THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

- MODULE 1. The beginning of the 20 th century Queen Victoria’s deathBelle EpoqueWorld War IConsequences of the warAmerica’s “Roaring Twenties”The Great DepressionThe Great Gatsby

- MODULE 2. From World War II to the Cold Era World War IIFocus on.. American idol John Wayne and WWIIThe decades after the warFocus on.. Martin Luther King

Newspapers of the time reporting Victoria’s death

Peugeot Type 3 built in France in 1891

MODULE 1. THE FIRST YEARS OF THE 20 TH CENTURY

QUEEN VICTORIA’S DEATH

Victoria ascended to the British throne in 1837 and she was only a teenager of eighteen at that time. Her dedication to her role as Queen soon won the respect of her subjects. She reigned for the next sixty-three years, the longest royal reign in British history. During this time she and her subjects witnessed the global expansion of her empire and the elevation of Britain to super-power status among the nations of the world. She gave her name to an era and became the symbolic representation of the prestige and power of her kingdom.

Her death, occurred on 22nd January 1901, shocked the entire world. Her 440 million subjects felt safe while Victoria was on the throne; but with her passing, the empire settled uneasily after the official and popular mourning.

On the one hand Victoria's death created a feeling of insecurity and uncertainty of what would result. On the other, it also created the feeling of opportunity and a new beginning. That’s what Edward VII tried to do when on the throne after his mother’s funeral.

As king, Edward played a role in the modernization of the British Fleet and the reorganization of the British Army. He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker". The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign, coincided with the start of a new century characterized by significant changes in technology and society.

BELLE ÉPOQUE

The reign of Edward VII covered a couple of decades known as Belle Époque, the French name which stands for Beautiful Era. It was a period in the European history that is conventionally dated as starting in 1871 and ending when World War I broke out in 1914. It was characterized by optimism, peace at home and in Europe, new technology and scientific discoveries. The peace and prosperity in Europe allowed the arts to

flourish, and many masterpieces of literature, music, theater, and visual art gained recognition. Inventions of the Second Industrial Revolution were refined and new ones were achieved. In the field of progress French had a leading role. Automobile manufacturers such as Peugeot were already pioneers in automobile manufacturing. Edouard Michelin invented removable pneumatic tires for bicycles and automobiles in the 1890s. The scooter and moped are also Belle Époque inventions.

Queen Victoria at the time of herdiamond jubilee celebrating thesixtieth year of her reign, 1897

Titanic

France was even a leader of early cinema technology. The cinématographe was invented in France by Léon Bouly and put to use by Auguste and Louis Lumière, brothers who held the first film screenings in the world.

Britain strongly wanted to contribute to this era by realizing new technological machines. One of the most significant “constructions” ever realized before was the transatlantic Titanic by the British company White Star Line. In a period dominated by progress, faith in science and technology, all the countries were in

a sort of competition: who was the best one? The idea was that a nation was dominant if it was able to produce something extraordinarily huge, that is, the bigger in size the better. In this way a nation and its inhabitants were measured only with a single value: greatness. The opportunity for Britain to measure once more its power in the world

was given by the company White Star Line, located in Belfast.

The builders and owners of Titanic claimed it was 'unsinkable', without defects. Titanic, the largest vessel in the world when it entered service in 1912, was neither the finest nor the most technically advanced of its day. Size, seldom an indication that something is better, was the only record it held. Its name also is a celebration of its majesty (Titan=mythological giant). The blind trust in this machine is in tune with the values of the time, which gave to it supernatural gifts. The machine, the engine, were the new, the best, and, as a consequence, foolproof. Moreover, it’s worth highlighting that the Belle Epoque was the epoch of tourism, of internationalism, of the “travel” seen as a formative and romantic experience. Who or what could embody this spirit better than a transatlantic?

The voyage-to-be of Titanic was on the mouth of everyone at that time, it was on the local and international newspapers. The cost of a ticket in first and second class (those who were travelling for pleasure or for business) was extremely expensive, because Titanic was a luxury floating hotel, with an interior design which reflected the taste of the time (Liberty), with restaurants, bars, gyms and swimming-pools. Amongst the passengers there were also people belonging to the poor ranks of society, who were not allowed to privileges and facilities. Most of them were migrants directed to the Us. Therefore Titanic offers to us the cross section of the society, including the issue of migration, connected to the necessity of looking for fortune in America, which was emerging as a powerful nation.

The voyage of Titanic was not lucky because on 12th April 1912 it crashed against an iceberg and sank: it brought about the death of 1500 people. The remainings of the big ship still lie in the depths of the Arctic Sea, as a proof of that terrible tragedy: the proof that there’s nothing unsinkable, supernatural in this world.

The shipwreck of Titanic marked the end of an epoch dominated by technological development, faith in progress, wealth due to the territorial expansion and carefree. The historical period was too propitious to think about the emerging international

Catalogue of fashion of Belle Epoque

The world's first movie poster, for comedy L'Arroseur Arrosé, 1895.

She is unsinkable

… Curiosity: the novel-prophecy. In 1898, fourteen years before the disaster, the novel “Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan” was published. The author Morgan Robertson wrote about the story of a transatlantic, named Titan, considered as unsinkable, which collides with an iceberg in North Atlantic and sinks after few hours in the month of April.

conflicts which became concrete with the outbreak of the World War. The ship sinks, and dreams and hopes of an entire century sink too. The shock was immense: progress was no longer propitious to man, but it turned into a tool of mass destruction.

WORLD WAR I

World War I is also known as “The Great War” because of the huge number of victims provoked, both soldiers and civilians. It was centred in Europe and began in April 1914 and lasted until November 1918. The trigger for war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary by a Yugoslav nationalist. Within weeks, the major powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. The great powers were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (UK, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). Alliances which were expanded as more nations entered the war: Italy, Japan, Usa, for example, joined the Allies. It was a war in which, for the first time, more sophisticated weapons were introduced, such as machine-guns, tanks, and later planes.

One of the symbols of the Great War was the trench. When the European governments decided to enter the war, they were all convinced that it would be a Blietzkrieg (lightning war). But, few weeks later, battlefronts stabilized and hundred kilometers of trenches were excavated. Life in a trench was extremely difficult, there were problems of sanitation, illnesses and soldiers were in constant terror of being shot or receiving the order of attack. This experience marked the entire life of many soldiers, as mental illnesses developed during war or once at home confirmed.

It’s worth highlighting the role of British propaganda in World War I. British propaganda took various forms and used pictures, symbols, slogans, aimed at mobilizing public opinion against Germany. Various organizations were established during the war, but in 1918 all the powers were concentrated on the Ministry of Information. This ministry took over control of all propaganda activities, which were divided into three departments: domestic, military and foreign propaganda.

Recruitment was a central theme of domestic propaganda. Patriotism was a value which the British Army played with. In most posters it’s easy to focus on certain words such as “wants you” or “join”, which were extremely strong and convincing. This need for convincing people that war was necessary took the form, on the other side, of making a sense guilt on all those people who didn’t join.

… Curiosity: shell shock. It was a term coined to describe the reaction of some soldiers in World War I to the trauma of battle. It was a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced a helplessness appearing variously as panic and being scared, or flight, an inability to reason, sleep, walk or talk.

A trench

Soldiers and animals wearing masks

Little Willie

Among the kinds of propaganda proposed by Britain there was also “atrocity propaganda”, which consisted on revealing to people the atrocities, real or unreal, committed by the enemy. As a consequence, this form of propaganda heated up passions and hatred and pushed to commit even more brutal actions.

Considering the weapons and tactics used during the First World War, the mustard gas was one of these. The first time that the mustard gas was used in a war was by the Germans against the British soldiers in 1917. It was not the first gas used in a war, but probably it was the most effective. The mustard gas, in fact, was a liquid, and it was no pretended to kill; its principal use was to incapacitate the enemy, causing nonlethal damage. It was shot with heavy artillery to the ground, and later it slowly vaporized damaging a lot of enemies and collapsing the medical services. When the chemical war began, British and American quickly produced thousands of gas masks to protect their armies. The gas masks were already invented, but they improved their mass production. Even dogs and horses wore gas masks.

Tanks were initially called “landships.” However, in an attempt to disguise them as water storage tanks rather than as weapons, the British decided to name them “tanks”. During WWI, British tanks were initially categorized into “males” and “females.” Male tanks had cannons, while females had heavy machine guns. “Little Willie” was the first prototype tank. It is the oldest surviving individual tank, preserved as one of the most famous pieces in the collection of The Tank Museum, Bovington, England.

Among the weapons used by the German troops in WWI, there was “Big Bertha”, a 48-ton howitzer which took the name from the wife of its designer Gustav Krupp. It could fire a 2,050-lb (930-kg) shell a distance of 9.3 miles (15 km). However, it took a crew of 200 men six hours or more to assemble. Germany had 13 of these huge guns or “wonder weapons”.

When the war began, the US did not enter the war at first. Despite this refusal, a large number of Americans were disappointed. That’s why some men decided to join the French Foreign Legion or the British or Canadian army. A group of U.S. pilots formed the Lafayette Escadrille, which was part of the French air force and became one of the top fighting units on the Western Front. It was named in honor of the Marquis de

Lafayette, hero of the American and French revolutions. Other American pilots fought for France as part of the Lafayette Flying Corps. The first major action seen by the squadron was at the Battle of Verdun but it suffered its first fatality when Victor Chapman was shot down by the German airplanes.

In 1916 the US was involved in the election of the new president. Woodrow Wilson was running for his second term with the slogan “He kept us out of war”. At the outbreak of WWI Wilson had promoted a policy of neutrality, but one month after his second election he led America into war in order to "make the world safe for democracy."

Escadrille Lafayette banner

Big Bertha

Women workers with shells in Chilwell

During WWI over 6 million men enlisted to go and fight overseas. When they left, their jobs had to be filled, so women had to take over these jobs, women had many well-known roles such as nurses, factory workers, sewing bandages, and selling war bonds, shipyards and spies. By 1917 68% of women had changed jobs

since the war began, 16% had moved out of domestic service, 22% that were unemployed in 1914 now had work, and 23% had changed to different factories. During the war, many women went to work in factories, including tailoring, metal, food, chemical, and munitions factories. They worked 10-

12 hours a day, six or seven days a week in hazardous conditions, handling explosives and dangerous chemicals with very little training. In Britain, the female factory workers became known as "Canary Girls" due to the jaundice they suffered from exposure to chemicals and toxic fumes. The Women's Royal Air Force was also created during this war, which is where women worked on planes as mechanics. Women who didn't work outside the home supported the war effort in other ways. They volunteered to knit clothes, roll bandages, and put together hampers for the soldier.

The nurses of WWI worked on the front line, picking up the wounded soldiers. They made dressings for scars and battle wounds, ran canteens, and drove ambulances. Nurses also organized, cleaned, and set-up hospital rooms and equipment. Experienced nurses were stationed at hospitals along the frontlines.

The American Red Cross was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton. The American Red Cross worked during WWI alongside many other relief organizations. They established hospitals, procured ambulances, and above all, recruited nurses. By the end of the war, the American Red Cross had expanded to provide aid to veterans and their families.

Edith Cavell was a British nurse who served in Belgium when war broke out. With Germany’s occupation of Belgium, Cavell was forced to join the Red Cross and serve during WWI as a nurse. She was stationed at Berkendael, which was an Institution that had been converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Captured Allied soldiers were frequently treated at Berkendael. Cavell nursed the soldiers to full health and then helped them escape to Holland, which was neutral at the time. Cavell was arrested by German authorities in August of 1915 for having personally aided the escape of over 200 soldiers. She was kept in confinement until she was found guilty. She was sentenced to death by firing squad.

Another work destined to women was that of telephone operators. “Hello Girls”, as American soldiers called them, were American women who served as telephone operators for general Pershing’s forces in Europe. The women were fluent in French and English and were specially trained by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. In 1979, the U.S. Army finally gave war medals and veteran benefits to the few Hello Girls who were still alive.

Edith Cavell

Hello Girls operating switchboards in Chaumont, France during WWI

In 1919 the peace treaty was signed at Versailles in Paris. The League of Nations was set up with the aim of solving international problems and maintaining peace. A key role in writing the peace treaty was played by American president Wilson.

A curious but tragic fact is referred to American general John Pershing. He was the general in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces to victory over Germany in WWI – the American contingent destined to fight together with the forces of the Allies during the war on the western front. He controversially ordered his troops to continue fighting after the armistice was signed. This resulted in 3,500 U.S. casualties on the last day of the war, an act regarded as murder by several officers under his command. The reason for this attack after the armistice is to be found in his conviction that it would be better to eliminate the forces of the enemy as much and soon as possible, in order to prevent them from provoking new disasters in the future. Considering German’s aim of expansion and the breakout of WWII twenty years later, Pershing was not so wrong with his ideas.

“A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.” J. Pershing

CONSEQUENCES OF WWI

“Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre. What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible! Men are

mad!”

That’s what French Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire wrote in his diary about WWI just before he died.

World War I shocked the world. Never before had technology been put to such destructive ends. Never before had a war been so global in scope. The war resulted in the death of empires and the birth of nations, and in national boundaries being redrawn around the world. It ushered in prosperity for some countries, while it brought economic depression to others. It influenced literature. It changed culture. It had social, political and economic consequences.

It can be argued that the United States emerged from World War I as the world superpower. Because of US intervention and President Woodrow Wilson's diplomatic leadership, America had now become the ‘savior of Europe’. America's factories and countrysides were unharmed, and performing better than ever. World War I sped up American industrial production, leading to an economic boom throughout the ‘20s. The Us was also the promoter of new trends in these years: films, songs, radio and fashion (BBC went on ait for the first time in 1922).

Unlike USA, the post-world war in Europe was one of financial and industrial problems. Dissatisfaction grew culminating in the first and only General Strike in British history in 1926. The workers most affected by this strike were the miners. Moreover, Britain was hit hard by the American Wall Street Crash in 1929 resulting in a fall in prices and high unemployment.

Great Britain began to loose prestige as a world power as more and more countries of the Empire were given independence. These countries who kept allegiance with the Crown became known as the Commonwealth countries and included Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.

It’s worth pointing out that in 1918 for the first time in any European country, British women over 30 were given the right to vote. It had been a hard battle and was mainly thaks to women like Emmeline Pankhurst, who promoted the suffragette movement. . She and her followers organised protests, marches and even hunger strikes. Public opinion could not ignore their fight and was forced to recognise the work women had done during the war.

AMERICA’S “ROARING TWENTIES”

The 1920s were an age of dramatic social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer society.” People from coast to coast bought the same goods (thanks to nationwide advertising and the spread of chain stores), listened to the same music, did the same dances and even used the same slang! Many Americans were uncomfortable with this new, urban, sometimes racy “mass culture”; in fact, for most people in the United States, the 1920s brought more conflict than celebration. However, for a small handful of young people in the nation’s big cities, the 1920s were roaring indeed.

THE BIRTH OF MASS CULTURE

During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend, and they spent it on consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothes and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios. The first commercial radio station in the U.S., Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920; three years later there were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million households. People also went to the movies: Historians estimate that, by the end of the decades, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week.But the most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries at the beginning of the decade; by the end, they were practically necessities. In 1929 there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Meanwhile, an economy of automobiles was born: Businesses like service stations and motels sprang up to meet drivers’ needs.

THE JAZZ AGE

Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted. (Some pundits called them “bedrooms on wheels.”) What many young people wanted to do was dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom, the flea hop. Jazz bands played at dance halls like the Savoy in New York City and the Aragon

Model T

Charleston dancers

in Chicago; radio stations and phonograph records (100 million of which were sold in 1927 alone) carried their tunes to listeners across the nation. Some older people objected to jazz music’s “vulgarity” and “depravity” (and the “moral disasters” it supposedly inspired), but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dance floor.

THE “CULTURAL CIVIL WAR”

The 1920s were a source of growing racial tensions. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Southern countryside to Northern cities and the increasing visibility of black culture—jazz and blues music, for example, and the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance—discomfited some white Americans. Millions of people in places like Indiana and Illinois joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. To them, the Klan represented a return to all the “values” that the fast-paced, city-slicker Roaring Twenties were trampling.Likewise, an anti-Communist “Red Scare” in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist, or anti-immigrant, hysteria. This led to the passage of an extremely restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas that excluded some people (Eastern Europeans and Asians) in favor of others (Northern Europeans and people from Great Britain, for example).These conflicts–what one historian has called a “cultural Civil War” between city-dwellers and small-town residents, Protestants and Catholics, blacks and whites, “New Women” and advocates of old-fashioned family values–are perhaps the most important part of the story of the Roaring Twenties.

THE “NEW WOMAN”

The most familiar symbol of the “Roaring Twenties” is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said what might be termed “unladylike” things, in addition to being more sexually “free” than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionable flapper wardrobe), but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented freedoms. They could vote at last: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had guaranteed that right in 1920. Millions of women worked in white-collar jobs (as stenographers, for example) and could afford to participate to the burgeoning consumer economy. New machines and technologies such as the washing machine and the vacuum cleaner eliminated some of the drudgery of household work.

PROHIBITION

During the 1920s, some freedoms were expanded while others were curtailed. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors,” and at 12 A.M. on January 16, 1920, the federal Volstead Act closed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United

Prohibition propaganda

Ku Klux Klan

Illustration of a flapper

States. From then on, it was illegal to sell any “intoxication beverages” with more than 0.5% alcohol. This drove the liquor trade to go down, people simply went to nominally illegal speakeasies instead of ordinary bars. Prohibition was was introduced to raise the moral tone of the country but had exactly the opposite effect. Americans drank more between 1919-33 than at any other time in the country’s history. Gangster such as Al Capone became rich and powerful by producing illegal alcohol.

Born in 1899 in Brooklyn, New York, to poor immigrant parents, Al Capone went on to become the most infamous gangster in American history. In 1920 during the height of Prohibition, Capone’s multi-million dollar Chicago operation in

bootlegging, prostitution and gambling dominated the organized crime scene. Capone was responsible for many brutal acts of violence, mainly against other gangsters. The most famous of these was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, in which he ordered the assassination of seven rivals. Capone was never indicted for his racketeering but was finally brought to justice for income-tax evasion in 1931. After serving six-and-a-half years, Capone was released. He died in 1947 in Miami. Capone’s life captured the public imagination, and his gangster persona has been immortalized in the many movies and books

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its peak, some 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed. African Americans suffered more than whites, since their jobs were often taken away from them and given to whites.Though the relief and reform measures put into place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped lessen the worst effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the economy would not fully turn around until after 1939, when World War II kicked American industry into high gear.

Al Capone

The New Deal was the set of federal programmes launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after taking office in 1933, in response to the calamity of the Great Depression. It had four major goals and achievements:

•Economic Recovery: The New Deal stabilized the banks and cleaned up the financial mess left over from the Stock Market crash of 1929. It stabilized prices for industry and agriculture, and it aided bankrupt state and local governments. And it injected a huge amount of federal spending to bolster aggregate incomes and demand.

•Job Creation: One in four Americans was out of work by 1933. The New Deal created a number of special agencies that provided jobs for millions of workers and wages that saved millions more in their desperate families. It also recognized the rights of workers to organize in unions.

•Investment in Public Works: The New Deal built hundreds of thousands of highways, bridges, hospitals, schools, theaters, libraries, city halls, homes, post offices, airports, and parks across America—most of which are still in use today.

•Civic Uplift: The New Deal touched every state, city, and town, improving the lives of ordinary people and reshaping the public sphere. New Dealers and the men and women who worked on New Deal programs believed they were not only serving their families and communities, but building the foundation for a great and caring society.

In less than a decade, the New Deal changed the face of America and laid the foundation for success in World War II and the prosperity of the postwar era – the greatest and fairest epoch in American history.

Illustrated books, pamphlets, periodicals, and other print materials from the era reveal the promise of the New Deal to create jobs, the social realities that such programs were designed to address, and a parallel development of the 1930s: growing influence and militancy of the labor movement, as reflected in the proliferation of strikes.

People protestingPoster

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This novel focuses on the “Roaring Twenties”. Those were the years of prohibition, which revealed to be a failure. Parties were very common and people lived with the idea of enjoying their lives as much as possible, as no-one really knew what tomorrow would bring. Fitzgerald’s novel is full of the glitzy, jazz spirit of the time, but it reflects also the fashions in clothes and behavior. There’s a focus on the new woman, who seems to reflect a greater confidence, wears shorter dresses, her hair is bobbed and she drank and smoked as much as men. In particular, the author concentrates on the world of the rich.

The main character is Gatsby, who lived in Long Island, New York, who was first rejected by the woman he loved (Daisy) because he was not rich enough, who then accumulated wealth in order to regain her love, who lived a life of luxury and partying and who finally died alone. In a certain sense Gatsby becomes the symbol for the 1920s: a man with hopes, disillusionments, wealth, losses, and moral decline.

There are many themes in the novel, first of all the disillusionment of the American Dream and the corrupting influence of money, because the idea is that you are important, worthy of one’s love, only if you have the right house, the right car. Colours are especially significant: Gatsby’s car is yellow, the colour of gold and wealth.

About American Dream:

The American Dream originated in the early days of the American settlement, with the mostly poor immigrants searching for opportunities. It was first manifested in the Declaration of Independence, which describes an attitude of hope. The Declaration of Independence states that “all man are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”. In The Great Gatsby the American Dream plays a big role. In it you can see what happened to it during the 1920s. The values have totally changed, instead of striving for equality, they just want to get as rich as they could get.So it is not surprising that the new kind of "American Dream" fails several times, which Fitzgerald describesin his book. He shows that people are not yet treated equally and that social discrimination still exists.

MODULE 2. FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE COLD ERA

After they have become friends, one afternoon Nick and Gatsby are talking about Daisy. Nick says:

‘She’s got an indiscreet voice’, I remarked. ‘It’s full of –’ I hesitated.

‘Her voice is full of money’, he said.

Scene from Luhrmann’s film The Great Gatsby

Party in the 1920s

WORLD WAR II

It was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, though related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing

military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.

The rise of dictatorships throughout the 30s – Mussolini in italy, General Franco in Spain, Hitler and his Nazi Party in Germany -began to set alarm bells ringing in the rest of Europe.

The Nazi totalitarian government had total control over men, women, youth, newspapers, radio, art, books, music, universities, schools, police, army, law courts and religion. In other words, they controlled every aspect of life in Germany. The Nazi Party used terror, on the one hand, and propaganda on the other. It used propaganda to tell people how to think. They wanted to control people's thoughts, to stop people fearing the enemy and to encourage people to work together to defeat the Nazis enemies. It used fear, exaggeration and lies to get people to support them.

Hitler was also particularly obsessed with “racial purity” and “Super man”. He used propaganda to encourage the idea of an Aryan race. Here’s the picture of six-month-old Hessy Taft. Her photograph was chosen as the image of the ideal Aryan baby, and distributed in party

Nazi propaganda

propaganda. But what the Nazis didn’t know was that their perfect baby was really Jewish. If the Nazis had known who she really was, certainly she wouldn’t be alive nowadays.

It was in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, that Britain declared war. Denmark, Belgium and even France soon came under the control of Germany. In summer 1940, Germany launched a further attack on Britain, this time exclusively from the air.

The Blitz changed the landscape of the city. Many famous landmarks were hit, including Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, the Tower of London and the Imperial War Museum. Some areas, such as Stepney, were so badly damaged that they had to be almost entirely rebuilt after the war.The picture on the left shows people sheltering on the platform of Elephant and Castle Underground station during an air raid, November 1940. The government initially tried to prevent London Underground stations being used as air raid shelters, fearing the development of a 'deep shelter mentality' and the potential disruption of the capital's transport network. However, Londoners persisted in using the Tube and eventually the government had to reconsider. Aldwych station was closed and converted into a permanent shelter.

The Battle of Britain was Germany’s first military failure, as the German air force, the Luftwaffe, was never able to overcome Britain’s Royal Air Force. The Prime Minister of Britain at that time was Winston Churchill. Churchill inspired the country to keep fighting despite the bad circumstances. He is known as a talented orator and famous for his speeches during the years of war. One of his most famous quotes is “Success is the ability to go from failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm”. He made British resistance a battle for identity, for survival and for the defence of democracy in the world. He promised to his people “tears, sweat and blood”, and became the sybol of a country which was not bended by the military power of Nazism. He also helped to forge an alliance of Allied Powers with the Soviet Union (Stalin) and the United States (Roosevelt).

Not only did Germany used propaganda during the war, but also Britain made use of this important tool of communication. The picture below was a British manifesto created by Charles Rich Wilcox: the lion (the cigar in the mouth is typical of Churchill) represents the British Empire and the beaver represents Canada. Indeed, Canada was a British ally.

During the war Churchill had secret underground rooms, a bunker that sheltered him and his government during the Blitz. Nowadays it’s possible to visit the museum “Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms”, situated in London in the district of Westminster.

Nazi propaganda

Churchill’s famous greeting

Elephant and Castle Underground Station

British propaganda

You can walk in the footsteps of Churchill and glimpse what life would have been like during the tense days and nights, see where Churchill and his War Cabinet met in the Map Room, which has remained exactly as it was left in 1945.

A

decisive role during the war was certainly played by Alan Turing. Turing was a World War II code-breaking hero who, as Winston Churchill would later recall, made the single biggest contribution to the Allied victory in WWII. Turing served the Allied forces by breaking German military codes, particularly those used by the German navy.

Turing was in charge of Hut 8, a section at Bletchley Park (the British WWII codebreaking station) tasked with solving encoded German naval messages. He devised a range of code-breaking tools for cracking German ciphers, including an electromagnetic device called the Bombe, which countered the infamous German Enigma machine. The Enigma machine was developed to encode and decode messages, until it became the Nazis’ primary means of ciphering messages. Enigma technology was continuously altered throughout the war, making the challenge of breaking German ciphers extremely difficult. The Bombe was especially crucial to the Allies’ victory in what Winston Churchill called the Battle of the Atlantic.

Without the ability to break German codes to determine the locations of U-boats, the Allies may have lost the Battle of the Atlantic, and quite possibly the war.

In 1941 Germany began its most ambitious action yet, by invading the Soviet Union. But the country was just too big, and although Russia’s initial resistance was weak, the nation’s strength and determination, combined with its brutal winters forced Germany into a full-scale retreat. In June 1944, British and American forces launched the D-Day invasion. Under the control of General Eisenhower, they landed in German-occupied France via the coast of Normandy.

A curious fact during D-Day refers to Private John Steele, an American paratrooper. His parachute was caught in one of the pinnacles of the church tower, leaving him hanging on the side of the church to

Attack during D-Day Sainte-Mère-Église and Monument to John Steele

Position of Churchill museum Map Room

Alan Turing

American cemetery in Normandy

witness the carnage. The wounded paratrooper hung there for two hours, pretending to be dead, and managed to survive. Sainte-Mère-Église was the first village in Normandy to be freed.

There are also other interesting facts and people that refer to the D-Day. A statue is also dedicated to Bill Millin, a Scottish soldier and musician. During the attack he kept playing his bagpipe while under fire (Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers). Some German soldiers claimed that they did not shoot at him because they thought he had gone mad.

Soon the German army was forced into retreat from that side. Thus, by early 1945, Allied forces were closing in on Germany from both east and west. The Soviets were the first to reach the German capital of Berlin, and Germany surrendered in May 1945, shortly after the suicide of Adolf Hitler.

The US entered WW2 in 1941, after warplanes from Japan had launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japan’s aim was to expand its dominion on the Pacific area, especially in China, which was supported by the US. The attack provoked a declaration of war on Japan.

Fighting continued throughout the Pacific in 1944 and early 1945, including major battles at Iwo, Jima, and Okinawa. By the late spring of 1945, most of Japan’s conquests had been liberated. Germany had already surrendered but Japan didn’t want to. This process continued through the summer of 1945 until finally, in early August, the US by executive order of President Harry Truman dropped an atomic bomb named “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima. The explosion was huge, the city was destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were killed. The bomb was dropped by a plane piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbetts. A small parachute was on the bomb in order to slow its drop and allow the plane time to fly away from the blast zone. Despite the terrible destruction of the bomb on Hiroshima, Emperor Hirohito and Japan still refused to surrender. Three days later another atomic bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man”, was dropped on Nagasaki. Stunned by the unexpected devastation, Japan surrendered a few days later.

The atomic bomb cloud over Nagasaki, Japan was described in The Times of London of 13 August 1945 as a "huge mushroom of smoke and dust." Why mushroom? Because mushrooms have traditionally been associated both with life and death, food and poison, making them a very powerful symbolic connection.

In 1945 Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met at Yalta, on the Russian Black Sea, to decide the future of Europe. The allies had won but Europe was left in ruins and a new age was about to begin- the nuclear age.

Focus on… American idol John Wayne and WW2

Monument to Bill Millin

Little Boy atomic bomb

Mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki

John Wayne (Marion Robert Morrison), was an American film actor, director, and producer. An enduring American icon, for several generations of Americans he epitomized rugged masculinity and is famous for his behaviour, including his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height.

John Wayne was a Marine sergeant, a naval lieutenant and a commander of an airborne battalion during the invasion of Normandy. But those were only his movies.

Wayne, indeed, never served a day in the US military and has long been accused of being a ‘draft dodger’ because he avoided putting on a uniform and going to war especially when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Why did he do that? Was he a coward? At the time of Pearl Harbor, Wayne was 34 years old. His marriage was on the rocks but he still had four kids to support. His career was taking off, but he wasn't rich.

Did he have to chuck it all and enlist? Many of Hollywood's big names, such as Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and Clark Gable, did just that. But these were established stars. Wayne knew that if he took a few years off for military service, there was a good chance that by the time he got back he'd be over the hill.

In any case, his decision not to participate to the war led him to success. With his films Wayne increasingly came to embody the American fighting man. The reason why he refused the war in the real contest but promoted it excessively in films is quite unknown. Some think his guilty conscience was one reason he became such a superpatriot. The fact remains that the man who came to symbolize American patriotism and pride had a chance to do more than just act the part, and he let it pass.

THE DECADES AFTER THE WAR

By the end of the Second World War Britain was no longer a world power but had been relegated to third position after the United States and the Soviet Union. Britain was not only weakened economically but its colonies, which had brought prestige and wealth in the past, also began to demand independence. Thanks to the Marshall Plan financial help was given by the US in order to re-build Europe. At that time the European countries were either under the control of the US (the western countries) or under the control of the Soviet Union. Germany, in particular, was divided into two parts with the Berlin wall (1961).

In the same year John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected President of the United States. He was involved in the war against Russia but he was particularly appreciated because he introduced many new reforms, especially in the field of civil-rights. His presidency, however, ended after only 34 months in office when he was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

Was John Wayne a draft dodger? Whatever we say about him….

if he wimped out, don't be so sure a lot of us wouldn't have done the same!

John Wayne

President Kennedy

The difference between east and west began also to emerge in the form of two opposing political philosophies: capitalism with the US and communism with Russia. In the US the first years after WW2 were characterised by the Cold War, and a fear od suspicion of all communists. Senator McCarthy promoted an

anti-communist persecution known as McCarthysm. In 1947, the Catechetical Guild Educational published Is This Tomorrow: America Under Communism, a propaganda comic classic about the impending Sovietification of America.

The Cold War also resulted in an arms race between the two great powers (especially nuclear weapons). Another race between east and west was the space race. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969 ke spoke of a “giant leap for mankind” but it was also a prestigiuos success for the west.

CONSUMERISM AND ABUNDANCE

After the war America was going through a period of extreme wealth. For this reason, its society contributed to support and create consumerism, the Americans increased appetite for goods and services. TVs, refrigerators, hoovers and other appliances appeared in the houses. As a consequence of this prosperity, the 50s and 60s recorded a “baby boom” and a movement of the middle class families from the city to the suburbs. Influenced by the US, even Europe began to construct its new face. American music and food – from Coca Cola to chewing gum –were imported.

The new and ordinary products were shown and sponsorized thanks to advertising, and, as a consequence, the lifestyle of the 50s and 60s was depicted too. Advertising during this period reflected a conscious return to traditional family values. In a single generation, memories of the Great Depression and war were replaced by positive futuristic portrayals of the idealized modern family mother, father, son and daughter enjoying the comforts of their new home, the convenience of their automobile and added leisure time together.

WOMEN IN THE 50s AND 60s

Post war society was still dominated by men. Few women had a work, most of them were housewives and had to take care of the house and the children. They had little space in the world outside the domestic walls and they were thought to have less needs and intelligence than men. This idea can be easily confirmed by typical advertisements and posters of the time.

In this ad, the woman is represented as being incompetent, largely through the remark 'You mean a woman can open it?' regarding a new easy cap for a brand of ketchup. On the contrary, men are

Neil Armstrong on the moon

Propaganda at school Propaganda comic classic

perceived as stronger and the “usual means” for opening difficult ketchup bottles. But with this solution, women can open it without a bottle opener, or even without the help of their husbands!'. In addition, the choice of a woman as a testimonial for this ad is connected to the fact that preparing food is one of women’s duties.

Things were not good for women in the 50s, when the job options were simple: housewife or, in some cases, “sex kitten”, and both the two options were about serving men. TV programmes and films contributed to the expansion of this concept. Some women became popular and icons of the time not exactly for their cleverness, but for their body, voice and beauty.

Men wanted her, women wanted to be her. The camera, the president and the public adored her. Everyone loved, and still love, the iconic beauty that was Marilyn Monroe. Then Norma Jean Baker, she was discovered working at an aircraft factory during the second world war. She had three husbands and secret relationships. Her success was due to her sensual voice and body. But this success led her to a chaotic and dramatic life, until her death caused by overdose. Marilyn has always been depicted as a victim of the star system, which conducted her to alcool, drugs, and continuous fear of unsuccess. According to many, Marilyn also appears to be the emblem of the male-dominated society of her time, even though she was deified by both men and women.

Focus on… Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was a black American and social activist who fought for the rights of African-American people. One of the episodes which pushed him to become the leader of the civil rights movement was that of Rosa Parks. One evening she boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home from an exhausting day at work and sat down. The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other African American passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the City Code. On the night that Rosa Parks was arrested, Martin Luther King and other local civil rights leaders planned a bus boycott.

Martin Luther King Jr. also worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political rally designed to shed light on the injustices African Americans continued to face across the country. Held on August 28th and attended by 300,000 participants, the event is widely regarded as a watershed moment in the history of the American civil rights movement and a factor in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.The march culminated in King’s most famous address, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for peace and equality that many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln

Marilyn Monroe

Martin Luther King

Memorial–a monument to the president who a century earlier had brought down the institution of slavery in the United States—he shared his vision of a future in which “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'” Later King was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine and in 1964 became the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, King was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where he had travelled to support a sanitation workers’ strike. James Earl Ray (1928-1998), an escaped convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.