The American Pageant by Kennedy Cohen-Bailey Essay

The American Pageant by Kennedy Cohen-Bailey - Essay Example Most of it was brought about by the need to expand the trade borders of the American people. America was linked in many ways to Cuba than just at the time of the war. Cuba was one of the major producers of sugar and major suppliers to the USA. The Wilson-Gorman tariff imposed on Cuba by America to protect the sugar growers in America invariably raised the price of sugar and the Cuban economy suffered as a result. The misrule by the Spanish of its colony in Cuba created a lot of unrest. The Cubans fought the 10year battle of independence from 1868 to 1878 and tried to drive the Spanish away by destruction of property including cane fields and blowing up of passenger trains. The situation peaked when Spain sent tyrant General Wyeley in 1895 to Cuba. Wesley took it upon himself to crush the rebellion and opened up re-concentration camps, imprisoned and isolated the Cuban revolutionaries from the Filipino revolutionaries in their war of independence. Many perished and â€Å"died like do gs† (Bailey, 629). from unsanitary conditions in the camps. The American people rose against this atrocities to the Cubans and wanted war but the then president Grover Cleveland was against it and even motioned to strike against congress if they were to declare war against Spain and send troops to Cuba. This resolve, however, did not last very long as there were many other factors at stake than America was unwilling to admit to at that time. US also had a stake in the war because it was not really comfortable with having a European colony that close to its own borders. The unrest in Cuba was straining US trade relations in the region and threatening US investments in Cuba. There was also fear that its access to Panama would affect future sea trade routes.  

The central dilemma of macro-economic policy is not the choice between Essay

The central dilemma of macro-economic policy is not the choice between using monetary or fiscal policy but whether to intervene - Essay Example The macro-economic policy is concerned with carrying out certain economic objectives. These objectives aim to eradicate the main macro-economic problems within an economy. These include unemployment, inflation, and negative balance of payments position, a low rate of economic growth and inequitable distribution of wealth (Stan lake, Grant, pp.499, 1967). Macroeconomics conventionally has two governing views on policy; these are interventionist and laissez-faire (Dixon, pp.2, 2000). The paper, before examining these two views in details, will describe monetary and fiscal policy. Monetary and fiscal policies are the two instruments that the government uses to tackle the amount of expenditure floating in the economy. This is because levels of expenditure highly affect the level of inflation, growth, and unemployment. There are varieties of different forms of government macroeconomic policies. However, the best known and the widely used are fiscal policy and monetary policy. These belong to the demand-side economy that is these policies have the aim of affecting the level of aggregate demand in the economy. In a concise form, aggregate demand of a country is as follows: AD= C+I+G-T+(X-M) Where C=Consumption I=Investment G=Government Expenditure T= Taxes X=Exports M=Imports (Universitip, N.p., N.d). Both fiscal and monetary policies are part of the ‘Keynesian’ school of thought that will be discussed in the paper. These two policies can ‘fine-tune’ various economic problems within the economy such as inflation and output growth (Langdana, pp. 10, 2009). Fiscal policy caters to the two components within the economy i.e. Government expenditure and taxes. If there are inflationary pressures within the economy, then the government can increase the level of direct or indirect taxes, or it might also decrease government spending. Both these measures will reduce inflation in the economy. However, during times of recession, the government can incre ase the government spending. This will cause an injection of money into the economy, bringing it out of the recession. In addition, during war years, various countries especially USA saw massive increases in government spending, thus increasing the growth rate. The increase in spending was to due to the funding of the war. The level, the timing, and the composition of taxation and government spending can have an important effect on people’s lives (Stan & Grant, pp. 503, 1967). Monetary Policy also affects the level of aggregate demand. The tools that are used are either the rate of interest or the supply of money. In many countries, it is an acceptable view that the control of the money supply is probably the most significant tool to affect the level of demand in the economy (Stan & Grant, pp. 521, 1967). An increase in the level of interest will mean less spending, because people will tend to save more in such times, because the return on saving will be higher. However, when the interest rate is low, the cost of borrowing will be less, meaning that there will be an increase in borrowing and hence consumption. Therefore, the monetary policy is very important because it affects the level of aggregate demand. One very recent example of the importance of monetary policy is that during the Crash of 2008 in United States, for two years, the interest rate was maintained at 1% (New Work, 2008), which meant that the level of consumption was

The American Pageant by Kennedy Cohen-Bailey Essay

The American Pageant by Kennedy Cohen-Bailey - Essay Example Most of it was brought about by the need to expand the trade borders of the American people. America was linked in many ways to Cuba than just at the time of the war. Cuba was one of the major producers of sugar and major suppliers to the USA. The Wilson-Gorman tariff imposed on Cuba by America to protect the sugar growers in America invariably raised the price of sugar and the Cuban economy suffered as a result. The misrule by the Spanish of its colony in Cuba created a lot of unrest. The Cubans fought the 10year battle of independence from 1868 to 1878 and tried to drive the Spanish away by destruction of property including cane fields and blowing up of passenger trains. The situation peaked when Spain sent tyrant General Wyeley in 1895 to Cuba. Wesley took it upon himself to crush the rebellion and opened up re-concentration camps, imprisoned and isolated the Cuban revolutionaries from the Filipino revolutionaries in their war of independence. Many perished and â€Å"died like do gs† (Bailey, 629). from unsanitary conditions in the camps. The American people rose against this atrocities to the Cubans and wanted war but the then president Grover Cleveland was against it and even motioned to strike against congress if they were to declare war against Spain and send troops to Cuba. This resolve, however, did not last very long as there were many other factors at stake than America was unwilling to admit to at that time. US also had a stake in the war because it was not really comfortable with having a European colony that close to its own borders. The unrest in Cuba was straining US trade relations in the region and threatening US investments in Cuba. There was also fear that its access to Panama would affect future sea trade routes.  

Reflective of Romantic Ideologies Essay Example for Free

Reflective of Romantic Ideologies Essay â€Å"This Lime-tree bower my prison† is one of the most quoted examples of romanticism. Throughout the three stanzas, many romantic ideologies can be identified including aspects such as the romantic’s view towards nature, the power of the imagination and the emphasis on the individual. Romanticism emerged against a time of increased urbanisation and industrialisation, where people sought instead an immersion in nature instead. Coleridge’s poem exemplifies many of the feelings which the contemporaries of the time had towards nature, including impressions of its richness, its superiority to the city and the power of the divine reflected in nature. The countryside (nature) is portrayed as more valuable than the city, with Coleridge claiming that Charles â€Å"hunger’d after Nature, many a year, in the great City pent†, comparing the city to a prison, whilst nature is something to be desired. Using colourful descriptions such as â€Å"and that walnut-tree was richly ting’d† and â€Å"ye purple heath flowers†, Coleridge stimulates the richness and beauty of nature in the reader’s mind. Nature is given a sense of grandeur, vibrancy and vitality, reflecting the elevation of nature common to the time, with even the simple rook becoming a thing of momentary glory as it â€Å"cross’d the mighty Orb’s dilated glory†. Unlike in the Augustan age, where nature existed as something to be tamed by mankind, here nature exists in its own right. In fact, it is even seen to be raised up to a religious level, with Coleridge using the vocative terms â€Å"thou† and â€Å"ye† in reference to the Sun and clouds, essentially lifting them to the level of a deity. Hence they are able to partake in the majesty of God. The Romantics also believed that as nature reflected the divine, they were able to gain a better understanding of God and themselves from it in the form of epiphanies. As Constable says, the sky was â€Å"the organ of the sentiment†. Coleridge reflects this ideology in his own personal epiphany included in the poem, that sometimes one must â€Å"be bereft of promis’d good, that we may lift the soul, and contemplate with lively joy the joys we cannot share† and that â€Å"Nature ne’er deserts the wise and pure. † Through the power of nature, his own feelings and perceptions are gradually altered, with the changes in nature mirroring his inner changes. As the stanzas progress, he is less sorrowful for his situation and more appreciative. In the same way the colours of nature turn from â€Å"poor yellow leaves† to â€Å"broad and sunny leaf†, reflecting the power of nature in his transformation. Also reflective of this is the way the lime-tree bower turns from being a prison, into â€Å"this little lime-tree bower† with â€Å"transparent foliage. † In this way, nature is shown to echo his own experience, through the up and down notion of the poem, where the dell represents his frustrations and wistful longing before he comes up into the ‘wide wide heaven,’ signifying his newfound freedom and finally the serenity of nature shows his reflection. The romantic ideology of the role which the imagination plays in life also comes into play during this poem. Like nature, the imagination can also be used as a tool to foster a greater understanding of things and to transform one’s emotional state, yet it can also be used as a method of escapism from the present situation. Coleridge has said that it is the â€Å"visionary faculty that enables spiritual insight into the ultimate truth† and that it is the â€Å"prime agent of all human perception†. The romantics believed that the imagination held the power to reveal those things which we cannot ordinarily see with our rational minds. In â€Å"this lime-tree bower my prison† this takes place in the way his imaginative journey ultimately leads to a greater understanding of God and its power to change his perceptions about himself and his situation. It is through his imagination that his emotional state is transformed and he ultimately gains an intellectual and emotional release. This transformative power of imagination is similar to that of nature, being reflected in the evocative descriptions which appeal to the senses. After travelling on his imaginative journey, Coleridge is led to a change of feeling about the bower which ceases to be a prison and instead becomes a thing of comfort. It was his own mental processes which shaped it into a prison and it is through his imagination that he can escape this prison. Thus imagination is also presented as a form of escape the poet seeks, with the ability to transcend physical and psychological barriers, although he retains awareness that this is simply his imagination by words such as â€Å"perchance. † Lastly, Coleridge’s poem is reflective of the focus on the individual in omantic literature, where they are a solitary reflective figure as opposed to works focusing on the individual in society. Coleridge stresses the individual through writing in first person and interjecting many â€Å"I† phrases. The antithesis in the first line between â€Å"they are gone† and â€Å"here must I remain† firmly brings the attention to t he individual in the poem, focusing on this solitary figure and his feelings. The conversational style of the poem also helps by reproducing natural speech, giving the feeling of his own train of thought, coming naturally. In fact, the whole poem encapsulates this focus on the individual, with the structure mirroring his meditation, contemplating a problem and finding a solution to it. The form and structure of the poem is shaped around his thoughts and even the landscape reflects these through things such as the transformation in his descriptions of colour. The poem focuses on the individual’s perception of things and how these perceptions change over the course of time through things such as nature and the imagination. Thus, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, â€Å"This Lime-tree bower my prison† exemplifies many ideologies of Romanticism. The richness of nature and its divine role are explored through descriptive imagery, whilst the power of imagination is expressed as a means of learning and escape. Throughout all of this, the focus remains centred on the individual and the effects upon Coleridge himself, reflecting the Romantic ideology of the individual in itself, not in society.

School Of The Future Inititative Education Essay

School Of The Future Inititative Education Essay Roxboro Community School (RCS) today announced its highly anticipated RCS School of the Future Initiative to students and parents. The RCS School of the Future Initiative was developed over many months with the goal of enhancing the core mission of the school, one facet of which was to be a school that used technology in unique ways to enhance the student learning experience. The RCS School of the Future Initiative is primarily shaped by the fact that RCS is committed to being on the cutting edge of technology and its use in education, that middle school students will have regular access to computers in the school, and high school students will have their own take home computer to be used in all curriculum areas. It is also shaped by the following more specific objectives: Enhance the learning environment and teach children to be critical thinkers through the use of technology, Prepare students for using technology in a post secondary school environment including college and the professional work environment, Eliminate the boundaries set by traditional school environments; students learn at different paces based on their abilities and their specific needs, Support parent involvement in their childrens educational experience through the use of technology. The RCS School of the Future Initiative represents a significant investment of the schools resources and the RCS Board of Directors has committed to spend in excess of $1.5 million over the next 10 years to support technology in the school. This isnt something were just planning on doing one year and then forgetting about, said RCS Board Chair Donald Long, We are committed to the long term education of our students and as such we must be commited to long-term funding of their technology needs and their technology education. We want our parents and students to know they are going to get an education at RCS that is like no other. We have exceptional teachers and we plan to enhance their abilities with technology that helps students learn better. The RCS School of the Future Initiative is a comprehensive approach to incorporating technology into every aspect of the school and its curiculum. The plan is highlighted by the following features: Provide laptop computers to our Senior class as a pilot project for all high school students to have laptop computers August, 2009, Install an internal television system and create RCS-TV, with monitors in the Bulldog Cafà ©, the main lobby/foyer area, and the media center August, 2009, Provide a Mobile Computing Lab for use by teachers and students August, 2009, Install the infrastructure to support the new RCS School of the Future Initiative. This includes wireless access points, backup devices, switches, cabling, file servers, increased internet bandwidth, etc. August, 2009, Create unique student computer login accounts with email, data storage, and appropriate security August, 2009 Replace all teacher desktop computers with laptop computers January, 2010, Transform the Bulldog Cafà © into the Bulldog Internet Cafà © with the installation of 40 computers to serve students during lunch and as an additional computer lab when lunch is not being served February, 2010, Install television monitors in all classrooms, making RCS-TV available to the whole school April, 2010 Beyond the end of the 2009-2010 school year, the plan will be fully implemented for the 2010-2011 school year, so expect the following to be implemented by August, 2010. Provide laptops to all high school students, Develop, identify, and purchase all software and technology items for teacher classrooms that are specific to the curriculum, Incorporate multimedia presentations, the internet, and other technology into the lesson plans where appropriate. The object is to change the way students learn and to use the technology available to us to do it. (Please visit the web site http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx for sample lesson plans that demonstrate how teaching might change once students have all of the technology available to them). Develop an advanced Network Administration curriculum for Junior and Senior level students. The students will be managing and maintaining the schools technology systems in a way that few other schools are currently doing. Courses will be developed to teach students how to run a professional computer system with the same technologies used in the business world. Provide an internship opportunity for up to three students. Students would apply for three open positions to work on the RCS computer system during the summer. These will be full time, paying summer jobs for those who qualify. The RCS School of the Future Initiative is not just about putting computer equipment in the hands of students and teachers. It is about changing the way students learn and teachers teach, so the RCS School of the Future Initiative calls on teachers to develop new lesson plans that might not be focused so much on opening a book to a certain page, reading a passage, and answering questions. The school of the future will use technology so that teachers and students meet objectives in ways that take into account differences in personalities, individual abilities, and learning styles. The School of the Future will not be a mass production facility, rather it will produce a customized learning experience. According to RCS Principal Walter Finnigan, The workplace of the future will continue to be technology driven. The college of the future will continue to be technology driven. It makes sense that middle school and high school should also be technology driven so that our students have a better shot at succeeding both acedemically and professionally. Finnigan continued, As Ive said before, our goal is to be to be among the best schools in the nation and the RCS School of the Future Initiative is just one of the ways we plan to acheive that goal. We want to offer a tailored educational experience to our students and the only way we can do that is by using the same technology currently being used in the private sector. There are very few schools accross the nation who have embraced this idea like RCS is embracing it, but it really just makes sense to do so. It should just ring true to people.

The Life And Great Works Of John Updike :: essays research papers

The Life and Great works of John Updike   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An American novelist, short story writer and a poet, John Updike was a country boy with a great talent that needed to be unleashed. He wrote many novels and won many awards; his best works did involve the novels that told the story of a man’s life. The best-known and most widely analyzed work, John Updike wrote a great series of novels depicting a reoccurring theme of the life of a man, and his dream to have his high school wonders once again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Updike was born on March 18, 1932 in Pennsylvania, outside of the big city and into the countryside. His parents were Wesley Russell Updike, his father, and Linda Grace (Hoyer) Updike, his mother. They raised John with great care and with great ambition to succeed in the harsh world. During his young life many things were taking place that would bring the American Society to a great fall; it was hard for a young American writer in the 1940’s and 50’s. Updike’s schooling was like any typical family, not any kind of high-class private school, just a normal kid. He attended public schools in Shillington in 1936, and he graduates all his schooling, of the public school system, in 1950. Updike was class president, and graduated as co-valedictorian. After grade school he attended one of the greatest colleges in the United States, Harvard University. His   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Plemons 2 writing was weak during grade school, but his great pieces came his senior year at Harvard. He became editor for the Harvard Lampoon, which is the school’s newspaper. With this under his belt for experience, Updike graduates from Harvard as the â€Å"Summa Cum Laude,† that which is a great honor for him. Now entering the working world, Updike starts a new job in New York; he is employed at The New Yorker, as an article writer/reporter in 1955. During his time at the news-printing place, he writes many short stories and some novels. Soon after, two years later to be exact, he starts to become a full-time writer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Updike and his wife, Mary E. Pennington daughter of Rev. Leslie T. Pennington and Elizabeth Daniels Pennington, decide to have a family. Their first child came in the year of 1955, it was a girl and Mary named her after her late mother, Elizabeth. Updike, being a man wanted a boy to carry the father’s name so, two years later, January 19, 1957, they have a baby boy; they named him, David.

Shakespeare And Catholicism Essay -- essays research papers

By researching the life and writings of William Shakespeare, it can be shown that many Christian values and beliefs are displayed through his literary works. In order to understand the religious content in Shakespeare's work it is helpful to first understand what the religious environment in England was like around Shakespeare's time. England, ever since it was ruled by the Romans, had been a Catholic nation. Before Shakespeare's lifetime, a drastic change occurred that completely upended the existing Catholicism of the English people. During King Henry VIII's reign, the English people were, for the most part, content with Catholicism. Through a series of very complex political maneuvers, Henry eventually seized power of the English church. The benefits of this control were enormous for the state. First of all, Henry obtained his divorce from his first wife. Second, the state received the tithes and taxes from church property, thus making the break very profitable for the state. Finally, with the closing of all of the monasteries, England gained large tracts of land to sell to land owners and tax heavily. The break with the Church of Rome, on the other hand, was not welcomed by the people. Through various laws and ordinances the monarchy effectively closed down the Catholic church in England, but this did not stop the people from being loyal to Catholicism in their hearts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the effects of the break from Rome was the welcoming of an English translation of the Bible. One of the first English translations of the Bible was written by William Tyndale. Known as Cranmer's Bible or the Great Bible, this Bible along with the Geneva Bible would have been the two translations used widely during Shakespeare's lifetime (Milward 85). With the invention of the printing press before this time, the Bible was becoming a household item. Access to Scripture was at it highest point in history to that time. The accessibility of the Bible greatly impacted the work of Shakespeare because he had such a resource at his disposal. Along with these two translations of Scripture already available to Shakespeare came a new translation authorized by King James I. Today this translation is known as the King James Authorized Version (Milward 86). At this point in time, the climate was right for Shakespeare to learn a great deal about Christianity direct... ...gedy with a good ending, making the eventual happiness found better appreciated. In conclusion, Shakespeare's plays ranged from light-hearted comedies to gut-wrenching tragedies. Characters of the highest character as well as the most immoral persons to grace the stage appeared in his works. The scope of Shakespeare's work seemed to cover almost all aspects of life. Through all of these tales, the theme that occurred consistently was the spiritual longing of every individual for love (Knight 69). Shakespeare's plays move from a hope in political salvation to a desire for spiritual salvation, just like the Bible does. All of his plays end with some hope that life will go on and things will get better, just as Christianity hopes for a perfect world to come. His works emphasized the common beliefs of both sects of Christianity as well as some distinctly Catholic ones. This in no way makes Shakespeare a Christian or, more specifically, a Catholic. At its most fundamental point it does mean that Shakespeare had knowledge of the Bible and the Christian religion. The bizarre religious circumstances of Shakespeare's world played a large role in molding his works into what they became. Shakespeare And Catholicism Essay -- essays research papers By researching the life and writings of William Shakespeare, it can be shown that many Christian values and beliefs are displayed through his literary works. In order to understand the religious content in Shakespeare's work it is helpful to first understand what the religious environment in England was like around Shakespeare's time. England, ever since it was ruled by the Romans, had been a Catholic nation. Before Shakespeare's lifetime, a drastic change occurred that completely upended the existing Catholicism of the English people. During King Henry VIII's reign, the English people were, for the most part, content with Catholicism. Through a series of very complex political maneuvers, Henry eventually seized power of the English church. The benefits of this control were enormous for the state. First of all, Henry obtained his divorce from his first wife. Second, the state received the tithes and taxes from church property, thus making the break very profitable for the state. Finally, with the closing of all of the monasteries, England gained large tracts of land to sell to land owners and tax heavily. The break with the Church of Rome, on the other hand, was not welcomed by the people. Through various laws and ordinances the monarchy effectively closed down the Catholic church in England, but this did not stop the people from being loyal to Catholicism in their hearts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the effects of the break from Rome was the welcoming of an English translation of the Bible. One of the first English translations of the Bible was written by William Tyndale. Known as Cranmer's Bible or the Great Bible, this Bible along with the Geneva Bible would have been the two translations used widely during Shakespeare's lifetime (Milward 85). With the invention of the printing press before this time, the Bible was becoming a household item. Access to Scripture was at it highest point in history to that time. The accessibility of the Bible greatly impacted the work of Shakespeare because he had such a resource at his disposal. Along with these two translations of Scripture already available to Shakespeare came a new translation authorized by King James I. Today this translation is known as the King James Authorized Version (Milward 86). At this point in time, the climate was right for Shakespeare to learn a great deal about Christianity direct... ...gedy with a good ending, making the eventual happiness found better appreciated. In conclusion, Shakespeare's plays ranged from light-hearted comedies to gut-wrenching tragedies. Characters of the highest character as well as the most immoral persons to grace the stage appeared in his works. The scope of Shakespeare's work seemed to cover almost all aspects of life. Through all of these tales, the theme that occurred consistently was the spiritual longing of every individual for love (Knight 69). Shakespeare's plays move from a hope in political salvation to a desire for spiritual salvation, just like the Bible does. All of his plays end with some hope that life will go on and things will get better, just as Christianity hopes for a perfect world to come. His works emphasized the common beliefs of both sects of Christianity as well as some distinctly Catholic ones. This in no way makes Shakespeare a Christian or, more specifically, a Catholic. At its most fundamental point it does mean that Shakespeare had knowledge of the Bible and the Christian religion. The bizarre religious circumstances of Shakespeare's world played a large role in molding his works into what they became.