November 17

Social 20-1

I went through a PowerPoint presentation today called "Contemporary Examples of Genocide" and I also gave you a reading package on many of the same genocides of the 20th century. I will be sending this presentation to you this afternoon. It is still recommended that you print these PowerPoint presentations off (4-6 slides per page) and add them to your notes. I also gave you reading by Samantha Power, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, the reading that I gave you was called "Never Again: The World's Most Unfulfilled Promise". Tomorrow we'll begin to look at background information on India in preparation for our film study of Gandhi. I gave you some class time to read over this booklet. Please remember the following upcoming important dates:

• Chapter 7 Key Terms and Questions are due on Monday, November 22nd
• Chapter 8 Key Terms and Questions are due on Wednesday, November 24th
• Unit 2 Research Project is due on Monday, November 29th

Social 30-1

We finished watching "Good Night, and Good Luck" today in class. This film explores a lot of issues that are relevant to today. You also have to understand the political climate at the time in the United States to fully understand the movie. Many Americans were drawn to communism in the 1930s due to the effects of the Great Depression, especially academics and those in the labour fields. In the movie they made reference to friends and spouses that had attended meetings long ago. The "Red Scare" caused a huge backlash against those sympathetic to communism or the USSR. Remember, during WWII the Soviet Union was an ally, and many people may have attended meetings out of curiosity. The junior Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy in 1950 charged there were communist sympathizers in the U.S. State Department. Hearings were held, charges were found to be unfounded. McCarthy continued accusing communist infiltration in the Democratic Party. McCarthy became the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the investigation of un-American activity (HUAC). On December 2, 1954, McCarthy’s actions were called into question and his accusations were deemed unfounded. Murrow makes a show on McCarthy attacking him. A very public feud develops when McCarthy responds by accusing Murrow of being a communist. Murrow is accused of having been a member of the leftist union Industrial Workers of the World, which Murrow claimed was false.
In this climate of fear and reprisal (which we now refer to as McCarthyism), the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity ultimately strikes a historic blow against McCarthy. Historical footage in the movie also shows the questioning of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party. In the first half of the film Murrow talks about how McCarthy didn't create the political climate and anti-Communist hysteria sweeping the country, but that he capitalized on it for political gain very effectively. As David Strathairn (playing Murrow in the film says, "We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate responsibility." The film is framed by the performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association in 1958, in which Murrow harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public. I found this short video on YouTube that spliced together Edward R. Murrow's speech that appears at the beginning of the film and continues at the end of the film. I find that this speech has relevance even today when you talk about the level of discourse in the media. Your film study for "Good Night and Good Luck" is due on Friday. We also did a quick review of Cold War concepts, if you missed class today, please get these notes from a classmate. Please remember that you have your Chapter 7 Test (Cold War period) tomorrow and your Unit 2 Final Exam on Tuesday. Please see both study guides here.