Representations of the Holocaust/HUM 450/final paper, due in hard copy MONDAY, APRIL 30, between 5 and 6 pm, in my office…
Directions Part I: EVERYONE will do this one(60%)
Yaffa Eliach’s Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust is an unusual representation of the Holocaust in that they are based on real-life experiences, but infused with elements that place them somewhere between fiction and non-fiction. Choose four or five of your favorite tales and write an essay in which you explain how they affected your understanding of the war on the Jews. Conclude with or include in the body of your answer your best guess as to why these tales were composed, beyond their value as evidence of the Holocaust.
Directions Part II(40%): YOUR CHOICE. Answer ONE of the following, taking care to use specific examples from the films, videos, documentaries, readings, etc.:
Of the representations of the Holocaust we have evaluated this term—art, architecture, film, fiction, memoir, graphic novel, music, poetry and plain old documentary evidence—choose one or two and explain why it was effective in conveying some aspect of the Holocaust to you. Do NOT use Architecture of Doom or Maus, since you have already written about those.
A t-shirt on sale at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum proclaims, “What You Do Matters.” What lessons have you learned from studying the Holocaust that you can use in keeping The World, or your world, or both, safe from a similar outrage in the future?
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Vietnam FINAL(!!!!!)
Without further ado, the second and final assignment for History 388...
History 388/Final exam/spring 2012, due in hard copy MONDAY, April 30, between 4:15 and 5pm in my office…
Directions: Answer BOTH questions in brilliantly conceived, cogently argued essays. Be sure to back up your points with specifics from the videos, readings, songs, and any personal reflection you have done…
1. The Vietnam conflict damaged the reputation of John F. Kennedy, drove Lyndon Johnson from office in despair and fatally distorted Richard Nixon’s judgment, destroying his Presidency in the Watergate scandal. In addition, it killed 58,000 young Americans, well over a million Vietnamese and inflicted deep wounds on the body politic of both nations. Why couldn’t(or wouldn’t) President Nixon or Johnson bring the war to a “successful” end, in spite of unparalleled tonnage of bombs, ground troops, billions of dollars and the latest in high-tech weaponry?
2. Few Americans felt the effects of the Vietnam war more keenly than the members of West Point’s class of l966. Review Rick Atkinson’s book The Long Gray Line, in particular the lives of John P. “Jack” Wheeler, George Crocker and Arthur Bonifas and write an essay in which you discuss how the Vietnam war affected their lives and careers after graduation from the Academy.
History 388/Final exam/spring 2012, due in hard copy MONDAY, April 30, between 4:15 and 5pm in my office…
Directions: Answer BOTH questions in brilliantly conceived, cogently argued essays. Be sure to back up your points with specifics from the videos, readings, songs, and any personal reflection you have done…
1. The Vietnam conflict damaged the reputation of John F. Kennedy, drove Lyndon Johnson from office in despair and fatally distorted Richard Nixon’s judgment, destroying his Presidency in the Watergate scandal. In addition, it killed 58,000 young Americans, well over a million Vietnamese and inflicted deep wounds on the body politic of both nations. Why couldn’t(or wouldn’t) President Nixon or Johnson bring the war to a “successful” end, in spite of unparalleled tonnage of bombs, ground troops, billions of dollars and the latest in high-tech weaponry?
2. Few Americans felt the effects of the Vietnam war more keenly than the members of West Point’s class of l966. Review Rick Atkinson’s book The Long Gray Line, in particular the lives of John P. “Jack” Wheeler, George Crocker and Arthur Bonifas and write an essay in which you discuss how the Vietnam war affected their lives and careers after graduation from the Academy.
Monday, April 2, 2012
HUM 455, Second Response paper(!!)...
455/Representations of the Holocaust/Response Paper #2, due APRIL 18, 2012
I actually stole this assignment from Professor Doris Bergen—full credit to her!!--because I can’t think of a better way for us to interact with MAUS, the world’s lone graphic novel/comic book Holocaust memoir…
Imagine that you are an intern at a small Holocaust museum in the state of Washington. The director has arranged to host an exhibit of drawings from Art Spiegelman’s MAUS along with a public lecture by the artist. The staff and volunteers are excited about the event, but some donors and members of the local community are not happy. Your supervisor has passed on three of their letters to you and asked you to draft an answer to one of them, the rest to be assigned to other interns. One letter is from a Polish American furious at the way Spiegelman depicts Poles. How dare the museum promote such negative stereotypes, she wants to know. She threatens to organize a protest outside the museum. Another letter is from a Jewish Holocaust survivor. He is angry at how Spiegelman portrays Jews during the war as mice and Holocaust survivors as neurotic basket cases. This is no way to remember and honor those who suffered so much under the Nazis, he asserts. The third letter is from a disappointed middle school teacher. She is teaching a unit on comparative genocide and she wanted to bring her students to the Holocaust museum. Now she is worried that if the students see the Holocaust turned into a comic strip, they’ll never take it seriously. She also doesn’t like the exclusive focus on Jewish suffering. Her school has very few Jewish students, so how are her students supposed to relate to MAUS?
Choose ONE of these letters and draft a reply. If you find yourself unable to defend the exhibit, write a memo to your supervisor instead, in which you explain your reasons.
I actually stole this assignment from Professor Doris Bergen—full credit to her!!--because I can’t think of a better way for us to interact with MAUS, the world’s lone graphic novel/comic book Holocaust memoir…
Imagine that you are an intern at a small Holocaust museum in the state of Washington. The director has arranged to host an exhibit of drawings from Art Spiegelman’s MAUS along with a public lecture by the artist. The staff and volunteers are excited about the event, but some donors and members of the local community are not happy. Your supervisor has passed on three of their letters to you and asked you to draft an answer to one of them, the rest to be assigned to other interns. One letter is from a Polish American furious at the way Spiegelman depicts Poles. How dare the museum promote such negative stereotypes, she wants to know. She threatens to organize a protest outside the museum. Another letter is from a Jewish Holocaust survivor. He is angry at how Spiegelman portrays Jews during the war as mice and Holocaust survivors as neurotic basket cases. This is no way to remember and honor those who suffered so much under the Nazis, he asserts. The third letter is from a disappointed middle school teacher. She is teaching a unit on comparative genocide and she wanted to bring her students to the Holocaust museum. Now she is worried that if the students see the Holocaust turned into a comic strip, they’ll never take it seriously. She also doesn’t like the exclusive focus on Jewish suffering. Her school has very few Jewish students, so how are her students supposed to relate to MAUS?
Choose ONE of these letters and draft a reply. If you find yourself unable to defend the exhibit, write a memo to your supervisor instead, in which you explain your reasons.
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