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The Popularization of Science in Nineteenth-Century America

Kuritz, Hyman. "The Popularization of Science in Nineteenth-Century America."History of Education Quarterly. 21 (1981): 259-274.

Article discusses the rise of science and modern technology in the late nineteenth century in the US and how this effects the class system and the crafts of individual artisans. The rise of science was initially thought to help bridge the gap amongst the rich and poor. It was even thought to help with the path to individuality since there would be more room for opportunity. Seventeenth century beginnings of science knowledge and hope for the future was very different than how the knowledge of science and technology was given out to the public. Instead of bridging the gap, this modern science only furthered the knowledge gap and created a "new professional elite" (Hyman 267).

This is important to my thesis because it shows how industrialization and the rise in technology backfired and instead brought less knowledge to the majority of the people. The less knowledge they had about these machines, the more they were intimidated by and were willing to work in poor conditions as they nothing else. Chaplin created Modern Times to, through satire, show what was essentially wrong with this way of thinking and the consquences of it.

Disney version : the life, times, art, and commerce of Walt Disney / by Richard Schickel ; [with a new introduction by the author]. -Jared Newman 2011

This book analyzes Walt Disney’s character and gives a long and detailed history of the Disney Company. It investigates the birth of Mickey Mouse and the majority of Disney’s films. There is a section dedicated to discussing Disney’s influence during the Second World War. It starts saying that “Disney received a call from the Navy, offering him a contract to produced a series of films,” and goes on to talk about several of Disney’s war films like Der Fuhrer’s Face.
Schickel’s book gives a detailed account of the Disney Company. Looking at the way Walt Disney’s Company functioned is essential because it allows one to see how and why Disney cartoons were created. Though Richard Shale, the author of another source in this bibliography, provides analysis of Disney’s cartoons in his book, this source also examines some of Disney’s films. This is important because it is necessary to gain multiple viewpoints on each aspect of my thesis.

Donald Duck joins up : the Walt Disney Studio during World War II / by Richard Shale.-Jared Newman 2011

The author says that his book is “a more detailed look at a special time of crisis for both the studio and America. This study, then, is a record of the Disney Studio during World War II, an attempt to explain why and how the films of this period were made.” Shale discusses the “process of animation, the historical development of the animated film, and the major contributions and achievements of the Disney studio in this field.” He also talks about government films and “how Disney acquired his first military contracts and how the studio departments adjusted to the shift from entertainment values to teaching values.” The author also focuses on a few films made by Disney including Victory Through Air Power, The Gremlins, and The Three Caballeros. In the end, he investigates the character of Donald Duck who he claims “was known worldwide, and his fighting spirit made him more than appropriate as a symbol of America’s role in global affairs.”
This source provides a significant amount of information regarding the history of how the Disney Company became involved with World War II propaganda films. It is essential to look at these facts carefully to provide a context for my thesis. Also, this book is important because it provides specific examples of propaganda cartoons made by the Disney Company. By examining these films closely, one can see how audiences may have been affected.

Mercosur: Between Integration and Democracy

Francisco Dominguez & Marcos Guedes de Oliveira eds. Mercosur: Between Integration and Democracy Peter Lang, Oxford, 2004, 220 pp. ISBN 3-906769-83-6 (pbk)

Hollywood genres and postwar America : masculinity, family and nation in popular movies and film noir / Mike Chopra-Gant.

[Chopra-Gant, Mike. . Hollywood genres and postwar America : masculinity, family and nation in popular movies and film noir / Mike Chopra-Gant. 1850438153 (hbk.) series London ; New York : I.B. Tauris ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. by Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.U65 C495 2006]

Gant, Mike Chopra. Hollywood Genres and Postwar America: Masculinity, Family, and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2006.

Focus is mainly on which films were popular from 1945-1949 and analyzes the themes expressed
within these movies. However, undercurrents of many of the themes in "The Philadelphia Story"
are covered within Gant's chapters:
    Ch. Two: Re-invigorating the nation: popular films and American national identity
        "The myth of classlessness"-- gives many examples from "The Best Years of
        our Lives" that veterans who came home received issues of class to be resolved
        which they quickly discovered were not; America was still perceived to be quite classist
        "Modernizing the American hero"
        "The Absent Father"
        "Stars and Performance"

Depression America and its movies.

[Bergman, Andrew. .eries [Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms, 1971].

Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.U6 B4]

Bergman, Andrew Laurence. Depression America and Its Movies. University of Wisconsin: University of
Michigan Microfilms Inc, 1970.

Bergman offers a survey of how the film industry was affected by the Great Depression in
American history. He describes the changes that Hollywood underwent as a result of economic
crisis following the stock market crash in 1929. In addition to details of how general film-
making and production had to adjust to harder times during the Great Depression, Bergman
also notes the impact that the Great Depression had on the American public. For example,
the author explains how despite having less income to spend on leisurely pursuits, many
Americans started attending films in greater numbers during the Great Depression. This was in
no small part to the shifting cultural sentiments and attitudes of the time. Economic
hardship had a tremendous effect on how films were made and on who came to theaters to see
these movies.

Bergman's description of the movies produced during the years of the Great Depression
help to understand the immediate historical context that "The Philadelphia Story" was born
of. This perspective can be applied to how the film was influences by changes in the industry
as well as what was then popular with American audiences. In 1940 the United States was still
feeling the residual effects of the Great Depression and the movie industry could still
remember the harder times it had come across only a few years previous. Bergman explains that
1932 may have been the lowest point in Hollywood during the entire Great Depression; studios,
such as MGM were keenly aware of the financial risk that was taken with the production of
each film. This is an anxiety that should be kept in mind as an undercurrent that most likely
would have permeated behind the scenes in shooting "The Philadelphia Story". More importantly
perhaps is the statement that Americans wanted to see escapist films during this era. The
deprived public relished having a glimpse into the lives of the American over-privileged during
the Great Depression; the allure of the clothing, manner of speech, and general opulence of
the lives portrayed on-screen offered a temporary vacation from the dreary reality of the
unemployment lines. A chapter of Bergman's volume is titled "Federal Benevolence,
the Search for Authority, The Return of the Law, and Social Realism"; it reaffirms that
Americans were looking to have their values restored and moral codes re-validated during
this period. Watching members of the glamorous Philadelphia gentry celebrate a happy occasion
like a wedding would have offered an hour-and-a-half of escape from everyday life and a confirmation
that Americans were living a sound life.

Lawrence of Arabia and American Culture: The Making of a Transatlantic Legend

Hodson, Joel C. "Chapter 1: Lowell Thomas and the Origins of the Popular Legend of Lawrence of Arabia." Lawrence of Arabia and American Culture: The Making of a Transatlantic Legend. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995.

This article relates the crucial role Lowell Thomas had in perpetuating the legend of T. E. Lawrence and his exploits in Arabia. Although the author, Joel C. Hodson, acknowledges that even without the American reporter’s aid Lawrence would have garnered a reputation as a war hero, nevertheless it was Thomas who breathed the fire of legend into the Englishman. After spending July 1917 to March 1919 in Europe and Arabia, as a war correspondent to several American newspapers, although in name only, Thomas returned to America. Through a series of lectures and slide shows, and the publication of several biographies, Thomas exaggerated the adventures of Lawrence in the Arabian front, painting him as a figure more of legend than of history. Nonetheless, Hodson remains critical of some of the conniving reporter’s actions. It is clear that Thomas’s government-sanctioned mission of war propaganda was quickly forgotten in his personal desires for commercial success and lasting fame. As a result of these more selfish motivations, Thomas fabricated many stories of Lawrence’s campaign, and even claimed involvement in several battles of the Arab Revolt and a train demolition led by Lawrence’s Bedouin.

Joel Hodson’s article serves as an interesting piece of commentary on the effect that fabrication can have on the formulation of great public figures. It works as an interesting point of comparison between the methods that figures like the reporter, Thomas, and later the director of Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean, must utilize in order to dramatize history’s heroes. It seems that without the involvement of persons like Thomas, Lawrence's legend would not persist with the strength it has today. Perhaps this is why Robert Bolt, the writer of the screenplay for Lawrence of Arabia, chose to include the figure of the reporter within his film. It seems that life, just like film, needs its writers in order to create myths out of men.

Godfather and American culture : how the Corleones became

In this novel, author Christian Messenger analyzes the numerous factors that account for America’s love of The Godfather saga. By both objectively assessing the text of Puzo’s novel, and allowing himself to emotionally dive into it, Messenger offers a unique outlook on the effect of this work on American culture.

By looking at the time with which The Godfather was created, it is easy to see why it became such a phenomenal success. America was in a time of change. It had just gotten over the age of the Vietnam War and its many sociological consequences, just as the very power structure of the family and the country seemed to be changing everyday. Unsurprisingly, the release of the novel and shortly after, the film drew in massive numbers of fans who were ready and willing to believe in this sort of old-world philosophy of morals and business.

Once again, the idea of family is brought into sight. This would be the core of the story that would bring so many admirers back time and time again. The fact that audiences today still find an emotional connection to the film, as Messenger states, demonstrates that The Godfather holds a definitive plot in the recent history of American culture. Modern viewers are touched by the significance of family values in all that drives us. Messenger remarks that at points in the story, one is tempted to actually cheer for the cold-blooded murder of the enemies. The image of the family is so deeply rooted, that audiences take sides with the Corleone’s in their struggle for power.

Boom and bust : the American cinema in the 1940s / Thomas Schatz.

Schatz, Thomas, 1948- . Boom and bust : the American cinema in the 1940s / Thomas Schatz. 0684191512 (alk. paper) series New York : Charles Scribner's Sons ; London : Simon & Schuster and Prentice Hall International, 1997.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6
Call#: Annenberg Library Reference Ann Ref PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6
Call#: Annenberg Library Reference Ann Ref PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6

Electrifying America [electronic resource] : social meanings of a new technology, 1880-1940 / David E. Nye.

Nye, David E., 1946- . Electrifying America [electronic resource] : social meanings of a new technology, 1880-1940 / David E. Nye. [0262140489 ] Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1990.
Call#: -

American technological sublime / David E. Nye.

Nye, David E., 1946- . American technological sublime / David E. Nye. [026214056X : ] Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1994.
Call#: Van Pelt Library T14.5 .N93 1994

Latin American History

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War

Godfather and American culture : how the Corleones became

Good War's greatest hits : World War II and American remembering / by Philip D. Beidler.

Beidler, Philip D.. Good War's greatest hits : World War II and American remembering / by Philip D. Beidler. [0820320013 (alk. paper)] Athens : University of Georgia, c1998.

Call#: Van Pelt Library D744.55 .B45 1998

In this book, Beidler examines The Best Years of Our Lives as a film in the postwar genre he names “remembering in wartime,” a style which involves the “commondification of the American role in World War II as at once felt as experience and collective myth.” He credits these films, especially when produced as well as The Best Years of Our Lives was, as playing an integral role in shaping popular attitudes and understand of the war for posterity. Focusing specifically on this film, he credits it with being so successful at this because of its success in being executed the way its creator, Samuel Goldwyn, envisioned: as the “people’s film.” Every detail of the film was carefully examined so as to ensure the film would be as believable as possible. For example, the omission of a veterans’ housing riot scene, the “close-to-home domestic seriousness of the film’s psychological concerns” lent to it by filming in black and white, and the requirement that all actors wear ready-made clothing, and that they wear it even prior to filming so as to break the clothes in and give them a more authentic feel. In addition, the title of the film was decided by popular vote, selected by testing audiences.

Beidler also examines how the use of cinematography serves make The Best Years of Our Lives as true to life as possible. Most notabely, he delineates the production of “democratic shots,” in which innovative camera techniques allow for the focusing on all subjects and actions taking place in a given scene, allowing the audience to decide what to focus on. These “democratic shots” that encompass all action taking place within a given scene also lend the film the feeling of a home video. This point in particular is emphasized in the wedding scene at the end, where the guests’ mingling beforehand, the feeling of close quarters and sense of intimacy in Homer’s family’s small living room and anticipation of the bride are all conveyed through the filming. These insights into efforts to humanize the film and make it as accessible to audiences as possible plays a large role in understanding how the film was able to suceed in allowing people to relate to it, from plot to prop to filming. These less obvious qualities of the film, though small, contribute to audience’s ability to connect with it and its message, rendering it an effective tool in remembering of Word War II, specifically the profound way it changed everything.

Famous Firsts by American Women

"Timeline of major milestones achieved by women throughout American history, such as Elizabeth Blackwell (1849), the first woman in the U.S. with a medical degree; Belva Ann Lockwood (1879), the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; and Effa Manley (2006), the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Includes links to additional information for selected women. From Information Please." (via LII)

Picture This: Family Photographs of Everyday San Francisco - SFPL.org

"Companion to an exhibit created from "photographs shared with the San Francisco Public Library by community members from the Western Addition, Ocean View/Merced/Ingleside (OMI), Mission and Sunset neighborhoods." The online photo gallery features dozens of photos of street scenes, celebrations, weddings, friends, people and their cars, people working, and more. From the San Francisco Public Library." (via LII)

The First Measured Century: Interviews: Segment 11 - The Feminine Mystique

"Interviews with and about Betty Friedan, "the Founder of the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Caucus, and the National Abortion Rights Action League" and author of books such as "The Feminine Mystique." From the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) program, "The First Measured Century."" (via LII)

Lancaster County Historical Society | Love Letters

"This online exhibit "enables us to explore the ups and downs of romantic love from the 18th century to the present." Includes poetry, selections from autograph albums ("My love for you will never fail. As long as fido has a tail."), and a sampling of love letters. From the Lancaster County Historical Society, Pennsylvania." (via LII)

Civil War Love Letters

"These love letters from Civil War soldiers "show their sorrows of being apart, fears that the soldier would not return home, and hopes for the future after the war's end." In addition, "some of the letters are comical, as is the letter from an unknown soldier to a woman who evidently answered his 'lonely-hearts' advertisement." Includes images and transcriptions of this small collection of letters. From the University Libraries of Virginia Tech." (via LII)

Columbia documentary history of American women since 1941 / edited by Harriet Sigerman.

Call#: Van Pelt Library HQ1420 .C65 2003

Letters to Ms., 1972-1987 / edited by Mary Thom ; introduction by Gloria Steinem ; afterword by Eva Moseley.

Call#: Van Pelt Library HQ1426 .L475 1987

Agents of Social Change: New Resources on 20th Century Women's Activism (Sophia Smith Collection--Lesson Plans and Primary Sources)

"In 1997 the Sophia Smith Collection (SSC) at Smith College received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to process eight collections: the papers of Constance Baker Motley, Dorothy Kenyon, Mary Kaufman, Frances Fox Piven, Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, and Gloria Steinem and the records of the Women's Action Alliance and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women. These six individuals and two organizations were chosen in large part because of their impressive achievements, as 'Agents of Social Change,' the name by which the project became known."

American Women Through Time

"This site offers two approaches for the study of specific time periods in American women's history. Each section includes a timeline that links specific events with highly relevant online sources, followed by a guide to research sources (e.g., census, newspapers, secondary sources) that are appropriate for the specified time period."

Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution (Jewish Women's Archive)

An online exhibit from the Jewish Women's Archive, "explor[ing] Jewish women's impact on feminism and on the American Jewish community."

Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement - Duke Special Collections

"The materials in this on-line archival collection document various aspects of the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States, and focus specifically on the radical origins of this movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Items range from radical theoretical writings to humourous plays to the minutes of an actual grassroots group."

The Whole World Was Watching

"The resource contains transcripts, audio recordings, and edited stories of a series of interviews conducted in the spring of 1998. Members of the Sophomore Class at South Kingstown High School interviewed Rhode Islanders about their recollections of the year 1968. Their stories, which include references to the Vietnam War, the struggle for Civil Rights, the Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy as well as many more personal memories are a living history of one of the most tumultuous years in United States history."

The Ten O'Clock News

The WGBH Media Archives and Preservation Center has preserved and described 523 tapes from The Ten O'Clock News, WGBH's in-depth nightly news program. Dating from 1974 to 1991, this collection focuses on news stories relating to Boston's African American community