jol,,tui ki amar bondhu hobi bol? Amar moner kokkhopothe swapno shotodol,,tui ki amar shonge jabi bol?

195. Something in your eyes makes me want to lose myself...

196. Look into your heart - you will find

There's nothin' there to hide

Take me as I am - take my life

I would give it all - I would sacrifice.

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for

I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more

Ya know it's true

Everything I do - I do it for you......

197. Birthday shopping kore akhon basay firlam. Voyaboho tired.....

198. Tumi roza rakhle hobo iftari,,sehri khele hobo torkari.....

199. Valobasar potoner jonno amra konovabei mohakorsho k dae korte pari na.

__ Albert Einstein

200. Baire takiye dekhi chad nei shudu tumi anmone akashe te jeno tara khujso...Tumi josonar alo bujhso?

201. hye re desh..!!na thake electricity, na pani, na gas...rastay terrible traffic jam...amra new generation kno desh k valobashbo?keno amra desher baire jabona?

202. 1708 visitors have visited my blog. Many many thanx to all visitors......

203. Jottil akta lyric mathay asche. Akhon dorkar valo akta tune. Vabsi ajker moddhei song ta namiye felbo...

204. নিকষ কালো এই আঁধারে

স্মৃতিরা সব খেলা করে

রয় শুধু নির্জনতা

নির্জনতায় আমি একা

একবার শুধু চোখ মেলো

দেখো আজও পথে জ্বালি আলো

তুমি আবার আসবে ফিরে

বিশ্বাস টুকু দু’ হাতে আকড়ে ধরে......

205. Prothom jokhon dekhesi ami tomay, proti rate vabi shudhu je tomay...Swapno dekhi ami tomak niye, tumi hobe shudhui amari......

206. Amader basay akhon r current jay na..majhe majhe ashe..... :P

207. Vabsi...aro vabbo....ki vaba jay.....

208. K bole amar kono status nai! FB er blessing a akhon amar onek status...!!

209. Sukh nai re pagol!!

210. SSC Receiption seshe family niye gelam Chittagong Club a Salman Ispahanir daughter er Wedding Ceremony te. Commentator Atahar Ali Khan er sathe same table a dinner korlam. That was amazing. Amader clg er Principal Sir o asesen ceremony te. Unar sathe onekkhon kotha holo.....

211. SSC Receiption a onek moja korlam ajke..Akdom stage er samne frnd der niye bose concert dekhlam.....

212. Foy's Lake a ajke SSC Receiption..I hope onek moja hobe...

213. Valobeshe morte pari..kintu rokto dite parbo na...!!

213. Wherever you go

Whatever you do

I will be right here waiting for you

Whatever it takes

Or how my heart breaks

I will be right here waiting for you

214. Ami ak dukkhowala,dukkho kinte chai..Karo kase thakle kisu amay dio vai.....

215. কতটা পথ পেরুলে তবে পথিক বলা যায়?

কতটা পথ পেরুলে পাখি জিরোবে তার ডানা?

কতটা অপচয়ের পর মানুষ চেনা যায়?

প্রশ্নগুলো সহজ আর উত্তরওতো জানা।

216. One love for the mothers prider

One love for the times we cried

One love gotta stay alive... I will survive

One love for the city streets

One love for the hip hop beats

Oh I do believe

One love is all we need......

217. Amar shob bondhuder bondhu dibosher shuveccha...

218. Ami 5days dhore onek sick. Kisutei jor komse na. Bondhura amar jonno doa korbe pls...

219. জানালার গ্রিলে অপলক দৃষ্টি, তুমি না আসায় অঝরে বৃষ্টি।

220. Tobuo jibon jachche kete jiboner niyome.....

221. Relationship akhon kotota sosta ami jani na..kintu tomra ja k relationship bolo ta k ami relationship bole mante pari na...

222. একজন বিখ্যাত মানুষ দিয়ে কী হয়? কিছুই হয় না। কিন্তু দশজন খাঁটি মানুষ দিয়ে পাল্টে ফেলা যায় দেশকে। আমি বিখ্যাত হতে চাই না। হতে চাই সেই খাঁটি মানুষদের একজন।।

223. কষ্টের নোনা জলে আয়নায় জলছাপ, তোমাকে চাওয়াই ছিল পাপ!

224. I'm more than just an option

Refuse to be forgotten

I took a chance with my heart

And I feel it taking over.....

225. Jibon 52 tas er khela.....

226. She's the kind of girl who puts you down

When friends are there

You feel a fool

When you say she's looking good

She acts as if it's understood

She's cool......

227. This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will

Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

228. Morichikar pechone chutsi..keno jani nijer upor onek ovimaan hochche.....

229. Icchera fakibazi,icchera classroom,icchera dupurer alsemi,vatghum.....

230. Ami kobi noi tobu kabber vasha khujbo aaj..Tomar hashir srabon hoye swpno niye vaste chai.....

231. Stobdhohin nirghum du chokhe bornohin ojhor dharay...Chena prithibitao aaj ochena.....

232. Sur er tane amar nesha,sur er majhei amar disha,akta guiter shongi hole surer vubone. Ami surer sagor dichchi pari,surer nai ghor r bari. Icche holei kadi-hashi sureri mayay.....

233. Barle boyosh sobai manush hoy ki? Shunle kotha manush chena jay ki? Chena sohoj noy,chinte lage voy...Boli tai manush chena day.....

234. Khela dekhe kono moja pacchi na...ghum astese.....

235. Yeah!! We won the match! At last we completed the circle.....

236. Hariye jete chai oi dur ojanay.....

237. Meghe meghe hok joto kalo, tobu tarei je basi valo....

238. Ami aktu sick..Pray 4 me pls...

239. Prem! Tumi ki boloto? Akhoni amar,akhoni abar tumi onno karo....

240. Nij hate kobor dilam valobasar lash...

241. Dinguli mor lohar khachay.....

243. It's my life

And it's now or never

'Cause I ain't gonna live forever

I just want to live while I'm alive.....

244. আর্জেন্টিনার শোচনীয় পরাজয়ে হৃদযন্ত্রের ক্রিয়া বন্ধ হয়ে আকস্মিকভাবে মারা গেছেন শামীম হোসেন (৩২) নামের এক সমর্থক।সে চুয়াডাঙ্গা পৌর এলাকার তালতলা গ্রামের মসজিদ পাড়ার ছেলে। আর্জেন্টিনা ৪-০ গোলে পরাজিত হওয়ায় তিনি মানসিকভাবে ভেঙ্গে পড়েন। এছাড়া ওইরাতেই গ্রামের জার্মানীর সমর্থকেরা তাকে নানাভাবে কটুকথা বলে। রাগে ক্ষোভে কয়েকজন জার্মানীর সমর্থকের সাথে তাঁর হাতাহাতিও হয়।

245. Argentina = Ar geti na

246. This time for Argentina's crying... :-'

247. Aita ki holo! Brazil lost.. I can't beleive it!!

248. Too many times I’ve been wrong

I guess being right takes too long

I’m done waiting, theres nothing left to do

But give all I have to you.....

249. Aaj college a Freshers Receiption chilo....

250. চাইলেই কি আকাশটাকে হাত বাড়িয়ে ছোঁয়া যায়? বৃষ্টিটাকে ইচ্ছে হলেই পাওয়া যায়? রঙধনু মাখা বৃষ্টি ভেজা আকাশ দেখি দূরে, তারা ভরা রাতে দখিনা বাতাস বাধি সূরে, ইচ্ছে হলেই আকাশ ছুঁই আমি মনে মনে, ইচ্ছে হলেই বৃষ্টি নামাই আমি চোখ থেকে কল্পনায় মনে মনে।।

251. Just gonna stand there

And watch me burn

But that's alright

Because I likeThe way it hurts

Just gonna stand there

And hear me cry

But that's alright

Because I loveThe way you lie.....

252. Saradin tomay vebe holo naa amar kono kaaj, holo naa tomak pawa, din je brithai gelo aaj.....

253. Follow me on twitter. Username: moinulhassan.

254. FIND YOUR LOVE...

255. Is there anybody going to listen to my storyAll about the girl who came to stay?She's the kind of girlYou want so much it makes you sorryStill you don't regret a single day.....

256. Wife: I wish I was a newspaper, So I'd be in your hands all day.

Husband: I too wish that you were a newspaper, So I could have a new one everyday.

257. Shabash Greece!! Chalie jao,Goal na dileo jeno goal na khao......

258. কত বছর পাহাড় বাঁচে ভেঙ্গে যাবার আগে?

কত বছর মানুষ বাঁচে পায়ে শেকল পরে?

কবার তুমি অন্ধ সেজে থাকার অনুরাগে?

বলবে তুমি দেখছিলে না তেমন ভাল করে।

259. বাংলাদেশ বিশ্বকাপ ফুটবল খেলছে না। বাংলাদেশের সাথে এই বিশ্বকাপের কোনো সুদুর সম্পর্ক ও নাই। অথচ কি উন্মাদনা সারা দেশ জুড়ে। যেনো বাংলাদেশ ই একেক সময় খেলেছে, কখনো আর্জেন্টিনা এর সাথে, আবার কখনো ব্রাজিলের সাথে।কারো বাসার ছাদে ১২ হাত আর্জেন্টিনার পতাকা তো কারো পুরো বাড়িটাই ব্রাজিলের রং এ রান্গানো।

260. Manush tar ashar soman boro.....

261. Atlast addmitted in Ispahani Public College.....

262. Ispahani Public College a addmission nite jachchi.....

263. ব্রাজিল! দোহাই লাগে কিছু করে দেখা..!!

264. Chittagong akhon rickshar sohor. Ricksha chara rastay r kisui dekha jacche na...!!

265. 5 ta college a addmission er jonno apply koresilam. Shobgulote chance peyesi. Shobai amar jonno doa korben jeno ami akta valo college a admission nite pari...

266. Taal tomaler bonete,agun lage monete. Bondhu amar buno hawa sukh holo na pran a te.....

267. It's easy to win when you know how...!!!

268. Valobasi khela,valobasi jibon. Dure thaki madok theke....

269. The pressure is on

You feel it

But you got it all

Believe it .....

270. Pray 4 BRAZIL... We must win World Cup 2010....

271. Cholo na hoi udasi...

272. *~* B R A Z I L *~*

273. Oboseshe college dour er oboshan ghotlo aaj..!!

274. Aaj ei college kal oi college! Asi vai dour er upor...

275. Jah! Dure gia mor..!!

276. Aha ki anondo akashe batashe...

277. Yahooo...!!! Atlast Facebook is opened! Dostora shob koi geli?

278. Jiboner 17ti bosonto kete gelo. Keu kotha rakheni...

279. Amra Facebook er akekti member jeno akhon akekti bichchinno dip...

280. Hey fire brigade! Amar buke agun jolse..!!

281. Kar kar FB on? Hath tulo.

282. Taka-poisa furale meyera je jay chole cheleder buro angul dekhie...

283. Block hoise tate ki, proxy site akta khulesi. Computer a facebook akhon chalai...

284. Ami nijei akta proxy site banaisi. Akhon easily computer a Facebook browse kortesi...

285. Good News! Facebook is unblocked by government. Thanks the government to realize public imotion.

286. Follow me on twitter. To follow me click this link: http://twitter.com/moinulhassan

287. Facebook bihone thaki kamone..!! Tai fire fire ashi...

288. Bday Facebook bday! Amio vule jabo tumio vule jeyo amay...!!

289. Ami khomotay ashle shob govt. website bondho kore dibo! Dekhbo Bangladesh kamne digital hoy.

290. Bday Facebook! Dekha hobe Twitter a. My Twitter id: moinulhassan. My e-mail: ctg.moinul@gmail.com. Twitter,myspace,hi5,live,orkut,flickr,mylemex,nogorbalok a amar account ase.

291. Kisu valo lage na...

292. Kal Chittagong return korbo.

293. Ami akhon Apollo Hospital a. Ammur treatment cholse.

294. Kal Dhaka jacchi.....

295. Jokhon nijhum rate shobkisu chup, nishpran nogorite jhijhirao ghum. Ami chader alo hoye tomar kalo ghore jege roi sara nishi...atota valobasi.

296. Aaj shob poth periye, shoto badha area agiye jete chai....

297. Prithibite vala manush pawa boro kosto, 1ta manush vala hoile 99 nosto.....

298. Mon diye lekha pora kau jodi korena Duti choukh taro ache shudhu kichu dekhena...Shikkhar proyojon jara mone korena...Rap gaan shudhu shune kunu laab hobe na...Ebaarer shongram mukti she aanbe...Banglar ghore ghore bathi shudhu jolbe !

299. Meghe meghe hok joto kalo, tobu tarei je bashi valo...

300. Kisudin por amra GPA 5 bolte shudhu pass korake bujhbo!

301. Ajker shokal ta onek sundor...

302. Ish! Shudhu Banglar jonno Golden A+ miss korlam!

303. Oboseshe GPA-5. Jak palate holo na...

304. Paliye jacchi dosto akdom network er baire..!!

305. Bhai! Chittagong er moddhe palanor valo jayga thakle awaaz diben. Na jani ajke kopale ki lekha ase!

306. Hey Electricity! Fire esho.. Oi adhare r mukh lukiye theko na. Tomar mukhdorshoner opekkhay royese Bangladesh..fire esho.....

307. Ami emon jibon chaini jekhane kanna ashe roj...

308. 'My Name is Khan' a great movie. Everyone must see it & hate religious terrorists.

309. Shokale uthia ami mone mone boli..sharadin jeno electricity ektu holeo shodoy hoy...

310. Kono Somossai problem na..!!

311. Meyera phn use kore miss call dewar jonno..!!

312. I refuse to give up

I refuse to give in

You're my everything

I don't wanna give up

I don't wanna give in.....

313. Manush keno cheka khay..!!

314. বিশ্বের সকল মা-কে অনেক অনেক শুভেচ্ছা...........

315. HaPpY MoThErS DaY. Love you Mum..

316. Tomare koiyasi jibonero dhrubotara, a somudre r o kobhu hobo nako potho hara.

317. Joy Guru. Shuvo Jonmodin.

318. Guru tomay jonmodiner shuveccha. Aji hote shotoborsho poreo rakhibe tomay mone sara bishwa...

319. Esho na amar hoye, jibon gori rongin kore. Na bola kothagulo bolbo tomay...

320. বাংলাদেশ দলে যে মাহমুদউল্লাহ নামে একজন অফস্পিনার আছে,এই কথা কি বুদ্ধিমান ক্যাপ্টেন সাকিব ভুলে গেছে?বোলার হিসাবে রিয়াদের দক্ষতা নিয়ে বলার কিছু নাই,রেকর্ডই তার প্রমান। পাকিদের সাথে যখন সবাই মার খাচ্ছিলো, তখন কি সাকিবের রিয়াদের কথা মনে ছিলো না? নাকি সাকিব আজকাল মাহমুদউল্লাহ রিয়াদকে তার প্রতিদন্দি মনে করতেছে? আশরফুল যেভাবে নাফিসকে শেষ করেছে, সাকিবও তাই করতেছে? সাকিবকেতো খুব সহজ সরল মনে করেছিলাম,সেও কি রাজনীতি শিখে গেলো?

321. Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake

Luck ain't even lucky

Got to make your own breaks....

322. Chotto akta prithibi amar,chotto akta nir. Chotto akta nodi amar,chotto akta tir..

323. Tigers break our heartz again & again...

324. Great bowling & fielding! Best wishes for Tigers...

325. I don't care who you are,

Where you're from,

What you did,

As long as you love me....

326. Give me freedom, give me fire,, give me reason, take me higher: See the champions, take the field now,, you define us, ,make us feel proud,:In the streets are, exaliftin , as we lose our inhibition,: Celebration it's around us,,, every nations, all around us..When I get older,, I will be stronger,, They'll call me freedom, Just like a wavin' flag,,. And then it goes back ..And then it goes back..

327. Protikkhar prohore mon mane na...

328. Harale kothay..ei mon j amar mane na...jeo na amay phele,ei stobdho rater shunnotay....

329. Shokuner doyay goru more na...

330. You fill up my senses, like a night in the forest. like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain. like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean. you fill up my senses, come fill me again...

331. I feel so unsure as I take your hand an lead you to the dance floor. As the music dies something in your eyes, Calls to mind a silver screen and you're its sad goodbye....

332. 80% of boys have Girlfriends... Rest 20% are having brain....

333. Dil thanda to duniya thanda...

334. কষ্টের এক নদী..জল বহে নিরবধি।

335. Sobai k May dibosher shuveccha...

336. Albert Einstein er 'Theory of Relativity' asolei onek joss! Inertial Frem bujhle sohojei ata bojha shomvob.

337. I'm searching for ma luv...

338. It iz difficult to understand GOD..He makes beautiful womens.....and....then....He turns them into neighbours wives....!!!

339. I'm never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm...

340. তুমি চেয়েছো তাই তোমায় চাওয়া, কজনমে হবে তোরে পাওয়া!

341. Ghor purle chai thake..kopal purle kisu thake na...

342. Heaven iz when u hv a German Car, American Salary, Chinese Food n Bangladeshi Wife. Hell iz when Car iz Chinese, Food iz German, wife iz American n Salary iz Bangladeshi...!!!

343. My heart is like an open highway, Like Frankie said I did it my way...

344. কষ্টের নোনা জলে আয়নায় জলছাপ, তোমাকে চাওয়াই ছিল পাপ!

345. ঝেড়ে কাশো!

346. ইউনেস্কো জরীপে পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে মিষ্ট ভাষা – বাংলা

347. চ্যানেল ওয়ান বন্ধ করার নির্দেশ দিল সরকার : এরপর কার পালা?

348. This matter is so wrong, so wrong that you had lo leave me alone.

349. I ain't gonna live forever. I just want to live while I'm alive...

350. Aji jhoro jhoro mukhoro badol din a..jani ne jani ne..kisute keno je mon lage na lage na...

351. Icchera meluk dana...

352. Marriage iz a three ring circus: An engagement Ring, A Wedding Ring, Suffering... To be continued...!!!

353. Doya koira 2da status koira jan go dan..amar Allah-Nobijir nam...

354. Albert Einstein er "Theory of Relativity" porsi. Theory ta ato interesting janle aro agei pore sesh kortam...

355. Astala vista...

356. Arun aloy ranga chilo sedin chaitra mash, tomar chokhe dekhesilam amar sorbonash...

367. Amra prem a pori..karon prem a otha oshombhob...

368. Dal mein kuch kala hai...

369. Ai sohorer sobar ato mon kharap keno?

370. Notun kono status mathay asche na...

371. Fake id hoite shabdhan...

372. Jare ja ure ja pakhi tare bole ja se jeno amak kokhono vule na...

373. There's now 100+ members in 'Moinul Hassan Fan Club'. Basay AC lagaisi. Ato fan dia ki korbo?

374. Be careful from the 20th to 28th of this month, There is possibility of an ACID RAIN. The dark circle appeared around the moon on 17th of last month and this is an indication of Acid Rain. Apparently this happens once in 750 years. It rains normally but it may cause skin cancer if you expose yourself to it. So be ALERT.

375. Amay ekta manush dekhao je pap kore nai..amay ekta manush dekhao je papi noy...

376. Takei valobaso je tomak kosto dey. Take kosto dio na je tomay valobase. Hoyto prithibir kase tumi kisui na... Kintu karo kase hoyto tumi tar prithibi.

377. There's a laptop,two soundbox on my reading table. What can I do?

378. Ajke notun gari kinlam. Toyota Rush 1500cc. Ager Toyota Sprinter ta sell kore diyesi...

379. Basay ajke A.C. lagaisi. Kintu loadshedding er jontronay 2hours o chalate parlam na!

380. Ja k valobaso ta k mukto kore dao. Jodi se fire ashe tahole se tomar hoye gelo. R jodi na fere tahole se tomar chilo na kokhono...

381. Visit my website_ http://www.moinulhassan.blogspot.com

382. Swapner pothe jal bune kete jay dinguli...

383. Aaj ei akash kalo hoye bristy jhore tomay dhore. Chonnochara hoye ami khuji tore apon mone...

384. Time pass choro, earth k liye kuch karo...

385. It's simple.

386. Valobasa k valobaste jante hoy...

387. Bachte hole jante hobe..r morte hole prem krte hobe...

388. Keu sukhi noy...

389. Tomar jonno koto rat nirghum jege thaki..tomar jonne amar ato kanna-hashi.

390. Chokh mellai dekhi tomak,chokh bujle pai aro kase...

391. Valobasi, boro valobasi..Er besi valobasa jay na...

392. My new e-mail address_ moinul@hassanshares.com

393. Chittagong University campus a ajke onek moja korlam. Shuttle train a gola fatiye gailam...

394. Ay ay ay re ay abar shobai melay jai, ay ay ay re ay utshobe mati shobai.....

395. শুভ নববর্ষ। সবার জন্য শুভ কামনা।

396. Uff shit! Pantavat khete ato kosto! Katachamoch a to uthei na!

397. Facebook er shob bondhuder k noboborsher shuveccha... "Shuvo Noboborsho"

398. Legese bangalir ghore ghore a ki maton dola, legese sureri tale tale hridoy pagol kora. Bosor ghure elo, arek provate fire elo, surero monjuri. Polash-shimul gase legese agun. A bujhi boisakh alei shuni. Melay Jai Re.....

399. Amra kal hobo ekdiner bangali. Panta kabo katachamoch diye, porbo panjabi, but pajama porbo belt diye.....

400. Esho hey boisakh...

401. Chokkhe amar trishna..ogo trishna amar bokkhojure...

402. Aaj tomay shonaboi jatiyo songiter ditiyo line...

403. Shobkisu dhushor bole mone hoy...

404. Somoy jeno kate na...

405. Watch "SAW" & get the real taste of horror movie...

406. Mon valo nei bar bar mone hoy, tumi pashe nei. Vabi dhur chai keno kate na somoy. Sat ti ronge tomak khuje berai. Khuje na peye boro oviman hoy...

407. Amra "Digital Bangladesh" chai na. Shudhu electricity, gas r pani chai...

408. Tumi nischinte nissash nao,rekhesi kisu subatash. Bisuddho oxyzen..noy carbon,noy sulphur...

409. Amar bola holo na..amar fera holo na...

410. Eka thaka bole kisu nei..Nissongota bole kisu nei...

411. Returning Chittagong...

412. I like Twitter than Facebook

413. Status update korlam...

414. Government will make "Difficult Bangladesh", not "Digital Bangladesh"...

415 Shokole valobasuk, ami basbo na. Mora manush keshe uthuk, ami kashbo na...

416. Amar sonar bangla tomay ami valobasi, ei desh er manusher mukhe porankhola hashi...

417. I'm now @ my village home. Amader home a mouchak hoyese. Sondhay mouchak theke pure honey kheyesi. Pure honey er taste akdom different...

418. Valo theko, valo rekho...

419. Look @ me

420. Browsing Twitter.....

421. Amar favourate colour akek somoy akek rokom. Suppose, jokhon ami signal a thaki tokhon favourate colour green, jokhon rat 4ta bajeo ghum ashe na tokhon favourate colour white, abar jokhon khub kosto hoy tokhon valo lage blue.....

422. If jodi is hoy but kintu what ki?

423. Chena dukkho nie ochena amar a jibon...

424. People say, u can't live without love... But I think oxygen is more important. :-) Save our enviornment..

425. I'm nw @ my village home...

426. Yea payaar ka mamla hain...

427. Kuch karo na yaar..Kuch bhi...

428. Dialogue vule gesi...

429. Shudumatro baper hotelei free khawa jay, tao jiboner nirdisto somoy porjonto...[But meyeder bepare sompurno different. Akhetre chorom discrimination dekha jay...

430. Jomat badha kostogulo buker vetor jhor tulse vison...

431. What's on your mind?

432. Ami ekhon Burigongay. Wow! What a beauty! Black water, dirty smell...

433. Xam sesh. Aal izz boaring...

434. Shakib er nam Mr.96 deya uchit. Test a 96 run er hattric korlo aaj...

435. Mohakaler kole aj ami ghumabo.... ghumabo sudhui ghumabo...

436. Ami facebook k chari, but facebook amay chare na.....

437. Facebook ekhon fake id te vore giese. Konta je real r konta fake bojha dushkor...

438. Aajo ami swapno kurai jiboner protiti khone...

439. Aal izz well...

440. Harie gieso kothay kokhon ektuku tero paini, harie jawa prohorgulo tomar kase chai ni.....

441. Visit my wapsite_ http://moinulhassan.peperonity.com

442. Prochondo gorom, obostha chorom!

443. Icchera meluk dana...

444. Ochena aakash dake amay, ek notun swapno mone jagay.....

445. Amar status a apnar mulloban comment prodan korun...

446. Tumi bolle aaj dujone eksathe bristite vijbo. Tumi chaile rodela dupure bristi namar gaan gaibo. Ami kobi noi tobu kabber vasha khujbo aaj.....

447. Rastay khuje firi sostay, ghure ghure 1cup cha mele nastay. Shai shai bus jay, dhuke dhuke mash jay.....

448. Impossiable is nothing...

449. Prithibita aaj choto hote hote Internet r Facebook er hathe drawing roome rakha boka baksho te bondi.....

450. Life is trouble...

451. Plz! Stop fake idz...

452. Aaj Bangabondhu's birthday,tai govt. holiday! But tar marriage day, akika dibosh etc te holiday keno rakha hoy ni!?

453. Good Bye....Exam....See u later...

454. Facebook = Mukhboi

455. Go Knight Raiders go ahead...

456. Ore dustu chele, dossi meyer dol.. Tora k kothay achis bol...

457. Parbo na hote ami romeo, tai dupur belate ghumeo. Aste hobe na r baranday..

458. Babara line a thakish...

459. LOVE is like a chinese mobile. NO guarantee...

460. Ami ghumaile chokhe kisu dekhte pai na, khaile khudha lage na... Ki je kori!!

461. Moneybag a akhon chobi rakhi na r tor, churi jodi hoye jay pote jabe chor.....

462. We should use facebook as a media to re-connect the people whose r already been far away from the closest relatives. What do u think?

463. O mere khuda dil hua fida...

464. Majhrate ghum venge cheye dekhi aakashe tarar mela...

465. 12tay office asi 2toy tiffin, 3tey jodi dekhi signal green. choti ta golie paye, nipat nirdidhay chair ta konomote chari. Kono kotha na barie dhire dhire pa barie 4tey chole asi bari. Ami sorkari kormochari.....

466. Ajker akashe onek tara, din chilo surje vora. Ajker josonata aro sundor, sondhata valo lagar...

467. Tarporo tar icche jage mukto akashe pakhi hoye ural debar. Tar onuvutir deyal khule berie aste chay mukto bihongone.....

468. Google Earth thek Chittagong City ta dekhte darun lage. Specially Foy's Lake ta...

469. Sukh nai re pagol!! Sudhu exam,exam & exam. Uff! R vallage na...

470. Jibonta ciggerate er chai, fuk die tak urai.....

471. Mathay poresi shada cap, hate royese ochena ek shohorer map.....

472. Bastobotai korte chai na bas.. ghum ar modhe hote chai nirbas,...

473. Vulgulo shob ful hoye futuk.....

474. Kya cool hain hum!

475. Tumi bolo bristi jhorse, r ami boli aakash kadse...

476. Vromor koiyo gia Moinul Hassan er taka lagbe...

477. Newton jodi apple bagane na bose jodi coconut bagane bosten, r tar mathay jodi apple na pore coconut porto tahole kotoi na valo hoto! Physics a hoyto 1ta chapter kom porte hoto...

478. Icche ra fakibazi, icche ra classrom. Icche ra dupurer alsemi, vatghum.....

479. Tumi ki aaj bondhu jabe amar sathe? Emoni vora josonay paye paye durer pothe.....

480. Tumi amar pashe bondhu hey, bosia thako, aktu bosia thako.....

481. Ajke fatafati ekta exam dilam. Higher Math exam ato valo hobe chintao kori ni!!

482. Half bati muri r half potch dim kheye, half cup cha kheye pepar ta hate nie, Halfiz saheb sofay gie shulo half beka hoye. Half page pepar ta porte na portei chitkare tar gota barita jeno mathay chorlo. Half minute er majhe lokjon joro holo. Ki holo? Ki holo? Half vanga golay se beparta bollo. "...........................................!" Karonta shune sobai half chere bachlo. Golpota furolo.

483. Amader valobasa hoye gelo ghash, kheye gelo goru, diye gelo bash...!!

484. Facebook,hi5,Twitter,MySpace,Orkut,Flickr,Live,myLEMEX,NogorBalok,mig33 jekhanei jabe pabe amay. Tai kono frnd agulor konotate thakle obossoi amak frnd request pathio......

485. Buffet lunch kore khub kharap obostha!!

486. K bole amar kono status nai! FB er blessing a akhon amar onek status!!

487. If u don't watch 3 idiots you're the 4th idiot!!

488. I'm a THIRD PERSON SINGULAR NUMBER

489. Visit my wapsite_ http://moinulhassan.peperonity.com U can download free unlimited wap contents, u can chat with friendz & vote different subjects from my site.

490. We want justice for BDR tragedy.

491. Valobasar potoner jonno amra konovabei mohakorsho ba ovikorsho k dae korte pari na.....

492. Ek hate mobile tomar onno hate sim, ek pashe murgi onno pashe dim..................... Bakita ki hobe bolo dekhi?

493. Je jon dibose recharge koria nishithe uray taka, shighroi deulia premika tahar pocket koribe faka.....

494. Megh bolese chaitre jabo...

495. We r now suffering from facebook fever. And u?

496. Bondhu tomar pother sathi k chine nio...

497. ২১শে ফেব্রুয়ারী ১৯৫২ তে যে সকল ভাষা শহীদের আত্বত্যাগের ফলে আজ আমরা আমাদের বাংলা ভাষায় কথা বলছি সেই সব ভাষা শহীদ দের জন্য রইল গভীর শ্রদ্ধা ।

498. 21 mane matha noto na kora...

499. 21 amader koti bangalir hridoyer pushpito sourov...

500. EKUSHER lal salam...abar hobeto dekha Roman, Bangla Academi, Shahid Minara...banglar manusher sathe...

501. Din jay amar porasona jay bere?

502. Ajker xam ta josh hoise!

503. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. Exam er karone aj dintai mati hoye gelo! 14th February k public holiday korata asolei khub dorkar.....

504. Suvo 1la Falgun...

505. Good Bye FB For 1.5 Months.....

506. Aj chilo amader school er Buro Botgas Utpaton Dibosh (Farewell). Khub kharap lagse. Frndz der k onek miss korbo, obossoi sir er hater mar khawatao.....

507. Catch me if u can...

508. Evabe saradin ghore boshe porasona korte r vallagse na.....

509. Amar FB account hack kora hoyesilo. Onek jhamelar por chalu korte peresi. So frndz! Plz try to change ur FB password every month.

510. FishFashFishFashFish.....

511. Ami ek dukkhowala, dukkho kinte chai. Karo kase thale kisu amay dio vai...

512. Ore mon kharaper dol, toder mon kharap keno bol?

513. Ei din din noy aro din ase, ei dinere jaite hoibo sei dinero kase.....

514. Sobai jokhon ghumiye pore tokhono ami eka...chad dube jay surjo othe paina karo dekha.....

515. Bujhi na bujhi na ami moner bekoron, sohe na sohe na jala ki kori akhon.....

516. .........................................................................................!!

517. Sagorer dheugulo dakse amay.....

518. I'm now at Cox's Bazar. Ai nie 14th barer moto Cox's Bazare elam.....

519. Warid Telecom Bangladesh er 70% share kine niyese Indiar airtel. Koyek months er moddhei Warid Telecom er name change hoye airtel hobe.....

520. Amra student ra holam Education Board er ginipig. Tara amader nie akek bosor akek rokomer experiment kore. But konotai 1/2 year er besi tike na.....

521. Jibone ki pabo ki pabo na, se kotha nie r vabi na.....

522. Tobuo jibon jacche kete, jiboner niyome.....

523. "myLEMEX" is the first Bangladeshi Social Networking Website (Like Facebook). You can connect & transfer ur data autometically. So let's join it...

524. Integrity is the light that makes our life shine......

525. Accept ur limitations then go beyond them...

526. Khola akasher niche sobai jajabor.....

527. How is that!

528. HaPpY NeW YeAr 2010 to all my frndz...

529. I love my life...

530. Dar ki age jit hai...

531. B Happy 2day & Allways Remain So.....

532. Happiness is not a destination. It's a method of life.....

533. Dhulo pora chithi, jome thaka smriti. Rat jaga somoy, beche thaka ami. Avabei nitto amari bosobash. Ak cup cha, r kisu dirghosash..........

534. Rater akash theke chinie ane daw tarar melar chobi, rupkothar rupe likhe daw jibon sroter ei nodi. Rongdhonur adole rangie daw moner akasher robi.....

535. Samne exam! So do chinta, no foorti..!!

536. Shob kisu muche geleo ai muhurtota rongin.....

537. Happy 38th birthday to BANGLADESH..!!

538. Desh k rajakar mukto korar maddhome arekti bijoy asuk...

539. Gan copy kora ato kosto!

540. Vor hoyni, aj holo na. Kal hobe kina tao jana nei. Porsu vor thik asbei...

541. Ai duniyata akta rongomoncho jekhane ami-tumi sobai ovineta-ovinetri.....

542. Nikosh adhar,gholate ondhokar,purnima cheye roy jonakir alochayay...

543. Keu doctor hote chay,keuba ingineer. Kintu Amlakanti asober kisui hote chay ni. Amlakanti roddur hote cheyesilo.....

544. Ful nebe na osru nebe bondhu?

545. Ful futuk r nai futuk,bosonto hridoye aj amar.Chad uthuk r nai uthuk,hridoye rengese aj amar...

546. Aaj ami chokh vejabo somudro jole...

547. Jibon 52 taser khela...

548. K koto gosto khaiso?

549. Sobai k goru katakutir Eid er shuveccha! Tomader sobar basay amar dawat roilo.....

550. Kotota path perule tak pothik bola jay? Kotota path perule pakhi jirobe tar day? Kotota opochoyer por manush chena jay? Prosnogulo khubi sohoj. Uttorgulo jana...

551. Ami dekhi ni,ami shuni ni,ami boli ni onek kisu. Ami jani ni,ami bujhi ni tobu chutesi tomar pisu...

552. Aka pakhi bose ase sobujer deyale,sish die gan gay dhusor kheyale...

553. Door, bohudoor jete hobe...

554. Choto choto dheu mile akti nodi hoy...Nodir valobasa sagore milay......

555. Hath dhoresi hatsi pothe, vora dupur, josna rode, vije bikel chul ure jay, mon vije jay durba ghase...

556. Ami ghor charia bahir hoiya josna dhorte chai. Hath baralei chader alo, dhorte gelei nai...

557. Ghotona ghote na, ghote jay...

558. Aaj ami kothao jabo na...

559. Mon valo nei...

560. যেতে নাহি দিব, হায় ! তবু যেতে দিতে হয়, তবু চলে যায় ...

561. Keno mon k bujhate pari na, je jay fire ase na...

562. Jodi bondhu how hath ta barao...

563. Ki je vabbo setai vabsi!..

564. MA,MATI,MANUSH K VALOBASHO & MUKHOSTO,MITTHE,MADOK K GHRINA KORO.....

565. The big joke of this year is getting Noble Peace Prize of Barak Obama!!!...

566. সবাইকে শারদীয় শুভেচ্ছা......

567. KONO SMOSSA NEI ATAI SHOBCHEYE BORO SOMOSSA

568. Manush matro vul!

569. Exam nia khub tension a asi

570. দেশকে ভালবাস, দেশ তোমাকে ভালবাসবে

571. একজন বিখ্যাত মানুষ দিয়ে কি হয়?‌‌ কিছুই হয় না।কিন্তু দশজন খাঁটি মানুষ দিয়ে দেশকে পাল্টে ফেলা যায়।

572. Mashrafe'r jonno sad feel korsi

573. মানুষ মরে গেলে পঁচে যায়, আর বেঁচে থাকলে বদলায়। তাই আসুন আগে নিজেকে বদলাই, আর তারপর বদলে দিই পৃথিবী?

574. Let's Join The Group "FACEBOOK FUN MANIA" & "JUST FOR LAUGHS"......

575. Wishing All Friends For A Happy New Year........

576. sesh porjonto aoami league i jitlo!!!

577. is waiting for election......& saying dont vote rajakar.......

578. is sleeping right now.Please call him to get up.....

579. came back from cox's bazar....

580. is now planning a tour to cox's bazar

581. is enjoying his eid vaccation

582. is taking preparation of his exam

583. is enjoying his eid vaccation........& wishing all of his friends 'EID MUBARAK'

584. is enjoying his eid vaccation.

Tech Jokes

2013-09-25T05:07:00.004-07:00

At a recent COMDEX, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself):

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this restart and drive on.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT." But then you would have to buy more seats.

6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.

7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.

8. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.

9. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.

10. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

11. Every time GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

12. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.

TWO FRIENDS AND THE BEAR

2013-08-10T03:01:00.001-07:00

TWO FRIENDS AND THE BEAR

Once there were two close friends. One day they were passing through the forest. The forest was full of wild animals. The two friends promised to help each other in danger.

They had not gone far. All on a sudden they saw a bear. It was coming towards them. They got afraid. One of them knew how to climb a tree. He forgot his friend. So, he left his friend also. He tried to save his own life. He climbed up a nearby tall tree.

The other friend was in danger. He saw the work of his friend. He did not know how to climb up a tree. He remembered Allah again and again. He did not get nervous. He had firm faith in Allah. He heard that bears do not touch a dead man.

He lay on the ground like a dead man. The bear come up to him. It smell his body. The bear thought him to be dead. So, it did not touch his body. The bear then went away.

The other friend on the tree saw everything . Now he came down from the tree. He went to his friend and said, “what did the bear say to you? He advised me not to believe a false friend. A false friend leaves his friend in danger.

Moral: A friend in need is a friend in deed.

First Grade Proverbs

2013-08-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

"First Grade Proverbs"
A first grade teacher collected well known proverbs.
She gave each child in her class the first half of a proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb.
Their insight may surprise you.

Better to be safe than......Punch a 5th grader
Strike while the ..........Bug is close
It's always darkest before.....Daylight Savings Time
Never underestimate the power of....Termites
You can lead a horse to water but........how?
Don't bite the hand that........looks dirty
No news is...............impossible
A miss is as good as a.........Mr.
If you lie down with dogs, you'll....stink in the morning
The pen is mightier than the............pigs
An idle mind is...........The best way to relax
Where there's smoke there's.........pollution
Happy the bride who...........gets all the presents
A penny saved is...............not much
Two's company, three's..........the Musketeers
Children should be seen and not...spanked or grounded
If at first you don't succeed.....get new batteries
You get out of something what you..see pictured on the box
When the blind leadeth the blind......get out of the way
Laugh & the whole world laughs w/you,cry and....you have to blow your nose

"The Ring Bearer"
A little boy was in a relative's wedding.
As he was coming down the aisle he would take two steps, stop, and turn to the crowd (alternating between bride's side and groom's side).
While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar.
So it went, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR all the way down the aisle.
As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from laughing so hard by the time he reached the pulpit.
The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the laughing, and was also near tears by the time he reached the pulpit.
When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said,
"I was being the Ring Bear."

Science History

2013-07-06T15:13:00.004-07:00

Science History

History is the science of the past. Or is it?

Its object is what has already happened. But, far from being out

of sight, out of mind, the past is our constant partner.

Our waking life is populated by ideas of who we are and what

we should do, based in a more or less informed way on our

knowledge of the past.

http://historyjokes.blogspot.com/

European citizens have embarked on an important journey,

building a Union, consolidating it and even admitting numerous

new members. What is our destination? How long will the

journey take? No one knows. For now, there is only one answer:

“Time will tell”.

But how we shape our Union, how we react to challenges and

resist or negotiate change depends on what we are able to predict

and what we know about ourselves, others, and the polity

we are striving to build.

Strangely, considering the urgency of being informed about

issues that concern us all, few students in higher education

are given the opportunity to learn about the European Union

and its development. In most History departments, if EU history

is taught at all, it is from a point of view skewed towards

the national experience. This is natural, but it also tells us that a

fuller circulation of knowledge and ideas is necessary. History

learning and teaching are still conceived largely in a national

framework, and rightly so, since the national context influences

deeply how citizens experience their belonging to the EU.

And Europe’s role in the wider world? Europeans need a deeper

understanding of that world to interact positively with it. The

European Union, a unique polity, must find its unique path in a

globalised world.

The CLIOHWORLD Network designs tools and strategies to

improve history learning and teaching and increase their usefulness

for European citizens. With this booklet the Network

wishes to share its work in progress.

History and Europe

Tech Jokes

2013-05-15T01:58:00.001-07:00

Jokes•    Ten reasons you know you're living in 2009
•    1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
•    2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
•    3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
•    4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
•   5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have    e-mail addresses.
•    6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
•    7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
•    8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
•    9. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.
•    10. You're reading this and nodding and laughing. :)

Ever wonder why DOS never says:
" Excellent command or filename" !

To: Management From: Systems Group
Re: Y-to-K Date Change Project Status
We are pleased to report that our staff has completed the 18 months of "Y-to-K" work, on time, and on budget.
We have gone through every line of code in every program in every system.
We have analyzed all databases, all data files, including backups and historic archives,
and completely modified dates in all software and all data to reflect your new standards, as such:
* Months: Januark,
Februark
Mak,
Julk
* Days: Sundak,
Mondak,
Tuesdak,
Wednesdak,
Thursdak,
Fridak,
Saturdak
Our team is glad to help in any way possible, although honestly, the urgency of this "Y-to-K" project has not made much sense to us, with all push to complete this before the year 2000.
Speaking of which, what do you think we ought to do next year when the two-digit year rolls over from 99 to 00?
That could cause some problems.
Regards,
System Group
- As told by Owner-http://historyjokes.blogspot.com/

Sex with The English Teacher

2013-04-06T01:19:00.005-07:00

Sex with The English Teacher

A boy in the sixth grade comes home after school one day. His mother notices that he's got a big smile on his face. She asks, "Did anything special happen at school today?"
"Yes, Mom. I had sex with my English teacher!"
The mother is stunned. "You're going to talk about this with your father when he gets home."
Well, when dad comes home and hears the news he is pleased as punch. Beaming with pride, he walks over to his son and says, "Son, I hear you had sex with your English teacher."
"That's right, Dad."
"Well, you became a man today - this is cause for celebration. Let's head out for some ice cream, and then I'll buy that new bike you've been asking for."
"That sounds great, Dad, but I can I have a football instead? My ass is killing me."

THE BOYS AND THE FROGS

2013-02-15T10:08:00.001-08:00

THE BOYS AND THE FROGS

There was a pond at the end of a village. There was a little water in the pond. There lived a large number a frogs. The frogs were living there happily.

One day, some boys were passing by the pond. At that time the frogs were at play. The frogs were swimming and croaking happily. The boys saw this. They began to throw stones at the frogs. All the frogs at once went down into the water. But the boys don’t leave that place. They remained standing there with stones in their hands. The new game was a great fun to the boys. They found a great joy in it. They went on pelting the frogs with stones when they raised their head above the water. They killed many frogs by throwing the stones. They were very happy.

At last an old frog raised its head and said, “Oh my dear little boys! Please stop the throwing stones, stop the cruel fun. Don’t throw stones at us. It is suffering us”.

The boys said, “Why should we stop it is play. It is a great fun. We are enjoying it . ” The frog replied, What is play to you is death to us. This is why you should stop it. This play is yours fun but it gives us death.

The boys were ashamed at this. They left the cruel game and went away.

Moral : What is play to one is death to other.

Things Kids Say & Do Funny

2012-09-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

"WHAT IS A GRANDPARENT?"
(taken from papers written by a class of 8-year-olds)
•    Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of their own but they like other people's.
•    A grandfather is a man and a grandmother is a lady!
•    Grandparents don't have to do anything except be there when we come to see them.
•    Grandparents are so old they shouldn't play hard or run but it is good if they drive us to the shops and give us money.
•    Grandparents take us for walks and they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillers.
•    Grandparents show us things and talk to us about the color of the flowers and also why we shouldn't step on the sidewalk "cracks."
•    Grandparents don't say, "Hurry up."
•    Usually grandmothers are fat but not too fat to tie your shoes.
•    Grandparents wear glasses and they can take their teeth and gums out.
•    Grandparents always have time to answer our questions and they always know all the right answers to everything because they have lived a long time.
•    When grandparents read to us, they don't skip and they don't mind if we ask for the same story over again.
•    Grandparents know we should have snack-time before bedtime and they say prayers with us every time and kiss us even when we've acted bad.
•    Everybody should try to have grandparents, especially if you don't have television, because they are the only grown ups who like to spend time with us.
________________________________________
"No Shoving"
A little girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Bible class.
As she ran she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late! Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!"
While she was running and praying, she tripped on a curb and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress.
She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again.
As she ran she once again began to pray, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late...But!--please don't shove me either!"
________________________________________
Black & White?"
Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "Why is the bride dressed in white?"
"Because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life." said the mother.
The child thought about this for a moment, then said, "So then, why is the groom wearing black?"
________________________________________
"Left-Handed?"
Little Bobby was spending the weekend with his grandmother after a particularly trying week in kindergarten.
His grandmother decided to take him to the park on Saturday morning. It had been snowing all night and everything was beautiful.
His grandmother remarked, "doesn't it look like an artist painted this scenery? Did you know God painted this just for you?"
Bobby said, "Yes, God did it and He did it left handed."
This confused his grandmother a bit, and she asked him, "What makes you say God did this with his left hand?"
"Well," said Bobby, "we learned at Sunday School last week that Jesus sits on God's right hand!
________________________________________
"The Flight to Egypt"
Terri asked her Sunday School class to draw pictures of their favorite Bible stories. She was puzzled by Kyle's picture, which showed four people on an airplane, so she asked him which story it was meant to represent.
"The flight to Egypt," said Kyle.
"I see ... And that must be Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus," Ms. Terri said. "But who's the fourth person?"
"Oh, that's Pontius-the Pilot." said Kyle.
________________________________________
"White Hair"
One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink.
She noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair on her brunette head.
She looked at her mother and asked, Why are some of your hairs white, Momma?"
Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."
The little girl thought about this for a while and then asked, "Momma, how comeALLof Grandma's hairs are white?"
________________________________________
"A New Twist to an Old Tale"
My friend likes to read his two young sons fairy tales at night.
Having a deep-rooted sense of humor, he often ad libs parts of the stories for fun.
One day his youngest son was sitting in his first- grade class. The teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs.
She came to the part of the story where the first pig was trying to acquire building materials for his home.
She said, "And so the pig went up to the man with a wheelbarrow full of straw and asked, 'Pardon me, sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?'"
Then the teacher asked the class, "And what do you think that man said?"
My friend's son, remembering his dad's humorous rendition of the story, raised his hand and said, "I know! I know!
The man said: 'Holy smokes! A talking pig!'"
________________________________________
"My Country"
The kindergarten teacher was showing her class an encyclopedia page picturing several national flags.
She pointed to the American flag and asked, "What flag is this?"
A little girl called out, "That's the flag of our country."
"Very good," the teacher said. "And what is the name of our country?"
"'Tis of thee," the girl said confidently.
________________________________________
"In Sympathy"
A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses.
She started her class by saying, "Everyone who thinks you are stupid, stand up!"
After a few seconds, little Johnny stood up.
The teacher was surprised, but realized this was an opportune moment to help a child.
"Do you think you're stupid, Johnny?" she asked.
"No, ma'am," Johnny replied, "but I hated to see you standing there all by yourself!"
- As told by Owner-LaughALot@ListFarm.com

Things Kids Say & Do Funny

2012-09-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

"Grandmother's Childhood Memories"
A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like.
"We used to skate outside on a pond and I had a swing made from a tire, it hung from a tree in our front yard.
We rode our pony and we picked wild raspberries in the woods."
The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in.
At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

"Guess What I Learned in School Today!"
A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today."
The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool.
"That's interesting." she said. "How do you make babies?"
"It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."

"Like God?"
My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?"
I mentally polished my halo and I said, "No, how are we alike?''
"You're both old," he replied.

"Happy Birthday?"
My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday.
He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 62.
My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"

"A Logical Explanation?"
Little Gordie, age 4, came home covered in mud from head to toe.
"Gordie! Look at you!" his mother exclaimed.
"Tell me Gordie, how do little boys get so dirty?"
Gordie thought a moment and then replied, "I guess it's 'cause we're so close to the ground."

"It's OK Mom"
Mother had just finished waxing the floors when she heard her young son open the kitchen door.
She shouted "Be careful on that floor, Jimmy; it's just been waxed."
Jimmy walked right in saying:"It's OK Mom, I'm wearing my cleats."

Blonde Jokes

2012-09-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

A blonde was driving home after a game and got caught in a really bad Hailstorm. Her car was covered with dents, so the next day she took it To a repair shop.
The shop owner saw that she was a blonde, so he decided to have some fun with her. He told her to go home and blow into the tail pipe really hard, and all the dents would pop out.
So, the blonde went home, got down on her hands and knees and started blowing into the tailpipe. Nothing happened. So she blew a little harder, and still nothing happened.
Her roommate, another blonde, came home and said, "What are you doing?"
The first blonde told her how the repairman had instructed her to blow into the tail pipe in order to get all the dents to pop out, but it wasn't working.
The roommate rolled her eyes and said, "DUh!! Like Hello!! You need to roll up the windows first!"

A contestant on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" had reached the final plateau. If she answered the next question correctly, she would win $1,000,000. If she answered incorrectly, she would pocket only the $32,000 milestone money. And as she suspected it would be, the million-dollar question was no pushover.
The question was: "Which of the following species of birds does not build its own nest, but instead lays its eggs in the nests of other birds?
Is it: A) the condor; B) the buzzard; C) the cuckoo; or D) the vulture?"
The woman was on the spot. She did not know the answer. And she was doubly on the spot because she had used up her 50/50 Lifeline and her Audience Poll Lifeline. All that remained was her Phone-a-Friend Lifeline, and the woman had hoped against hope that she would not have to use it, mainly because the only friend that she knew would be home happened to be a blonde.
But the contestant had no alternative. She called her friend and gave her the question and the four choices.
The blonde responded unhesitatingly: "That's easy. The answer is C: The cuckoo."
The contestant had to make a decision and make it fast. She considered employing a reverse strategy and giving any answer except the one that her friend had given her. And considering that her friend was a blonde, that would seem to be the logical thing to do. On the other hand, the blonde had responded with such confidence, such certitude, that the contestant could not help but be persuaded.
"I need an answer," said the host.
Crossing her fingers, the contestant said, "C: The cuckoo."
"Is that your final answer?" asked the host.
"Yes, that is my final answer." replied the contestant.
The host said: " That answer is.........absolutely correct !! You are now a Millionaire!"
Three days later, the contestant hosted a party for her family and friends including the blonde who had helped her win the million dollars.
"Jenny, I just do not know how to thank you," said the contestant. "Because of your knowing the answer to that final question, I am now a millionaire. And do you want to know something? It was the assuredness with which you answered the question that convinced me to go with your choice. By the way--- how did you happen to know the right answer?"
"Oh, come on !" said the blonde. "Everybody knows that cuckoos don't build nests. They live in clocks !"

One winter morning a couple was listening to the radio over breakfast. They hear the announcer say, "We are going to have 8 to 10 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the even-numbered side of the street,so the snowplows can get through." Norman's wife goes out and moves her car.
A week later while they are eating breakfast again, the radio announcer says, "We are expecting 10 to 12 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the odd-numbered side of the street, so the snowplows can get through." Norman's wife goes out and moves her car again.
The next week they ! are again having breakfast, when the radio announcer says, "We are expecting 12 to 14 inches of snow today. You must park ......" Then the power goes out. Norman's wife is very upset, and with a worried look on her face she says, "Honey, I don't know what to do. Which side of the street do I need to park on so the snowplows can get through?"
With the love and understanding in his voice that all men who are married to blondes exhibit, Norman says ... "Why don't you just leave it in the garage this time?"

There was this blonde who just got sick and tired of all the blonde jokes. So one evening she went home and memorized all the state capitals.
Back in the office the next day, some guy started telling a dumb blonde joke.
She interrupted him with a shrill announcement,
"I've had it up to here with these blonde jokes.
I want you to know that this blonde went home last night and did something probably none of you could do...I memorized all the state capitals."
Of course,one of the guys, said "I don't believe you.
What is the capital of Nevada?"
"N", she answered.

A blonde got lost in her car in a terrible snow storm.
She remembered what her dad had once told her,
"If you ever get stuck in a snow storm, wait for a snow plow and follow it."
Pretty soon a snow plow came by, and she started to follow it.
She followed the plow for about forty-five minutes.
Finally, the driver of the truck got out and asked her, "What are you doing?"
She explained, "My Dad told me, 'if you ever get stuck in a snowstorm , follow a snow plow.'"
The driver nodded and said:
"Well, I'm done with the Wal-Mart parking lot. Want to follow me over to K-Mart?"

A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighborhood
. She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had any jobs for her to do.
"Well, you can paint my porch. How much will you charge?"
The blonde said "How about 50 dollars?"
The man agreed and told her that the paint and ladders that she might need were in the garage.
The man's wife, inside the house, heard the conversation and said to her husband, "Does she realize that the porch goes all the way around the house?"
The man replied, "She should. She was standing on the porch."
A short time later, the blonde came to the door to collect her money.
"You're finished already?" he asked.
"Yes," the blonde answered, "and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats.
"Impressed, the man reached in his pocket for the $50
. "And by the way," the blonde added, "that's not a Porch, it's a Ferrari."

--MY BLONDE FRIEND IS SO FUNNY....
...she sent me a fax with a stamp on it.
...she thought a quarterback was a refund.
...she tried to put M&M's in alphabetical order.
...she thought Boyz II Men was a day care center.
...she thought Eartha Kitt was a set of garden tools.
...she thought cantaloupe was a marital problem
...she thought General Motors was in the army.
...she thought Meow Mix was a record for cats.
...under "education" on her job application, she put " Hooked On Phonics."
...she tried to drown a fish.
...she tripped over a cordless phone.
...she spent 20 minutes looking at the orange juice box because it said "concentrate."
...she put lipstick on her forehead because she wanted to make up her mind.
...she told me to meet her at the corner of "WALK" and "DON'T WALK."
...she got locked in a grocery store and nearly starved to death.
...she took a ruler to bed to see how long she slept
...she asked for a price check at the Dollar Store.
...it takes her two hours to watch "60 Minutes."
...if she spoke her mind, she'd probably be speechless.
...she studied for a blood test - and failed.
...she thought she needed a token to get on "Soul Train."
...she sold the car for gas money.
...when she saw the "NC-17" (under 17 not admitted) she went home and got 16 friends.
...when she heard that 90% of all crimes occur around the home, she moved.
...she thinks Taco Bell is where you pay your phone bill.
...when she missed the 44 bus, she took the 22 bus twice instead.

...when she took me to the airport and saw a sign that said "Airport Left," she turned around and went home.

Blonde Jokes

2012-09-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

--Blondes Year in Review
January- Took scarf back to store because it was too tight!!
February- Fired from pharmacy job for failing to print labels.. "duh" bottles won't fit in typewriter!!!!
March- Got excited....finished jigsaw puzzle in 6 months... box said 2-4 years.
April- Trapped on escalator for hours.... power went out!!!!
May- Tried to make Kool- Aid.... 8 cups of water won't fit into those little packets.....
June- Tried to go water skiing...couldn't find a lake with a slope!!!!
July- Lost breast stroke swimming competition...learned later, other swimmers cheated, they used their arms!!!!!
August- Got locked out of car in rainstorm, car got swamped, because the top was down!!!!
September- The capital of California is "C"-- isn't it?????
October- Hate M&Ms ... they are too hard to peel!!!!
November- Baked turkey for 4-1/2 days... instructions said 1 pound per hour, and I weigh 108!!!
December- Couldn't call 911..."duh" there's no "eleven" button on the phone!!!
WHAT A YEAR!!!!!!!!

Two bowling teams, one of all Blondes and one of all Brunettes, charter a double-decker bus for a weekend bowling tournament trip.
The Brunette team rode on the bottom of the bus, and the Blonde team rode on the top-level.
The Brunette team down below is really whooping it up, having a great time, when one of them realized she hadn’t heard anything from the Blondes upstairs.
She decides to go up and investigate.
When the Brunette reached the top, she found all the Blondes in fear, staring straight ahead at the road, clutching the seats in front of them with white knuckles.
The brunette asked, “What's going on up here? We’re having a great time downstairs!”
One of the Blondes looks up at her, swallows hard and whispers…
“YEAH, BUT YOU’VE GOT THE DRIVER!”

A blonde is speeding down a freeway when she is stopped by a highway patrol officer.
The officer asks if he can see her driver's license.
The blonde replies angrily, "I wish you guys would make up your minds!
Just yesterday one of you took away my license, and now today you expect me to show it to you!"

A blonde went to an eye doctor to have her eyes checked for glasses. The Doctor directed her to read various letters with the left eye while covering up the right eye.
The blonde was so mixed up on which eye was which, that the eye doctor, in disgust, took a paper lunch bag, cut a hole in it to see through, covered up the appropriate eye and asked the blond to then read the letters.
As he did so, he noticed the blonde had tears streaming down her face.
"Look," said the doctor, "there's no need to get emotional about getting Glasses."
"I know," agreed the blonde, "But I kind of had my heart set on wire frames."

Blonde Jokes

2012-09-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

A BLONDE TRIP
Two blondes were taking a trip to visit Disneyland.
On the way they saw a sign that said "Disneyland Left"
They both started to cry.

A BLONDE'S RETORT
One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweatshirt.
Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, 'What setting do I use on the washing machine?'
'It depends,' I replied. 'What does it say on your shirt?'
He yelled back, ' GO SEAHAWKS! '
And they say blondes are dumb....???

The Magic Mirror
Someone gave a blonde a magic mirror and told her that if anyone walked up to it and told a lie it would suck them in.
So one day the blonde was telling her co-workers about the mirror.
A brunette co-worker walked up to the mirror and said 'I think I'm the most beautiful woman in the world' and it sucked her in.
The next day a redhead heard about the mirror, so she walked up to it and said 'I think I'm the most beautiful woman in the world' and it sucked her in.
The blonde stood wondering about all of this...then she walked up to the mirror and said 'I think...' and it sucked her in.

BLONDE'S WEEKLY COOKBOOK DIARY

MONDAY:

It's fun to cook for Tom.
Today I made angel food cake.
The recipe said beat 12 eggs separately.
The neighbors were nice enough to loan me some extra bowls.

TUESDAY:

Tom wanted a fruit salad for supper.
The recipe said serve without dressing.
That seemed strange to me but I figured I should follow the directions.
What a surprise when Tom brought a friend home for supper and I was still in my robe and nightgown.

WEDNESDAY:

A good day for rice.
The recipe said wash thoroughly before steaming the rice.
It seemed kind of silly but I took a bath anyway.
I can't say it improved the rice any though.

THURSDAY:

Today Tom asked for salad again.
I tried a new recipe.
It said prepare ingredients, and lay on a bed of lettuce one hour before serving.
When Tom came home he asked me why there was lettace all over our bed.

FRIDAY:

I found an easy recipe for cookies.
It said put the ingredients in a bowl and beat it.
There must have been something wrong with this recipe because when I got back, everything was the same as when I left.

SATURDAY:

Tom did the shopping today and brought home a chicken.
He asked me to dress it for Sunday. Gee, I sure had a hard time finding any clothes to fit it.
For some reason Tom keeps counting to ten.

SUNDAY:

Tom's folks came to dinner.
I wanted to serve roast but all I had was hamburger.
Suddenly I had a flash of genius.!
I put the hamburger in the oven and set the controls for roast.
But, it still came out as hamburger much to my disappointment.

GOOD NIGHT DEAR DIARY.

This has been a very exciting week.
I am eager for tomorrow to come so I can try out a new recipe on Tom.
That is, if I can talk Tom into buying a bigger oven because I would like to surprise him with chocolate moose.

Walks Into A Bar Jokes

2012-08-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Walks Into A Bar Jokes

Monkey Eats Everything

A guy walks into a bar with his pet monkey. He orders a drink, and while he's drinking, the monkey jumps all over the place, eating everything behind the bar. Then the monkey jumps on to the pool table and swallows a billiard ball.

The bartender screams at the guy, "Your monkey just ate the cue ball off my pool table -- whole!"

"Sorry," replied the guy. "He eats everything in sight, the little bastard. I'll pay for everything."

The man finishes his drink, pays and leaves.

Two weeks later, he's in the bar with his pet monkey, again. He orders a drink, and the monkey starts running around the bar. The monkey finds a maraschino cherry on the bar. He grabs it, sticks it up his ass, pulls it out and eats it.

The bartender is disgusted. "Did you see what your monkey did now?" he asks.

"Yeah," replies the guy. "He still eats everything in sight, but ever since he swallowed that cue ball, he measures stuff first."

*******************************************************

Menu

A guy walks into a bar and sees a sign that reads:

Cheese Sandwich: $1.50
Chicken Sandwich: $2.50
Hand Job: $10.00

He checks his wallet and beckons to the sexy bartender.

"Are you the one who gives the hand jobs?" he asks.

"Yes," she purrs. "I am."

"Well, wash your frickin' hands," says the man. "I want a cheese sandwich!"

*******************************************************

Taxidermy

A Yankee walks into a bar in Alabama and orders a cosmopolitan. The bartender looks at the man and says, "You're not from 'round here are ya?"

"No" replies the man, "I'm from New Hampshire." The bartender looks at him and says, "Well what do you do in New Hampshire?"

"I'm a taxidermist," says the man. The bartender looks bewildered, so the man explains, "I mount dead animals."

The bartender stands back and hollers to the whole bar, "It's OK, boys! He's one of us!"

From Reservoir Ruins to Stunning Urban Park in Sydney

2012-08-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

From Reservoir Ruins to Stunning Urban Park in Sydney

First, it was a failed urban reservoir, closed after just twenty years due to its weak flow of less-than-sparkling water. Then, the crumbling remains of whitewashed brick, barrel-vaulted ceilings and graceful arches was incongruously used as a commercial garage. But today, those 132-year-old ‘ruins’ in Sydney, Australia have new life as a stunning urban park that captures a captivating combination of ‘ancient’ and modern architecture.

(images via: the city of sydney)
Architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer added a minimal amount of new structures to the old, in a limited palette of materials – steel, aluminum and concrete – to give the original brick, stone and timber center stage. Opened in March 2009, Paddington Reservoir Gardens gives city residents a grassy park above the water chambers as well as a “sunken garden” in the western chamber featuring a water garden in acknowledgement of the site’s aquatic history.

Far from obliterating all signs of the reservoir’s decades of disuse, the design actually preserves some graffiti art on the walls in the eastern chamber. The urban street art, modern additions and the original structure reminiscent of ancient Greece or Rome come together in a fascinating juxtaposition that is not often seen in renovations of historic sites.

While similar structures across the world have simply been demolished and disposed of, TZG and the City of Sydney chose a sustainable strategy that not only reuses old materials imbued with history and a sense of the city’s identity, but gives local residents access to much-needed green space in an inner-city environment. Paddington Reservoir Gardens won the International Architecture Award in July 2010.

12 of the World's Most Fascinating Ruins

2012-08-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

12 of the World's Most Fascinating Ruins

Machu Picchu (Peru)

The most famous of all the Inca ruins, Machu Picchu appears to be suspended between two mountains and is often enshrouded in mist. It can't be seen from the Urubamba Valley below and is an enchanting place, especially considering that the Incas didn't even have the use of the wheel when they built it.

Machu Picchu was built in the mid 15th century, but since its existence was not recorded by the Spanish Conquistadors who ramsacked the region in the 1530s, we don't really know what its purpose was. Many of the ruins incorporate ceremonial features, so it could possibly have been a religious sanctuary. It's likely that the place was already deserted by the time of the Spanish invasion, as otherwise it would have been mentioned in their reports of the Inca civilization.

The Inca had no system of writing and left no written records, so archaeologists have been left to piece together bits of evidence as to why Machu Picchu was built, what purpose it served, and why it was so quickly vacated.

Babylon (Iraq)

Some 90 kilometres south of modern Bagdhad lies the ruins of ancient Babylon, the original name of which, "bab-ili", may be translated as "the Gate of the Gods". For the world at large, Babylon ranks as one of the most famous cities of antiquity, reknowned alike for its refinement, beauty and magnificence. In classical times, the city walls of Babylon were spoken of with admiration and astonishment, while her "Hanging Gardens" were accounted one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

As a centre of culture and government, it flourished for about fifteen centuries, from the arrival of the Amorites ca. 1850 B.C. down to Alexander the Great, who died there in 322 B.C. One of the best known of the city's early rulers was the great law-giver, Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.).

The ruins of Palenque are among the most important Mayan archaeological sites in all of Mexico and Central America. Set on a ledge overlooking the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico, Palenque resides into the dense tropical forest of the foothills of the Tumbala mountains of Chiapas, Mexico.

Although analysis of pottery shards demonstrates that the area was occupied by 100 B.C., most of the buildings we see today were constructed between the 6th to 10th centuries AD.

The greatest ruler of this city-state was Pacal, who took power in 603 AD and commenced a construction boom of architecturally innovative buildings that lasted through and beyond his 68-year reign. One of the most impressive projects was the Palace. Its walls and roofs are covered with stucco carvings depicting the ceremonies and activities of rulers and gods, giving modern observers insight into the lives and beliefs of the Mayas. Another magnificent structure, the Temple of the Inscriptions, contains tablets of glyphs recounting the ancestral history of long ago rulers.

The true reward of a trip to Palenque is to revel in the mystery of the unanswerable questions that arise as you meander through the ruins in morning mists that swirl around the ancient structures. Only 34 of perhaps 500 buildings have been excavated

Palenque (Mexico)

The ruins of Palenque are among the most important Mayan archaeological sites in all of Mexico and Central America. Set on a ledge overlooking the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico, Palenque recedes into the dense tropical forest of the foothills of the Tumbala mountains of Chiapas, Mexico.

Although analysis of pottery shards demonstrates that the area was occupied by 100 b.c., most of the buildings we see today were constructed between the 6th to 10th centuries a.d.

The greatest ruler of this city-state was Pacal, who took power in 603 a.d. and commenced a construction boom of architecturally innovative buildings that lasted through and beyond his 68-year reign. One of the most impressive projects was a complex called the Palace. The walls and roofs are covered with stucco carvings depicting the ceremonies and activities of rulers and gods, giving modern observers insight into the lives and beliefs of the Mayans. Another magnificent structure, the Temple of the Inscriptions, contains tablets of glyphs recounting the ancestral history of long ago rulers. The true reward of a trip to Palenque is to revel in the mystery of the unanswerable questions that arise as he meanders through the ruins in morning mists that swirl around the ancient structures. Only 34 of perhaps 500 buildings have been excavated.

Ruins of Ayutthaya (Thailand)

Ayutthaya, whose name means “undefeatable” in Sanskrit, may not be as popular as Bangkok, Chiang Mai or Phuket but it's one of the many places in Thailand that's frequented by tourists who want to see its world-reknowned ruins.

In its heyday, Ayutthaya was a bustling metropolis of international repute, whose progress, according to historians, rivaled even Europe's capitals at the time. So prosperous was the kingdom that her neighbor Burma (now Myanmar) coveted her, so the Burmese army burned and sacked the city. Today, only the debris of the empire's glory remains, forming part of what is now known as the Ayutthaya Historical Park, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Colosseum (Italy)

One of the greatest works of Roman architecture and perhaps the most recognized ruin in the world, the Colosseum or Roman Coliseum --originally the Flavian Amphitheatre-- is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire.

Capable of seating 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. As well as the gladiatorial games, other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. About 500,000 people and over a million wild animals died in the Colosseum games.

Although in the 21st century it stays partially ruined due to damage caused by devastating earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome and its breakthrough achievements in earthquake engineering. It is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions and still has close connections with the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit "Way of the Cross" procession around the various levels of the amphitheatre.

Tikal Ruins (Guatemala)

Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in northern Guatemala. This amazing site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park, and in 1979 was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tikal was one of the major cultural and population centers of the Maya civilization. Though monumental architecture at the site dates from the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period, ca. 200 to 900 AD, during which time the site dominated the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica, such as central Mexican center of Teotihuacan. There is also evidence that Tikal was even conquered by Teotihuacan in the 4th century.

Following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a gradual population decline, culminating with the site's abandonment by the end of the 10th century.

Chichén Itzá Ruin (Mexico)

A large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization, Chichen Itza is located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, Mexico.

It was a major regional focal point in the northern Mayan lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, from what is called “Mexicanized” and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Mayan styles more as the result of cultural diffusion.

The Parthenon (Greece)

Greek goddess Athena's temple, the Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC on the Athenian Acropolis. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered one of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of ancient Greece and Athenian democracy, and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a program of restoration and reconstruction

Jesuitical Ruins of Trinidad (Paraguay)

Located about 25 km away from Encarnacion, on the route to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, is one of the most interesting and suggestive ruins of the 8 missions in Paraguay.

Trinidad was founded by natives that came from the mission of San Carlos. Its main architects were fathers Juan Bautista Prímoli of Milan and the Catalan Jose Grimau. Uncompleted, this mission had one of the larges and prettiest churches of all missions, according to descriptions by travelers of that period.

After crossing the nave of the old church, you can see an impressive view of the frieze high on the altar wall, entirely decorated on the very stone, with a sequence of angels in baroque postures and their instruments. The two doors giving access to the sacristies are worth mentioning: the columns with disproportionate capitals and a triple row of leaves supporting the frieze with two lateral pillars and a sculptural motif in the center.

On the west side are the ruins of the tower and a long chapel. The tower, with a square base, reminds us of a fort tower and it is not known whether it was a belfry, an observation tower, or both at the same time. The chapel was probably used while the main church was being built. One of the sacristies also holds a small museum with local items (in original colors) and a scale model of the mission. It was declared Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO in 1993.

Copan Ruins (Honduras)

A Mayan capital from the 400s to the 800s, Copan is one of the largest and most impressive of all the Mayan centers discovered so far. It consists of pyramids, temples and 21 stone pillars, or stelae, with exquisite carved likenesses of ancient Copan kings. Although Tikal in Guatemala is the largest known Mayan site and is easier to get to, Copan shouldn't be missed by anyone interested in the Mayan civilization.

Palmyra Ruins (Syria)

In the heart of Syrian Desert it is hidden Palmyra, often described as the bride of the desert. Its magnificent remains tell of a heroic history during the reign of Queen Zenobia. The Oasis, as it is sometimes called, is located near a hot-water spring called Afqa, which makes it an ideal halt for caravans moving between Iraq and Al-Sham (present day Syria, Lebanon, Holy Land and Jordan), trading in silk from China to the Mediterranean.

Palmyra's strategic location and prosperity attracted the interest of the Romans, who took control of the city in the first century AD. The destiny of the great kingdom of Palmyra was no better than that of its queen: Zenobia was defeated and taken captive to Rome, fettered in chains of gold where she poisoned herself, while the city fell prey to looting and destruction. Archaeologists are still working on excavations there in order to uncover the queen's palace, which was destroyed by Romans and replaced by a military camp.)

Talisay City (Philippines)

Talisay City in the Philippines features a mansion built by a sugar magnate at the turn of the last century that not once, but twice, was destroyed in the Second World War in order to prevent Japanese forces from using it. Once on their way out of the Philippines, the USAAF bombed and strafed the home, and Philippines rebels burned it down to keep it from falling into Japanese hands.

10 History

2012-08-11T12:22:00.002-07:00

St Francis of Assisi

Canonized July 16, 1228, by Pope Gregory IX

I bet you weren’t expecting to see St Francis on this list. St Francis is best remembered in popular culture as the animal patron – the saint who could talk to animals and sooth wild beasts. While it is true that there were many reports of miracles regarding animals in St Francis’ life, he is more revered in the Church because of his strict poverty, stigmata and efforts to fix problems in the Church during a time of crisis. But what most people don’t know (including many religious people) is that St Francis was so devout in his beliefs that he raced off to Egypt in 1219 to become a martyr – he hoped that he would convert a bunch of muslims and then be killed. That was a hope that nearly came true!

St Francis was received by Sultan Melek-el-Kamel, whom he wanted to convert, and suggested that his muslim scholars undergo a test of true religion by fire. They all refused, so St Francis offered to enter a fire pit and, if he was able to leave it unharmed, they would have to agree that God had protected him and that his was, therefore, the true religion. The sultan rejected his offer but was so impressed that he gave St Francis permission to preach Christianity unhindered in his lands – an incredible concession considering the nation was in the middle of fighting against crusaders from the west. This saint was definitely a man of steel.

St Louis IX

Canonized 1297, by Pope Boniface VIII

Saint Louis was the King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270, and is the only canonized King of France. He was crowned King at only 12 years old, following the death of his father, King Louis VIII. Because of his youth, his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled France as regent during his minority. He went on two crusades during his lifetime, one in his mid thirties, and the other in his mid 50′s, which is no mean feat when you consider how bloody and violent they could be. The first began with the capture of Port Damietta in 1249, and went on to the Battle of Fariskur, where he lost his army and was captured by the Egyptians. He was only released after a ransom of 400,000 livres tournois was paid (nearly twice France’s annual revenue), and the return of the city of Damietta.

Perhaps most significant for the badassness of King Louis was that the whole time he was battling, he was wearing a cilice (a sharp metal chain worn tightly to cause pain and sometimes bleeding) around the legs or waist. So when everyone else was suffering because of battle scars, the King was suffering twice. His end was to come in his second crusade when he died – as all good kings do – in the midst of a bloody battle.

St George

4th Century AD

St George is undoubtedly amongst the most well known saints on this list. He was a third century Roman soldier and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. He is regarded as the most prominent military saint and is one of the most revered in the Western World. George was raised as a Christian and decided at a young age that he wanted to be a soldier. He joined Diocletian’s army and, before long, was one of the finest soldiers around. Some time later Diocletian decided that all soldiers who were Christians had to renounce their faith and become pagan. George refused (I am sure you all see where this is going). Diocletian tried to convince him to convert because he didn’t want to lose his best soldier but George refused.

Recognizing the futility of his efforts, Diocletian was left with no choice but to have him executed for his refusal. Before the execution George gave his wealth to the poor and prepared himself. After various torture sessions, including laceration on a wheel of swords, in which he was resuscitated three times (pretty damned badass), George was executed by decapitation before Nicomedia’s city wall, on April 23, 303.

But most of all he is a badass because he killed a dragon or so the legend goes. Here is the story of St George and the Dragon:

“In the fully developed Western version, which developed as part of the Golden Legend, a dragon or Crocodile makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of “Silene” (perhaps modern Cyrene) in Libya or the city of Lydda, depending on the source. Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, and if no sheep can be found, then a maiden must go instead of the sheep. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but there appears Saint George on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the cross, slays the dragon, and rescues the princess. The grateful citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity.” [Source]

St Ignatius of Loyola

Canonized March 12, 1622 by Pope Gregory XV

Ignatius of Loyola (Basque: Ignazio Loiolakoa, Spanish: Ignacio de Loyola) (1491 – July 31, 1556) was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537 and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and was its first Superior General. St Ignatius was an incredibly brilliant Knight who fought in many battles without any injuries, until one fateful day. On May 20, 1521, a cannonball wounded one of his legs and broke the other. Unperturbed, he got up and hobbled back to the castle. He needed surgery which was undertaken without anesthesia – a treatment that most modern folk would balk at. Part of his leg bone had to be cut off, and the operation was generally a disaster. But, despite the fact that he ended up with one leg shorter than the other (which led the doctors to put weights on his leg to stretch it back out), he survived and went on to found one of the most famous religious orders in the world (inspired by the religious texts he read while recovering from the cannonball).

St Simeon Stylites

5th Century

Saint Simeon Stylites lived for 37 years standing on top of a small platform on a tall pillar. That is sufficient to label him badass. Before this he spent 40 days closed in a tiny hut without any food or water. When he walked out it was hailed as a miracle. Pilgrims flocked to see St Simeon and they erected taller pillars for him to stand on – in the end his pillar was 15 meters high. He lived off goat’s milk and flat bread – provided by local children. He refused to let any women come near the pillar (including his mother) and he would let people climb a ladder to talk to him and ask for advice.

St Simeon truly cemented his name in the annals of badass history when he got an ulcer on his thigh which festered and ultimately led to his death – standing up

St Joan of Arc

Canonized May 16, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV

“Forward! They are ours!” That was the battle cry of Saint Joan of Arc, the young virgin who led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years’ War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII.

In one battle, Saint Joan was hit in the neck by an arrow. Unlike most men in war, she didn’t take it lying down; she got right back up, pulled out the arrow and continued to lead the army. In another battle, whilst scaling a wall to attack the English, she was hit in the head with a canon ball – as is to be expected of a warrior saint, she shook her head and kept climbing. Her leadership (and battle style, which was 100% attack) shattered the English Army wherever it met her.

She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old. 25 years later the Pope (Pope Callixtus III) investigated the trial at the request of Saint Joan’s mother, Isabelle Romée, and the Inquisitor General overturned it and declared that Joan was a martyr. It took 500 years before she was officially canonized. Oh – and contrary to popular belief, St Joan didn’t dress in men’s clothing – she fought all of her battles in a dress with armor over the top.

St Vladimir of Kiev

10th & 11th Centuries AD

Which saint had hundreds of concubines, multiple wives from around the world, so many children that everyone lost count, and an army of pagans? St Vladimir of Kiev did! Vladimir was the grand prince of Kiev, who converted to Christianity in 988, but before his conversion he was a pretty mean (not to mention profligate) guy. From the start of his reign in 980, he conquered lands, slaughtered people, had children and generally partied hard. On a few occasions he, being a good Pagan, took part in human sacrifices:

“In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. More than that, he tried to show the pagans the futility of their faith: ‘Your gods are just plain wood: it is here now but it may rot into oblivion tomorrow; your gods neither eat, nor drink, nor talk and are made by human hand from wood; whereas there is only one God — He is worshiped by Greeks and He created heaven and earth; and your gods? They have created nothing, for they have been created themselves; never will I give my son to the devils!’”

Interestingly, it was this speech which caused Vladimir to ponder over the next few years as to whether he ought to convert to Christianity, which he ultimately did. He ruled so kindly after his conversion that he became known as Vladimir the Great – a far cry from his previous life.

St Moses the Black

4th Century AD

St Moses the Black was a slave of a government official in Egypt who dismissed him for theft and suspected murder. He became the leader of a gang of bandits who roamed the Nile Valley, spreading terror and violence. He was a large, imposing figure. On one occasion a man caught him in a theft, which annoyed St Moses immensely. The next day he swam across the Nile (a not insignificant act) with a knife in his mouth – his intention was the kill the guy. When he got to his home the guy had fled (having obviously heard some of Moses’ previous exploits). St Moses, instead, killed four of his sheep before sticking the knife back in his mouth and swimming back. Shortly after that the law started to catch up with him so he hid in a monastery. The influence of the monks was so great that he converted and became a monk.

But the story doesn’t end there. Some years later a group of thieves wanted to rob the monastery where St Moses was living. He caught them off guard and single handedly beat them all to a pulp. He dragged their bloodied bodies to the chief monk to ask what to do (knowing it wasn’t a monkly thing to kill them). The head of the monastery said to forgive them and send them away, which surprised the robbers so much that they all apologized, converted and became monks too! He eventually died at the hands of a group of warriors who attacked the monastery when he was 75 years old – but not before he managed to help 70 of the monks escape. St Moses chose to stay behind with a few other monks to fight off the warriors.

St Longinus

1st Century AD

St Longinus was a soldier in the Roman army, from Caesarea. He spent his life earning his pension by fighting with his fellow soldiers throughout the Roman lands, and eventually ended up in Jerusalem helping out with various tasks he was capable of (he was nearly blind). One of the tasks was to be life changing. St Longinus was instructed to assist at the crucifixion of Jesus. Being a good Roman soldier he took his work seriously and, ensuring that he get a promotion for doing a good job, stabbed Jesus in the side while he was on the cross. In other words, Longinus stabbed God. It takes a true badass to have the guts to do something like that.

Blood and water flowed out from the stab wound and some of it got in Longinus’ eyes. His blindness vanished and he declared “Indeed, this was the Son of God!” [Mark 15:39]. He immediately left the army, converted and became a monk. Not long after he was arrested for his faith, his teeth ripped out and tongue cut off. However, St. Longinus continued to speak clearly and managed to destroy several idols in the presence of the governor, who consequently had Longinus beheaded. His relics are now in the church of St Augustine, in Rome, and the lance he used to stab Jesus is contained in one of the four pillars over the altar in the Basilica of St Peter’s in Rome.

St Quiteria

2nd Century AD

This entry is number one on the list for not just the badassness of St Quiteria, but the downright weird circumstances of her life. St Quiteria was one of nine sisters all born at the same time (nonuplets). The nine girls’ mother was a lady of high rank and she was disgusted that she had given birth to nine children like a common animal and even more so that she had nine daughters and no son (son’s were far more valuable). In a fit of rage, she demanded that her nurse take the babies and drown them in the river. The nurse couldn’t do it so she took them to a remote village where the girls grew up together. Then things get really weird. They formed a nonuplet warrior gang.

The girls were all good Christians and their gang was formed to travel around breaking Christians out of jail. They spent a number of years in this task (and smashing Roman idols) until they were caught and returned to their father, who recognized them. He told them all to marry good Roman pagans but they refused and broke out of jail. Then the real badass began. They waged a guerilla war against the Roman Empire. Eventually, the girls were all killed or died (Quiteria was beheaded) and along with Quiteria, two of her sisters Marina and Liberata are saints.

The United States Of America, Part Nine

2012-08-02T13:47:00.001-07:00

The United States Of America, Part Nine

This is the story of how the American Republic developed from colonial beginnings in the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived, until modern times.

History of the United States: Continued

The Civil Rights Movement Begins
In the 1940s and 1950s the NAACP attacked race discrimination in the courts. It chipped away at Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), a Supreme Court decision upholding segregationist laws. The NAACP lawyers' greatest success was the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision in 1954, in which the Supreme Court ordered desegregation of schools. The decision struck a Chicago newspaper as a "second emancipation proclamation."

The Supreme Court’s implementation order of 1955, designed to hasten compliance, ordered desegregation of schools "with all deliberate speed," but compliance was slow. When the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, tried to block the enrollment of nine black students into Little Rock High School in 1957, television showed the entire nation the confrontation between National Guard troops and segregationists. Television news helped make Little Rock’s problem a national one, and television crews continued to cover civil rights protests.

In December 1955 the black community in Montgomery, Alabama, organized a bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. A local minister, Martin Luther King, Jr., helped organize the boycott. In 1957 ministers and civil rights leaders formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC, which adopted a policy of nonviolent civil disobedience, formed the backbone of the civil rights movement in the United States.

The civil rights movement expanded on February 1, 1960, when four black college students at North Carolina A&T University began protesting racial segregation in restaurants by sitting at whites-only lunch counters and waiting to be served. Within days the sit-ins spread throughout North Carolina, and within weeks they reached cities across the South. To continue students’ efforts and to give them an independent voice in the movement, college students in 1960 formed another civil rights group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Students and activists soon adopted other methods of protesting segregation, such as freedom rides—bus trips throughout the South in order to desegregate buses and bus stations.. A powerful civil rights movement was underway.

Postwar prosperity brought comfort and social mobility to many Americans. Those who had grown up during the Great Depression especially appreciated the good life of the postwar years. Prosperity, however, eluded many citizens. The era, moreover, was hardly placid and complacent, but eventful and divisive. Signs of change around 1960 included the growing role of youth, the civil rights protests, and the simmering of dissent.

THE LIBERAL AGENDA AND DOMESTIC POLICY: THE 1960S
In the 1960s, presidential initiatives, judicial rulings, and social protest movements generated reform. The civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the youth movement, and the environmental movement changed people’s lives. They also created a climate of rebellion, confrontation, and upheaval. For more information, see Protests in the 1960s.

Handsome, dynamic, and articulate, John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in the presidential election of 1960—the first election in which televised debates between presidential candidates played a major role. When he accepted the Democratic nomination, Kennedy urged Americans to meet the challenges of a "New Frontier." The term "New Frontier" evoked the spirit of exploration that Kennedy wanted to bring to his presidency. His youth and vigor raised expectations. In practice, however, his actions were cautious and pragmatic.

In his brief tenure, Kennedy continued Cold War policies by broadening U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, overseeing an arms buildup, and hiking the defense budget. He also inaugurated a long era of economic expansion, based largely on additional spending for missiles, defense, and the space race. In 1961 he began the Peace Corps, an innovative federal program that sent American volunteers to assist needy nations by providing educational programs and helping communities build basic infrastructures. After first evading civil rights issues, Kennedy responded to the calls of civil rights advocates and proposed a comprehensive civil rights bill. Congress, however, had not passed the bill when Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

At Kennedy’s death, his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, became president. A Texas politician since the New Deal and a majority leader of the Senate, Johnson seemed less likely than Kennedy to be an innovative leader. But, as president, Johnson plunged ahead with domestic reform. In July 1964 he proposed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, enacted in memory of Kennedy. The law prohibited segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in education and employment. Johnson then declared a "War on Poverty" in the United States. He promoted a billion-dollar campaign to end poverty and racial injustice. In August 1964 Congress established an Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to direct the Johnson administration's War-on-Poverty program, and a Job Corps to train young people for the employment market. Johnson also supported a volunteer program, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), a domestic version of the Peace Corps; Project Head Start, to educate preschoolers from disadvantaged families; and several other public works and job-training programs.

In the 1964 presidential election, Johnson won a landslide victory over conservative Arizona senator Barry Goldwater. He then pressed legislators to add to his reform program, which he labeled the "Great Society." In 1965 Congress enlarged the War on Poverty by enacting Medicare (a program of medical insurance for the elderly) and Medicaid (a program of medical care for the needy), and funding urban development, housing, and transit. Congress also passed the Voting Rights Act, which protected the rights of minorities to register and vote. In addition it established the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities to provide funding for the arts, provided funds to school districts with children from low-income families, passed the Clean Air Act, and enacted legislation to protect endangered species and wilderness areas.

Finally, Johnson supported two policy changes with unexpected future impact. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed quotas based on race or nationality that had been in force since the 1920s, and it paved the way for massive immigration from Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere. Also in 1965, Johnson issued Executive Order 11246, which required groups that did business with the federal government to take "affirmative action" to remedy past discrimination against African Americans. As Johnson told black leaders, his goals for racial progress meant "not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result." Over the next three decades, the federal government implemented affirmative action policies to promote the hiring of women and minorities.

Stunning in its scope, Johnson's ambitious domestic agenda soon ran into problems. Within three years, the United States was deeply involved in the Vietnam War; its expense and controversy undercut many Great Society goals. But the civil rights revolution that Johnson endorsed made unprecedented gains.

The Civil Rights Movement
African Americans had been struggling to gain equal rights for many decades. As the 1960s began, the civil rights movement gained momentum. Individuals and civil rights organizations assailed segregation in the South and discrimination everywhere. They protested with marches, boycotts, and refusals to tolerate segregation. Many organizations conducted their protests with nonviolent resistance. Civil rights protesters often faced harsh confrontations with their opponents. These confrontations, which appeared on network television, exposed the struggle for civil rights to a large national audience.

In the spring of 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) started Freedom Rides to the South to desegregate bus terminals and protest segregation in interstate transportation. The Freedom Riders, black and white, challenged white supremacy and drew angry attacks.

In the fall of 1962, a federal court ordered the University of Mississippi to enroll a black air force veteran, James Meredith. To prevent his enrollment, white protesters rioted, and President Kennedy sent federal troops to restore order. In Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC led a campaign of marches, sit-ins, and prayer meetings to challenge segregation and racism. Clashes arose between black protesters and city police, armed with dogs and cattle prods. News coverage exposed the violence in Birmingham to people all over the world. Television news next covered the University of Alabama, where Governor George Wallace in June 1963 barred two black students from entrance.

Responding to African American calls for action, Kennedy in June 1963 declared civil rights "a moral issue" and proposed a comprehensive civil rights measure. Congress did not act on the bill, but the civil rights movement intensified. In August 1963 more than 200,000 Americans marched on Washington, D.C., to demand equal rights. The audience heard Martin Luther King, Jr., explain his dream of brotherhood, freedom, justice, and nonviolence. In July 1964, at Johnson's prompting, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed segregation in public accommodations; gave the federal government new power to integrate schools and enfranchise blacks; and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop job discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, or gender. The law heralded a new phase of activism.

Since 1961 civil rights activists had worked on voter registration in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. In the summer of 1964, CORE and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. The project recruited over 1,000 Northern college students, teachers, artists, and clergy—both black and white—to work in Mississippi. These volunteers, who helped blacks register to vote and ran freedom schools, met harassment, firebombs, arrests, beatings, and even murder. In August 1964 civil rights workers sent a delegation to the Democratic National Convention to demand (in vain) the seating of delegates from the newly-formed Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Mass protests in Selma, Alabama, in March 1965 again brought segments of violent confrontations to television news.

The voting rights campaign of the mid-1960s had results. In 1965 Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which authorized federal examiners to register voters and expanded black suffrage by suspending literacy tests for voting. The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, outlawed the poll tax in federal elections. A 1966 Supreme Court decision struck down the poll tax in all elections. These measures more than tripled the number of registered black voters in the South. Just as the federal government responded—after almost a century of inaction—to civil rights demands, waves of violence and disorder signaled a change in the civil rights movement.

In August 1965 frustrations with high unemployment and poverty led to riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles, a primarily black neighborhood. For six days, rioters looted, firebombed, and sniped at police and National Guard troops. When the riots ended, 34 people were dead and hundreds were injured. In the summers of 1966 and 1967, urban riots occurred in the poorer neighborhoods of several Northern cities. The summer of 1967 saw 150 racial confrontations and 40 riots.

In April 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated; in the summer race riots broke out in over 100 cities. In the wake of the riots, the president appointed a National Commission on Civil Disorders, headed by Otto Kerner, a former governor of Illinois. The Kerner Commission blamed white racism for the outbreaks of violence. "Our nation is moving toward two societies," the Commission report warned, "one black, one white—separate and unequal." The report urged job creation, more public housing, school integration, and "a national system of income supplementation."

As the urban riots of the mid-1960s voiced black rage, demands for Black Power changed the tone of the civil rights movement. Stokely Carmichael, a civil rights activist and SNCC member, led SNCC away from its commitment to nonviolence and integration. Carmichael popularized the call for Black Power, a controversial term. To some, Black Power called for racial dignity and self-reliance. For others, it meant that blacks should defend themselves against white violence, instead of relying on nonviolence. Still others believed that the Black Power movement called for black economic and political independence.

Black Power advocates were influenced by Malcolm X, a Nation of Islam minister who had been assassinated in early 1965. They admired Malcolm's black nationalist philosophy, which emphasized black separatism and self-sufficiency. They also appreciated Malcolm's emphasis on black pride and self-assertion.

Conflict soon arose between the older civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP, and black power advocates, with their aura of militancy and violence. Some blacks called for racial pride and separatism instead of color-blindness and integration. Civil rights demands shifted from color-blinded to color-consciousness.

By the end of the 1960s, the civil rights movement had strongly influenced other groups, which adopted its protest tactics. Native Americans had mobilized early in the decade and convened in Washington in 1964 to press for inclusion in the War on Poverty. In 1968 Native American leaders demanded Red Power in the form of preferential hiring and reimbursement for lands that the government had taken from them in violation of treaties. Mexican Americans supported César Chávez, president of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. Chavez sought improved working conditions for migrant workers and organized national consumer boycotts of grapes and other products. The Hispanic movement also campaigned for bilingual and bicultural education, and Chicano studies in colleges. Finally, the women's movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, especially, derived inspiration from the civil rights precedent.

The Women’s Movement
Like the civil rights movement, the women's movement used various means to end discrimination. Activists created pressure groups, adopted confrontation tactics like sit-ins and marches, and tried to capture media attention. By the end of the 1960s, feminists had created an energetic campaign that called both for legal equity and for the restructuring of gender roles and social institutions.

In 1961, Kennedy established the first presidential Commission on the Status of Women. In 1963 the commission issued a report citing employment discrimination, unequal pay, legal inequality, and insufficient support services for working women. The same year, a new book by journalist Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, challenged the notion that women could find fulfillment only as wives and mothers. A final catalyst of the early 1960s was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned race discrimination in employment and set up the EEOC to enforce the law. Unexpectedly, perhaps accidentally, and after heated debate, legislators amended the bill to bar sex discrimination in employment as well. When the EEOC ignored gender-based charges, women formed the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966. Betty Friedan led the new civil rights group, which urged equal opportunity and an end to sex discrimination.

Meanwhile, another wing of feminism developed. Young women who had been active in the civil rights and other protest movements began to form small "consciousness-raising" groups, which rapidly expanded in number. In these groups, women met to discuss the inequity of "sexism," a counterpart to racism; to strive for "women's liberation"; and to start feminist projects, such as health collectives or rape crisis centers.

The two wings of feminism often clashed. NOW focused on legal change, and women's liberation urged revolutionary transformation. But the two factions served complementary functions and sometimes joined forces, as in The Women's Strike for Equality in August 1970. With parades and marches, women celebrated the 50th anniversary of woman suffrage and pressed for new causes—equal employment opportunity, an equal rights amendment, and more liberal state abortion laws.

In the early 1970s, the women's movement achieved extensive results. In 1972 Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to provide for equality of the sexes under the law. However, the states failed to ratify the amendment. Still, the fact that Congress passed the ERA signified feminism's new legitimacy. In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court legalized abortion. Finally, women made astounding gains in education and employment.

Editors scoured elementary and high school textbooks to remove sexist elements. In 1972 Congress passed Title IX of the Higher Education Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program receiving federal funds, including athletic programs. At the college and university level, once all-male colleges and military academies began to accept women students.

In employment, state and federal courts overturned labor laws that curtailed opportunities for women, such as laws that barred women from night work or overtime. The courts supported legal actions against employers that discriminated against women in their hiring or promotion policies. Women also entered new vocations. Some went into blue-collar fields, such as construction; others found jobs in banking, finance, business, and government. The proportions of women in the professions—as lawyers, doctors, and engineers—increased as well.

One of the most enduring movements to emerge in the 1960s, the women’s movement left strong institutional legacies—pressure groups, professional organizations, and women's studies programs in colleges.

The Youth Movement
As the baby boom generation veered toward adulthood, its members began to challenge the status quo. By the mid-1960s nearly three out of four students finished high school, and about half of those students went on to college. College campuses filled with young people who had the freedom to question the moral and spiritual health of the nation.

One facet of the youth movement was a disaffected, apolitical counterculture, made up of people who were known as hippies. These young people decried materialism, mocked convention, spurned authority, joined communes, enjoyed rock music, and experimented with drugs and sex. Often hippies asserted their rebellious attitude through elements of personal style, such as long hair and tie-dyed clothes. In August 1969 hippies gathered at the Woodstock Festival, a music festival where young people convened to celebrate love and peace. Woodstock represented a high point in the counterculture, but hippie lifestyles continued into the 1970s.

Another wing of the youth movement included activists from political protest movements, such as the civil rights movement. This wing was more visible on college campuses and more politically conscious. In 1960 a small group of young people formed Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and adopted The Port Huron Statement, written by student leader Tom Hayden. The manifesto urged participatory democracy, or the idea that all Americans, not just a small elite, should decide major economic, political, and social issues that shaped the nation. It also criticized American society for its focus on career advancement, material possessions, military strength, and racism. By 1968 some 100,000 young people around the nation had joined SDS.

Student protesters denounced corporate bureaucracy and campus administrators. Universities and colleges, they believed, were dictatorial and exercised too much control over students. Students held rallies and sit-ins to protest restrictions of their rights. In 1964 a coalition of student groups at the University of California, Berkeley, claimed the right to conduct political activities on campus; the coalition became known as the Free Speech Movement. Political activism and protests spread to other campuses in the 1960s.

The youth movement’s demonstrations soon merged with the protests of students who opposed the Vietnam War. By the spring of 1968, student protests had reached hundreds of campuses. At the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, antiwar demonstrators clashed with the police, and the images of police beating students shocked television audiences (see Chicago Convention of 1968). Violence peaked at an antiwar protest at Ohio’s Kent State University in May 1970, when National Guard troops gunned down four student protesters.

The political activities of the youth movement had enduring effects. Colleges became less authoritarian, ending dress codes and curfews and recruiting more minority students. Students also contributed mightily to the movement against the war in Vietnam. Both the counterculture and student activism, finally, fueled a backlash that blossomed in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Environmental Movement
A movement to preserve the environment took root with the best-selling book Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson. The book attacked toxic pesticides like DDT. Carson described how DDT threatened both animals and human beings. Her book raised Americans’ awareness of threats to the environment and moved many to take action. Students and teachers at over 1,500 colleges and universities and at over 10,000 schools held teach-ins on the environment. Hundreds of thousands of other Americans staged protests and rallies around the nation. These activists formed a number of environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund in 1967, Friends of the Earth in 1968, Greenpeace in 1970, and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in 1971. In 1970 some 20 million Americans gathered for what organizers called Earth Day to protest abuse of the environment.

In response to growing citizen protests, Congress in 1970 passed the National Environmental Policy Act, which created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an independent agency responsible for protecting the environment and maintaining it for future generations. Congress also enacted laws to curb pollution, preserve wilderness areas, and protect endangered species. The Supreme Court allowed conservationists to sue businesses for polluting the environment and government agencies for failure to enforce the law.

Several events in the 1970s suggested the danger of environmental threats. In 1978 residents of Love Canal in New York, who had been experiencing high disease rates, were found to be living on a former chemical waste dump; the area was evacuated. In 1979 an accident at the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania showed the potential dangers of radioactive material in nuclear reactors.

As concern for the environment spread, more Americans became involved in efforts to maintain forests, parks, wildlife refuges; prevent air and water pollution; conserve energy; and dispose of hazardous waste safely. Environmentalists persisted in their efforts into the 1980s, although often challenged by conservatives who believed that environmental regulations restricted property rights protected by the Constitution.

The Warren Court
Judicial activism (taking an active role in shaping public policy) completed the liberal agenda of the 1960s. Ever since Earl Warren's appointment as chief justice in 1953, the Supreme Court had enraged critics on the right, who pressed for Warren's impeachment. In the 1950s the Warren Court had integrated public schools in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). In the 1960s Kennedy and Johnson appointed four Supreme Court justices, including Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP lawyer who had argued the Brown case and the high court's first African American justice. With a liberal majority in place, the Warren court handed down a series of landmark cases that enhanced civil liberties and spurred or legitimized social change.

The Warren Court of the 1960s declared prayer in public schools unconstitutional, enabled Communists to obtain passports, and limited communities' power to censor books and movies (thus making sexually explicit material available to adults). In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) the Court ruled that state bans on contraceptives were unconstitutional. The Court also consistently upheld civil rights. It found local ordinances upholding segregation in private businesses (such as lunch counters) unconstitutional; reversed the convictions of black demonstrators who had refused to disperse; upheld the civil rights laws of 1964 and 1965; declared delays in school desegregation intolerable; and upset a state law that forbade marriage between persons of different races.

Warren Court decisions of the 1960s affected electoral procedures, too. In Baker v. Carr (1962), the Court upheld the principle of "one man, one vote," which meant that state legislatures had to be reapportioned on the basis of population. Finally, the Court issued controversial decisions that transformed criminal justice. In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the Court held that a poor person charged with a felony had the right to be represented by a state-appointed lawyer. In Miranda v. Arizona (1966) the Court declared that a confession could not be introduced as evidence unless the defendant had been informed of his or her rights, including the right to remain silent.

The 1960s in Retrospect The climate of reform that erupted in the 1960s continued into the 1970s, where movements for change met different fates. Feminism and environmentalism continued and prospered. The counterculture peaked and faded, although drug use exploded. In civil rights, the early goals of color-blindness ceded place to race consciousness and "identity politics," or jousting for place among contending ethnicities. Overall, few great dreams that pervaded the fervent 1960s were achieved. Hopes for participatory democracy and an end to racism and patriarchy eluded realization.

Still, in domestic policy, the 1960s were an era of enduring change. Although the Vietnam War undercut the Great Society, Johnson’s programs increased justice and fought poverty. The Warren Court upheld individual rights. The civil rights movement ended legal segregation, registered black voters, battled race discrimination, engendered black pride, and vastly liberalized white attitudes. The spread of feminism forced reexamination of gender roles. Overall, reform movements of the 1960s expanded free expression, challenged tradition, blasted the placidity of the 1950s, and, for better or worse, dispelled the widespread respect for government that had prevailed since World War II. Antiwar protest was a vital part of this process. The Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s shattered Americans' long-held faith in both the wisdom of the state and in Cold War policies of the 1950s.

FOREIGN POLICY, VIETNAM WAR, AND WATERGATE In the 1960s the United States remained committed to Cold War goals and sought to stem the spread of Communism around the globe. Continuing the policy of containment, the United States sent more and more troops to Vietnam. There, bogged down in jungle-fighting and bombing campaigns, the United States became enmeshed in a long and costly war. When the United States finally left the Vietnamese to determine their own fate in the early 1970s, a near-impeachment crisis increased Americans' mood of skepticism and distrust of government.

Kennedy Administration and the Cold War
In the early 1960s, President Kennedy vigorously pursued the Cold War policy of containment. He expanded U.S. aid to other nations, boosted the size of the armed forces, stockpiled missiles, and strove to end Soviet influence in Cuba, just 90 miles off the tip of Florida. In 1959 a revolution in Cuba brought Fidel Castro, a leftist, to power. When Castro took control, he implemented policies designed to eliminate differences between social classes in Cuba. These policies included confiscating large land holdings and the seizing businesses that belonged to wealthy Cubans and U.S. firms. Concerned about Communist influence, U.S. officials were wary of Castro. In 1961 a force of Cuban exiles, trained and supplied by the United States, invaded Cuba in an attempt to topple Castro. They failed, and the Bay of Pigs invasion was a fiasco.

Tensions increased between the United States and Cuba. To deter further U.S. interference in Cuba, Castro sought economic and military assistance from the USSR. In 1962 the United States discovered that Khrushchev had set up nuclear missile bases in Cuba from which rocket-powered missiles could be launched. Kennedy faced a crisis: To destroy the bases might lead to world war; to ignore them risked an attack on the United States. In October 1962 Kennedy demanded that the USSR remove the missiles, and after a few days of suspense, the Soviets agreed to do so.

The Cuban missile crisis was a close call. Teetering on the brink of nuclear war, both superpowers leaped back in alarm. Afterward, Kennedy and Khrushchev established a telephone hot line, and in 1963 they signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that banned nuclear tests in the air and in the water. But the Cold War rivalry continued. The United States and the USSR now vied for control in Asia.

Cold War warriors in the United States believed that Communist aggression posed a threat in Asia. They especially feared a Communist takeover of Vietnam. If Vietnam fell, they believed, Communism would engulf all of Southeast Asia. Even in the 1940s, President Truman provided economic and military aid to prevent the growth of Communist power in what was then French Indochina. When France withdrew from the area in 1954, the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into two segments: North Vietnam, ruled by the Communist Viet Minh; and South Vietnam, controlled by non-Communist allies of the French.

The United States supported non-Communist South Vietnam and in subsequent decades increased its commitment to the region. Under Eisenhower, from 1955 to 1961, America sent economic aid to South Vietnam. In 1960 Communists and nationalists in South Vietnam formed the National Liberation Front (NLF), often referred to as the Viet Cong (a label attached by its foes). The NLF was organized to challenge South Vietnam’s president, Ngo Dinh Diem, who ruled from 1955 to 1963, and to foster unification.

Kennedy continued Eisenhower's efforts in Vietnam by tripling American aid to South Vietnam and by expanding the number of military advisers from about 700 to more than 16,000. In 1963 the United States approved a coup led by South Vietnamese military officers to overthrow Diem, who was killed. A few weeks later, Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon B. Johnson became president. Johnson inherited the problem of U.S. commitment to South Vietnam, where Communist insurgents were gaining strength.

Johnson and Vietnam
Johnson was in a dilemma. If he increased American military aid to Vietnam, he would have to divert funds from his Great Society programs, and he might prod China into war. If he withdrew American aid, however, he risked the politically damaging charge that he was "soft" on Communism. Most important, Johnson did not want to be the first American president to lose a war. He enlarged the war in Vietnam.

After an allegedly unprovoked attack on U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam in August 1964, Johnson authorized limited bombing raids on North Vietnam. At the administration’s request, Congress then offered an almost unanimous resolution, known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, that enabled the president to use military force in Vietnam. In 1965, after a landslide victory in the 1964 election—when voters endorsed his platform of domestic reform and peace abroad—Johnson again escalated American involvement. By 1968 more than 500,000 troops were in Vietnam, and the United States had begun heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

The United States never declared war on North Vietnam.

The United States Of America, Part Eight

2012-07-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

The United States Of America, Part Eight

This is the story of how the American Republic developed from colonial beginnings in the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived, until modern times.

History of the United States: Continued

THE COLD WAR

At the end of World War II, the United States and the USSR emerged as the world’s major powers. They also became involved in the Cold War, a state of hostility (short of direct military conflict) between the two nations. The clash had deep roots, going back to the Russian Revolution of 1917, when after the Bolshevik victory, the United States, along with Britain, France, and Japan, sent troops to Russia to support the anti-Communists. During World War II, the United States and the USSR were tenuously allied, but they disagreed on tactics and on postwar plans. After the war, relations deteriorated. The United States and the USSR had different ideologies, and they mistrusted one another. The Soviet Union feared that the United States, the leader of the capitalist world, sought the downfall of Communism. The United States felt threatened by Soviet expansionism in Europe, Asia, and the western hemisphere.

The United States and the Soviet Union disagreed over postwar policy in central and eastern Europe. The USSR wanted to demilitarize Germany to prevent another war; to control Poland to preclude any future invasion from its west; and to dominate Eastern Europe. Stalin saw Soviet domination of Eastern Europe as vital to Soviet security. Within months of the war's end, Stalin installed pro-Soviet governments in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Independent Communist takeovers in Albania and Yugoslavia provided two more "satellite nations." Finally, the Soviets barred free elections in Poland and suppressed political opposition. In March 1946 former British prime minister Winston Churchill told a college audience in Fulton, Missouri, that a Soviet-made "iron curtain" had descended across Europe.

President Harry S. Truman, enraged at the USSR's moves, at once assumed a combative stance. He believed that Soviet expansion into Poland and Eastern Europe violated national self-determination, or the right of people to choose their own form of government; betrayed democratic principles; and threatened the rest of Europe. In contrast to the USSR, the United States envisioned a united, peaceful Europe that included a prosperous Germany. Truman became an architect of American Cold War policy. So did State Department official George Kennan, then stationed in Moscow, who in 1946 warned of Soviet inflexibility. The United States, wrote Kennan, would have to use "vigilant containment" to deter the USSR’s inherent expansionist tendencies. The doctrine of containment became a principle of U.S. policy for the next several decades.

Throughout 1946 a sequence of events drew the United States and the USSR deeper into conflict. One area of conflict was defeated Germany, which had been split after the war into four zones: American, British, French, and Soviet. Stalin sealed off East Germany as a Communist state. The two countries also encountered problems beyond Europe.

In 1945 and 1946, the Soviet Union attempted to include Turkey within its sphere of influence and to gain control of the Dardanelles, the strait in Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Control of the Dardenelles would give the USSR a route from its Black Sea to the Mediterranean. In response, Truman offered Turkey large-scale aid, and the two countries entered a close military and economic alliance. Meanwhile, an arms race began; each superpower rejected the other's plans to control nuclear arms, and the United States established the Atomic Energy Commission to oversee nuclear development. Within the year, the Cold War was under way.

The Truman Doctrine
In 1947 the Cold War conflict centered on Greece, where a Communist-led resistance movement, supported by the USSR and Communist Yugoslavia, threatened to overthrow the Greek monarchical government, supported by Britain. When the British declared that they were unable to aid the imperiled Greek monarchists, the United States acted. In March 1947 the president announced the Truman Doctrine: The United States would help stabilize legal foreign governments threatened by revolutionary minorities and outside pressures. Congress appropriated $400 million to support anti-Communist forces in Turkey and Greece. By giving aid, the United States signaled that it would bolster regimes that claimed to face Communist threats. As George Kennan explained in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine in 1947, "containment" meant using "unalterable counterforce at every point" until Soviet power ended or faded.

In 1947 the United States further pursued its Cold War goals in Europe, where shaky postwar economies seemed to present opportunities for Communist gains. The American Marshall Plan, an ambitious economic recovery program, sought to restore productivity and prosperity to Europe and thereby prevent Communist inroads (see European Recovery Program). The plan ultimately pumped more than $13 billion into western European economies, including occupied Germany. Stalin responded to the new U.S. policy in Europe by trying to force Britain, France, and the United States out of Berlin. The city was split between the Western powers and the USSR, although it was deep within the Soviet zone of Germany. The Soviets cut off all access to Berlin from the parts of Germany controlled by the West. Truman, however, aided West Berlin by airlifting supplies to the city from June 1948 to May 1949 (see Berlin Airlift).

NATO
In 1949 the United States joined 11 other nations (Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal) to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact. Members of NATO pledged that an attack on one would be an attack on all. Stalin responded by uniting the economies of Eastern Europe under the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). Then late in 1949, Americans learned that the Soviets had successfully exploded an atomic bomb in August. Finally, in February 1950, Stalin signed an alliance with the People's Republic of China, a Communist nation formed in 1949.

The doctrine of "containment" now faced big challenges. To bolster the containment policy, U.S. officials proposed in a secret 1950 document, NSC-68, to strengthen the nation’s alliances, to quadruple defense spending, and to convince Americans to support the Cold War. Truman ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to develop a hydrogen bomb many times more destructive than an atomic bomb. In Europe, the United States supported the independence of West Germany.

Finally, the United States took important steps to contain Communism in Europe and Asia. In Europe, the United States supported the rearmament of West Germany. In Asia in early 1950, the United States offered assistance to France to save Vietnam (still French Indochina) from Communist rule, and signed a peace treaty with Japan to ensure the future of American military bases there. Responding to the threats in Asia, Stalin endorsed a Communist reprisal in Korea, where fighting broke out between Communist and non-Communist forces.

The Korean War
Japan had occupied Korea during World War II. After Japan's defeat, Korea was divided along the 38th parallel into the Communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north, and the U.S.-backed Republic of Korea in the south. After June 1949, when the United States withdrew its army, South Korea was left vulnerable. A year later, North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Truman reacted quickly. He committed U.S. forces to Korea, sent General Douglas MacArthur there to command them, and asked the United Nations to help protect South Korea from conquest.

MacArthur drove the North Koreans back to the dividing line. Truman then ordered American troops to cross the 38th parallel and press on to the Chinese border. China responded in November 1950 with a huge counterattack that decimated U.S. armies. MacArthur demanded permission to invade mainland China, which Truman rejected, and then repeatedly assailed the president’s decision. In 1951 Truman fired him for insubordination. By then, the combatants had separated near the 38th parallel. The Korean War did not officially end until 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower imposed a precarious armistice. Meanwhile, the Korean War had brought about rearmament, hiked the U.S. military budget, and increased fears of Communist aggression abroad and at home.

Cold War at Home
As the Cold War intensified, it affected domestic affairs. Many Americans feared not only Communism around the world but also disloyalty at home. Suspicion about Communist infiltration of the government forced Truman to act. In 1947 he sought to root out subversion through the Federal Employee Loyalty Program. The program included a loyalty review board to investigate government workers and fire those found to be disloyal. The government dismissed hundreds of employees, and thousands more felt compelled to resign. By the end of Truman's term, 39 states had enacted antisubversion laws and loyalty programs. In 1949 the Justice Department prosecuted 11 leaders of the Communist Party, who were convicted and jailed under the Smith Act of 1940. The law prohibited groups from conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the government.

The Communist Party had reached the peak of its strength in the United States during World War II, when it claimed 80,000 members. Some of these had indeed worked for the government, handled classified material, or been part of spy networks. Although Communist party membership had fallen to under 30,000 by the 1950s, suspicion about disloyalty had grown. Concerned about the Sino-Soviet alliance and the USSR’s possession of atomic weapons, many Americans feared Communist spies and Soviet penetration of federal agencies.

Attention focused on two divisive trials. In August 1948 Time magazine editor Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, charged former State Department official Alger Hiss of being a member of the Communist Party and, subsequently, of espionage. Hiss sued Chambers for slander, but Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950 and jailed (see Hiss Case). In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of treason for stealing atomic secrets. They were executed two years later. Both of these trials and convictions provoked decades of controversy. Half a century later, the most recent evidence seems to support the convictions of Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg.

Meanwhile, Congress began to investigate suspicions of disloyalty. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) sought to expose Communist influence in American life. Beginning in the late 1940s, the committee called witnesses and investigated the entertainment industry. Prominent film directors and screenwriters who refused to cooperate were imprisoned on contempt charges. As a result of the HUAC investigations, the entertainment industry blacklisted, or refused to hire, artists and writers suspected of being Communists.

One of the most important figures of this period was Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who gained power by accusing others of subversion. In February 1950, a few months after the USSR detonated its first atomic device, McCarthy claimed to have a list of Communists who worked in the State Department. Although his accusations remained unsupported and a Senate committee labeled them "a fraud and a hoax," McCarthy won a national following. Branding the Democrats as a party of treason, he denounced his political foes as "soft on Communism" and called Truman’s loyal secretary of state, Dean Acheson, the "Red Dean." McCarthyism came to mean false charges of disloyalty.

In September 1950, goaded by McCarthy, Congress passed, over Truman's veto, the McCarran Internal Security Act, which established a Subversive Activities Control Board to monitor Communist influence in the United States. A second McCarran act, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, also became law over Truman's veto. It kept the quota system based on national origin, though it ended a ban on Asian immigration, and required elaborate security checks for foreigners visiting the United States.

The Cold War played a role in the presidential contest of 1952 between Republican Dwight Eisenhower and Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Many voters feared Soviet expansionism, Soviet atomic explosions, and more conflicts like Korea. Eisenhower's running mate, former HUAC member Richard M. Nixon, charged that a Democratic victory would bring "more Alger Hisses, more atomic spies." Eisenhower’s soaring popularity led to two terms as president.

McCarthy’s influence continued until the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, when the Senate investigated McCarthy’s enquiry into the army. The Senate censored him on December 2, 1954, for abusing his colleagues, and his career collapsed. But fears of subversion continued. Communities banned books; teachers, academics, civil servants, and entertainers lost jobs; and unwarranted attacks ruined lives. Communists again dwindled in number after 1956, when Stalin was revealed to have committed extensive crimes. Meanwhile, by the end of the decade, new right-wing organizations such as the John Birch Society condemned "creeping socialism" under Truman and Eisenhower. McCarthyism left permanent scars.

The Cold War Under Eisenhower
When Eisenhower took office in 1953, he moved to end the war in Korea, where peace talks had been going on since 1951. Eisenhower’s veiled threat to use nuclear weapons broke the stalemate. An armistice, signed in July 1953, set a boundary between the two Koreas near the 38th parallel. Eisenhower then reduced the federal budget and cut defense spending. Still, he pursued the Cold War.

When Stalin died in 1953, the United States and the USSR had an opportunity to ease tensions. However, the USSR tested a nuclear bomb in 1954, and Eisenhower needed to appease Republicans who urged more forceful efforts to defeat Communism. He relied on his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, who called for "liberation" of the captive peoples of Eastern Europe and the end of Communism in China. Dulles was willing to bring the world to "the brink of war" to intimidate the USSR. With reduced conventional forces, Dulles's diplomacy rested on threats of "massive retaliation" and brinksmanship, a policy of never backing down in a crisis even at the risk of war.

In 1955 the United States and USSR met in Geneva, Switzerland, to address mounting fears about radioactive fallout from nuclear tests. Discussions of "peaceful coexistence" led the two nations to suspend atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons. Still, the United States spent more on nuclear weapons and less on conventional forces.

Dulles, meanwhile, negotiated pacts around the world committing the United States to the defense of 43 nations. The focus of the Cold War now shifted to the so-called Third World, where the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) represented U.S. interests. Established in 1947 to conduct espionage and assess information about foreign nations, the CIA carried out covert operations against regimes believed to be Communist or supported by Communist nations. In 1954, for example, the CIA helped bring down a Guatemalan government that the United States believed was moving towards Communism.

Finally, to stop the USSR from spreading Communism, the United States became involved in Indochina and the Middle East. In Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, a nationalist and a Communist, led a movement for independence from France. The Truman administration had aided France, but in 1954, the French were defeated. An international peace conference in Geneva divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel. The United States refused to sign the Geneva Accords, which it believed conceded too much to the Communists. Instead the United States sent economic aid and military advisers to South Vietnam from 1954 to 1961. Although Eisenhower feared further involvement in Vietnam, he supported what was called the domino theory: If Vietnam fell to Communism, all of Southeast Asia might follow.

In the Middle East, the United States promised a loan to Egypt's new ruler, Gamal Abdul Nasser, to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. But when Nassar bought arms from Communist Czechoslovakia, the United States canceled the loan. Nasser retaliated in July 1956 by nationalizing the Anglo-French Suez Canal, an artificial waterway across the Isthmus of Suez in northeastern Egypt. Britain, France, and Israel (formed in 1948) responded with force, which the United States condemned. The invaders of Egypt withdrew, and the Suez crisis was defused.

In reaction to the Suez crisis, the United States announced a new policy, the Eisenhower Doctrine: The United States would intervene in the Middle East if necessary to protect the area against Communism. In July 1958 the United States sent 14,000 marines to Lebanon during a civil war that the United States feared would destabilize the region.

In the USSR, Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, did his part to keep the Cold War alive. He extended Soviet influence by establishing relations with India and with other nations that were not aligned with either side in the Cold War. In 1955 Khrushchev created the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance of seven European Communist nations, to secure the Soviet position in Europe. In 1956 he used force in Hungary and political pressure in Poland to ensure continued Soviet control of those countries. He increased Soviet power by developing a hydrogen bomb, and by launching the first earth satellite in 1957. Finally, he formed an alliance with Cuba after Fidel Castro led a successful revolution there in 1959.

At the end of Eisenhower’s second term, the Cold War still dominated American foreign policy. United States efforts around the world to quell Communist-inspired or nationalist insurgencies sometimes caused anger. In 1958 angry crowds in Peru and Venezuela stoned Vice President Nixon’s car. On May 1, 1960, the Soviets shot down a U-2 spy plane, and plans for a second summit collapsed. When Eisenhower left office, he warned against "unwarranted influence…by the military-industrial complex." But the nuclear arms race had intensified, and the Cold War seemed to be widening.

The Cold War brought divisiveness and discord in the United States. Americans of the 1950s clashed on the extent of the threat posed by Communism at home and abroad. Historians debate this question, too, as well as the origins of the Cold War. Some contend that Soviet aggression in the postwar era reflected valid concerns for security, and that a series of hostile acts by the United States provoked the USSR to take countermeasures. Others argue, variously, that Communism was inherently expansionist; that Soviet aggression was a natural outgrowth of Communism; that with Stalin in power, the Cold War was inevitable; that the USSR was bent on establishing Communist regimes in every region where a power vacuum existed; and that containment was a necessary and successful policy.

Starting in the early 1990s, scholars have gained access to Soviet evidence that was previously unavailable. New revelations from Russian archives—as well as declassification in 1995 and 1996 of U.S. intelligence files on interception of Soviet spy cables, known as the Venona decryptions—has recently made possible new scholarship on the Cold War era. For the moment, debates about U.S. Cold War policy are likely to remain.

A WORLD OF PLENTY In the post-World War II decade, the United States was the richest nation in the world. After a brief period of postwar adjustment, the economy boomed. Consumers demanded goods and services. Businesses produced more to meet this demand, and increased production led to new jobs. Federal foreign aid programs, such as the Marshall Plan, provided overseas markets for U.S. businesses. Finally, the government spent large amounts of money by providing loans, fighting the Cold War, and funding social programs. Government spending plus consumer demand led to an era of widespread prosperity, rising living standards, and social mobility.

The Postwar Administrations
As the nation demobilized, President Harry S. Truman faced a political battle. A one-time courthouse politician who owed his political success to the Democratic political machine of Kansas City, Truman had been a liberal senator and loyal New Dealer. Assertive and self-confident, he capably assumed the presidency after Roosevelt’s death at the end of World War II. But in 1946, Truman encountered the Republican-dominated 80th Congress, the first time Republicans won control of both houses since 1928.

In 1947 Congress passed the Labor-Management Relations Act, known as the Taft-Hartley Act, over Truman’s veto. The act was a restrictive labor law that handicapped labor and boosted employer power. For instance, it banned closed shops, thereby enabling employers to hire nonunion workers; it revived the labor injunction as a way to end strikes and boycotts; and it allowed states to pass right-to-work laws that forbade making union membership a condition of hiring.

Congress also rejected Truman’s efforts to improve civil rights for African Americans. It refused to pass federal antilynching laws or to abolish the poll tax. In 1948, however, Truman integrated the armed forces by an executive order. He also ordered an end to discrimination in the hiring of federal employees.

Southern Democrats never liked Truman. At the Democratic convention of 1948, they withdrew from the party to form a states’ rights party, the Dixiecrats. Truman also faced a challenge from the left, when Henry Wallace ran as the presidential candidate of the Progressive Party. Both of these challenges took Democratic votes from Truman, and most observers expected that his Republican opponent, New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, would defeat him. But the scrappy president won reelection. The 81st Congress continued to reject his social and economic proposals, known as the Fair Deal. Legislators defeated, for instance, a measure for national compulsory health insurance. Still, Truman succeeded in raising the minimum wage, extending social security coverage, and building low-income housing.

Elected president by big margins in 1952 and 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower enjoyed immense popularity. A pragmatic, centrist Republican, Eisenhower believed in smaller government, fiscal conservatism, and a business-like administration.

Eisenhower continued some New Deal policies. He expanded social security, raised the minimum wage, and backed a huge public works program, the Federal Highway Act of 1956, which provided funds for the Interstate Highway System. He also cut defense spending and presided over an era of peace and prosperity.

In 1953 Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court, an appointment that began a new era in judicial history. The Warren Court transformed the American legal system by expanding civil rights and civil liberties. In the 1950s the Court broadened the rights of the accused and overturned the 1949 convictions of Communist leaders who had been tried under the Smith Act. Most important, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the Warren court declared that school segregation violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Concluding that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," it declared segregated schools unconstitutional.

In 1955 the Court ordered the states to desegregate schools "with all deliberate speed." However, many people resisted school integration. In 1957 the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, tried to block the enrollment of nine black students into Little Rock High School. In response, Eisenhower, never a strong civil rights supporter, reluctantly sent federal troops to desegregate the school. The Brown decision began a new era in civil rights.

The Eisenhower administration also ushered in the age of modern space exploration. In 1958 Congress formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to oversee a civilian space program. NASA's birth reflected the Cold War competition between the United States and the USSR for supremacy in space. The Soviets launched Sputnik 1 (an artificial satellite) in October 1957. The United States followed with Explorer 1 in January 1958. In 1961 the Soviets hurled the first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, into orbit. The same year, Alan Shepard, one of seven American astronauts trained in Project Mercury, went into space on a suborbital flight. In 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.

The Prosperous Fifties
Eisenhower oversaw a productive and prosperous era. Government spending plus consumer demand boosted the gross national product (GNP). With 6 percent of the world's population, the United States produced half the world's goods. Technological advances, many achieved with federal aid, ushered in new industries and sped up the pace of production in old ones.

The nation's five largest industries—autos, oil, aircraft, chemicals, and electronics—illustrated a leap in productivity. The auto industry, the nation's largest, lowered labor costs by using more automated machines. Oil replaced coal as the nation's major energy source. The aircraft industry profited from defense spending, space research, and commercial airlines’ shift to jet propulsion. The chemical industry offered new consumer goods, such as synthetic fibers, chemical fertilizers, and plastics. Computers, too, began to have an effect in the business world. By the mid-1960s, more than 30,000 mainframe computers were in use.

As productivity rose, the labor market changed. Fewer people held blue-collar jobs, and more did white-collar work. Employment grew rapidly in the service sector, which includes sales work, office work, and government jobs. More American wage earners worked for large corporations or for state or federal agencies than in small enterprise. Businesses expanded by swallowing weaker competitors, as happened in the steel, oil, chemical, and electrical machinery industries. Corporations formed huge new conglomerates (mergers of companies in unrelated industries). In addition, companies offering similar products or services in many locations, known as franchises, increased; the first McDonald’s franchise opened in 1955.

Some big corporations established overseas operations and became multinational. Producers in the United States depended on world markets to buy oil, iron, steel, and food that they exported. They also increased their overseas investments. Standard Oil (later Exxon), for instance, developed oil resources in Venezuela and the Middle East. Coca-Cola swept through Europe, where it set up bottling factories. New types of bureaucrats ran the big businesses of postwar America. In The Organization Man (1956), sociologist William H. Whyte wrote that employers sought managers who would adapt to corporate culture, which rewarded teamwork and conformity.

The Middle Class Expands
Many factors converged to provide unparalleled social mobility in postwar America. Most important, income rose. Between 1945 and 1960, the median family income, adjusted for inflation, almost doubled. Rising income doubled the size of the middle class. Before the Great Depression of the 1930s only one-third of Americans qualified as middle class, but in postwar America two-thirds did.

The growth of the middle class reflected full employment, new opportunities, and federal spending, which contributed mightily to widespread prosperity. During the war, for example, the U.S. government built many new factories, which provided jobs. The federal government also directly aided ambitious Americans. In 1944 Congress passed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, known as the GI Bill of Rights. Under the law, the government paid part of tuition for veterans and gave them unemployment benefits while they sought jobs. It also provided low-interest loans to veterans buying homes or farms, or starting businesses. The GI Bill and other federal programs offered mortgages for homebuyers.

New middle-class families of postwar America became suburban families. Of 13 million new homes built in the 1950s, 85 percent were in the suburbs. By the early 1960s, suburbs surrounded every city.

New families of the postwar era created a baby boom. The birthrate soared from 1946 to 1964, and peaked in 1957, when a baby was born every 7 seconds. Overall, more than 76 million Americans were part of the baby boom generation. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), by Dr. Benjamin Spock, sold a million copies a year in the 1950s, and popular culture glorified suburban homemakers.

However, more and more women entered the job market. New women workers were increasingly likely to be middle-aged and middle-class. By 1960 almost two out of five women with school-age children held jobs. Some women workers supported households alone; many were wives whose second incomes helped their families attain middle-class lifestyles.

As suburbs, generally without public transportation, grew, cars became necessary and auto sales increased. Easy credit facilitated the purchase of cars. The number of cars on the road leaped from 40 million in 1950 to 60 million in 1960. The Federal Highway Act of 1956 created the Interstate Highway System, a 68,400-km (42,500-mi) network of limited-access highways. This system spurred further suburban growth.

Middle-class families bought not only homes and cars, but educational opportunities. Between 1940 and 1960, the percentage of college-age Americans who attended college almost doubled. Again, the federal government played a role. In 1958 Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which provided loans to college students and funds for teacher training and instructional materials. Cold War enthusiasm for technological advances also affected research. By 1960 one-third of scientists and engineers in universities worked on government research, mainly defense projects.

Consumers
World War II limited the products that consumers could buy, but at its end, consumer demand fueled the postwar economy. By the end of the 1950s, three out of five families owned homes, and three out of four owned cars. Consumers chose among a wealth of new products, many developed from wartime innovations, including polyester fabrics—rayon, dacron, orlon—and new household appliances such as freezers, blenders, and dishwashers. Manufacturers urged new models on consumers. Americans acquired more private debt with the introduction of credit cards and installment plans. Home mortgages increased the debt burden.

Businesses tried to increase consumer spending by investing more money in advertising, especially in television ads. Television played a pivotal role in consumption—both as a product to be bought and a mode of selling more products. The first practical television system began operating in the 1940s. Television reached 9 percent of homes in 1950 and almost 90 percent in 1960. Audiences stayed home to watch live productions of beloved comedies, such as "I Love Lucy" (1951-1957), and the on-the-scene reporting of Edward R. Murrow. TV Guide became one of the most popular magazines. Television programming of the 1950s, which catered to potential consumers, portrayed a middle-class, homogeneous society. But the less visible, less prosperous parts of society were also an important facet of the postwar era.

Other Americans
The widespread prosperity of postwar America failed to reach everyone. In The Other America: Poverty in the United States (1962), political activist Michael Harrington revealed an economic underworld of 40 million to 50 million Americans, who were excluded from affluence and were socially invisible. At the end of the 1950s, nearly one-fifth of the population lived below the poverty line. The poor included many groups: the uninsured elderly, migrant farm workers, families in the Appalachian hills, and residents of inner-city slums.

When many middle-class Americans left the city for the suburbs, they left behind urban areas with antiquated schools and deteriorating public facilities. They also left behind high concentrations of poor people, which meant a dwindling tax base. Federal aid, which provided the middle class with mortgages and highways, had less influence on the poor. Federal housing programs, urban renewal efforts, and slum clearance projects often did little more than move poor city dwellers from one ghetto to another. What Harrington called the culture of poverty—that is, living without adequate housing, food, education, medical care, job opportunities, or hope—remained.

Poverty affected minority groups in the 1950s. In the 1940s, when labor was scarce, the United States established the Emergency Labor Program, popularly known as the Bracero Program. Braceros, whose name derived from the Spanish word brazo (arm), were Mexican manual laborers allowed to enter the United States to replace American workers who joined the armed forces. Many Mexicans who entered the United States under the Bracero Program remained in the country illegally. To curb illegal immigration from Mexico, the United States in 1954 began Operation Wetback, a program to find illegal immigrants and return them to Mexico. During the 1950s, several million Mexicans were deported. But illegal entrants continued to arrive, often to become low-paid laborers. Most of the postwar Mexican American population settled in cities, such as Los Angeles, Denver, El Paso, Phoenix, and San Antonio. One-third of Mexican Americans in the 1950s lived below the poverty line.

Federal policy toward Native Americans underwent several reversals in the 20th century. In 1934 Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act, which granted Native Americans the right to elect tribal councils to govern reservations. In 1953 the federal government changed its position and adopted a "termination" policy. Congress passed a resolution to end its responsibility for Native American tribes. The resolution terminated Native American status as wards of the United States, granted Native Americans citizenship, eliminated financial subsidies, discontinued the reservation system, and distributed tribal lands among individual Native Americans. This redistribution made thousands of acres of reservation land available to non-Indians, such as real estate dealers. From 1954 to 1960, the federal government initiated a voluntary relocation program to settle Native Americans in urban areas. The new policies failed, and in 1963 the government abandoned termination.

African Americans of the postwar era continued their exodus from the South. Waves of black migrants, mainly young, left the rural South for Northern cities. The introduction of new machinery, such as the mechanical cotton-picker, reduced the need for field labor and eliminated sharecropping as a way of life. From the end of World War II to 1960, nearly five million blacks moved from the rural South to cities in the North. By 1950 one-third of blacks lived outside the South.

Simultaneously, the black population moved within the South. By 1960 almost three out of five Southern blacks lived in towns and cities, concentrated in large metropolitan areas such as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Large-scale migration to cities spurred rising aspirations, soon evident in the postwar civil rights moveme.

Beautiful Places

2012-07-20T02:02:00.001-07:00

10 Beautiful Places

Whether you are religious or not, it must be accepted that religion has been with us for a very long time. Some of the most monumental structures ever made have had religious functions. Today it is still possible to be moved by the ruins of these sites, even though the people who made them, and sometimes the gods they were raised to, have disappeared. Here I present ten of the most important ancient religious sites. Pop in the comments any you think I should have included.

10

The Karnak Temple Complex

Egypt

Begun in the 14th century BC, by the pharaoh Ramses II, the temples of Karnak are some of the most famous in the world. Tourists flock to Luxor in their millions. Sitting next to the Nile, Karnak forms one of the largest religious sites in the world. It is packed with stone carved temples and sanctuaries. The great temple of Amun-Re, alone, is worth the effort of visiting, but requires more than a single day to fully appreciate. The friezes, obelisks and forests of pillars will be familiar to you even if you have never been there. Hollywood is fascinated by all things Egyptian, so watch out for Karnak in the background of Transformers: Revenge of the fallen.

9

Callanish Stones

The Callanish stones on the Isle of Lewis date from roughly 2900-2600BC, around the same time stones were being brought to Stonehenge. Legend says that the pale stones are the remains of the Giants who refused to convert to Christianity, Saint Kieran turning them to stone in punishment. I include the Callanish stones rather than the more famous Stonehenge for several reasons. Stonehenge is easier to visit but gives a far less satisfying experience. You can walk amongst the Callanish stones, touch them, and feel much like the original worshipers would have. At Stonehenge you are bombarded by the noise of two major roads. While on the Isle of Lewis you can see the hundreds of other standing stones which litter the fields and hillsides, so it’s well worth a visit.

Editors Note: As a child in the seventies in England, Stonehenge was a fascinating place. With far fewer cars than today, and the ability to still walk among the stones themselves, it was a place of wonder even for a young child. It’s a shame it’s been so diminished by time and ‘progress’.

8

The Ziggurat of Ur

Iraq

The epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest written story we possess. In this epic, composed in at least the second millennium BC, Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, boasts of the mighty temples he has constructed. Those temples must have resembled the Great Ziggurat of Ur. The ziggurat, first built in the early Bronze age and reconstructed several times since, is a massive step pyramid built to honor the god Nanna. The structure visible today was heavily repaired by Saddam Hussein and sustained minor damage in the first Gulf war. Few people will get to visit the site but it must surely be one of the greatest wonders of the ancient world still visible.

7

Pyramids of Teotihuacan

Mexico

Once one of the great cities of the world, Teotihuacan’s origins remain hotly debated. There is no agreement as to which people built the city, though it is known to have reached its zenith around 450AD. Whoever built it, Teotihuacan is one of the most recognizable sites in the New World. Two great pyramids, those of the Sun and Moon, dominate the city. The pyramids were famously used for human and animal sacrifice, probably in the dedication of new buildings in the city. A broad Avenue of the Dead runs from the pyramid of the Moon, passed that of the Sun, and down towards the temple of Quetzalcoatl. Walking along this road it is easy to imagine the great religious festivals that must have occurred there.

Delphi

Greece

While not as magnificent as Teotihuacan, Delphi has had a profound effect on the Western world. It was the center of the cult of Apollo, and respected by all the Greek city states as sacred. The temple complex, now ruined, lies on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, home of the Muses. The ruins of the temples, stadium, and shrines of Delphi still speak to an important gathering place. No important matter of state could be settled without seeking the advice of the Oracle at Delphi. The Oracle, a woman priestess known as the Pythia, would sit above a crack in the rock under the temple and inhale the divine vapors (volcanic gases). While in a trance caused by the gases she would utter nonsense-words, the speech of the Apollo, and these would be interpreted by priests. Those hoping for such a divine experience today are out of luck, no gases are emitted under the temple any more. This probably is what caused worship at the site to fail.

5

Borobudur

Indonesia

Borobudur is an 8th century Buddhist structure, lost in the jungle until rediscovered in the 19th century. The structure is composed of two million cubic feet of stone set in six square platforms. Each platform is decorated with carved friezes. Five hundred statues of the Buddha are set in niches for worshipers to pray before. The six levels form a path that must be followed to reach the very top. The path is not easy and one must cover a distance of two miles. As you progress along the path the friezes display images of the law of Karma and the life story of the Buddha. At the summit there are three ‘stupa’, stone mounds which once held relics. Volcanic eruptions are a risk to the site. The most recent eruption, in 2010, covered the site with a thin layer of ash. It is feared that an eruption may damage the fine carving which covers the monument.

4

The Ajanta Caves

India

Construction of these caves occurred fitfully from 200BC to 600AD. Like Borobudur, the cave lay forgotten for centuries. They were rediscovered by a British officer, John Smith, while out hunting for tigers, in 1819. You can still see his name and the date, faintly written in pencil, on the walls. Twenty nine caves have been excavated, though not all of them are richly decorated. Those that are, are full of gorgeous sculptures and paintings, considered masterpieces of ancient India. For the most part these frescos tell stories from the Buddha’s life, while others offer a clear insight into the lives of the ancient peoples who carved the caves.

The Pantheon

Rome

The Pantheon, “All God”, is one of the best preserved Roman buildings. A temple had been on the site for many years but the one visible today is that designed by the Emperor Hadrian, and built in 126AD. The building was converted to a Christian church in the 7th century, but can still be enjoyed in something like its original form. The front of the building resembles a classic Roman temple portico, supported by columns. Roman temples, for the main part, were to be enjoyed from the outside. The Pantheon is different – it can only be appreciated from inside. Behind the portico is the rotunda, a round space, under the largest dome built by the ancients. Set in the center of the dome is a circular hole, the oculus. The oculus is the only source of light and is an elegant allegory of God. At no time will the light ever touch the floor, as if to say that all we can know of God is by indirect means.

2

The Hypogeum

Malta

The Hypogeum is truly ancient as construction began ~3500BC. It is the only example of a prehistoric temple being built underground. The carved space has been used variously through its history, being turned into a necropolis at some point in the distant past. The Hypogeum is a mixture of natural caves and excavations over three levels. The walls are smoothly carved and have reflections of structures found elsewhere above ground on Malta, as if to suggest the above being brought below. A ‘speaking chamber’, a rounded niche carved into one wall, allows anything spoken into it to echo throughout the Hypogeum. Visiting may be tricky as, for preservation reasons relating to the ochre paintings on the ceiling, only 80 people are allowed entry per day.

1

Göbekli Tepe

Turkey

The importance of this site has only very recently been recognized. If the Hypogeum is ancient then Göbekli Tepe is primordial. Göbekli Tepe is the oldest man-made structure yet discovered. The site is composed of twenty circular structures spread over a hilltop. What remains today are large limestone pillars decorated with abstract designs of carved animals. So far depictions of snakes, scorpions, birds, boars, foxes and lions have been uncovered. The pillars have been traced to a nearby quarry where unfinished ones can still be seen. While this site cannot be definitely said to be religious in nature, it is certainly intriguing. The site has been dated to the tenth millennium BC. This is earlier than any civilization yet known. If it is a temple then this must surely be one of the first ever made.

10 Strange Legends And Images Of Saint

2012-07-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

10 Strange Legends And Images Of Saint

St Dymphna

St Dymphna’s story is truly sad, but one that parallels many popular folk legends. Dymphna was a virgin daughter of a pagan king. She secretly baptized into Christianity. After her mother died, her father became insane with grief, and declared that he would only marry another woman as beautiful as his wife. Eventually he noticed that Dymphna his own daughter, shared his wife’s beauty. He determined to marry her, but the girl fled from him in horror, accompanied by a trusted priest. They sought sanctuary elsewhere but were found by her father’s men. The priest was promptly killed, and her father once again proposed to her. She refused to marry him, and he himself struck off her head. Dymphna is depicted as a beautiful, virginal, young girl. She is often holding a holy bible and white flowers. She is the patroness of incest victims and the mentally disturbed.

Simon Zelotes

Simon Zelotes (or Simon the Zealot) was one of the twelve disciples. He had previously been a violent man but was converted by Jesus. Not much is known of his life after Jesus’ death, but he is believed to have travelled widely preaching the gospel. Legend has it that he was martyred in Mesopotamia by being hung upside down and sawed to death – longitudinally. He is often depicted holding the saw that was the instrument of his martyrdom.

St Apollonia

St Apollonia was an old deaconess who fell victim to the persecutions of Christians in Alexandria. As Christians fled the city, Apollonia was seized by a mob. They beat her and knocked all her teeth out. They then lit a huge fire to burn her if she did not renounce Christianity. Begging for time as though she would comply with their demands, instead she jumped into the flames herself and died without renouncing her faith. She is the patroness of dentists, and is depicted holding pincers containing her tooth or with a gold tooth on a necklace.

St Margaret of Antioch

St Margaret of Antioch was a popular saint in the middle ages. Legend states that she was the daughter of a pagan priest, but decided to convert to Christianity. This angered her father as well as a suitor whose advances she rejected. They had her reported to the authorities as a Christian, and she was jailed. In jail she met the devil in the form of a dragon, who proceeded to swallow her whole. The cross she carried however, irritated the dragon’s belly and she was able to tear her way out using the cross and emerge whole from the dragon. Several attempts were then made to execute her by drowning and fire, all of which failed, leading many who witnessed her tortures to be converted. She was finally beheaded. She is often depicted emerging from the dragon’s belly, cross in hand. Appropriately, she is the patroness of childbirth.

Saint Bartholomew

Saint Bartholomew is one of the Apostles of Christ. After Christ’s death he travelled the world as far as India, evangelizing and preaching the gospel. He fell afoul with the pagans in Armenia where he was martyred. Legend states that he was flayed alive (removing the skin from the body while keeping it as intact as possible), and then crucified upside down on a cross. He is the saint invoked by those who deal with skins and leather. He is depicted in art as a man holding his flayed skin.

St Christopher

St Christopher belonged to a tribe in North Africa known as the Marmaritae. That area of the world was then largely unknown and considered inhabited by all sorts of strange creatures, including dog-headed men. Some conflicting legends surround Christopher. In one he is a dog-head captured by the Romans and forced to serve them. He becomes a Christian convert and thus a unique figure amongst his kind. Another legend has St Christopher carrying an infant across a river, only to find him growing unbelievably heavy as they progress. The child then reveals himself to be the Christ child and his heaviness due to the weight of the world on his shoulders. Still other legends exist about St Christopher actually being granted the face of a dog by God, to ward off unwanted female attention. He is often depicted as a richly robed dog-headed man – a cynocephalus.

St Roch

St Roch was born of nobility but soon renounced his life of wealth and privilege to work amongst plague victims. He travelled the country effecting many healings of plague victims. When he too contracted the plague, he retreated to a secret hut in the woods. He was there befriended by a dog, who brought him sustenance and licked the sores on his leg until he was healed. When he eventually returned to civilization, many who had previously known him were dead. He was imprisoned, and with his dog continued to minister to suffering prisoners until his death. He is the patron saint of dogs and is invoked against diseased body parts. He is depicted lifting one hem of his robe to reveal his leg sores, while his faithful dog licks them.

St Agatha of Sicily

As a beautiful woman St Agatha attracted the attentions of a powerful judge named Quintianus. When she refused his advances he had her sent to a brothel. She prayed and after 30 days remained still untouched. Quintianus then ordered that she be chained, whipped, stretched on a rack and burnt. During these tortures her breasts were cut off. Legend states that St Peter miraculously healed her wound that night. The enraged Quintianus then had her rolled on hot coals and glass until she finally expired. She is the patron saint of breast cancer sufferers. She is depicted carrying her breasts on a plate. On her saint day ( 5 February) in Sicily, little marzipan confections resembling breasts are still eaten today.

St Denis

St Denis had an exceptional youth, testifying and converting pagans to Christianity. He eventually became bishop of Paris. His many conversions however, ultimately enraged the pagan priests, who decided to execute him by beheading. Legend states that after his head was chopped off, he picked it up and walked several miles with it tucked under his arm, preaching all the way. He is represented as a headless body holding its decapitated head in its hands.

St Lucy

St Lucy as a young girl decided to devote her life to Christ and refused to marry the groom selected by her mother. Though her mother eventually accepted her decision, her jilted suitor was not so generous, and reported her as a Christian to the authorities. Trying unsuccessfully to force her into prostitution, the soldiers found her body strangely heavy and immovable. Thus as punishment, she was tortured by having her eyes gouged out, and then killed. Legend states that God restored her sight before she died. She is represented in iconography as a young martyr holding her eyes on a plate, and is the patron saint of eye problems and blindness.

The United States Of America, Part Seven

2012-07-15T08:48:00.002-07:00

The United States Of America, Part Seven

This is the story of how the American Republic developed from colonial beginnings in the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived, until modern times.

History of the United States: Continued

THE GREAT DEPRESSION
In 1929, Hoover's first year as president, the prosperity of the 1920s capsized. Stock prices climbed to unprecedented heights, as investors speculated in the stock market. The speculative binge, in which people bought and sold stocks for higher and higher prices, was fueled by easy credit, which allowed purchasers to buy stock "on margin." If the price of the stock increased, the purchaser made money; if the price fell, the purchaser had to find the money elsewhere to pay off the loan. More and more investors poured money into stocks. Unrestrained buying and selling fed an upward spiral that ended on October 24, 1929, when the stock market collapsed. The great crash shattered the economy. Fortunes vanished in days. Consumers stopped buying, businesses retrenched, banks cut off credit, and a downward spiral began. The Great Depression that began in 1929 would last through the 1930s.

Causes of the Depression
The stock market crash of 1929 did not cause the Great Depression, but rather signaled its onset. The crash and the depression sprang from the same cause: the weaknesses of the 1920s economy. An unequal distribution of income meant that working people and farmers lacked money to buy durable goods. Crisis prevailed in the agricultural sector, where farmers produced more than they could sell, and prices fell. Easy credit, meanwhile, left a debt burden that remained unpayable.

The crisis also crossed the Atlantic. The economies of European nations collapsed because they were weakened by war debts and by trade imbalances; most spent more on importing goods from the United States than they earned by exporting. European nations amassed debts to the United States that they were unable to repay. The prosperity of the 1920s rested on a weak foundation.

Effects of the Depression
After the crash, the economy raced downhill. Unemployment, which affected 3 percent of the labor force in 1929, reached 25 percent in 1933. With one out of four Americans out of work, people stopped spending money. Demand for durable goods—housing, cars, appliances—and luxuries declined, and production faltered. By 1932 the gross national product had been cut by almost one-third. By 1933 over 5,000 banks had failed, and more than 85,000 businesses had gone under.

The effects of the Great Depression were devastating. People with jobs had to accept pay cuts, and they were lucky to have work. In cities, the destitute slept in shanties that sprang up in parks or on the outskirts of town, wrapped up in "Hoover blankets" (newspapers) and displaying "Hoover flags" (empty pockets). On the Great Plains, exhausted land combined with drought to ravage farms, destroy crops, and turn agricultural families into migrant workers. An area encompassing parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado became known as the Dust Bowl. Family life changed drastically. Marriage and birth rates fell, and divorce rates rose. Unemployed breadwinners grew depressed; housewives struggled to make ends meet; young adults relinquished career plans and took whatever work they could get.

Relief Efforts
Modest local welfare resources and charities barely made a dent in the misery. In African American communities, unemployment was disproportionately severe. In Chicago in 1931, 43.5 percent of black men and 58.5 percent of black women were out of work, compared with 29.7 percent of white men and 19.14 percent of white women. As jobs vanished in the Southwest, the federal government urged Mexican Americans to return to Mexico; some 300,000 left or were deported.

On some occasions, the depression called up a spirit of unity and cooperation. Families shared their resources with relatives, and voluntary agencies offered what aid they could. Invariably, the experience of living through the depression changed attitudes for life. "There was one major goal in my life," one woman recalled, "and that was never to be poor again."

President Hoover, known as a progressive and humanitarian, responded to the calamity with modest remedies. At first, he proposed voluntary agreements by businesses to maintain production and employment; he also started small public works programs. Hoover feared that if the government handed out welfare to people in need, it would weaken the moral fiber of America.

Hoover finally sponsored a measure to help businesses in the hope that benefits would "trickle down" to others. With his support, Congress created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932 that gave generous loans to banks, insurance companies, and railroads. But the downward spiral of price decline and job loss continued. Hoover's measures were too few, too limited, and too late.

Hoover's reputation suffered further when war veterans marched on Washington to demand that Congress pay the bonuses it owed them (see Bonus March). When legislators refused, much of the Bonus Army dispersed, but a segment camped out near the Capitol and refused to leave. Hoover ordered the army under General Douglas MacArthur to evict the marchers and burn their settlement. This harsh response to veterans injured Hoover in the landmark election of 1932, where he faced Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt was New York's governor and a consummate politician. He defeated Hoover, winning 57 percent of the popular vote; the Democrats also took control of both houses of Congress. Voters gave Roosevelt a mandate for action.

The New Deal
Roosevelt was a progressive who had been a supporter of Woodrow Wilson. He believed in active government and experimentation. His approach to the Great Depression changed the role of the U.S. government by increasing its power in unprecedented ways.

Roosevelt gathered a "brain trust"—professors, lawyers, business leaders, and social welfare proponents—to advise him, especially on economic issues. He was also influenced by his cabinet, which included Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace, and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman cabinet member. A final influence on Roosevelt was his wife, Eleanor, whose activist philosophy had been shaped by the women's movement. With Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House, the disadvantaged gained an advocate. Federal officials sought her attention, pressure groups pursued her, journalists followed her, and constituents admired her.

The First New Deal
Unlike Hoover, Roosevelt took strong steps immediately to battle the depression and stimulate the U.S. economy. When he assumed office in 1933, a banking crisis was in progress. More than 5,000 banks had failed, and many governors had curtailed banking operations. Roosevelt closed the banks, and Congress passed an Emergency Banking Act, which saved banks in sounder financial shape. After the "bank holiday," people gradually regained confidence in banks. The United States also abandoned the gold standard and put more money into circulation.

Next, in what was known as the first Hundred Days, Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress enacted a slew of measures to combat the depression and prevent its recurrence. The measures of 1933 included: the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid farmers to curtail their production (later upset by the Supreme Court); the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which established codes of fair competition to regulate industry and guaranteed labor's right to collective bargaining (again, the law was overturned in 1935); and the Public Works Administration, which constructed roads, dams, and public buildings. Other acts of the first Hundred Days created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured deposits in banks in case banks failed, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which provided electric power to areas of the southeast. The government also set up work camps for the unemployed, refinanced mortgages, provided emergency relief, and regulated the stock market through the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The emergency measures raised employment, but the New Deal evoked angry criticism. On the right, conservative business leaders and politicians assailed New Deal programs. In popular radio sermons, Father Charles Coughlin, once a supporter of Roosevelt, denounced the administration’s policies and revealed nativist, anti-Semitic views. The Supreme Court, appointed mainly by Republicans, was another staunch foe; it struck down many pieces of New Deal legislation, such as the NIRA, farm mortgage relief, and the minimum wage.

On the left, critics believed that Roosevelt had not done enough and endorsed stronger measures. In California, senior citizens rallied behind the Townsend Plan, which urged that everyone over the age of 65 receive $200 a month from the government, provided that each recipient spend the entire amount to boost the economy. The plan's popularity mobilized support for old-age pensions. In Louisiana, Democratic Governor Huey Long campaigned for "soak the rich" tax schemes that would outlaw large incomes and inheritances, and for social programs that would "Share Our Wealth" among all people. The growing Communist Party, finally, urged people to repudiate capitalism and to allow the government to take over the means of production.

The Second New Deal
In 1935 the New Deal veered left with further efforts to promote social welfare and exert federal control over business enterprise. The Securities and Exchange Commission Act of 1934 enforced honesty in issuing corporate securities. The Wagner Act of 1935 recognized employees' bargaining rights and established a National Labor Relations Board to oversee relations between employers and employees. Finally, the Works Project Administration put unemployed people to work on short-term public projects.

New Dealers also enacted a series of measures to regulate utilities, to increase taxes on corporations and citizens with high incomes, and to empower the Federal Reserve Board to regulate the economy. Finally, the administration proposed the Social Security Act of 1935, which established a system of unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, and federal grants to the states to aid the aged, the handicapped, and families with dependent children. Largely an insurance program, Social Security was the keystone of welfare policy for decades to come.

In the election of 1936, Roosevelt defeated his Republican opponent, Alf Landon, in a landslide and carried every state but Maine and Vermont. The election confirmed that many Americans accepted and supported the New Deal. It also showed that the constituency of the Democratic Party had changed. The vast Democratic majority reflected an amalgam of groups called the New Deal coalition, which included organized labor, farmers, new immigrants, city dwellers, African Americans (who switched their allegiance from the party of Lincoln), and finally, white Southern Democrats.

At the start of Roosevelt’s second term in 1937, some progress had been made against the depression; the gross output of goods and services reached their 1929 level. But there were difficulties in store for the New Deal. Republicans resented the administration's efforts to control the economy. Unemployment was still high, and per capita income was less than in 1929. The economy plunged again in the so-called Roosevelt recession of 1937, caused by reduced government spending and the new social security taxes. To battle the recession and to stimulate the economy, Roosevelt initiated a spending program. In 1938 New Dealers passed a Second Agricultural Adjustment Act to replace the first one that the Supreme Court had overturned, and the Wagner Housing Act, which funded construction of low-cost housing.

Meanwhile, the president battled the Supreme Court, which had upset several New Deal measures and was ready to dismantle more. Roosevelt attacked indirectly; he asked Congress for power to appoint an additional justice for each sitting justice over the age of 70. The proposal threatened the Court's conservative majority. In a blow to Roosevelt, Congress rejected the so-called court-packing bill. But the Supreme Court changed its stance and began to approve some New Deal measures, such as the minimum wage in 1937.

During Roosevelt’s second term, the labor movement made gains. Industrial unionism (unions that welcomed all the workers in an industry) now challenged the older brand of craft unionism (skilled workers in a particular trade), represented by the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1936 John L. Lewis, head of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), left the AFL to organize a labor federation based on industrial unionism. He founded the Committee for Industrial Organizations, later known as the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Industrial unionism spurred a major sit-down strike in the auto industry in 1937. Next, violence erupted at a steelworkers' strike in Chicago, where police killed ten pickets. The auto and steel industries, however, agreed to bargain collectively with workers, and these labor victories led to a surge in union membership.

Finally, in 1938 Congress passed another landmark law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). It established federal standards for maximum hours and minimum wages for workers in industries involved in interstate commerce. At first the law affected only a minority of workers, but gradually Congress extended it so that by 1970 it covered most employees. In the 1930s, however, many New Deal measures, such as labor laws, had a limited impact. African Americans, for instance, failed to benefit from FLSA because they were engaged mainly in nonindustrial jobs, such as agricultural or domestic work, which were not covered by the law. New Deal relief programs also sometimes discriminated by race.

The New Deal never ended the Great Depression, which continued until United States entry into World War II, revived the economy. As late as 1940, 15 percent of the labor force was unemployed. Nor did the New Deal redistribute wealth or challenge capitalism. But in the short run, the New Deal averted disaster and alleviated misery, and its long-term effects were profound.

One long-term effect was an activist state that extended the powers of government in unprecedented ways, particularly in the economy. The state now moderated wild swings of the business cycle, stood between the citizen and sudden destitution, and recognized a level of subsistence beneath which citizens should not fall.

The New Deal also realigned political loyalties. A major legacy was the Democratic coalition, the diverse groups of voters including African Americans, union members, farmers, and immigrants who backed Roosevelt and continued to vote Democratic.

The New Deal's most important legacy was a new political philosophy, liberalism, to which many Americans remained attached for decades to come. By the end of the 1930s, World War II had broken out in Europe, and the country began to shift its focus from domestic reform to foreign policy and defense.

AMERICA AND WORLD WAR II
The roots of World War II can be found in the debris of World War I, which left legacies of anger and hardship. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles imposed large reparations on Germany. The reparations and wartime destruction caused severe economic problems in postwar Germany. Other European nations grappled with war debts, hunger, homelessness, and fear of economic collapse. Under these circumstances, totalitarianism spread.

From 1922 to 1953 dictator Joseph Stalin controlled the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which was formed after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The USSR became a police state that suppressed opponents and deprived citizens of rights. Elsewhere, militarism and expansionism gained ground. In the 1930s the Japanese military won influence, and Japan began to expand its territory. In 1931 Japan attacked the Chinese province of Manchuria. Condemned by the League of Nations for its attack, Japan quit the league. Italy turned to fascism, a strong centralized government headed by a powerful dictator and rooted in nationalism. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy in 1922.

In Germany, the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, came to power (see National Socialism). Hitler believed that Aryans were a master race destined for world rule. He sought to form a great German empire—one that gave the German people, in his words, "the land and the soil to which they are entitled on this earth." Global depression in the 1930s helped bring the Nazis to power. In 1932, with six million Germans out of work, the Nazis won more votes than any other party, and in 1933, just as Roosevelt took office, Hitler became the German prime minister. Like Japan, Germany quit the League of Nations.

Germany soon revealed its expansionist goals. In 1933 Hitler began to build up the German military, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1936 he sent troops into the Rhineland, a demilitarized region in western Germany. The same year, Hitler and Mussolini signed an alliance, the Rome-Berlin Axis Pact. In 1940 the alliance was extended to include Japan. The three nations—Germany, Italy, and Japan—became the Axis Powers. The start of World War II was near.

Isolationism vs. Internationalism
Most Americans of the 1930s recoiled from involvement in the European conflict; they favored U.S. isolationism, and many supported pacifism. Some believed that "merchants of death" (bankers and arms dealers) had lured the United States into World War I. The Roosevelt administration, too, tried to maintain friendly foreign relations. Roosevelt recognized the USSR in 1933 and set up a Good Neighbor Policy with Latin America. No state, the United States said, had the right to intervene in the affairs of another. Roosevelt also made progress toward lower tariffs and free trade. In 1935 and 1936, Congress passed a group of neutrality acts to keep the United States out of Europe's troubles. The first two acts banned arms sales or loans to nations at war. The third act, a response to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), extended the ban to nations split by civil war.

But as conflict spread abroad, Americans discarded their neutral stance. Many opposed fascist forces in the civil war in Spain. There, democratic armies fell to dictator Francisco Franco, who was supported by Hitler and Mussolini. Japan launched a new attack on China in July 1937 to obtain more Chinese territory. It quickly overran northern China. Hitler marched through Europe. Germany in 1938 annexed Austria and then seized Czechoslovakia without resistance. In August 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed a nonaggression pact. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, which led England and France to declare war on Germany. Americans increasingly doubted that the United States could avoid becoming involved.

In September 1939 Roosevelt called Congress into special session to revise the neutrality acts. The president offered a plan known as cash-and-carry, which permitted Americans to sell munitions to nations able to pay for them in cash and able to carry them away in their own ships. Isolationists objected, but Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939, which legitimized cash-and-carry and allowed Britain and France to buy American arms. The war in Europe, meanwhile, grew more dire for the Allies. In June 1940 Germany conquered France, and British troops that had been in France retreated across the English Channel. Then German bombers began to pound Britain.

In June 1940 the United States started supplying Britain with "all aid short of war" to help the British defend themselves against Germany. Roosevelt asked Congress for more funds for national defense. Congress complied and began the first American peacetime military draft, the Selective Training and Service Act, under which more than 16 million men were registered. After the 1940 election, Roosevelt urged that the United States become "the great arsenal of democracy." In 1941 he and British prime minister Winston Churchill announced the Atlantic Charter, which set forth Allied goals for World War II and the postwar period. The two nations pledged to respect "the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live" and promised a free world without war "after the final destruction of Nazi tyranny." Isolationists criticized each move towards war; however, the United States was still not actually at war.

In 1941 the conflict worsened. Despite the nonaggression pact, German armies moved through the Baltics and into Russia. Meanwhile, as Japan continued to invade areas in Asia, U.S. relations with Japan crumbled. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked a U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The next day it attacked the main American base in the Philippines. In response, the United States declared war on Japan, though not on Germany; Hitler acted first and declared war on the United States. The United States committed itself to fighting the Axis powers as an ally of Britain and France.

The Nation at War
Even before Pearl Harbor, the American government had begun to mobilize for war. After the attack, the United States focused its attention on the war effort. World War II greatly increased the power of the federal government, which mushroomed in size and power. The federal budget skyrocketed, and the number of federal civilian employees tripled. The war also made the United States a military and economic world power.

The armed forces expanded as volunteers and draftees enrolled, growing to almost 12 million men and 260,000 women by 1945. Roosevelt formed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a military advisory group, to manage the huge military effort. New federal agencies multiplied. The Office of Strategic Services gathered intelligence and conducted espionage, the War Production Board distributed manufacturing contracts and curtailed manufacture of civilian goods, and the War Manpower Commission supervised war industry, agriculture, and the military. Other wartime agencies resolved disputes between workers and management; battled inflation, set price controls, and imposed rations on scarce items; turned out propaganda; and oversaw broadcasting and publishing.

As the United States moved to a wartime economy, the depression ended, and the U.S. economy came to life. Industry swiftly shifted to war production, automakers began turning out tanks and planes, and the United States became the world's largest weapons manufacturer. New industries emerged, such as synthetic rubber, which compensated for the loss of rubber supplies when Japan seized the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. The war economy brought new opportunities. Americans experienced virtually full employment, longer work weeks, and (despite wage controls) higher earnings. Unions gained members and negotiated unprecedented benefits. Farmers prospered, too. Crop prices rose, production increased, and farm income tripled.

Labor scarcity drew women into the war economy. During the depression, the federal government had urged women to cede jobs to male breadwinners. However, when the war began, it sought women to work in war production. More than six million women entered the work force in wartime; women's share of the labor force leaped from 25 percent in 1940 to 35 percent in 1945. Three-quarters of the new women workers were married, a majority were over 35, and over a third had children under 14. Many women held untraditional jobs in the well-paid blue collar sector—in shipyards and in airplane plants, as welders and crane operators. Women found new options in civilian vocations and professions, too. Despite women’s gains in the workplace, many people retained traditional convictions that women should not work outside the home. Government propaganda promoted women's war work as only a temporary response to an emergency.

Members of minorities who had been out of jobs in the 1930s also found work in the war economy. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated from the South to Northern industrial cities to work in war industries. More than one million black people served in the armed forces in segregated units; the government ended its policy of excluding blacks from combat.

As Northern black urban populations grew, racial violence sometimes erupted, as in the Detroit race riots of June 1943. African Americans linked the battle against Nazis abroad with the fight for racial justice at home. Membership in the NAACP increased tenfold, and another civil rights organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), began in 1942. Early in 1941, labor leader A. Philip Randolph met with Roosevelt administration officials to demand equal employment for blacks in industries working under federal government defense contracts. Randolph threatened to lead 100,000 African Americans in a march on Washington, D.C., to protest job discrimination. In response, Roosevelt issued a directive banning racial discrimination in federal hiring practices and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission. Like African Americans, Mexican Americans and Native Americans had more job opportunities.

For all Americans, war changed the quality of life. World War II inspired hard work, cooperation, and patriotism. Citizens bought war bonds, saved scrap metal, and planted victory gardens. They coped with rationing and housing shortages. The war also caused population movement. Americans flocked to states with military bases and defense plants; six million migrants left for cities, many on the West Coast where the defense industry was concentrated. School enrollment sank as teenagers took jobs or joined the armed services. People became more concerned about family life, especially about working mothers, juvenile delinquency, and unruly teenagers.

The United States began to receive reports of the Holocaust—the Nazi effort to exterminate all of Europe’s Jews—in 1942, and the State Department recognized Hitler’s genocide by the end of that year. However, the U.S. government gave precedence to other war matters and did not found a War Refugee Board until 1944. The board aided in the rescue and relocation of surviving Nazi victims, but its effort was too weak and too late to help Europe's Jews; approximately two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe was murdered during the war.

In the United States, civil liberties were casualties of the war. In February 1942 the president authorized the evacuation of all Japanese from the West Coast. The U.S. government interned around 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them native-born U.S. citizens, in relocation centers run by the War Relocation Authority. The internment policy reflected anti-Japanese sentiment on the West Coast that was rooted in economic rivalry, racial prejudice, and fear of Japanese sabotage after Pearl Harbor. (The policy affected only the mainland United States, not Hawaii, where more than 150,000 residents of Japanese descent lived and where the United States imposed martial law for almost three years.) Forced to sell their land and homes, the West Coast internees ended up behind barbed wire in remote western areas. In 1944 the Supreme Court ruled that the evacuation and internment were constitutional in Korematsu v. United States. By then, however, the government had started to release the internees. In 1988 Congress apologized and voted to pay $20,000 compensation to each of 60,000 surviving internees.

Global War
Ever since 1941, when Roosevelt and Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter outlining war goals, the president had considered the war's conclusion. At wartime conferences, Allied leaders looked ahead to the war's end. In January 1943, for instance Britain and the United States met at Casablanca, Morocco, and agreed not to lay down arms until certain conditions were met: Germany, Italy, and Japan had to surrender unconditionally, give up all conquered territory, and renounce the ideologies that spurred aggression. At subsequent meetings, the Allied leaders reiterated this pledge and also considered postwar occupation plans and divisions of territory. However, the Western powers and the USSR did not trust one another and disagreed on the postwar future of nations on the Soviet border.

In 1944 the war in the European theater reached a climax. On the eastern front, Soviet armies had pushed Germany out of the USSR. A turning point had come in early 1943 at Stalingrad, where about 200,000 German troops surrendered to Soviet troops. The USSR then moved into Poland and the Balkans, and pushed the Allies to open a second front in Western Europe. The Allied armies, under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, prepared a huge invasion of western France. On June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, thousands of vessels and aircraft carrying British and American troops crossed the English Channel and landed on the Normandy coast of France.

Allied armies, led by General George S. Patton, smashed through German lines and started for Paris. Another Allied army invaded southern France and pressed northward. On August 25, 1944, the Allied forces liberated Paris after four years of Nazi rule. The Germans continued to fight in eastern France. Hitler launched a last, desperate offensive, the Battle of the Bulge, in December 1944. The offensive failed, and German armies were forced to retreat. Allied armies entered Germany in March 1945, while the Soviets moved toward Berlin from the east. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945. The war in Europe was over.

The treacherous Pacific war—a great land, air, and sea battle—continued. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan conquered the Philippines, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and Burma. Troops from the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand tried to stop the Japanese advance, which reached its peak in the spring of 1942. The turning point of the Pacific war came in June 1942, at the Battle of Midway. The American victory at Midway ended the Japanese navy's hope of controlling the Pacific. The United States then began a long counteroffensive and recaptured Pacific islands that the Japanese had occupied. In October 1944 the United States finally smashed the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.

But Japan refused to surrender. The United States wanted to end the war with unconditional surrender from Japan. It also wanted to avoid more battles like those in Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where U.S. casualties had been heavy. These factors spurred U.S. plans to use the atomic bomb.

The United States in late 1941 established a secret program, which came to be known as the Manhattan Project, to develop an atomic bomb, a powerful explosive nuclear weapon. The aim of the project, directed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was to build an atom bomb before Germany did. After Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, Harry S. Truman became president and inherited the bomb-development program. At this point, the new weapon had two purposes. First, it could be used to force Japan to surrender. Second, possession of the bomb would enable the United States, and not the USSR, to control postwar policy.

Should the United States use the bomb to finally end the war with Japan? What were American options in 1945? One option was to invade Japan, which Truman believed would cost half a million American lives. Some historians have since estimated the likely loss of life at 25,000 to 46,000, though these figures probably cover just the first stage of a projected November invasion. A second option was not to demand unconditional surrender but to negotiate with Japan. A third alternative was to let a Soviet invasion end the war against Japan, which would have diminished U.S. influence in postwar policy. Scientists who developed the bomb debated what to do with it. Some found it wrong to drop the bomb without warning and supported a demonstration explosion to convince Japan to surrender. In Oppenheimer's view, this course of action was too uncertain and risky; only the shock of using the bomb on a Japanese city would force Japan to surrender. President Truman agreed.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In minutes, half of the city vanished. According to U.S. estimates, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed or missing as a result of the bomb. Deadly radiation reached over 100,000. On August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan. On August 9, the United States dropped an even more powerful bomb on Nagasaki. According to U.S. estimates, 40,000 people were killed or never found as a result of the second bomb. On September 2, the Japanese government, which had seemed ready to fight to the death, surrendered unconditionally.

Should the United States have used the bomb? Critics of the decision decry the loss of life. They contend that any of the alternatives was preferable. Others assert that only the bomb, used in the way that it was, could have ended the war. Above all, they argue, it saved countless American lives. American GIs, who had been shipped halfway around the world to invade Japan after Germany surrendered, were elated. The bomb also precluded a Soviet invasion of Japan and gave the United States the upper hand in the postwar world. "Let there be no mistake about it," Truman later wrote. "I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used."

Effects of the War
After World War II ended, the use of the atomic bomb changed the world in many ways. Nuclear power led to a four-decades-long arms race between the United States and the USSR, and nuclear annihilation continues to threaten the world today. At the same time, nuclear power enabled scientists to develop new sources of energy.

During the war, other technological and medical advances were developed that saved lives and improved living standards in the decades ahead. Penicillin, a "miracle drug" first used to treat allied casualties, was used at home to defeat disease, reduce infant deaths, and extend life expectancy. DDT, a colorless chemical pesticide, destroyed harmful insects and prevented typhus and malaria. New fuel mixtures extended the range of warplanes and later of civilian planes; jet propulsion planes transformed transoceanic flights and were in commercial use by the late 1950s. Other facets of technology developed during World War II included radar, semiconductors, freeze-dried food, infrared technologies, and synthetic materials.

World War II ended Nazi barbarism and vanquished totalitarian power that threatened to conquer the globe. The cost of the war was immense. Allied military and civilian losses were 44 million; those of the Axis, 11 million. The United States lost almost 300,000 people in battle deaths, which was far less than the toll in Europe and Asia. At home, the war quenched isolationism, ended the depression, provided unprecedented social and economic mobility, fostered national unity, and vastly expanded the federal government. The U.S. government spent more than $300 billion on the war effort, which generated jobs and prosperity and renewed confidence. Finally, World War II made the United States the world's leading military and economic force. With the Axis threat obliterated, the United States and the USSR became rivals for global dominance.

The United States Of America, Part Six

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The United States Of America, Part Six

This is the story of how the American Republic developed from colonial beginnings in the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived, until modern times.

History of the United States: Continued

Progressivism in the Cities and States
As a political movement, progressivism arose at the local and state levels in the 1890s. Urban reformers attacked political machines run by corrupt bosses and monopolies in municipal services such as electricity or gas. To address these problems, they promoted professional city managers and advocated public ownership of utilities.

The social settlement movement, which originated in cities in the 1890s, also became a force for progressive reform at the local level. Settlement houses offered social services to the urban poor, especially immigrants. Pioneering settlement houses, such as Hull House, founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889, provided nurseries, adult education classes, and recreational opportunities for children and adults. Settlements spread rapidly. There were 100 settlement houses in 1900, 200 in 1905, and 400 in 1910. Settlement leaders joined the battle against political machines and endorsed many other progressive reforms.

At the state level, progressives campaigned for electoral reforms to allow the people to play a more direct role in the political process. Some Western states adopted practices that expanded voter rights, including the initiative, the referendum, and the recall. Under the initiative, citizens could sign petitions to force legislatures to vote on particular bills. With the referendum, a proposal could be placed on the ballot to be decided by a vote at election time. Using the recall, voters could petition to oust officials from their jobs. Progressives also supported the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, which provides for election of U.S. senators directly by vote of the people, rather than indirectly by state legislatures.

Progressive reformers used the states as laboratories of reform. For instance, Wisconsin governor Robert La Follette, who held office from 1901 to 1906, introduced progressive changes such as establishing a commission to supervise railroad practices and raising state taxes on corporations. Following Wisconsin’s example, one state after another passed laws to regulate railroads and businesses.

Progressives also focused on labor reform at the state level. They sought to eliminate (or at least regulate) child labor, to cut workers' hours, and to establish a minimum wage. By 1907 progressive efforts had led 30 states to abolish child labor. In Muller v. Oregon (1908), the Supreme Court upheld a state law that limited women factory workers to a ten-hour day, and many states began to regulate women's working hours. Progressives also endorsed workmen’s compensation (an insurance plan to aid workers injured on the job) and an end to homework (piecework done in tenements). In New York’s Triangle Fire of 1911, many women leapt to their deaths from a burning shirtwaist factory. The tragedy reminded people of the need for higher safety standards in factories and the need to protect workers from unscrupulous employers.

Some progressive reformers supported causes that had a coercive or repressive dimension, such as Prohibition, a movement to prevent the manufacture, sale, or use of alcohol. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded in 1874, had long campaigned against alcohol. In 1895 the Anti-Saloon League of America joined the crusade. Together they worked to gain support for the 18th Amendment, which provided for Prohibition. The amendment was ratified in 1919 and remained law until 1933, when the 21st Amendment repealed it. Progressive moral fervor also emerged in campaigns to combat prostitution and to censor films. Finally, some progressives endorsed other restrictive causes, now seen as ungenerous or inhumane, such as a campaign against immigration or support for eugenics, a movement to control reproduction in order to improve the human race.

Progressive causes won support from a broad section of the middle class—editors, teachers, professionals, and business leaders—who shared common values. Progressive supporters appreciated order, efficiency, and expertise; they championed investigation, experimentation, and cooperation. Many, including some progressive employers, sought regulations to make business practices more fair and break up monopolies. To regulate business, however, progressives had to wield influence on the national level.

Progressivism at the National Level
When progressives began to work for reform at the national level, their major goal was government regulation of business. Seeking antitrust laws to eliminate monopolies, they also supported lower tariffs, a graduated income tax, and a system to control currency. They found a spokesperson in President Theodore Roosevelt.

Regulation, Roosevelt believed, was the only way to solve the problems caused by big business. A leading publicist for progressive ideals, Roosevelt became known as a trustbuster. He revived the Sherman Antitrust Act, vigorously enforcing it to break up large trusts that reduced competition and controlled prices. He also pursued a railroad monopoly, took on the meatpacking trust, and attacked oil, tobacco, and other monopolies. In 1906 Roosevelt helped push through a meat inspection act, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the Hepburn Act. This law expanded the regulatory powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the agency that regulated commercial activity crossing state lines.

Roosevelt was also a leading nature conservationist who wanted to preserve the nation's natural resources. He withdrew thousands of acres of forests, mineral lands, and waterpower sites from the public domain to protect them from exploitation by private interests. Roosevelt doubled the number of national parks and established many national monuments and wildlife refuges. He also supported a 1902 law to provide irrigation and hydroelectric development by building dams on some of the nation’s rivers.

Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, was more conservative, and domestic reforms slowed during his administration. He reluctantly signed a bill in 1909 that slightly raised tariffs, but he aggressively pursued twice as many antitrust proceedings. Taft won major victories against Standard Oil Company and American Tobacco Company, which were ordered by the Supreme Court to break into smaller, competing firms. Taft also signed laws for progressive measures such as raising corporation taxes.

Taft lost support in 1912, however, when Roosevelt, who disagreed with him on tariff policy and railroad regulation, entered the presidential race as head of the new Progressive Party. Roosevelt’s program of New Nationalism sought state regulation of big business. New Jersey’s progressive governor, Democrat Woodrow Wilson, envisioned more limited federal power. Wilson supported an effort to destroy monopoly and aid small business through tariff reduction, banking reform, and tightening of antitrust laws. His program was known as the New Freedom.

Progressivism reached its peak during Wilson’s first term as president. In 1913 Wilson signed the Underwood Tariff, which reduced taxes on imported goods. The bill also included an income tax, permitted by the new 16th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Wilson supported the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which created a centralized banking system to act as a lender of last resort to forestall bank crises and to permit a more elastic currency, one that could be readily expanded or contracted to suit the national need.

To curb trusts, Wilson pushed through Congress the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (see Federal Trade Commission). The law established a commission with authority to prevent business practices that could lead to a monopoly. He also supported the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, a statute intended to bolster the poorly enforced Sherman Act. The new law banned interlocking directorates, in which a few people controlled an industry by serving simultaneously as directors of related corporations. It also exempted labor unions from the category of illegal combinations and gave workers the right to strike. Finally, Wilson appointed Louis Brandeis, a leading critic of big business, to the Supreme Court. Full of moral fervor, Wilson carried progressive goals into World War I, which the United States entered in 1917.

African Americans in the Progressive Era
Despite their zeal for reform, few progressives made race relations a priority, and in the South, leading progressives often endorsed racist policies. In l900 more than two-thirds of ten million African Americans lived in the South; most were sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Rural or urban, Southern blacks faced poverty, discrimination, and limited employment opportunities. At the end of the 19th century, Southern legislatures passed Jim Crow laws that separated blacks and whites in public places (see Segregation in the United States). Because blacks were deprived of the right to vote by the grandfather clause, poll taxes, or other means, their political participation was limited. Lynching increased, and a steady stream of black migrants moved north. From 1890 to 1910, some 200,000 African Americans left the South, and even more moved out during World War I. For more information, see United States (People): Major Migrations of the U.S. Population: Black Migration.

As African Americans tried to combat racism and avoid racial conflict, they clashed over strategies of accommodation and resistance. Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, urged blacks to be industrious and frugal, to learn manual skills, to become farmers and artisans, to work their way up economically, and to win the respect of whites. When blacks proved their economic value, Washington argued, racism would decline. An agile politician, with appeal to both whites and blacks, Washington urged African Americans to adjust to the status quo. In 1895, in a speech that critics labeled the Atlanta Compromise, Washington contended that blacks and whites could coexist in harmony with separate social lives but united in efforts toward economic progress.

Northern intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois challenged Washington's policy. In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), Du Bois deplored Washington's call for patience and for cultivation of manual skills. Instead he urged equal educational opportunities and the end of discrimination. In 1909 Du Bois joined a group of progressives, black and white, to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP strove to end the disfranchisement of black people, to abolish segregation, and to promote black civil and political rights.

The Women’s Movement
Middle-class women and progressive reformers shared common goals. In the progressive era, women made great advances in higher education, the professions, and women's organizations. By 1910, for instance, when about 5 percent of college-age Americans attended college, about 40 percent were women. Activist women joined organizations such as the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, a women's volunteer service organization founded in 1890. The National Consumers’ League (1899) and the Women’s Trade Union League (1903) spearheaded efforts to limit women’s work hours and to organize women in unions. College students read Women and Economics (1898) by feminist intellectual Charlotte Perkins Gilman; college graduates worked in settlement houses; and homemakers joined women's clubs to promote civic improvement. Reformer Florence Kelley led the charge for child labor laws and other measures to protect workers. On the left, anarchist Emma Goldman, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, and feminist Crystal Eastman promoted aspects of women’s rights.

Settlement leaders, women’s clubs, and temperance groups supported progressive measures. The woman suffrage movement, in turn, won progressive support. Women had been fighting for the right to vote since the passage of the 15th Amendment gave voting rights to black men. In 1869 two rival organizations formed to support voting rights for women on state and federal levels. In 1890 the competing suffrage groups united to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which pursued the battle in the states. As late as 1909, women could vote in only four states (Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado), but momentum picked up. Suffragists used more aggressive tactics, such as parades, rallies, and marches, and gained ground. They won a key victory by gaining the right to vote in New York State in 1917, which helped empower them for their final push during World War I.

Foreign Affairs
Progressive presidents sought to impose order on the world, and especially to find markets for American products. For example, Roosevelt believed that a world power such as the United States was obliged to maintain global peace. He brought Russia and Japan together to sign a treaty in 1905 that ended the Russo-Japanese War and gave Japan rights in Korea. Roosevelt also supported expansion of U.S. influence abroad.

Roosevelt intervened in Latin America to build a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; the canal would link U.S. East Coast ports with East Asia. The United States negotiated a treaty with Colombia for rights to build a canal in Panama, at that time controlled by Colombia. When the Colombian Congress rejected the treaty, Roosevelt encouraged Panamanian desire for independence from Colombia. This tactic succeeded, and a revolution occurred. The United States promptly recognized the new government of Panama and negotiated a treaty that enabled Americans to build the Panama Canal.

Latin Americans questioned Roosevelt’s high-handed maneuver. They also objected to the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine, announced in 1823, declared that the United States had the right to exclude foreign powers from expanding in the western hemisphere. It had protected weak 19th-century Latin American nations from powerful European nations. The Roosevelt Corollary, in contrast, stated that "chronic" wrongdoing on the part of Latin American nations entitled the United States to intervene in the affairs of those nations. Most Latin Americans saw Roosevelt’s policy as a form of imperialism.

Roosevelt applied his corollary first to the Dominican Republic, which had trouble paying its debts to other nations. Roosevelt feared that a European power might occupy the country to force repayment of debts. The United States therefore ran the Dominican Republic’s custom service for two years and used money collected there to pay the nation’s debts.

Relations with Japan also became an issue during Roosevelt’s administration. A conflict erupted in 1906 over Japanese immigration to the United States. Prejudice against Japanese immigrants caused a crisis when San Francisco forced Asian children into a separate school. The Japanese government protested. In a "gentlemen’s agreement" in 1907, both nations agreed to discourage immigration from Japan. In the Root-Takahira agreement of 1908, Japan and the United States agreed to respect the territorial integrity of China and the Open Door Policy.

Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, adopted a policy that critics called "dollar diplomacy"; he encouraged U.S. bankers and industrialists to invest abroad, especially in Latin America. He hoped they would replace European lenders and build American influence in the area. The policy, however, led the United States into unpopular military ventures. For instance, the nation became involved in a civil war in Nicaragua, where the United States in 1909 supported the overthrow of the country’s leader and sustained a reactionary regime.

Woodrow Wilson, an idealist and humanitarian, disliked imperialism and rejected dollar diplomacy. He hoped to establish benevolent relations with other nations and wanted the United States to serve as a force for good in the world. However, in 1913, the United States landed marines in Nicaragua to ensure that its choice for Nicaraguan president would remain in power. The Wilson administration then drew up a treaty with Nicaragua that reduced the country to virtual dependency. In addition, U.S. troops occupied Haiti in 1915 and the Dominican Republic in 1916. American business interests continued to prevail in Latin America.

Finally, Wilson came close to involving the United States in a war with Mexico. In 1913, two years after the Mexican Revolution, Mexico's new president was assassinated, and a reactionary general, Victoriano Huerta, took control. Wilson refused to recognize Huerta's unjust regime. Many Mexicans who disliked Huerta, however, also resented Wilson's intervention in Mexican affairs. Both sides were poised to fight in 1914, when a confrontation between American sailors and Huerta's forces broke out at Veracruz. Wilson accepted the mediation of Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, but then supported Francisco "Pancho" Villa, a bandit, until Villa crossed the border and massacred Americans. Wilson sent U.S. troops to pursue Villa in 1916. The United States withdrew in 1917, which ended American involvement but left a legacy of distrust in Mexico and Latin America.

Historians debate the impact of progressivism at home and abroad. Some criticize the progressives' desire for order and control, their reluctance to criticize capitalism, and progressivism's coercive or restrictive side. Big business, critics contend, eluded progressive regulations. Other historians applaud progressive initiatives and find in them precedents for New Deal measures of the 1930s. According to more favorable interpretations, progressivism expanded democracy, challenged the close alliance of government and business, considered the public interest, and protected some of the more vulnerable Americans.

Above all, progressivism changed American attitudes toward the power of government. In 1917 Americans turned their attention from domestic concerns to foreign affairs as the United States became involved in World War I.

AMERICA AND WORLD WAR I
World War I broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914. The war set Germany and Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers) against the United Kingdom, France, and Russia (the Allied Powers), and eventually involved many more nations. The United States declared itself a neutral nation, but neutrality proved elusive. For three years, as Europeans faced war on an unprecedented scale, the neutrality so popular in the United States gradually slipped away.

At the outset, Germany and Britain each sought to terminate U.S. trade with the other. Exploiting its naval advantage, Britain gained the upper hand and almost ended U.S. trade with Germany. Americans protested this interference, but when German submarines, known as U-boats, began to torpedo American merchant ships, American public opinion turned against Germany. Then on May 7, 1915, a German submarine attacked a British passenger liner, the Lusitania, killing more than a thousand people, including 128 Americans. Washington condemned the attacks, which led to a brief respite in German attacks, and in the presidential race of 1916, President Wilson won reelection on the campaign slogan, "He Kept Us Out of War."

In January 1917, however, Germany declared a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. Ending diplomatic ties with Germany, Wilson still tried to keep the United States out of the war. But Germany continued its attacks, and the United States found out about a secret message, the Zimmerman telegram, in which the German government proposed an alliance with Mexico and discussed the possibility of Mexico regaining territory lost to the United States. Resentful that Germany was sinking American ships and making overtures to Mexico, the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

The United States entered World War I with divided sentiments. Americans debated both whether to fight the war and which side to support. Since the outbreak of war in Europe, pacifists and reformers had deplored the drift toward conflict; financiers and industrialists, however, promoted patriotism, "preparedness," and arms buildup. Some Americans felt affinities for France and England, but millions of citizens were of German origin. To many Americans, finally, the war in Europe seemed a distant conflict that reflected tangled European rivalries, not U.S. concerns.

But German aggression steered public opinion from neutrality to engagement, and the United States prepared for combat. The Selective Service Act passed in May 1917 helped gradually increase the size of America's armed forces from 200,000 people to almost four million at the war's end.

Over There
By the spring of 1917, World War I had become a deadly war of attrition. Russia left the war that year, and after the Bolsheviks assumed power in the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russia signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in March 1918. Allied prospects looked grim. With Russia out of the picture, Germany shifted its troops to the western front, a north-south line across France, where a gruesome stalemate had developed. Dug into trenches and shelled by artillery, great armies bogged down in a form of siege warfare.

In June 1917 the American Expeditionary Force, led by General John J. Pershing, began to arrive in France. By March 1918, when Germany began a massive offensive, much of the American force was in place. Reluctantly, the United States allowed American troops to be integrated into Allied units under British and French commanders. These reinforcements bolstered a much-weakened defense, and the Allies stopped the German assault. In September 1918 American troops participated in a counteroffensive in the area around Verdun. The Saint-Mihiel campaign succeeded, as did the Allied Meuse Argonne offensive, where both the Allies and the Germans suffered heavy casualties. Facing what seemed to be a limitless influx of American troops, Germany was forced to consider ending the war. The Central Powers surrendered, signing an armistice on November 11, 1918. Only the challenge of a peace treaty remained.

American manpower tipped the scales in the Allies' favor. At war for only 19 months, the United States suffered relatively light casualties. The United States lost about 112,000 people, many to disease, including a treacherous influenza epidemic in 1918 that claimed 20 million lives worldwide. European losses were far higher. According to some estimates, World War I killed close to 10 million military personnel.

Over Here
World War I wrought significant changes on the American home front. First, the war created labor shortages. Thousands of African Americans left the South for jobs in Northern steel mills, munitions plants, and stockyards. The great migration of the World War I era established large black communities in Northern cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The influx, however, provoked racial tensions and race riots in some cities, including East Saint Louis, Illinois, in July 1917 and Chicago in July 1919.

Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became streetcar conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Women also volunteered for the war effort and sold war bonds. Women mustered support for woman suffrage, a cause that finally achieved its long-sought goal. The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, triumphed in Congress in 1919 and was ratified by the states in 1920.

The war greatly increased the responsibilities of the federal government. New government agencies relied mainly on persuasion and voluntary compliance. The War Industries Board urged manufacturers to use mass production techniques and increase efficiency. The Railroad Administration regulated rail traffic; the Fuel Administration monitored coal supplies and regulated gasoline. The National War Labor Board sought to resolve thousands of disputes between management and labor that resulted from stagnant wages coupled with inflation. The Food Administration urged families to observe "meatless Mondays," "wheatless Wednesdays," and other measures to help the war effort. The Committee on Public Information organized thousands of public speakers ("four-minute men") to deliver patriotic addresses; the organization also produced 75 million pamphlets promoting the war effort.

Finally, to finance the war, the United States developed new ways to generate revenue. The federal government increased income and excise taxes, instituted a war-profit tax, and sold war bonds.

War pressures evoked hostility and suspicion in the United States. Antagonism toward immigrants, especially those of German descent, grew. Schools stopped teaching German. Hamburgers and sauerkraut became "Salisbury steak" and "liberty cabbage." Fear of sabotage spurred Congress to pass the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. The laws imposed fines, jail sentences, or both for interfering with the draft, obstructing the sale of war bonds, or saying anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the government or the war effort. These repressive laws, upheld by the Supreme Court, resulted in 6,000 arrests and 1,500 convictions for antiwar activities. The laws targeted people on the left, such as Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, who was imprisoned, and Emma Goldman, who was jailed and deported. The arrests of 1917 reflected wartime concerns about dissent as well as hostility toward the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Treaty of Versailles
Even before the war ended, President Wilson offered a plan for world peace, the Fourteen Points. The plan, announced to Congress on January 8, 1918, would abolish secret diplomacy, guarantee freedom of the seas, remove international trade barriers wherever possible, reduce arms, and consider the interests of colonized peoples. Eight more points addressed changes to specific boundaries based on the principle of self-determination, or the right of nations to shape their own destinies. Finally, Wilson's points called for a League of Nations to arbitrate disputes between nations and usher in an epoch of peace. High hopes for the Fourteen Points prevailed at the time of the armistice but faded by June 1919, when emissaries of the Big Four (the United States, France, Britain, and Italy) gathered at Versailles to determine the conditions of peace.

At Versailles, the Allies ignored most of Wilson's goals. During postwar negotiations, including the Treaty of Versailles, they redrew the map of Europe and established nine new nations, including Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. Boundaries of other nations were shifted, and out of the Ottoman Empire, which fought on the side of the Central Powers during the war, four areas were carved: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. These areas were given to France and Britain as mandates, or temporary colonies. The Treaty of Versailles demilitarized Germany, which lost its air force and much of its army and navy. Germany also lost its colonies and had to return to France the Alsace-Lorraine area, which Germany had annexed in 1871. Finally, forced to admit blame for the war, Germany was burdened with high reparations for war damages.

A spirit of vindictiveness among the Allies invalidated Wilson's goals and led to a number of defects in the Treaty of Versailles. First, Germany’s humiliation led to resentment, which festered over the next decades. Second, the Big Four paid no attention to the interests of the new Bolshevik government in Russia, which the treaty antagonized. Third, in some instances, the treaty ignored the demands of colonized peoples to govern themselves.

The Treaty of Versailles did include a charter or covenant for the League of Nations, a point that embodied Woodrow Wilson's highest goal for world peace. However, the U.S. Senate rejected the League of Nations and the entire treaty. Republicans who favored isolation (the "irreconcilables") spurned the treaty. Conservative Republicans, led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, disliked the treaty's provisions for joint military actions against aggressors, even though such action was voluntary. They demanded modifications, but Wilson refused to compromise. Overestimating his prestige and refusing to consider Republican reservations, Wilson remained adamant. Uncompromising and exhausted, the president campaigned for the treaty until he collapsed with a stroke. The United States never joined the League of Nations, started in 1919, and signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in 1921.

Ironically, after leading America to victory in the war, President Wilson endured two significant disappointments. First he compromised at Versailles; for instance, he agreed to the Allied diplomats’ desire for high reparations against Germany. Second, Wilson refused to compromise with the Senate, and thus he was unable to accomplish his idealistic goals. His vision of spreading democracy around the world and of ensuring world peace became a casualty of the peace process.

World War I left many legacies. The American experience of the Great War, albeit brief and distant from the nation’s shores, showed the United States how effectively it could mobilize its industrial might and hold its own in world affairs. However, the war left Germany shackled by the armistice and angered by the peace treaty. Postwar Germany faced depression, unemployment, and desperate economic conditions, which gave rise to fascist leadership in the 1930s. In addition, each of the areas carved out by the Treaty of Versailles proved, in one way or another, to be trouble spots in the decades ahead. In the United States, fears of radicalism, horror at Soviet bolshevism, and the impact of wartime hysteria led to a second blast of attacks on radicals. In the Palmer Raids in January 1920, agents of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer arrested 4,000 people in 33 cities. The postwar "Red Scare" abated, but suspicion of foreigners, dissenters, and nonconformists continued in the 1920s.

AMERICA IN A NEW AGE
World War I made the United States a world power. While European nations tried to recover from the war, the United States had overseas territories, access to markets, and plentiful raw materials. Formerly in debt to European investors, the United States began to lend money abroad. At home, the economy expanded. Assembly-line production, mass consumption, easy credit, and advertising characterized the 1920s. As profits soared, American zeal for reform waned, and business and government resumed their long-term affinity. But not all Americans enjoyed the rewards of prosperity. A mix of economic change, political conservatism, and cultural conflict made the 1920s a decade of contradictions.

Productivity and Prosperity
As war production ended, the economy dipped, but only briefly; by 1922 the nation began a spectacular spurt of growth. Auto production symbolized the new potential of industry (see Automobile Industry). Annual car sales tripled from 1916 to 1929; 9 million motorized vehicles on the road became 27 million by the end of the 1920s. At his Michigan plant, Henry Ford oversaw the making of the popular black Model T. New modes of production changed car manufacture. A moving assembly line brought interchangeable parts to workers who performed specific tasks again and again. Assembly-line techniques cut production costs, which made cars less expensive and more available to average citizens.

The effect of auto production spread beyond car factories. Auto-building spurred industries that made steel, glass, rubber, and petroleum. Exploration for oil led to new corporations, such as Gulf Oil and Texaco. During the 1920s domestic oil production grew by 250 percent, and oil imports rose as well.

State-funded programs to build roads and highways changed the nation's landscape. Previously isolated rural areas filled with tourist cabins and gas stations. New suburbs with single-family homes on small plots of land arose at the outskirts of cities; the construction industry soared. For more information, see United States (Culture): Way of Life; Living Patterns.

Finally, the car industry pioneered new ways to distribute and sell products. Auto companies sold cars through networks of dealers to customers who often used a new type of credit, the installment plan. With this plan, the purchaser made an initial payment, or down payment, and then agreed to pay the balance of the purchase price in a series of payments.

Cars were just one growth sector of the 1920s. Energy use tripled, and electricity reached 60 percent of American homes. Industry produced new home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. As incomes rose, families spent larger portions of their incomes to buy these durable goods; items previously considered luxuries now became necessities. Chain stores, such as A&P, put local retailers out of business; canned goods and commercial breads replaced homemade products. The young advertising industry, which had appeared in the late 19th century, fed a desire for consumer goods. Extensive credit abetted this desire, known as consumerism.

During the decade, American corporations became larger. Some grew by securing markets abroad, as did the United Fruit Company in Latin America. Others grew through consolidation. Large companies came to dominate many industries. By the end of the 1920s, 100 corporations controlled nearly half the nation's business.

The vast growth of business in the 1920s transformed many areas of life, but failed to distribute benefits equally. Industrial workers did not reap the profit of increased productivity. Wages rose but not as fast as prices. Unions competed with company unions (employer-established organizations) and battled the National Association of Manufacturers, which sought to break union power. Union membership dropped from about 5 million in 1920 to 3.4 million in 1930.

Agriculture suffered as well. Markets for farm products declined after army purchases ended and European farming revived. Farmers produced more, and prices continued to fall. The annual income of farmers declined, and they fell further into debt. Like many other Americans, rural families became mired in a web of credit and consumption.

Mass Culture
Leisure industries, too, turned to mass production. Amusements of bygone days—amateur theatricals, sleigh rides—gave way to new industries in entertainment and culture. Rural or urban, Americans nationwide read mass-circulation magazines, full of advertising, such as The Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest, or The Ladies' Home Journal. They listened on the radio to the same popular music, comedy shows, and commercials, broadcast by new radio networks such as National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Motion pictures gained vast urban audiences, and in 1927, Al Jolson's film The Jazz Singer introduced sound to movie audiences. Fans followed the careers of movie stars in film magazines. The press also tracked other celebrities, such as Charles Lindbergh, who flew the first transatlantic flight in 1927, or novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, who epitomized an icon of the 1920s, the flapper.

Young and uninhibited, the flapper represented much of what typified the Jazz Age of the 1920s—youthful rebellion, female independence, exhibitionism, competitiveness, and consumerism. Although a symbol of liberation, the flapper was in fact the ultimate consumer, dependent on a variety of products. With her bobbed hairdos, short skirts, makeup, and cigarettes, she supported growth industries of the 1920s—the beauty parlor, the ready-made clothing industry, cosmetic manufacture, and tobacco production. Consumerism linked the carefree, adventurous mood of the Jazz Age with the dominance of large corporations and their conservative values.

Among African Americans, the great migration of Southern blacks to Northern jobs during the war created strong African American communities. During the 1920s these communities were home to cultural revivals, such as the Harlem Renaissance, where art, music, and literature flourished. The "New Negro," a term used by critic and historian Alain Locke, celebrated African American heritage and racial identity. As black creativity flourished, African Americans began to raise their voices for equality. Interest also arose in black nationalism. Some African Americans became followers of Jamaican black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who urged racial pride, formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and led a Back to Africa movement. At its height the UNIA claimed more than two million members. It declined after Garvey was convicted of fraud and deported to Jamaica in 1927.

Political Conservatism
Many Americans of the 1920s endorsed conservative values in politics and economics. Republican presidents stood for these values, or what President Warren G. Harding called "normalcy…a regular steady order of things." Under presidents Harding and Calvin Coolidge, tariffs reached new highs, income taxes fell for people who were most well off, and the Supreme Court upset progressive measures, such as the minimum wage and federal child labor laws. Both Harding and Coolidge tended to favor business. "The business of America is business," Coolidge declared. "This is a business country, and it wants a business government."

Republican presidents shared isolationist inclinations in foreign policy; the United States never joined the League of Nations. Harding and Coolidge also endorsed pacifist policies. In 1921 Harding organized the International Conference on Naval Limitation, known as the Washington Conference, a pioneering effort to reduce arms and avoid an expensive naval arms race. Attended by the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and other countries, the conference proposed destruction of ships and a moratorium on new construction. In 1928, under Coolidge, the United States and France cosponsored the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced aggression and called for the end of war. As a practical instrument for preventing war, the treaty was useless. However, it helped to establish the 20th-century concept of war as an outlaw act by an aggressor state on a victim state.

While remaining aloof from international concerns, the United States began to close its doors to immigrants. Antiforeign sentiment fueled demands for immigration limits. Protests against unrestricted immigration came from organized labor, which feared the loss of jobs to newcomers, and from patriotic organizations, which feared foreign radicalism.

Efforts to limit immigration led to the National Origins Act, passed by Congress in 1924. The law set an annual quota on immigration and limited the number of newcomers from each country to the proportion of people of that national origin in the 1890 population. (In 1929 the basis for the quotas was revised to the 1920 population.) The law discriminated against the most recent newcomers, southern and eastern Europeans, and excluded Asian immigrants almost entirely. Latin American immigration, however, was unlimited. Immigration from Mexico surged in the 1920s, abetted by the Mexican Revolution and by the need of southwestern businesses for agricultural labor. More than one million Mexicans (10 percent of the Mexican population) arrived in the United States from 1910 to 1930.

What happened to more critical voices in the conservative era? Radical political activism waned, dimmed by the Red Scare of 1919. Social criticism appeared in literary magazines such as The Masses; in newspapers such as the Baltimore Sun, where journalist H. L. Mencken published biting commentary; and in popular fiction such as Sinclair Lewis’s novel Babbitt (1922), an assault on provincial values. Some intellectuals fled the United States and settled in Paris. Progressivism faded. Its most enduring vestige, the post-suffrage women's movement, faced its own problems.

Enthused by winning the right to vote, women of the 1920s pursued political roles as voters, candidates, national committeewomen, and activists in voluntary groups. But the women’s movement still encountered obstacles. Women’s organizations did not agree on supporting the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), first proposed in 1923. The amendment would have made illegal all forms of discrimination based on sex. The National Woman's Party, led by Alice Paul, pressed for passage of the amendment, but most women's organizations, including the newly formed League of Women Voters, did not support it, and the ERA made no progress.

Women reformers also suffered setbacks in national politics. The Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921, a pioneering health care measure aimed at women voters, provided matching funds for prenatal and baby-care centers in rural areas, but Congress repealed the law in 1929. Other important goals of women reformers, such as a federal child labor law and the minimum wage, failed as well.

Political Conflicts
Political and cultural debates divided Americans of the 1920s. Major issues of the decade reflected a split between urban and rural, modern and traditional, radical and reactionary. Nativist, anti-radical sentiments emerged in a 1921 trial, the Sacco-Vanzetti Case. Two anarchists, Italian immigrants, were tried and convicted of murder. Many believed that the men’s immigrant origins and political beliefs played a part in their convictions. The case evoked protests from socialists, radicals, and prominent intellectuals, and remained a source of conflict for decades. Nativism also inspired the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. The new Klan targeted Catholics, Jews, and immigrants, as well as African Americans. It thrived in the Midwest and Far West, as well as in the South. With its women's auxiliary, the Women of the Klan, it raised millions of dollars and wielded political power in several states, including Oklahoma, Oregon, and Indiana.

Conflict also arose over religious fundamentalism. In 1925 John T. Scopes, a Tennessee schoolteacher, was tried for breaking a state law that prohibited the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools. This theory, its foes said, contradicted the account of creation in the Bible. Scopes and the American Civil Liberties Union believed that the law violated freedom of speech, an argument made by Scopes's lawyer, Clarence Darrow. Reporters converged on Dayton, Tennessee, to witness the courtroom battle between traditionalism and modernism. Scopes was convicted, though the verdict was later reversed on technical grounds (see Scopes Trial).

The battle over Prohibition, finally, symbolized the divisive spirit of the 1920s. "Drys" favored Prohibition and "wets" opposed it. The Volstead Act of 1919, which enforced the 18th Amendment, prohibited the manufacture, sale, or distribution of alcoholic beverages, but was riddled with loopholes. Organized crime entered the liquor business; rival gangs and networks of speakeasies induced a crime wave. By the end of the 1920s, Prohibition was discredited, and it was repealed in 1933.

Meanwhile, the conflict between "wets" and "drys" played a role in the presidential election of 1928. The Democratic candidate, Al Smith, governor of New York, was a machine politician and a "wet," who represented urban, immigrant constituencies. Republican Herbert Hoover, an engineer from Iowa, was a "dry" who represented rural, traditional constituencies. A foe of government intervention in the economy, Hoover envisioned a rational economic order in which corporate leaders acted for the public good. Promising voters "a chicken for every pot and a car in every garage," Hoover won a substantial majority of votes, except in the nation's largest cities. But he had the misfortune to assume office just before the nation encountered economic collapse.