Immigration and the immigrant experience is a key element of the American experience.
Yet to get a real look at what it means to be an immigrant, it helps to look past the steerage section, the Statue of Liberty and a flood of Jacob Riis photographs.
Becoming American: The Immigrant Experience is a documentary created by the Merage Foundation for the American Dream. Part of its American Dream series, the film covers close to the entirety of the immigration experience, starting with the early European colonists of the colonial period up through the early decades of our century.
It includes the experiences and hardships of many groups who came to this country, even involuntary immigrants such as enslaved Africans and isolated populations such as Chinese contract labor on the railroads.
It’s a film geared toward high school students, but it can certainly be adapted for younger viewers.
Just as the world was about to explode into another world war, the New York World’s Fair gave its visitors a vision of the future–the “World of Tomorrow.” it featured advances in robotics, television, new gadgets and pavilions from most countries in the world.
It’s a vision of the future that still inspires and frightens us.
Attached is two official films of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Though they are silent, they contain text cels and provide amongst the best primary source material on this important cultural event.
We just rang in 2012 and amazingly, the Iowa Caucuses are tonight, beginning another presidential election season.
Eventually, someone will ask about that 18th century enigma, the Electoral College. This nifty video from CommonCraft.com explains the process in a straightforward way, so as to avoid those uncomfortable questions…
such as “Why the fuck do we need an Electoral College anyway?”
The holidays are never complete without Charles Dickens‘ immortal Victorian morality tale–and now you can show among the best versions of the story.
In 1843, Charles Dickens’A Christmas Carol was not only a wildly popular bestseller. In so many words, Dickens defined the modern definition of Christmas in Britain and especially in America. Practically overnight, A Christmas Carol re-introduced the English-speaking world to a holiday that had been largely forgotten for almost two centuries.
Ever since the ban on Christmas during the Cromwellian era, the holiday was looked down upon as an idolatrous Catholic vice. Even in America, only Anglican Virginia and outlying German Lutheran and Catholic settlements on the frontier really celebrated it.
Dickens’ work practically re-oriented the holiday from its more religious underpinnings to a secular, family-based celebration of comraderie and goodwill. Even the most dour Calvinist couldn’t argue with those sentiments. As the novel became popular, the markings of the celebration as noted on the pages–gift-giving, trees, pine wreaths, holly, carols, food, etc.–started to sprout in Britain and the United States (Puritan New England was slower in adopting it: many parts of the region wouldn’t allow Christmas celebrations until the 1870s.)
Thus, the holiday we see today comes almost directly from this 1843 novel.
Like any popular story, A Christmas Carol has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times. The version attached today is among the best. This 1971 animated film won the Academy Award for best animated short film: the only version of the story to be honored with an Oscar. Directed by Richard Williams and produced by legendary animator Chuck Jones, the film’s style is lifted almost directly from 19th century illustrations, as well as 1930s illustrations of a popular reprint. The tone is sufficiently dark to suit the somber Dickensian world of mid-19th century London: you can smell the smog and misery.
I think its among the best adaptations of the story around. The mood of the story is sufficiently dark and upbeat to satisfy all audiences–but particularly older students. This definitely lends itself to discussions of Victorian society, values, social welfare and government policies to the less fortunate.
Or it just could be a great Christmas yarn (which it is). You can decide. Enjoy.
Its informative, interesting and well made. Yet what should strike students is how the time is broken up. In a video that is over seven minutes long, only the last two minutes are devoted to recorded human history. It should give a sense of how infinitesimally short our existence has been on this Earth.
Everything about the Battle of Saratoga–including its name–has been scrubbed clean by scores of textbooks.
On October 17, 1777, after a punishing four-month campaign, British general John Burgoyne surrendered almost 6,000 British, Hessian and Canadian troops to the Northern Department of the Continental Army, led by General Horatio Gates and (they should get all the credit for victory) Generals Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan.
It was a stunning victory, one that would have widespread effects on the Revolutionary War. Yet many of the details have been lost to the chest-thumping.
Burgoyne left Canada in June of 1777 with a force that was designed to connect with two other British forces: Barry St. Leger‘s mixed army of British, Hessian and Native troops from the west, and Sir William Howe‘s main British force from New York City. They were supposed to meet near Albany, dividing the colonies in two and effectively ending the war and the American Revolution.
It didn’t exactly go as planned.
First to punk out was Howe. It was, on the surface, an easy choice: George Washington’s army was being driven from Pennsylvania, and the rebel capital, Philadelphia was poised for the taking. To him, it made more sense. Never mind that the plan to effectively end the war was fucked up from the very beginning–Washington was the bigger prize. It would be a prize Howe would never get, and would soon be relieved by Sir Henry Clinton.
St. Leger had an even worse time. He never had any intention of backing out: his mixed force of 2000 Loyalists, British and natives crossed Lake Ontario and landed at Oswego on July 25. The brutal campaigns of Oriskany and Fort Stanwix–where American militiamen and native allies slugged it out with St. Leger’s forces to a stalemate–changed the story. It drained the morale of St. Leger’s native allies, who took their supplies and took off. It didn’t help that Benedict Arnold tricked St. Leger into thinking a larger colonial force was coming to relieve Fort Stanwix. By the time St. Leger shows up at Fort Ticonderoga on September 27, his feeble force was no help to Burgoyne.
Of the three prongs on the British plan, it was Burgoyne, funny enough, who was most successful. By July he had retaken Fort Ticonderoga, an important strategic and symbolic fortification on the foot of Lake Champlain. Yet from then on, his campaign slowed to a crawl, as the wagons crating the supplies–including Burgoyne’s luggage, china and furniture–got bogged down in the Hudson highlands.
In the meantime, a quick American victory over Burgoyne’s advance cavalry at Bennington boosted morale to the point that American forces would swell to close to 15,000. It included Daniel Morgan’s Virginia sharpshooters, Benedict Arnold’s force sent to relieve Fort Stanwix, as well as the main force under Benjamin Lincoln and a new commander, British trained Horatio Gates.
Gates thought he could do a better job than Washington. Arnold thought he could do a better job than Gates. Both hated each other.
So how was Saratoga won?
Saratoga was not one battle, but rather a series of maneuvers and two battles over on month. The first, the Battle of Freeman’s Farm, the British technically won, but at the cost of 600 casualties. On October 7, the British attacked American fortified positions at Bemis Heights. In the two actions–the second punctuated by a daring attack by Arnold who was probably drunk–the British suffered a total of 1000 casualties.
Outnumber three to one, with the Americans controlling the high ground and surrounding him at the town of Saratoga itself, Burgoyne was forced to surrender his forces. When he discussed the terms with General Gates, Burgoyne insisted on calling the surrender a “convention” rather than a “capitulation.”
He fooled no one.
On the final ceremony, after Burgoyne offered his sword to Gates (who refused–a move that further infuriated Arnold), 6000 soldiers laid down their arms as the band played “Yankee Doodle.”
It was very clear to everyone this was no “convention.”
Saratoga would invoke the first day of Thanksgiving, decreed by the Continental Congress on December 18, 1777. It convinced France and Spain that the Americans could actually win the war–given the right support. Soon, both countries would sign treaties of alliance with the United States, transforming a colonial rebellion into a world war.
Below is a two-part short documentary about Saratoga narrated by Dan Roberts.
Its amazing what used to pass for education in our youth.
A year ago, I wrote about the conflicting personality of Christopher Columbus, his downward spiral in the eyes of historians, and his controversial image among Americans today. A year later, and I still haven’t found a decent answer to this problem.
So I resorted to the next best thing–making fun of how we celebrated the old myths, through video.
Today’s video is a 1960 Mel-O-Toons classic cartoon about Columbus and his exploits. The younger kids…and I mean REALLY young…will enjoy the cartoons and songs. Older students can sit back and laugh at the absurd notions we were taught, such as:
Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934, this act established the National Archives to centralize federal record keeping, with the Archivist of the United States as its chief administrator. Read more in Prologue: Creating the National Archives... The National Archives: Celebrating 75 Years...
Movies for the Classroom: A Christmas Carol (1971)
The holidays are never complete without Charles Dickens‘ immortal Victorian morality tale–and now you can show among the best versions of the story.
In 1843, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was not only a wildly popular bestseller. In so many words, Dickens defined the modern definition of Christmas in Britain and especially in America. Practically overnight, A Christmas Carol re-introduced the English-speaking world to a holiday that had been largely forgotten for almost two centuries.
Ever since the ban on Christmas during the Cromwellian era, the holiday was looked down upon as an idolatrous Catholic vice. Even in America, only Anglican Virginia and outlying German Lutheran and Catholic settlements on the frontier really celebrated it.
Dickens’ work practically re-oriented the holiday from its more religious underpinnings to a secular, family-based celebration of comraderie and goodwill. Even the most dour Calvinist couldn’t argue with those sentiments. As the novel became popular, the markings of the celebration as noted on the pages–gift-giving, trees, pine wreaths, holly, carols, food, etc.–started to sprout in Britain and the United States (Puritan New England was slower in adopting it: many parts of the region wouldn’t allow Christmas celebrations until the 1870s.)
Thus, the holiday we see today comes almost directly from this 1843 novel.
Like any popular story, A Christmas Carol has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times. The version attached today is among the best. This 1971 animated film won the Academy Award for best animated short film: the only version of the story to be honored with an Oscar. Directed by Richard Williams and produced by legendary animator Chuck Jones, the film’s style is lifted almost directly from 19th century illustrations, as well as 1930s illustrations of a popular reprint. The tone is sufficiently dark to suit the somber Dickensian world of mid-19th century London: you can smell the smog and misery.
I think its among the best adaptations of the story around. The mood of the story is sufficiently dark and upbeat to satisfy all audiences–but particularly older students. This definitely lends itself to discussions of Victorian society, values, social welfare and government policies to the less fortunate.
Or it just could be a great Christmas yarn (which it is). You can decide. Enjoy.
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