Europe and World War I

Wilhelm II, Kaiser of Germany during WWI

England, France and Germany saw war as a glorious engagement. The prevailing thought by those who joined the military was that they would be home by Christmas. Young men were bored with the good quality of life so were eager to prove themselves and their new sense of national identity. Because of advancements in technology (machine guns, tanks, large guns, airplane) and changes in fighting (trench warfare, volunteer army rather than conscripts) the war lasted much, much longer and was much more devastating than planned. As secularism replaced religion, war was the natural or scientific way to show nationalism and patriotism.

There is much contention, at least among German historians, about numerous points leading up to the First World War. For German historians, the issues stem around the internal or external focus of the Wilhelmine government, the relative versus the actual influence and power of the lower classes over the ruling elite, and when Germany first made a decision to go to war, and the contentions surrounding German preparations for war. Volker Berghahn provides an excellent discussion on the historiography of Germany leading up to World War I. Refuting any attempts at placing a Sonderweg to Nazi Germany, Berghahn argues that Germany did not face different paths than other European countries, they just made different choices. In other words, Germans faced the same choices, they just reacted differently than other countries. Berghahn shows how internal pressures from an “unstable” government (a rise in the Social Democratic party demanding more power in the Reichstag for the lower classes and an obdurate ruling elite unwilling to give up power)  and external pressures from countries who sought to keep Germany restrained, eventually left German leaders feeling they had no other alternative than to create what they hoped would be a small internal war that would unify and subdue German speaking areas politically, and provide breathing room for lack of ability to colonize off continent. German leaders felt they were not able to decide if a war would happen, so they chose to decide when it would happen.

The war that followed came as a shock to all participants. Everything came in greater and staggering numbers. Loss of life in a single battle was immense compared to previous wars. The war left a lasting and different impression on each nation. War afflicted nearly half of all men in France, and turned them into ultra pacifists. Their desire to refrain from all future conflict led directly to complicit attitudes towards the future Nazi party. Germans felt stabbed in the back and let resentment and unfair reparations requirements foster in their culture. Forced to employ a democratic government and divert a great percentage of their economy to their enemies, Germany plunged much deeper into economic depression and hyper inflation than other countries of the world that experience the Great Depression. Germans became more politically militant instead of democratic, and were left pining for the “Golden Days” before the war.

And the British… I haven’t read about them past 1914.

Take a look at the picture below, drawn by Harris Morgan and submitted to wikimedia.org. I think it sums up nicely the different factors that led to the First World War. Perhaps one of the logs should be labeled “German political discord”. All of these external factors, plus the internal pressure of political change, fanned by the euphoric ideals of nationalism and trying to beat someone else (the arms race), led to a very uncivil expression of emotion.

Causes of World War I, Harris Morgan - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WWI-Causes.jpg

Work Cited:

  1. Volker Rolf Berghahn, Germany and the Approach of War in 1914, 2nd ed. (New York, N.Y: St. Martin’s Press, 1993).

European Modernization

Modernization is the term used to describe the process of how a society was before, compared to how it is now. It most often encompasses development and use of mechanical technology, a change in gender roles, a real or perceived rise in standard of living, adjustments in social classes, and, often, political change. Modernization at times was seen in different ways including: a detriment to human society, a marvelous improvement to society, an effect of economic and political challenges, and, most recently, as an inevitable evolution of progress.

Steam Carriages as the vehicles of the future.

Modernism in England can be seen in all these ways in the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution, as pointed out by E. P. Thompson had a great impact on the social and economic status of the poor as whole industries turned to machines in factories and entire occupations (think weavers) were discontinued. Formation of factory unions lead to a politically emboldened populace. The Victorian period is known for the ideals of separate spheres for men (political, public, and occupational) and women (private, nurturing) that are still observed and discussed and contested to this day. As Robert Wohl writes, these Victorian ideals are what caused many young individuals (in England, France and Germany) during the turn of the century to question the role of authority and the place of such ideals. English technological modernism during the 19th century was hampered by the desire of the business classes to emulate the aristocracy. Martin Wiener writes that this English pastoralism affected the economy by not allowing it to grow as in other countries. Another form of modernist government was seen in England as Parliament enacted many laws that directly interfered with individuals. Laws governing the poor, woman’s rights, education, and voting abilities all showed, for better or worse, a government with more interest in their citizens.

Reconstructed Horton 2-29

If modernization is characterized primarily by use of technology, especially of an industrial revolution, then Germany got off to a late start comparatively. But following the unification and industrialization in late 19th Century, Germany showed great progress. Advances in aviation with Zeppelin, in art with the Bauhaus movement are just two of the many examples. Politically Germany changed from a group of loosely connected principalities to become a federated nation with, albeit very weak, parliamentary government. At the turn of the century, German youth were struggling with the sense of modernism and formed many youth groups to express concern with political and social issues. Germany showed a peculiar sense of modernization during the Third Reich. Whereas Nazi ideology extolled the life of the peasant, the simple life of the Volk, seemingly anti-modern, they still exhibited very modern practices. The building of the Autobahns, the development of the first ballistic missile, the successful flights of the first jet powered aircraft were all seemingly contradictory to basic Nazi ideology.

East German Trabant, 1963

During the bifurcation years, West Germany enjoyed the status of a technologically advanced and modern country. East Germany suffered the stigma of a backwards and inept Soviet satellite country, incapable of keeping up with modern technologies. Stokes shows, though, that East Germany maintained technical competence through the length of its existence (longer than the Third Reich, Weimar Republic and Imperialism, a testament to a successful country with successful technologies such as the Trabant, optics, and computers. What didn’t work in East Germany was the political desire to keep up with western technology, but the ineptness at maintaining a supportive economy, due in part to Soviet inability or unwillingness to support East German technologies. East Germany, in effect, sought to specialize in the fringe technologies of the west, but did not have the underlying infrastructure to support them.

French Nuclear Power Plant at Cattenom

Modernization in the political sense has been attributed to the French Revolution. Changes between monarchies (and empires) to republics throughout the early 19th century sparked the social and political movements in Europe towards self-governed people (something which the nobility and educated classes thought undesirable and potentially devastating). As the Second Empire moved into the Third Republic, self-government began in earnest, as national governments allowed local governments more control. National governments also became more interested in the individual citizens, much the same as in England, as they enacted laws restricting religion and regulating education. As always a factor, the Dreyfus Affair showed a nation struggling with the society and the ideals that came out of political change. Continual losses (Franco-Prussian, WWI and WWII) to Germany and colonial troubles led France to desperately look towards modern technology, such as nuclear power, to regain international standing, and create a positive national narrative.

Works Cited:

  1. Raymond G Stokes, Constructing Socialism: Technology and Change in East Germany 1945-1990 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
  2. E. P Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Pantheon Books, 1964).
  3. Robert Wohl, The Generation of 1914 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1979).

European Nationalism

What is nationalism? I think it is the mindset and ideals that came after monarchy lost it’s status as the representation of a people in many European countries. With a king or queen, royalty was the embodiment of the subjects. They represented their country, they were their country. Before, they had a sense of Queen Elizabeth I from sixteenth century, that she is the heart of England. When the political tide turned to constitutional monarchies or republics the people felt the monarchies did not truly represent the new organization created. Nationalism is the idea that stepped in to fill the void. As Benedict Anderson writes, the concept of a nation is imagined because it is a community of members that will not know or meet all other members, it is limited because it has a definite if elastic boundary where other nations begin, it is sovereign because the people involved are what give it power and authority, and it is a community in that it assumes a “horizontal comradeship” despite actual inequalities. This new concept of organization of individuals into a community based on political determinism leads to followers willing to kill, but more importantly, willing to die for the ideal. It’s as if a country, because of the new political organization, became one big family, and instead of having subjects, they are all siblings and relatives. Nationalism also seemed to take on a role of the new religion. As people turned from their Christian roots and became more secular, nationalism provided a sense of unity and an ideal to strive for.

In France you see the issue of nationalism in play from the French Revolution. All throughout the nineteenth century the various Republics that arise are trying to create this unified “Frenchness” throughout the country. Weber, Ford and Nord write about it. The issues of the periphery versus the center that come to play in Weber and Ford are all about creating a unified language, culture, system of measurement, etc, in an effort to create what it means to be “French”. This is, in essence, what nationalism is. Defining what makes a group of people similar to each other, and what makes them different from the others. The Dreyfus Affair shows worries about how the “Frenchness” is turning out. Are they becoming to feminized and weak as Forth shows? Hecht shows the concern about the place of French nationalism after World War II in terms of nuclear technology. France feels they can regain their status as one of the major nations of the world by proving themselves capable of nuclear technology. France was/is very aware of the other nations, continuously in the late nineteenth century comparing population growth and manliness.

Through the nineteenth century, Britain showed signs of nationalism through interaction and comparison with their colonial contacts. Colonizing in the nineteenth century turned from a desire for free trade to a new form of imperialism, the British expanded because it was morally right to educate and enlighten other nations. In the Victorian period, the British were also focused internally. The forays of the upper-classes into the lower classes for philanthropic reasons, the desire of Parliament to enact laws to regulate education and to an extent family life, all show how the nation, or state, was considered to be the fatherly figure that knew best how to care for his children, the citizens.

German nationalism came considerably later than France and England. Unity in Germany did not come until 1870s with Prussia. Here we see a definite creation of a German nation. Whereas before there were many separate and distinct principalities, the unification under Bismark and Prussia literally created, reluctantly at times, a unified German nation. Throughout Imperial Germany and through World War I, the German sense of nationalism was built on a unifying government and language. Various events during the early twentieth century led to a greater sense of unity, such as Zeppelin’s air ships. Of most consolidating force was the German experience in World War I. The feelings of unity and comradeship overcame political and religious boundaries leading up to the war. As the War efforts became unfruitful, feelings of nationalism declined into feelings of betrayal and into political fracturing that endured the Weimar period. The rise of the Nazis was in part due to their appeal to the sense of recapturing the essence of the Volk, the people. Feelings of national unity rose during the Nazi period. After World War II, Germany went through a period unique to any modern European nation. Division into East and West German nations led to vary different national narratives and senses of nationality. Re-unification in 1990 collapsed one national narrative and modified the remaining one.

Works Mentioned:
  1. Benedict R. O’G Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Rev. ed. (London: Verso, 2006).
  2. Caroline C Ford, Creating the Nation in Provincial France: Religion and Political Identity in Brittany (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1993).
  3. Philip G Nord, The Republican Moment: Struggles for Democracy in Nineteenth-Century France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).
  4. Eugen Joseph Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1977).

Convert CSV file to directories

A fellow co-worker had a need to turn a CSV file into a series of directories and files where the columns of the CSV file were the directories, and the contents of the cells for each row were made into a text file and placed in the appropriate folder corresponding to the column. For example given the CSV file with the columns (name,email,number,date), and several rows like this:

john,j@j.com,89,tuesday

bertha,b@j.com,2716,monday

dillan,d@j.com,289,saturday

xavier,x@j.com,839,wednesday

The script would create four numbered folders (1, 2, 3, 4), and put a file in each folder corresponding with the row number and column.

Columns into folders, cells into text files

So, within folder number one would be four text files named 1-1.txt, 2-1.txt, 3-1.txt, 4-1.txt. Text file 1-1.txt would contain the content “john”. File 3-1.txt would contain the text “dillan”. Within folder number 3 would be four text files named 1-3.txt, 2-3.txt, 3-3.txt, and 4-3.txt.

Well, anyhow, I hope that explanation makes sense. Here’s the code:

[code lang=”perl”]
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Text::CSV::Encoded;

my $csv = Text::CSV::Encoded->new();

# file to be used given on the command line as an argument to the script
open (CSV, “<:encoding(UTF-8)”, $ARGV[0]) or die $!;

my $rownum = 1;
while () {
if ($csv->parse($_)) {
# Put the rows into an array
my @columns = $csv->fields();

# Make the directories, as many as there are columns
# Get the number of columns (which is the number of elements in the
# array).
my $size = scalar(@columns);
my $count = 1;
# Check if the directories are created. Only want to make them on the
# interration through the first row
if ( !-d $count ) {
while ($count <= $size) { mkdir “$count” or die $!; $count++; } } # Now make a file from each cell, putting the file in the directory # corresponding to the column my $colnum = 1; for my $column (@columns) { # Create a new file (or overwrite an existing one) in the # appropriate column folder and name it row#-col#.txt open FILE, “+>$colnum/row$rownum-col$colnum.txt” or die $!;
# This sets the correct encoding on writing to the file
binmode FILE, “:utf8”;
print FILE $column;
close FILE;
$colnum++;
}

} else {
my $err = $csv->error_input;
print “Failed to parse line: $err”;
}

$rownum++;
}
close CSV;

[/code]

Prep for Orals – Modern French History

So, what are the big issues in modern French History?

  • Fears of change. Periphery versus the national (Paris). Modern versus traditional. New versus old forms of society, government, culture. National versus local.
  • Social importance and role of individuals. Individual versus community versus monarchy.
  • Vitality and virtue of French. Really comes into play during Dreyfus affair and national result indicating lowering birth-rate. Escalated through the two World Wars, and can be seen as the cause of issues with Algeria, and blossoms again in their search for vitality in nuclear power.
  • Political troubles. Around eleven (11) major changes in political power from 1780-1960, contrasted with other European and world powers (USA – 1, England – 1, Germany – 5)

I’ll look at the following:

  • Republicanism and Nationalism
  • Antisemitism
  • Colonialism
  • World War I and World War II
  • Post-war national identity

Referencing some of these books:

  1. Caroline C Ford, Creating the Nation in Provincial France: Religion and Political Identity in Brittany (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1993).
  2. Christopher E Forth, The Dreyfus Affair and the Crisis of French Manhood, The Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science 121st ser., 2 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).
  3. Sudhir Hazareesingh, From Subject to Citizen: The Second Empire and the Emergence of Modern French Democracy (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1998).
  4. Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity After World War II, Inside technology (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1998).
  5. Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962 (New York: Viking Press, 1978).
  6. Eric Thomas Jennings, Vichy in the Tropics: Pétain’s National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940-1944 (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2001).
  7. Maurice Larkin, France Since the Popular Front: Government and People, 1936- 1986 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988).
  8. John McManners, Church and State in France, 1870-1914 (New York: Harper & Row, 1972).
  9. Philip G Nord, The Republican Moment: Struggles for Democracy in Nineteenth-Century France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).
  10. Robert A Nye, Crime, Madness, & Politics in Modern France: The Medical concept of National Decline (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1984).
  11. The Sorrow and the Pity Chronicle of a French Town During the Occupation = La Chagrin Et La Pitie: Chronique D’une Ville Francaise Sous L’occupation (Milestone Film & Video ; [New York], 2000).
  12. Robert O Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944, Columbia University Press Morningside ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).
  13. Pamela M Pilbeam, The Constitutional Monarchy in France, 1814-48, Seminar studies in history (Harlow, England: Longman, 2000).
  14. David Prochaska, Making Algeria French: Colonialism in Bône, 1870-1920 (Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
  15. Henry Rousso, The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France Since 1944 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1991).
  16. Rebecca L Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2000).
  17. Eugen Joseph Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1977).
  18. Eugen Weber, The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s, 1st ed. (New York: Norton, 1994).

Continue reading Prep for Orals – Modern French History

British Imperialism and Gender Issues

Here’s my final sprint into the history of modern Britain.

Bibliography:

  1. E. J Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914, 1st ed. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987).
  2. Seth Koven, Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004).
  3. Peter Mandler, ed., Liberty and Authority in Victorian Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
  4. Bernard Porter, The Lion’s Share: A Short History of British Imperialism, 1850-2004, 4th ed. (Harlow, Essex, England: Pearson/Longman, 2004).
  5. Edward W Said, Orientalism, 1st ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
  6. F. M. L Thompson, The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1988).
  7. Judith R Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London, Women in culture and society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). 
Bloated US Imperialism in 1900.
Bloated US Imperialism in 1900.

Imperialism in Britain prior to 1857 was to provide wealth to England. After Indian Mutiny in 1857, crown took over East India Company to help England, India, and Co survive. Afterward, they realized their dependence on their colonies and attitudes turned from one of master to one of public servant (there to enlighten India in economics, politics, and education). The realization of their dependence on colonies and their new focus on their relationship with colonies was termed “new Imperialism”. Porter and Hobsbawm both put economics as the moving force behind imperialism.

Another impetus for imperialism was the shift in local and national economics to the growing global market economy spawned by industrialist and capitalist needs for goods and resources. Imperialism became a necessity to remain competitive in the global market. If you didn’t have colonies to supply resources and goods, you didn’t have global power.

At a time of the rise in sciences of religion, New Imperialism was seen as social Darwinism as the more advanced, developed, and intelligent races naturally ruled over the lower species.

The Boer Wars in South Africa in 1850s and 1890s were significant shocks to Britain as they realized they were not the only players in the global bid for colonies, and, as they discovered in the second war, their nation was virtually unfit to compete in the skirmishes necessary to retain power.

Imperialism - The Longest Reach
Imperialism – The Longest Reach

Imperialism creates what Edward Said terms orientalism, or dividing humanity based on culture, and comes about as one country comes to terms with differences encountered in other countries. The universal issues of “us” versus “them”. Such encounters, especially after their defeat in the 1890 Second Boer War, and the discovery of unfit men, left England seriously questioning the beliefs and culture that led them to that point.

Gender also came to prominent status as mass media and upper classes turned to look at the lower classes and themselves. According to the way some authors (Koven and Walkowitz) portray Victorian society, every aspect of life was actually about sex. Walkowitz looks at how changes in the city brought changes in society and gender spheres. Victorian society became more accepting of sexual discourse through various mass media (mostly newspapers) as more people became literate.

Too much for him!
Too much for him!

Such publicity lead to more exposure to woman’s rights and needs, as well as abuses (Jack the Ripper) and disreputable employments (prostitution). Some legal changes, including the Married Woman’s Property Act 1882, gave women more legal power to deal with injustices of the times. Koven looks at the philanthropic movement of “slumming,” the practice of upper class individuals visiting the poorest areas of cities in order to observe and often to help. Koven seems obsessed with the sexual aspects of everything, and seems to turn every instance into an opportunity to talk about it. Much too much focused on just one aspect to deliver a clear picture of Victorian period philanthropy. Anyhow, the Victorian period, especially fin de-siecle, was one of dramatic increase in the political address of woman’s rights.

British History and the Industrial Revolution

In preparation for my Oral Exam on October 28, 2010, I have written down some questions and possible replies about the Industrial Revolution in modern British History.

Bibliography

Some of the important works I’ll draw from are:

  • Berlanstein, Lenard R, ed. The Industrial Revolution and Work in Nineteenth-Century Europe. London, [England]: Routledge, 1992.
  • Hobsbawm, E. J. The Age of Revolution [Europe] 1789-1848. New York: New American Library, 1962.
  • Thompson, Dorothy. The Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.
  • Thompson, E. P. The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Pantheon Books, 1964.
  • Thompson, F. M. L. The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830-1900. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1988.
  • Wiener, Martin J. English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850-1980. 1st ed. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Questions

How did the Industrial Revolution affect British society and politics?

Steam Engine. From the Almanach comique, pittoresque, drolatique, critique et charivarique pour l’année 1887, published in Paris.

Changes in Lower Classes

As E.P. Thompson’s book title suggests, the Industrial Revolution created a new socially aware and politically active group, or class of people. And it created more than one. E.P. focuses on the worker class that was established as people became workers in factories. The Industrial Revolution also created a new middle class of merchants and businessmen.

Industrial Revolution also changed trades. The weavers were the hardest hit. Once a respectable and well paid trade, after industry replaced people with machines, weaver trade was poorly paid and dishonorable. Positions opened up for women and children to work in factories. People moved to more urban areas. F.M.L. Thompson argues though, that these modes of urbanization were already in place and were not affected by industrialization.

This bespeaks a fear seen in all levels of society: the fear of change, the fear of technology, the dominance of machine over man.

Organizations Lead to Political Activism

This working class eventually formed unions to deal with issues in the factories, and such organization and collaboration in factory politics spilled out into the politics of government as they eventually sought redresses with Parliament. Dorothy Thompson writes about such a movement known as Chartism, that happened in the 1830s and 1840s. Chartism was a movement of varying and differing causes, with the intent of a better society, fueled by the long unhappy workingmen throughout the country.

Middle Class Changes in Society

The middle classes created their own sphere in English society. Wanting to emulate the aristocracy, they embraced the idea of the gentleman and created a culture of private and public spheres for women and men, codes of conduct and beliefs. Industry began a continual decent in the late nineteenth century as the middle class (the owners of industrial factories, the merchants and businessmen) abandon capitalist notions and seek the leisurely life of the gentleman. One argument is that the decline in British industrialism was a direct result of the middle class emulating the aristocracy instead of overcoming them (socially and politically) (Wiener).

Rain, Steam, Spead – The Great Western Railway, 1844. Joseph Mallord William Turner.

Historians and the Industrial Revolution

How historians view the Industrial Revolution shows how history telling is affected by modern economic, political and social atmospheres. Four phases of interpretation show that the Industrial Revolution was viewed as a negative consequence of human behavior; a cyclical process of nature tied to war and economic challenges; a process for economic growth; and most recently as nothing more than anticipated economic and technological evolution.

Why does E.P. Thompson hate the standard of living debate?

Thompson looks at the standard of living between 1790-1840. The biggest issue is that historians sympathetic to capitalist entrepreneurship used the data to match their conclusions, rather than to discover what was there. (Like looking for red cars and noticing how many there are, to the exclusion of noticing all the other colors.) This issue leads to three other issues with historical the look at the standard of living.

1. Historians did not take into consideration that quantity can increase and quality can decrease at the same time. Economic historians take the rise in wages and goods and deduce that quality of live increases too. Social historians look at the writings about poor quality of life and deduce that material wealth declined as well. Thompson argues that the Industrial Revolution brought increase in material goods (wages, products, etc) but the “well-being” of workers decreased (decreased leisure time, less independence, longer working hours, etc) (211).

2. Taking an average dilutes the actual findings. Adding the stats for all counties and then dividing by the number of counties to find an “average” ignores the discrepancies within the counties. One county may be very rich, another very poor, but combining their info and dividing by their numbers does not provide an accurate description of how those counties actually were (213-214).

3. Quality is subject to interpretation and dependent upon the group you’re looking at (gentlemen, poor, workers, laborers, etc)

The Past in Color

This weeks installment of history found on the web includes links to a few sites with something special. Color photographs from the early days of color photography. Color somehow brings a photograph to more life, adds more detail, and helps get a better understanding of the time period. Sure you can see the style of clothes, for example, in a black and white, but did you know it was bright green!

Color images of Russia from 1910

The first site comes from the Boston Globe. These pictures are from Russia over 100 years ago! Absolutely amazing detail.

World War II films in color

Second we have a bunch of color moving pictures from World War II from a blog at salon.com. Color and moving pictures just makes it all the more real.

Historic Test Films

The third site is an archive of films from nuclear testing by the U.S. Department of Energy. Crazy the amount of destruction those armaments produced.

Goddard and a rocket

Fourth is a link to NASA’s Flickr account. Here is Flickr working with a number of the U.S. Government departments to archive some of their images and provide a more publicly accessible way for these public images to be… accessible. Kind of neat.

The Past meets the Present

Finally, the best for last. This site is all in Russian, so not too sure what he’s saying, but Sergey Larenkov has some neat images. They show a juxtaposition of World War II photos with current photos of the same place. It’s a really neat way to see how the damage would look if it were to happen today.

Doing my Duty to God

The Church put out an awesome new Duty to God program. I like it because it’s basically a scripture study program that helps the young men become spiritually strong and helps them become like Jesus Christ. What’s really great about the program, is that it entails the same steps that anybody (and everybody) needs to follow to become like Christ. The idea is to learn, then act on what you learn, and then share with others what you have learned and done.

The booklet for the program has the Deacon, Teacher and Priest sections all combined. The boys work on three relationships in each of their quorum sections. First they work on their relationship with God by developing Spiritual Strength through prayer and scripture study, living worthily, and understanding doctrine. Second they work on their relationship with all mankind by learning and practicing their Priesthood Duties by administering priesthood ordinances, serving others, and inviting all to come unto Christ. The third section is a bit different for each quorum. The deacons work on their relationship with themselves, with their bodies, by focusing on physical health. The teachers are similar in that they focus on education. The priests focus on their relationship with family and friends. The priests have an additional section where they prepare themselves to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.

So, because this is such a great program for anybody to learn their duty to God, and because I need to be an example to the boys as the Young Men’s President, I am doing this program as well. My study plan is to read and study every morning from 6:30 until 7:00. I’ve been doing pretty good at it for a few weeks too. At the end of the week, on Friday’s, I’ll write a blog post as a way for me to share my experiences.

I went over the section where we list some scriptures that are meaningful to us, and describe why they are meaningful. I came up with a few (Alma 7:11-13; 1 Samuel 15:22; D&C 58:26-27; Exodus 20:3-17; 3 Nephi 12; 3 Nephi 13:24; D&C 19:16-19). For Alma 7:11-13, I wrote:

I came to know this one on the mission. I really like how it explains the Atonement. It shows that Jesus suffered every negative thing possible. Coupled with D&C 122:8, we learn that he experienced the lowest any human can, and has even gone below that. And he did all of that so that he will know how to help us out of our hard times.

Many Mechanical Machines

Back again with another roundup of websites promoting some history. This weeks focus is on the computers and other machines.

Technologizer has come through in the past year or so with some really fun looks at technology of the past. Here are three:

15 Classic PC Design Mistakes
Weird Laptop Designs
132 Years of the videophone

It’s amazing how ugly and non-functional computers were in the early stages. They don’t seem to be anything like cars. Old cars, some of them anyways, become classics. They were made to look good. Somehow, I guess, computer manufacturers didn’t think computers would need any style. Sure they were made for businesses, but beige…. for everything? One of Apple’s biggest successes has been to transform the look of personal computers. No matter what you think about Apple as a company and Steve Jobs as a person, at least their stuff has some style (which has it’s own interesting history in that many styles come from old Braun products by Dieter Rams).

Old Computer Database
Small Gallery of Old Computers

Speaking of old computers… The Obsolete Technology Website has a plethora of information, a veritable archive, of old technology. It’s good to see someone is keeping the history of our tech junk. Newscientist also steps in with a small gallery of ancient (read older than 30 years) technology.

Macintosh Startup Chimes

Finally, a trip down memory lane with all of the old Macintosh start up sounds at Geekology.