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.
Monday, February 27, 2012
HUM 455, don't panic!
For all the Holocaust folks, don't panic, the essay on "Architecture of Doom" can't be due today because we haven't even finished watching it...we will reschedule the due date. TBA at present.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Sick!
I have been felled by a vicious cold and have had to surrender--no voice, stumbling around--so teaching today would be a gruesome exercise. See you all on Monday!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Holocaust response assignment
We will watch the Peter Cohen documentary, "Architecture of Doom," on February 15 in class. Here are the instructions for the response assignment you will tackle after viewing it:
Documentary films make a claim to present objective truths, like written documents. Peter Cohen, the director of “Architecture of Doom, “ uses actual footage from the l930s and 40s, quotes from historical records and documents, and describes actual events. In doing so, however, he presents a particular interpretation of National Socialism and makes arguments about its origins and the motives of its proponents. How do you understand Cohen’s interpretation? Which aspects of Nazism and the Holocaust does it help you understand? What objections can you make to Cohen’s interpretation? Overall, do you find it convincing? Be sure to use specific facts and scenes from the film in your answer.
Write your response—this is a “response” paper-- in a 3-5 page paper(ballpark), preferably typed, due Monday, February 27. There are no right or wrong answers—I will evaluate you on the basis of how clearly and effectively you present your response
Documentary films make a claim to present objective truths, like written documents. Peter Cohen, the director of “Architecture of Doom, “ uses actual footage from the l930s and 40s, quotes from historical records and documents, and describes actual events. In doing so, however, he presents a particular interpretation of National Socialism and makes arguments about its origins and the motives of its proponents. How do you understand Cohen’s interpretation? Which aspects of Nazism and the Holocaust does it help you understand? What objections can you make to Cohen’s interpretation? Overall, do you find it convincing? Be sure to use specific facts and scenes from the film in your answer.
Write your response—this is a “response” paper-- in a 3-5 page paper(ballpark), preferably typed, due Monday, February 27. There are no right or wrong answers—I will evaluate you on the basis of how clearly and effectively you present your response
Vietnam midterm questions...
Without further ado, the Vietnam midterm...the image you see above is the Vietnam Memorial Wall, taken by me with my back to the Korean War memorial.
History 388—US and Vietnam spring 2012
Midterm exam
For Wednesday, 29(!) February 2012
Directions Part I(100%): Prepare the following questions, taking care to support your statements with specific evidence from the lectures, readings, videos and any independent reflection you have done. You MIGHT get a chance to choose your question, but then again, I might reserve that right as class dictator, so make sure you know all three. Trust me, they WILL ask the one you don’t do!
1. One of the architects of the Vietnam war, JFK/LBJ Defense Secretary Robert Strange McNamara, listed as one of his life lessons, “Empathize with your enemy” in a conflict or war. You are an advisor to McNamara and the year is l961, the year JFK came to office. Adopting the perspective of the Viet Minh leadership, write a profile of the group for McNamara, including what conditions in the country account for their appearance, what their objectives are and why they seem to be so popular among ordinary Vietnamese. Conclude by describing how they view Diem and the United States, and what you believe the United States should do about them.
2.As a senator, President John F. Kennedy visited Vietnam in the last years of the Viet Minh’s war with the French. He and his brother Robert declared that the US should not stand in the way of “rekindled nationalism” and criticized their father and others who had backed the re-imposition of French rule on Vietnam after the war. Yet this was the same John Kennedy who told his advisers in l962 that United States foreign policy” must be credible” and the “place to make it credible is Vietnam.” Write an essay in which you explain why changed his mind, and what measures he took to prevent a Ho Chi Minh victory there.
3.Ngo Dinh Diem was the United States’ choice to head an anti-Communist south Vietnamese government. On paper, he was a good candidate: he was intelligent, well-spoken, religious and knowledgeable about his patron, the United States. President Eisenhower and others hoped that he would convince the Vietnamese to reject Ho Chi Minh and embrace the US-backed anti-Communist government. Why were Diem and his government unsuccessful in this?
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