"The Greatest Tyrant in the State of Pennsylvania": A Late Nineteenth-Century Rail Worker Describes
Although publicists for the Gilded Age corporations celebrated efficiency and the science of management, their employees did not always join the celebration. What looked like careful and disciplined management from one perspective was often viewed as petty tyranny from below. While some workers assailed upper management for this abuse others experienced the tyranny more directly in their day-to-day work lives. In this transcript taken from testimony before the U. S. House of Representatives in t
"I Always Had Pads with Me": A G.I. Artist's Sketchpad, 1943-1944
In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war, thousands of Americans enlisted in the U.S. armed forces. Among them was twenty-year-old Bronx resident Ben Hurwitz. Like many of the men and women who entered military service, Hurwitz (who changed his name to Brown after the war) kept a record of his experiences. But his "journal" was a sketchpad, and, during his two years in North Africa and Italy, Corporal Hurwitz drew and painted at every opportunity. Hurwitz's pictures a
W.E.B. DuBois Critiques Booker T. Washington
The most influential public critique of Booker T. Washington's policy of racial accommodation and gradualism came in 1903 when black leader and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois published an essay in his collection The Souls of Black Folk with the title "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others." DuBois rejected Washington's willingness to avoid rocking the racial boat, calling instead for political power, insistence on civil rights, and the higher education of Negro youth.
Haymarket Martyr Albert Parsons's Last Words to His Wife
The Chicago radicals convicted of the infamous May 4, 1886 Haymarket Square bombing in which one policeman was killed remained openly defiant to the end. In his final letter to his wife, written August 20, 1886 from the Cook County "Bastille" (jail), convicted Haymarket bombing participant Albert R. Parsons, an Alabama-born printer, admitted that the verdict would cheer "the hearts of tyrants," but still optimistically predicted that "our doom to death is the handwriting on the wall, foretelling
A Mule Spinner Tells the U.S. Senate about Late 19th century Unemployment
Fall River, Massachusetts, mill worker Thomas O'Donnell (who had immigrated to the U.S. from England eleven years earlier) appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor on October 18, 1883, to answer the panel's questions about working-class economic conditions. An unemployed mule spinner for more than half of the year, he described the introduction of new production methods at the Fall River, Massachusetts, textile factory where he worked as a mule spinner (a worker who tende
"Speak, Garvey, Speak!"A Follower Recalls a Garvey Rally
The Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey, a brilliant orator and black nationalist leader, turned his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) into the most important black organization in the United States in the early 1920s. Garvey's speeches often drew huge audiences, and stories of Garvey's stubborn resistance in the face of white hostility proliferated among his supporters. In an oral history interview, devotee Audley Moore remembered the Jamaican's defiant behavior at a rally in New Orleans c
Kate Richards O'Hare's Life as a Socialist Party Organizer
In her autobiographical essay, "How I Became a Socialist Agitator," which was first published in Socialist Woman in October 1908, Socialist Party organizer Kate Richards O'Hare credited her career as a "Socialist agitator" to her youthful exposure to poverty and "sordid suffering." As she explained in this essay, her disillusionment with the church and a talk by labor organizer "Mother"Jones further pushed her toward socialism.
"Forty-Two Cents an Hour" for Twelve to Fourteen Hours a Day: George Milkulvich Describes Work in th
In the dramatic 1919 steel strike, 350,000 workers walked off their jobs and crippled the industry. The U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor set out to investigate the strike while it was still in progress. In his testimony before the committee, George Milkulvich, an immigrant from the Croatian region of Dalmatia (along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea), gave a straightforward explanation of what he was striking for--"better treatment."
Model United Nations Headquarters
Model United Nations (UN) is an authentic simulation of the U.N. General Assembly and other multilateral bodies. This Headquarters homepage offers an 'ask an ambassador' section, an overview of the Model UN, FAQ, information on how to get started and how to prepare for a conference. Users can also follow links to several interactive forums, a conference calendar, additional links and e-news.
The Living Edens: Virtual Yellowstone Tour
This Starting Point page describes a virtual tour of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming featured on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) website. In this tour, students act as park rangers to research geological features of Yellowstone, locate these features on maps, and describe and define associated geologic terms. The features discussed include geysers, hot springs, canyons, waterfalls and mudpots. On this page, users can find learning goals, teaching notes and tips, teaching materials, as
Moon Phases
The Moon Phases java applet provides an animated view of the moon, either from Earth, or from above the ecliptic. The animation changes phases and can be seen from a top view, earth view or both. The page also provides vocabulary terms for each of the phases and other interesting information.
National Weather Service: Graphical Forecast
This site displays a click-and-zoom map of the US showing forecast temperatures as well as several other meteorological variables, normally updated every hour. Also available are maps showing chance of precipitation, temperature and wind, weather, dew point, weather, precipitation, dew point and cover. Maps can be changed to see forecasts for the current day, that night, and three days following. This is an experimental product of the National Digital Forecast Database, produced by the National
Quicksand Questions: Short In-class Activity
This Starting Point classroom activity prompts students with questions during a lecture on quicksand. Their answers can be collected with classroom response systems or through a think-pair-share activity. This activity allows an instructor to review the answers with the class and immediately address any points of misunderstanding or content areas that need clarification. The details of this exercise are found on this website, which provides learning goals and context, teaching materials such as
Mapping Plate Boundaries
This in-class exercise, profiled on the Starting Point website, is intended to have the students discover plate boundaries based on the uneven geographic occurrence of geologic hazards. The website details the learning goals, teaching notes and materials, and context for this activity. It offers an extensive list of links to additional resources and materials for lecture on geologic hazards and plate tectonics.
Music of Ralph Shapey, The
Documentary containing interview footage with the composer Ralph Shapey, and narrated overview of his life and music. Includes performances of his music recorded for this program.
Shapey compositions are performed for this piece. They include:
"O Jerusalem," with Elsa Charlston as soprano and Carole Morgan on flute
"Mutations #2," with Emilio Del Rosario on piano
"Three for Six"
"Soundings" was a music documentary program affiliated with the Workshop and produced by Bernice "Bunny" Olenick.
Vestibule (In 3 Episodes)
Episode 1: 'Place' -The color image of an apartment building vestibule shot from across the street is accompanied by a sound track of street sounds and narrated text adapted from The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. Excerpts of the text are displayed in the lower third of the screen. The image of the vestibule is interrupted by a girl riding a bicycle, a child riding a scooter, a man carrying a glass vase, and a man driving a red Pontiac. Each of these actions occurs in slow motion from right to left
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, The: A Video Opera
'The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle' is divided into several distinct sections, the contents of which are described as follow: Act 1: The Gloria: Nature scenes accompanied by opera punctuated by flashes of city scenes, followed by shots of city landscapes; Interlude 1: Computer graphic shots of sexless bodies; Act 2: Pursuit for Plastic: Children play among ruins, accompanied by a score of children singing; two boys push and shove before one of the boys runs off into a field; Interlude 2: Comp
Anges Rebelles, Les
"In six minutes, a conjuring trick combining special effects and the magic of painting enables us to enter the world of Jacques Brissot. It is a visual poem that humorously recounts the building of a collage inspired from artist Peter Breugel's 'La Chute des Anges Rebelles.'" Artist Jacques Brissot is shown adding to and retouching a large-scale collage work, lending insight into his compositional choices and his techniques and methods. Music is by Michel Arich, with Barney Wilen playing saxopho
Split Britches
'Split Britches' is the story of three women from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, set sometime in the 1930's, whose squabbling is often pacified by periods of singing.
Coffee Coloured Children
'Coffee Coloured Children' is a powerful exploration of the impact of cultural pressure on self-image. Based on the daily experience of mixed-race children, the narrator recalls the pain and confusion of her own childhood spent in an all-white neighborhood with a white mother and an absent black father. The work opens with a video essay showing adults and children of many ethnicities interacting harmoniously to an upbeat and soulful song with a chorus about 'coffee-colored people.' Through narra
