America in the 1950's

The 1950’s had a lot going on at the time but the developments of culture and technology is what interested me when I was learning about this topic. I think it’s interesting to learn what had an impact on the future which is today. The Korean War was happening during this time and if you learn about that, you realize the reasoning behind why Korea is the way it is now. That’s one of my favorite parts. Linking what I learn in history to how our world is today.

Dwight Eisenhower was president during this time and is considered to this day among the top ten presidents of the United States. He definitely did a lot for this country. He didn’t get into politics right away. He started out as a general. A great general who actually became a five star general. A five star general is basically just a rank that a handful of people got that was higher than all the other general’s ranks. Only nine people got that rank. No one gets that rank anymore to this day. But, when he was president later on, he served two terms. I agree that he did a lot of positive good things during his presidency. He helped out with the segregation problems in the schools. That type of color barrier was a big problem during the 50’s. He was also one of the people who founded NASA. That’s a very popular organization to this day. Without him, we wouldn’t have had that. Maybe something similar, but not that specifically. History definitely effects what we have today.

Unlike the time of the Great Depression, the economy started to get much better and it was becoming a better environment in America. Also there was one movement that was very important during this time. That was the civil rights movement. African Americans did not have that many rights. But slowly, that started to change. But, they were segregated in schools, and many other places. It kind of sounds silly thinking about that type of living. Separating people just because of their skin color? That’s ridiculous but that was how they thought back then. But, in the 50’s that’s when things started to slowly change up until today where everyone has the same amount of rights. There was one man that started to create more awareness for this issue. Jack Robinson is that man. He was a Major League baseball player. He was not only that, he was the first African American man to play in the Major Leagues. People of that color were also segregated in sports. They had specific teams that they could join. But, Robinson was the man that sparked a change in this part of American culture. He became so successful in his career and he couldn’t have done that without having perseverance and breaking through society’s rules.

There were other developments in America during the 50’s like televisions. TV’s were getting very popular during this time as well as the shows that were played on it. There’s actually one show that played during this time that I like to watch today! I Love Lucy is that show. It was very popular in the 50’s. In fact, some businesses would let their employees off of work a little earlier so that they could get home and watch their favorite show that was playing. There was no DVR where you can record your shows and watch them later. You either made it to your television to watch your show, or not get to watch it at all. I personally like some of the older shows better than some of the ones that we have today. I just think the comedy in them is the best. Of course, they didn’t have all the special effects and elaborate sets that we have for our shows today, but that wasn’t needed. The shows had amazing actors. If you have great actors, then you can make the show the best. I Love Lucy is actually in black and white. I couldn’t see that show in color. I think it’s perfect in black and white. But, during this time color photography started to get much more popular. If you look back in pictures in the 50’s, color started to come into play. But I think black and white shows are still awesome classics. Sometimes color isn’t needed. So, I recommend that you try to find a way to watch a black and white film. Or any older show. Like I Love Lucy. Why you ask? You’ll see the difference in the shows back then, to the ones that we have now. I do like some shows that we have today, but I also really like the older shows because they were very entertaining. I’ve seen some mistakes that were made in them but it didn’t matter. The actors were good enough where they improvised on those mistakes. And honestly, it made it much more entertaining. Some of these shows performed their episodes in front of a live audience. So whatever happened, if it was a mistake or not, they just had to go with it. But, overall I think that everyone should at least watch one really good older show because it’s a really good difference of entertainment that is very enjoyable.

Everything started to improve in American culture, including music. Everyone knows what Rock and Roll is today, but not many people did back then. That was until a young truck driver started to get popular. That truck driver was Elvis Presley. Did you know he was a truck driver? I had no clue until now. But he was the man that made Rock and Roll much more popular. That’s why he is considered the “King of Rock and Roll” He soon became a sensation and everyone started to love him and his music. He is one of the most well-known musicians to this day. It’s amazing to see changes like this in music and what not because it just adds to our culture. Music is one of the things in history that is very interesting. Because from the beginning of music to now, there’s a big difference. So, it’s awesome to see things like that unfold in front of your eyes looking back in the past. Unfortunately though, Presley died in 1977 because of prescription drug abuse. But, he definitely left a legacy in this world because many people still listen to his amazing and entertaining music to this day.

Overall, the 50’s were definitely years of improvements and positivity for the United States because before that, they finally got their victory in World War II and before that they even went through the Great Depression in the 30’s. So this was definitely the time to recover and it resulted in the economy getting much better than before. The future was definitely looking much brighter for this country. Looking back at these different decades, it makes me think a lot about how else we are going to improve or fall in the years to come. What do you think the future of our culture will be like?

Hollywood and Walt Disney

Have you ever wondered how the entertainment industry ended up in California? Or how the Hollywood sign was even a thing? Well these questions could be answered by looking back in history. Walt Disney was also a big part of the beginning of the entertainment industry as well. He was the man that started the base for all of the Disney movies you still see to this day. He was an amazing man. There were also great movies that were being made in that later time like Gone with the Wind. People started talking about movies instead of politics. This was the start of the great movie industry that we have today.

Who started the entertainment industry? It isn’t exactly someone you would have as your first guess. Thomas Edison. Yep, this man was a great inventor of many things but no one really puts him and the movie industry together. Among his inventions he created video recording devices. This made him want to take over this industry. He didn’t want anyone to take his idea and he wanted to own the industry. Well, that didn’t last because there were people who wanted to join in the industry, which wasn’t wrong. There’s usually some competition in every business. But Thomas Edison didn’t like this. He did all that he could to shut all of them down. People started to get fed up and they wanted to get as far away from this man as they could. So this is the reasoning behind why the entertainment industry stayed in Hollywood. Why you ask? Well everyone wanted to get away from Thomas Edison who was at the time in the east. So the smart thing to do is to go west. What could he do if you were on the complete opposite side of the country? Hollywood was actually a great place for movie makers because of the scenery. With great scenery, it’s a great place to film movies. Everything started to fall into place perfectly. To this day there are monuments in Hollywood to show how much movies have had a great impact on that area. For example, this area is known for their iconic Hollywood sign. It was actually not a sign for Hollywood originally. I know that probably makes you very confused but it’s true. It started out as an advertisement for Hollywoodland. It was a neighborhood area that was nearby. But, this sign was just a temporary advertisement so it wasn’t put there for permanent purposes. When they had to repair it they just took the “land” part of it away and just made the sign represent the whole area which is Hollywood. Now it’s very popular to this day and creates the image that people have when they think of Hollywood. There is one other monument that people like to visit when they go to this area. This monument is The Walk of Fame. This is where there are stars that are engraved into the ground and on each one, there is a person’s name on it that is a part of the entertainment industry. This commemorates all of them.

One of the famous movie makers that I want to talk about is Walt Disney. He was a man that accomplished many things. Even to this day there’s many movies that would not be here if he didn’t create his own studio. He started Walt Disney Animation Studios with his brother Roy. In there he was the man who created the famous Mickey Mouse along with his friends Goofy, Minnie, Pluto, and many more. But that wasn’t the first project that he started right away. Mickey Mouse is now a slogan or logo of Disney, but that was not the original plan. Walt created the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Unfortunately, that was stolen from Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was stolen by someone they partnered with previously. But, you don’t see an Oswald World do you? So that didn’t turn out to be a success for the people who stole the rights to it. But Disney knew what to do. Of course, it is a letdown to see your ideas taken from you, but you can’t really do anything about it. This was when Mickey Mouse was in the making. His wife actually was the one who came up with the name Mickey. It’s very inspiring to see how that one awesome idea that he came up for his studios that got taken away from him, didn’t stop him from his goal. That’s a great lesson for everyone to learn. If there is something that knocks you down, you have to fight to rise up higher than ever before, and that’s exactly what Walt did. If it weren’t for that incident, we wouldn’t have the wonderful Mickey Mouse that we have to this day!

It wasn’t just the movies that he got into, he also made a theme park called Disneyland in Anaheim, California. We are familiar with two Disney parks in the U.S. but it wasn’t until after he passed away that they created Disney World which is located in Florida. I love that he thought of creating these parks because it really gives kids imagination. His movies do that too. Whenever I watch any Disney film whether it’s new or old, I get into it. I feel like I’m in a completely different world. If I’m having a bad day or just stressed out, I watch Disney movies because it honestly makes every single bad thing disappear. I love being imaginative, and so did he and Walt had a big imagination that he shared to the world. I’m glad he did.

Walt started out making animated shorts and later moved on to longer films. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was actually the first feature-length movie he made. Even though it was his first, it was one of the biggest successes he’s ever had. It was so popular in the movies, they kept releasing it in the theaters until it came out on video. It is still one of the top ten movies that has been released (adjusting the inflation). One of the short cartoons that he made previously called Steamboat Willie, was also a success for him. I watched it and even though it’s an oldie, it’s a goodie. Honestly, that animated short is really entertaining. If you have ever watched a Disney movie, they still put a little clip of mickey whistling. That was part of the Steamboat Willie short. I like that they put that in the introduction of the Disney movie because it still commemorates the great works that Walt did in the beginning. I hope they keep that up because you should never forget the person that made it all happen. I would have loved to meet Walt Disney because he is truly inspiring.

There were many other successes in the movie industry and many great movies that were made but I wanted to focus on Walt Disney because he is the one that I can connect to the most. I watch Disney movies all the time and I always think to myself, that one incredible man made all of this happen. I will always watch Disney movies because they are truly amazing. We have Walt Disney to thank for creating Mickey Mouse, and all the other older films, because that started it all.

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing

was started with a dream and a mouse.”

-Walt E. Disney

World War II

World War II was one of the most devastating wars in history. Many lives were lost. But the one country that played a big part in the war was Germany. They were basically the one country that was in the whole war consistently. They originally just wanted to expand their territory so that they can rule most of Europe. In the beginning, they were successful. But when it came towards the end of the war, they started losing the land that they expanded on. They weren’t the only ones that were creating chaos though. The U.S. and Japan were also head to head with battling each other. The U.S. joined in the war towards the end similar to what happened in World War I.

First of all, there was a treaty that was made in Europe that basically just restricted Germany from expanding their territory. That was the complete opposite thing that they wanted to do so they weren’t very happy. France and Britain were the two other countries that were involved with this treaty. They knew that Germany was not giving up and they wanted more land for themselves to rule. Doesn’t every country right? So, Britain and France thought that if they break the treaty for the Germans to get the land that they wanted they would be satisfied and happy. That was a big mistake which sparked World War II. If a country knew that they can continue to expand their territory, why would they stop? Germany wanted more and more and more. It was not what the French and British thought would happen. But, twenty years after World War I, World War II was just beginning. If that wasn’t enough chaos, the German leader at the time thought that it was fit to introduce a new type of government to his country. That man was Adolf Hitler. Everyone remembers who this man was. The new type of government that he was starting to introduce was Dictatorship. If you don’t know what that means it means that there is only one leader. They get to tell you what you can and cannot do. There is no voting, because they keep that position. Let’s just say it’s the complete opposite of a democracy that we have today. I personally think that having a dictator is one of the worst ways to govern a country. Germany was not the only country during this time that had a dictatorship.

As you may know the Great Depression happened right before World War II began. Some people blame this terrible time as the reasoning behind why World War II began. But if you think about it, this is a terrible theory. Why would people who were struggling at the time, want to make things worse by starting a war? It just doesn’t add up. But, even though some people think that, it’s not true. Like I said before, it was Germany that wanted to break the treaty in order to expand their territory which sparked the war, as well as Germany invading Poland. But it was still a horrible time during World War II because everyone just recovered from the terrible World War I, and now they had to hop into another war that was even worse than the first one.

The first country that Germany took over was Poland. They weren’t stopping there of course. Overall, they just continued with their original plan. Taking over Europe was their main goal. That was until a few things got in their path along the way. The Allies against Germany never really got that many victories. But, during the 40’s Germany wanted to take on a battle with the Soviet Union which had a lot of territory at the time. This wasn’t exactly a good decision for both sides because both countries lost a lot after this battle. Many soldiers on both sides lost their lives fighting.

There were a lot of battles obviously in this war. When there are specific battles mentioned, I realize why. There’s a turning point or some sort of game change. Certain countries either lost a lot and it impacted them greatly, or there was a huge victory that influenced many other events afterwards in history. For example the Battle of the Atlantic was a battle that started in the beginning of the war but it lasted throughout the whole war! So that is one of the battles that should be mentioned since it was a big part in World War II. This battle had Germany using Submarines to invade and sink the ships that were carrying supplies that were for French and British. It was not until the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Berlin that Germany finally surrendered to the Allied forces. This was a relief to the other countries.

But while all of that was happening in Europe, that wasn’t the only part of the war that we should learn about. Have you ever heard or learned anything about the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii? Well it happened during this time. While the war was already going on, the U.S. didn’t join in the fighting. Throughout that time it didn’t look like they ever would. All of the problems in the first place were about Europe so it didn’t really have anything to do with our country. That was until this event that happened at Pearl Harbor. On December 7^th, 1941, was when the Japanese invaded and bombed Pearl Harbor which resulted in a lot of loss for the Americans. The U.S. at this point had enough. Soon after that they joined World War II. This was sort of similar to what happened in World War I. The U.S. wasn’t in the war in the beginning, but they joined in towards the end.

Towards the end of the war the Allied forces started to become more successful like I said before. The Battle of the Coral Sea was not exactly a huge win for them, but it set a path for them to go down in the upcoming battles. This definitely gave the other countries hope. The Battle of Midway was the Allied forces against Japan and they were extremely successful. At first, the Allied forces were successful with Germany surrendering, that happened in the European Theater. The two battles that I just mentioned that were against Japan, happened in the Pacific Theater. That wasn’t the only thing that happened in their favor. The U.S. during this time was working on a top secret weapon. It was a bomb. It wasn’t like any ordinary bomb though. It was an Atomic Bomb. The destruction that this weapon can make is honestly terrifying. But, knowing that, the Americans decided to drop it two times in Japan. The first time that they dropped it was in the city of Hiroshima. It’s crazy to think that all of these people weren’t seeing this coming, but it’s true. The second city that they dropped the bomb in was Nagasaki. I personally can’t understand how someone can drop something like that on a bunch of innocent people. Yes I said innocent. They weren’t all people that took part in battling with America. They were simply just people who lived there. When the bomb was dropped it killed everyone instantly. No one can even estimate how many people died from that catastrophe because bodies could not be found. Why you ask? Well, when this weapon was dropped, it made everything extremely hot. Some people turned to dust because of how hot it was. It instantly destroyed everything that was in the bomb’s path. The city was not a city afterwards. I understand that our country was against Japan at the time but that doesn’t mean that we have to kill more people that just live in their country. They are innocent people. That’s what makes me sick. Just because we got violence from another country, it doesn’t mean that creating more violence is going to help the situation.

Germany was still not doing anything good while it was at war. The Nazis in Germany were strongly against the Jewish. But basically they were against anyone who were not a part of the Aryan Race. So many executions took place in that country. There were about 6,000,000 Jews that were killed. I can’t even imagine that many people all at once. If that wasn’t horrible enough, they even took all of the possessions from the people who they killed. There were also some camps that made the people help them with the war by building war equipment, roads, etc. So if you didn’t agree or be a part of their Aryan beliefs, you were either killed or treated as a slave. Why can’t everyone believe in what they want to believe in?

Overall many lives were lost from and during World War II. I can understand why it was worse than World War I. When I learned about World War I then hearing that World War II was worse, I was thinking, “How could it possibly get any worse than this?” I was proved wrong. It can always get worse. Whether it’s a new weapon that gets made to destroy a country, or Dictatorships take over countries, it can get much worse than you ever imagined.

Contrasting Lamarck and Darwin's Theories

Lamarck and Darwin definitely had different views on evolution. Lamarck thought that different species inherited the characteristics that they have at the current time. Like for example giraffes could have started as an animal that had short necks. But when the ancestors stretched their necks in order to adapt to where they could get the food, the next generation of giraffes after them would have longer necks. This was completely different from Darwin’s theories. Darwin believed that there were different types of species inside the family of the species. To better explain this, he thought that maybe there were giraffes that had short necks, and other giraffes had long necks. It would turn into the theory of survival of the fittest. The giraffes with the longer necks would have an easier time getting to their food. But, the ones with the shorter necks would not be so lucky. So instead of having giraffes with shorter necks to this day, we have longer ones because the ancestors before them that had longer necks survived while the other ones didn’t so there was no offspring following the giraffes with shorter necks.

The one question that I have to answer in this short essay is, how did a woodpecker get such a cushioned head? Today, if you find a woodpecker you’ll find them banging their head against a tree yet they have no reaction towards it. If you did that you would become very dazed and dizzy…. Your head will also hurt and you might get a headache afterwards most likely. But the woodpeckers are completely fine with it and they do it all the time. So, it’s of course because we don’t have as much cushion in our heads like they do. How did they get that feature? Lamarck and Darwin would be the ones who would have different theories compared to each other.

I’m pretty sure what Darwin would say to this. Maybe, quite possibly, there were a bunch of different woodpeckers that were different from each other. I mean, all of the humans today aren’t completely alike right? So there must have been some slight difference between other species as well. So, what if some woodpeckers had less cushion then other woodpeckers? This animal has the common instinct to bang their heads against trees right? Well maybe the other woodpeckers that didn’t have much cushion, didn’t survive as well as the ones who did. Therefore, like the giraffe example, the offspring from the more cushioned woodpeckers would be the only offspring that would come afterwards since the other woodpeckers with the less cushion, had a harder time surviving.

Lamarck wouldn’t believe in such a thing. I think that Lamarck thought that since the woodpeckers have to do this activity of banging their heads against trees, maybe they inherited it. So, if the woodpeckers in the past kept banging their heads against the trees even though they didn’t have enough cushion, the species adapted to the survival instincts where they would slowly inherit more cushion. So therefore, their offspring for the years to come afterwards, will inherit the feature of having more cushion. So he basically thought that the species adapted to their surroundings rather than the survival of the fittest type of theory.

Both theories have a different thinking style. I can see how these men thought it was so fascinating to find out how these species got the features that they are born with. It brings you to the even larger question of how did any of our species, including us, get to the point to where we are now?

What do you think about this topic? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below this blog post!