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blackkudos · 4 years

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Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an American singer of classical music and spirituals. Music critic Alan Blyth said: "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty." She performed in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965. Although offered roles with many important European opera companies, Anderson declined, as she had no training in acting. She preferred to perform in concert and recital only. She did, however, perform opera arias within her concerts and recitals. She made many recordings that reflected her broad performance repertoire, which ranged from concert literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals. Between 1940 and 1965 the German-American pianist Franz Rupp was her permanent accompanist.

Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. The incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the capital. She sang before an integrated crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions.

Anderson continued to break barriers for black artists in the United States, becoming the first black person, American or otherwise, to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955. Her performance as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at the Met was the only time she sang an opera role on stage.

Anderson worked for several years as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and as a "goodwill ambassadress" for the United States Department of State, giving concerts all over the world. She participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Anderson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Congressional Gold Medal in 1977, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Early life and career

Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897, in Philadelphia, to John Berkley Anderson (c. 1872–1910) and the former Annie Delilah Rucker (1874–1964). Her father sold ice and coal at the Reading Terminal in downtown Philadelphia and eventually opened a small liquor business as well. Prior to her marriage, Anderson's mother had briefly attended the Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg and had worked as a schoolteacher in Virginia. As she did not obtain a degree, Annie Anderson was unable to teach in Philadelphia under a law that was applied only to black teachers and not white ones. She therefore earned an income caring for small children. Marian was the eldest of the three Anderson children. Her two sisters, Alice (1899–1965, later spelled Alyse) and Ethel (1902–1990), also became singers. Ethel married James DePreist and their late son, James Anderson DePreist was a noted conductor.

Anderson's parents were both devout Christians and the whole family was active in the Union Baptist Church in South Philadelphia. Marian's aunt Mary, her father's sister, was particularly active in the church's musical life and, noticing her niece's talent, convinced her to join the junior church choir at the age of six. In that role she got to perform solos and duets, often with her aunt Mary. Marian was also taken by her aunt to concerts at local churches, the YMCA, benefit concerts, and other community music events throughout the city. Anderson credited her aunt's influence as the reason she pursued her singing career. Beginning as young as six, her aunt arranged for Marian to sing for local functions where she was often paid 25 or 50 cents for singing a few songs. As she got into her early teens, Marian began to make as much as four or five dollars for singing; a considerable amount of money for the early 20th century. At the age of 10, Marian joined the People's Chorus under the direction of singer Emma Azalia Hackley, where she was often given solos. On March 21, 1919, during a March Festival of Music, she was a lead singer in a concert by the Robert Curtis Ogden Band and Choral Society at Egyptian Hall in Philadelphia's John Wanamaker department store.

When Anderson was 12, her father was accidentally struck on the head while at work at the Reading Terminal, just a few weeks before Christmas of 1909. He died of heart failure a month later at age 34. Marian and her family moved into the home of her father's parents, Grandpa Benjamin and Grandma Isabella Anderson. Her grandfather had been born a slave and had experienced emancipation in the 1860s. He was the first of the Anderson family to settle in South Philadelphia, and when Anderson moved into his home the two became very close. He died just a year after the family moved in.

Anderson attended Stanton Grammar School, graduating in the summer of 1912. Her family, however, could not afford to send her to high school, nor could they pay for any music lessons. Still, Anderson continued to perform wherever she could and learn from anyone who was willing to teach her. Throughout her teenage years, she remained active in her church's musical activities, now heavily involved in the adult choir. She joined the Baptists' Young People's Union and the Camp Fire Girls which provided her with some limited musical opportunities. Eventually the directors of the People's Chorus and the pastor of her church, Reverend Wesley Parks, along with other leaders of the black community, raised the money she needed to get singing lessons with Mary Saunders Patterson and to attend South Philadelphia High School, from which she graduated in 1921.

After high school, Anderson applied to an all-white music school, the Philadelphia Music Academy (now University of the Arts), but was turned away because she was black. The woman working the admissions counter replied, "We don't take colored" when she tried to apply. Undaunted, Anderson pursued studies privately in her native city through the continued support of the Philadelphia black community, first with Agnes Reifsnyder, then Giuseppe Boghetti. She met Boghetti through the principal of her high school. Anderson auditioned for him singing "Deep River" and he was immediately brought to tears. Boghetti scheduled a recital of English, Russian, Italian and German music at The Town Hall in New York City in April 1924 which took place in an almost empty hall and received poor reviews. In 1925 Anderson got her first big break when she won first prize in a singing competition sponsored by the New York Philharmonic. As the winner she got to perform in concert with the orchestra on August 26, 1925, a performance that scored immediate success with both audience and music critics. Anderson remained in New York to pursue further studies with Frank La Forge. During the time Arthur Judson, whom she had met through the New York Philharmonic, became her manager. Over the next several years, she made a number of concert appearances in the United States, but racial prejudice prevented her career from gaining much momentum. In 1928, she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall. Eventually she decided to go to Europe where she spent a number of months studying with Sara Charles-Cahier before launching a highly successful European singing tour.

European fame

In 1933, Anderson made her European debut in a concert at Wigmore Hall in London, where she was received enthusiastically. She spent the early 1930s touring throughout Europe where she did not encounter the racial prejudices she had experienced in America. In the summer of 1930, she went to Scandinavia, where she met the Finnish pianist Kosti Vehanen who became her regular accompanist and her vocal coach for many years. She also met Jean Sibelius through Vehanen after he had heard her in a concert in Helsinki. Moved by her performance, Sibelius invited them to his home and asked his wife to bring champagne in place of the traditional coffee. Sibelius commented to Anderson of her performance that he felt that she had been able to penetrate the Nordic soul. The two struck up an immediate friendship, which further blossomed into a professional partnership, and for many years Sibelius altered and composed songs for Anderson to perform. He created a new arrangement of the song "Solitude" and dedicated it to Anderson in 1939. Originally The Jewish Girl's Song from his 1906 incidental music to Belshazzar's Feast, it later became the "Solitude" section of the orchestral suite derived from the incidental music.

In 1934, impresario Sol Hurok offered Anderson a better contract than she previously had with Arthur Judson. He became her manager for the rest of her performing career and through his persuasion she came back to perform in America. In 1935, Anderson made her second recital appearance at The Town Hall in New York City, which received highly favorable reviews by music critics. She spent the next four years touring throughout the United States and Europe. She was offered opera roles by several European houses but, due to her lack of acting experience, Anderson declined all of those offers. She did, however, record a number of opera arias in the studio, which became bestsellers.

Anderson, accompanied by Vehanen, continued to tour throughout Europe during the mid-1930s. She visited Eastern European capitals and Russia and returned again to Scandinavia, where "Marian fever" had spread to small towns and villages where she had thousands of fans. She quickly became a favorite of many conductors and composers of major European orchestras. During a 1935 tour in Salzburg, the conductor Arturo Toscanini told her she had a voice "heard once in a hundred years".

In the late 1930s, Anderson gave about 70 recitals a year in the United States. Although by then quite famous, her stature did not completely end the prejudice she confronted as a young black singer touring the United States. She was still denied rooms in certain American hotels and was not allowed to eat in certain American restaurants. Because of this discrimination, Albert Einstein, a champion of racial tolerance, hosted Anderson on many occasions, the first being in 1937 when she was denied a hotel before performing at Princeton University. She last stayed with him months before he died in 1955.

1939 Lincoln Memorial concert

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in their Constitution Hall. At the time, Washington, D.C., was a segregated city and black patrons were upset that they had to sit at the back of Constitution Hall. Constitution Hall also did not have the segregated public bathrooms required by DC law at the time for such events. The District of Columbia Board of Education also declined a request to use the auditorium of a white public high school.

Charles Edward Russell, a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and chair of the DC citywide Inter-Racial Committee, convened a meeting on the following day that formed the Marian Anderson Citizens Committee (MACC) composed of several dozen organizations, church leaders and individual activists in the city, including the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the Washington Industrial Council-CIO, American Federation of Labor, and the National Negro Congress. MACC elected Charles Hamilton Houston as its chairman and on February 20, the group picketed the board of education, collected signatures on petitions, and planned a mass protest at the next board of education meeting.

As a result of the ensuing furor, thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned from the organization. In her letter to the DAR, she wrote, "I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist ... You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed."

Author Zora Neale Hurston criticized Eleanor Roosevelt's public silence about the similar decision by the District of Columbia Board of Education, while the District was under the control of committees of a Democratic Congress, to first deny, and then place race-based restrictions on, a proposed concert by Anderson.

As the controversy swelled, the American press overwhelmingly backed Anderson’s right to sing. The Philadelphia Tribune wrote, “A group of tottering old ladies, who don't know the difference between patriotism and putridism, have compelled the gracious First Lady to apologize for their national rudeness.” Even some Southern newspapers supported Anderson. The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote, ‘’In these days of racial intolerance so crudely expressed in the Third Reich, an action such as the D.A.R.’s ban. . . seems all the more deplorable.’’

At Eleanor Roosevelt's behest, President Roosevelt and Walter White, then-executive secretary of the NAACP, and Anderson's manager, impresario Sol Hurok, persuaded Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes to arrange an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The concert was performed on Easter Sunday, April 9, and Anderson was accompanied, as usual, by Vehanen. They began the performance with a dignified and stirring rendition of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee". The event attracted a crowd of more than 75,000 of all colors and was a sensation with a national radio audience of millions.

Two months later, in conjunction with the 30th NAACP conference in Richmond, Virginia, Eleanor Roosevelt gave a speech on national radio (NBC and CBS) and presented Anderson with the 1939 Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievement.

A documentary film of the event has been selected for the National Film Registry, and NBC radio coverage of the event has been selected for the National Recording Registry.

Midlife and career

During World War II and the Korean War, Anderson entertained troops in hospitals and bases. In 1943, she sang at the Constitution Hall at the invitation of the DAR to an integrated audience as part of a benefit for the American Red Cross. She said of the event, "When I finally walked onto the stage of Constitution Hall, I felt no different than I had in other halls. There was no sense of triumph. I felt that it was a beautiful concert hall and I was very happy to sing there." By contrast, the District of Columbia Board of Education continued to bar her from using the high school auditorium in the District of Columbia.

On July 17, 1943, in Bethel, Connecticut, Anderson became the second wife of a man who had asked her to marry him when they were teenagers, architect Orpheus H. Fisher (1900–86), known as King. The wedding was a private ceremony performed by United Methodist pastor Rev. Jack Grenfell and was the subject of a short story titled "The 'Inside' Story" written by Rev. Grenfell's wife, Dr. Clarine Coffin Grenfell, in her book Women My Husband Married, including Marian Anderson.

According to Dr. Grenfell, the wedding was originally supposed to take place in the parsonage, but because of a bake sale on the lawn of the Bethel United Methodist Church, was moved at the last minute to the Elmwood Chapel, on the site of the Elmwood Cemetery in Bethel, in order to allow the event to remain private.

By this marriage she had a stepson, James Fisher, from her husband's previous marriage to Ida Gould. The couple had purchased a 100-acre (0.40 km2) farm in Danbury, Connecticut, three years earlier in 1940 after an exhaustive search throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Through the years Fisher built many outbuildings on the property, including an acoustic rehearsal studio he designed for his wife. The property remained Anderson's home for almost 50 years.

On January 7, 1955, Anderson became the first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On that occasion, she sang the part of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (opposite Zinka Milanov, then Herva Nelli, as Amelia) at the invitation of director Rudolf Bing. Anderson said later about the evening, "The curtain rose on the second scene and I was there on stage, mixing the witch's brew. I trembled, and when the audience applauded and applauded before I could sing a note, I felt myself tightening into a knot." Although she never appeared with the company again after this production, Anderson was named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera company. The following year she published her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, which became a bestseller.

In 1957, she sang for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration, toured India and the Far East as a goodwill ambassador through the U.S. State Department and the American National Theater and Academy. She traveled 35,000 miles (56,000 km) in 12 weeks, giving 24 concerts. After that, President Eisenhower appointed her as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The same year, she was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1958 she was officially designated delegate to the United Nations, a formalization of her role as "goodwill ambassadress" of the U.S. which she had played earlier.

On January 20, 1961 she sang for President John F. Kennedy's inauguration, and in 1962 she performed for President Kennedy and other dignitaries in the East Room of the White House, and also toured Australia. She was active in supporting the civil rights movement during the 1960s, giving benefit concerts for the Congress of Racial Equality, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1963, she sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That same year she was one of the original 31 recipients of the newly reinstituted Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is awarded for "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interest of the United States, World Peace or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors". She also released her album, Snoopycat: The Adventures of Marian Anderson's Cat Snoopy, which included short stories and songs about her beloved black cat. In 1965, she christened the nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine, USS George Washington Carver. That same year Anderson concluded her farewell tour, after which she retired from public performance. The international tour began at Constitution Hall on Saturday October 24, 1964, and ended at Carnegie Hall on April 18, 1965.

As a citizen of Danbury, Connecticut

From 1940 she resided at a 50-acre farm, having sold half of the original 100 acres, that she named Marianna Farm. The farm was on Joe's Hill Road, in the Mill Plain section of Danbury in western Danbury, northwest of what in December 1961 became the interchange between Interstate 84, U.S. 6 and U.S. 202. She constructed a three-bedroom ranchhouse as a residence, and she used a separate one-room structure as her studio. In 1996, the farm was named one of 60 sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. The studio was moved to downtown Danbury as the Marian Anderson studio.

As a town resident she was set on waiting in line at shops and restaurants, declining offers to go ahead as a celebrity. She was known to visit the Danbury State Fair. She sang at the city hall on the occasion of the lighting of Christmas ornaments. She gave a concert at the Danbury High School. She served on the boards of the Danbury Music Center and supported the Charles Ives Center for the Arts the Danbury Chapter of the NAACP.

Later life

Although Anderson retired from singing in 1965, she continued to appear publicly. On several occasions she narrated Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, including a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga in 1976, conducted by the composer. Her achievements were recognized and honored with many prizes, including the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1939; University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit in 1973; the United Nations Peace Prize, New York City's Handel Medallion, and the Congressional Gold Medal, all in 1977; Kennedy Center Honors in 1978; the George Peabody Medal in 1981; the National Medal of Arts in 1986; and a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991. In 1980, the United States Treasury Department coined a half-ounce gold commemorative medal with her likeness, and in 1984 she was the first recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award of the City of New York. She has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Howard University, Temple University and Smith College.

In 1986, Anderson's husband, Orpheus Fisher, died after 43 years of marriage. Anderson remained in residence at Marianna Farm until 1992, one year before her death. Although the property was sold to developers, various preservationists as well as the City of Danbury fought to protect Anderson's studio. Their efforts proved successful and the Danbury Museum and Historical Society received a grant from the State of Connecticut, relocated the structure, restored it, and opened it to the public in 2004. In addition to seeing the studio, visitors can see photographs and memorabilia from milestones in Anderson's career.

Anderson died of congestive heart failure on April 8, 1993, at age 96. She had suffered a stroke a month earlier. She died in Portland, Oregon, at the home of her nephew, conductor James DePreist, where she had relocated the year prior. She is interred at Eden Cemetery, in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.

Awards and honors

1939: NAACP Spingarn Medal

1963: Presidential Medal of Freedom

1973: University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit

1973: National Women's Hall of Fame

1977: United Nations Peace Prize

1977: New York City – Handel Medallion

1977: Congressional Gold Medal

1978: Kennedy Center Honors

1980: United States Treasury Department gold commemorative medal

1984: Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award of the City of New York

1986: National Medal of Arts

1991: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Honorary doctorate from Howard University, Temple University, Smith College

Legacy

The life and art of Anderson has inspired several writers and artists. She was an example and an inspiration to both Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman. In 1999 a one-act musical play entitled My Lord, What a Morning: The Marian Anderson Story was produced by the Kennedy Center. The musical took its title from Anderson's memoir, published by Viking in 1956. In 2001, the 1939 documentary film, Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Anderson in his book, 100 Greatest African Americans. On January 27, 2006, a commemorative U.S. postage stamp honored Anderson as part of the Black Heritage series. Anderson is also pictured on the US$5,000 Series I United States Savings Bond. On April 20, 2016, United States Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew, announced that Anderson will appear along with Eleanor Roosevelt and suffragist on the back of the redesigned US $5 bill scheduled to be unveiled in the year 2020, the 100th anniversary of 19th Amendment of the Constitution which granted women in America the right to vote.

The Marian Anderson House, in Philadelphia, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Marian Anderson Award

The Marian Anderson Award was originally established in 1943 by Anderson after she was awarded the $10,000 Bok Prize that year by the city of Philadelphia. Anderson used the award money to establish a singing competition to help support young singers. Eventually the prize fund ran out of money and it was disbanded after 1976. In 1990, the award was re-established and has dispensed $25,000 annually.

In 1998, the prize was restructured with the Marian Anderson Award going to an established artist, not necessarily a singer, who exhibits leadership in a humanitarian area.

#02/27 #04/08

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sandsverselentincident · 6 years

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Something creepy I noticed is that not only did the Breach and the Lent Incident happen on the same month, they both happened on the same day, too (albeit a year apart)

Taken from the Wikipedia page for that date is a list of events that also occurred then; this is not a complete list, but merely those events that might pique the interest of the Vendors or be known to Americans. (The date may also be significant to the Sandsverse creators for a personal reason.)

Historical

590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.

706 – Byzantine emperor Justinian II has his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios III publicly executed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.

1113 – Pope Paschal II issues Pie Postulatio Voluntatis, recognizing the Order of Hospitallers.

1637 – Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

1690 – Constantin Cantemir, Prince of Moldavia, and the Holy Roman Empire sign a secret treaty in Sibiu, stipulating that Moldavia would support the actions led by the House of Habsburg against the Ottoman Empire.

1835 – The first constitutional law in modern Serbia is adopted.

1898 – The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing 274. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.

1921 – Kingdom of Romania establishes its legation in Helsinki.

1933 – In Miami, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate US President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayorAnton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.

1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

1954 – Canada and the United States agree to construct the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.

1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.

1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.

2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.

2013 – A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. This happens unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.

Births

1564 – Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician (d. 1642)

1638 – Zeb-un-Nissa, Mughal princess and poet (d. 1702)

1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist and activist (d. 1906)

1861 – Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)

1874 – Ernest Shackleton, Anglo-Irish captain and explorer (d. 1922)

1883 – Sax Rohmer, English-American author (d. 1959)

1928 – Norman Bridwell, American author and illustrator, created Clifford the Big Red Dog (d. 2014)

1935 – Roger B. Chaffee, American lieutenant, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)

1945 – Douglas Hofstadter, American author and academic

1954 – Matt Groening, American animator, producer, and screenwriter

Deaths

670 – Oswiu, king of Northumbria (b. c. 612)

706 – Leontios, Byzantine emperor

706 – Tiberios III, Byzantine emperor

1145 – Lucius II, pope of the Catholic Church

1637 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1578)

1965 – Nat King Cole, American singer and pianist (b. 1919)

1984 – Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (b. 1908)

1988 – Richard Feynman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prizelaureate (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances

Candlemas (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Parinirvana Day, also celebrated on February 8. (Mahayana Buddhism)

Statehood Day (Serbia)

Susan B. Anthony Day (Florida, United States)

The ENIAC Day (Philadelphia, United States)

Total Defence Day (Singapore)

#ask #eggchjf #i was aware of this previously but yeah

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pintoras · 6 years

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Most popular paintings on the blog in 2017, in no particular order:

Hilda Hechle (British, 1886 - 1939): A moonlight phantasy

Emma Ciardi (Italian, 1879 - 1933): Courtly Company with Parasols

Elizabeth Strong (American, 1855 - 1941): Deer in the woods

Maria Wiik (Finnish, 1853 - 1928): La Polonaise (Marie Bashkirstseff) (1878)

Helmi Biese (Finnish, 1867 - 1933): View from Pyynikki Ridge (1900)

Lilian Stannard (British, 1877 - 1944): Michaelmas daisies

Isabel Codrington (British, 1874 - 1943): Evening

Evelyn De Morgan (English, 1855 - 1919): Aurora triumphans (1873)

Mary Hayllar (British, active 1880 - 1885): Breakfast (1880)

Marguerite Gérard (French, 1761 - 1837): La toilette de minette

#women painters #women artists #long post

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memoirsofagenie · 5 years

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Touché… with Aldo Montano (An athletic “outsider” in a soccer-ridden reality)

Winston Churchill once said that Italians lose wars like soccer matches and soccer matches like wars. Matter-of-factly, any American who sets foot in Italy, more specifically in Rome, is quick to notice the fervor with which Romans impersonate this principle, where the never-ending feud between AS Roma and SS Lazio supporters is almost a matter of honor. This micro-situation acquires macro-importance during the World Cup, where the hype can easily be compared to that of the American Super-Bowl, albeit on a planetary scale. This being said, it might help to note that soccer is also a Summer Olympic sport; however, conversely to the World Cup, the Italian National Team has ironically not managed to do particularly well during Olympic matches, having won just one Bronze Medal in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928 and one Gold Medal in the Berlin Olympics of 1936.

Against this Olympic backdrop, in 2012, Rome canceled its initial intentions of bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Still and all, after only three years, on February 10, 2015, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) confirmed the buzz it had anticipated in December 2014; that is, Rome’s renewed interest in bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Considering that the last time Rome hosted the Summer Olympics was in 1960, more than half a century ago, the prospect of making Rome the hub –at least for one season– of many great sports other than soccer, is quite appealing. However, this consequently begs a further, superficial question: is there another sport that can be considered equally autochthonous, but that can occupy the Italian passions perhaps more than soccer during the Olympics? The answer is a resounding “yes!”

While Italy excels in all sporting disciplines, both winter and summer (at the London 2012 Olympics, it ranked 8th on the final medal table, out of 85 participating countries,) there are certain sports that are considered national “fortes”, if you will. A case in point being fencing, which is also “older” than soccer, if we take into account that professional soccer played in Italy began in 1898, whereas contemporary Olympic fencing in Italy dates back to 1500 (although early rudiments of this sport can be traced all the way back to ancient Egypt.) Even the first fencing school in the United States opened before professional soccer started in Italy, being that it was founded in 1874, coincidentally by Italian and French fencing masters.

According to the Italian Fencing Federation, in merely a century of Olympic history, as of London 2012, Italy had won 121 Olympic medals for fencing and half of these (among which 29 gold medals,) have gone to the fencers of the Circolo Scherma Fides di Livorno (Fides Fencing Circle of Livorno,) the sports club with the highest number of Olympic and World titles. Not to mention, of course, the additional European and National championship titles, all of which have contributed to make the Tuscan seaside city of Livorno one of the capitals of world fencing.

In the realm of fencing, pronouncing the word Livorno, inevitably draws the attention to the Montano family, or dynasty, more precisely. This dynasty started in 1910, with the birth of Aldo Montano (senior.) It continued with his son Mario Aldo and his nephews, Carlo, Mario Tullio and Tommaso Montano. All of them, except Carlo, practiced foil and were saber champions. However, while Olympic gold medals abounded in the team competitions, none of the Montano had managed to get the individual gold medal… that is, until Aldo (junior, born in 1978) son of Mario Aldo and grandson of Aldo (sr.,) came along.

Exactly in 2004, and none other than in Athens –the cradle of the Olympic games- Aldo (jr.) managed to succeed where his other family members could not, beating Zsolt Nemcsik after an utterly intense match. The intensity was heightened by the Hungarian nationality of Nemcsik, as Hungary is one of Italy’s staunchest opponents, if not its very nemesis in all things fencing. This Gold medal marked a definitive and unquestionable consecration for the Montano family, for Livorno and for Italy in general, reconfirming fencing as a sport that Italians should be paying more attention to, perhaps not substituting soccer but making some parallel room for it.

On this note, between tournaments and training, we were able to catch up with Aldo, who kindly answered the following questions for us.

Aside from coming from a family of fencers, one of your great-uncles was Armando Picchi, a soccer player with Inter in the 1960-67 seasons, as well as a coach for Juventus in the 1970-71 season. Along these lines, at the age of nine, you once said on TV you wanted to go into soccer. Given the greater coverage that soccer has always had in this country, and in spite of your stronger fencing family heritage, could you briefly guide us through that period of your life and let us know what was the decisive factor that finally led you to pick the latter over the former?

In my town and in my family, in particular, the pressure over me was pretty strong: my grandfather was 5 times world champion and twice silver medalist at the Olympics, my dad 2 times World Champion and Olympic Champion in 1972. I thought that dedicating myself to a different sport, with a higher audience –at least in Italy- as football would be more attractive to me. But then I started to win my first fencing competitions, and the thrill of lifting my first cups and receiving my first medals grew stronger and stronger, so I abandoned the idea of football and endlessly fell in love with this fencing discipline… also under the fascination of my family’s sporting history.

How do you feel about Italians becoming sudden supporters of fencing –and other sports- only during the Olympics, instead of regularly taking interest? What do you think can be done to change the mindset and to promote other sports more?

It’s only natural that Olympic sports draw attention and enthusiasm once every 4 years. There’s not much you can do about it, if not keeping the attraction alive towards Olympic champions, diluting and distributing their presence on the media within the other 4 years, when you don’t have any game going on.

According to past interviews, the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics will be your last Olympic games as a competing athlete. Where do you see yourself afterwards? Will you go into coaching?

Rio games COULD be the last ones, but one never knows! I want to stick around in the sports industry, to best exploit my experience, in helping to form new generations of champions and loyal sportsmen and women.

Do you like the idea of Rome hosting the 2024 Summer Olympic Games? How do you imagine those Olympic Games to be?

Of course I do! But let’s not forget we (“we” as Italians) already tried to get the games both in 2004 and 2012, unsuccessfully. These are no easy events to set up, and there are many growing countries who have never hosted them, who find themselves in a better position than us as far as money and structures are concerned; many of these countries outperform Italy in this respect. However, for an Olympic athlete, being able to race or compete in his own country is the wildest dream coming true! I think having the games in Italy might be the ultimate boost to relaunch our beautiful and breathtaking country, a country that truly doesn’t deserve the historic moment of mediocrity and negativity which it’s going through.

&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

In thanking Aldo for sharing his thoughts and insights, it’s ironic that one of Italy’s main antagonists for this wonderful Olympic adventure should be the United States, which has chosen to candidate Boston. We will have to wait three more years to know who pulled it off! In the meantime, whether Italian or American, it is advisable to expand our sports horizons, so as to enjoy to the fullest both the artistic aspect and the competitiveness that ensues from the many sporting disciplines that mankind created.

(By: Genie, Rome, 30 June 2015)

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hadrian6 · 1 year

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Motori Gnome E Rhone Torino - Symbolism Naked Wings. 1918. Adolfo De Carolis Italian 1874-1928. poster. http://hadrian6.tumblr.com

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brookstonalmanac · 2 years

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Birthdays 4.28

Beer Birthdays

Ernst F. Baruth (1842)

Louis F. Neuweiler (1848)

Tom Ciccateri (1956)

Carl Kins (1956)

Michael Demers (1966)

Abram Goldman-Armstrong (1978)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Ann-Margret; actor, singer (1941)

Kurt Gödel; Austrian mathematician (1906)

Harper Lee; writer (1926)

James Monroe; 5th President of the US (1758)

Terry Pratchett; writer (1948)

Famous Birthdays

Jessica Alba; actor (1981)

Robert Anderson; playwright (1917)

Dick Ayers; author and illustrator (1924)

Hertha Marks Ayrton; Polish-British mathematician and physicist (1854)

Jimmy Barnes; Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (1956)

Lionel Barrymore; actor (1878)

Bart Bok; astronomer (1906)

Roberto Bolaño; Chilean novelist (1953)

Blake Bortles, American football QB (1992)

Charles Caleb Cotton; English writer (1630)

Carolyn Cassady; author (1923)

Willie Colón; Puerto Rican-American trombonist (1950)

Charles Cotton; English poet and author (1630)

Penelope Cruz; actor (1974)

Paul Guilfoyle; actor (1949)

Marie Harel; French cheesemaker (1761)

Jinky the Fruit Bat; character on David Letterman

Carolyn Jones; actor (1929)

Steve Khan; jazz musician (1947)

Bruno Kirby; actor (1949)

Yves Klein; French painter (1928)

Sylvestre François Lacroix; French mathematician (1765)

Ferruccio Lamborghini; Italian businessman (1916)

Jay Leno; comedian, television talk show host (1950)

José Malhoa; Portuguese painter (1855)

Melanie Martinez; singer (1995)

Mary McDonnell; actor (1952)

James Monroe 5th U.S. President (1758)

Bridget Moynahan; actor (1971)

Nezahualcoyotl; Acolhuan philosopher, warrior, poet and ruler (1402)

Robert Oliveri; actor (1978)

Jan Oort; Dutch astronomer (1900)

Alberto Pirelli; Italian manufacturer (1882)

Ian Rankin; Scottish author (1960)

Nate Richert; actor (1978)

Oskar Schindler; Czech-German businessman (1908)

Karl Barry Sharpless; chemist (1941)

Eugene Merle Shoemaker; geologist and astronomer (1928)

Madge Sinclair; Jamaican-American actress (1938)

Sidney Toler; actor (1874)

Tristan Tzara; Romanian-French poet (1896)

Alice Waters; chef (1944)

Kari Wuhrer; actor (1967)

#Birthdays

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todayclassical · 7 years

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August 09 in Music History

1703 J.S. Bach takes the position of organist at Neuekirche in Arnstadt.

1718 Birth of composer Placidus Cajetan von Camerloher.

1781 Birth of Austrian violinist, conductor and composer Michael Umlauff.

1826 Birth of Italian soprano Adelaide Borghi-Mamo in Bologna.

1834 Birth of composer Elias Alvares Lobo.

1853 Birth of Russian soprano Emiliya Karlovna Pavlovskaya.

1858 Birth of English opera composer Isidor De Lara in London.

1861 Birth of composer Wilhelm Berger.

1861 Death of English organist Vincent Novello in Nice.

1862 FP of Hector Berlioz' opera Beatrice and Benedict, Berlioz conducting at the Neues Theater in Baden-Baden.

1874 Birth of Venezuelan-French composer, conductor, Reynaldo Hahn in Caracas.

1875 Birth of English composer Albert William Ketelbey in Birmingham.

1875 Birth of Italian opera composer Primo Ricciarelli in Campli.

1882 Birth of Italian tenor Manfredo Polverosi, in Florence.

1890 Birth of composer Cesar Cortinas.

1890 Birth of Hungarian composer Sandor Alexander Jeminitz in Budapest. 1891 Birth of Dutch violinist and radio host, Max Tak.

1902 Birth of French violinist Zino Francescatti in Marseilles. 1902 Birth of English pianist Solomon Cutner. 1914 Birth of Hungarian conductor Ferenc Fricsay in Budapest.

1915 Birth of American tenor Brian Sullivan, in Oakland, CA.

1915 Birth of American soprano Anne Brown in Baltimore.

1915 Birth of composer Haim Alexander.

1916 Birth of Canadian-American composer Dorothy Cadzow Hokanson.

1919 Death of Italian composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo in Montecatini, Italy.

1924 Birth of baritone Heinz Imdahl.

1925 Birth of Dutch composer Robert Heppener in Amsterdam.

1928 Birth of Italian mezzo-soprano Maria Teresa Mandalari.

1930 Birth of Australian baritone Chard Geoffrey. 1935 Birth of composer George S Leotsakos.

1939 Birth of composer and percussionist Max Neuhaus.

1941 Birth of English mezzo-soprano Nuala Willis in London.

1949 FP of Carl Orff's opera Antigone in Salzburg.

1955 Death of American composer Marion Eugene Bauer in South Hadley, MA.

1958 Death of Italian bass-baritone Louis D'Angelo.

1959 Birth of Ukranian soprano Maria Guleghina, in Odesa.

1962 Death of American soprano Helene Noldi Alberti.

1963 FP of Lennox Berkeley's Four Ronsard Sonnets in London.

1965 Birth of American composer John DeBorde.

1966 Death of Swedish composer Gosta Nystroem in suburban Gothenberg.

1975 Death of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich in Moscow. 1978 FP of Dave Brubeck's oratorio Beloved Son. Richard Sieber conducting, at the American Lutheran Women’s Convention in Minneapolis, MN.

1979 FP of Howard Hanson's ballet Nymph and Satyr in Chautauqua, TN.

1988 Death of Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi at age 83, in Rome.

1988 FP of Peter Maxwell Davies' Symphony No. 5. BBC Proms Concert by Philharmonia Orchestra, with the composer conducting at Royal Albert Hall in London.

2002 Death of German composer Bertold Hummel in Würzburg.

2004 Death of American composer David Raksin in Los Angeles, CA.

#classicalmusic #today in music history #musichistory #todayclassical #onthisday

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hoshvilim · 7 years

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The Plans for Rehavia

Begun in 1922, the Rehavia neighborhood served as a “garden suburb” for Jewish families of Jerusalem who sought to escape the crowded conditions elsewhere in the city. The Palestine Land Development Corporation purchased the land used for building from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate – which had acquired much land in the city during the 19th century and now found itself bankrupt in the 1920’s.

Rehavia was built in two stages during the British Mandatory period between 1925 and 1930.

The first stage, called Rehavia Aleph, was bordered by King George Street to the east, Ramban Street to the south, Ussishkin Street to the west, and Keren Kayemet Street to the north.

The second stage was completed in the early 1930s, between Jabotinsky Street, Ramban Street and Gaza Street.

The Results

Originally, Rehavia was meant to be a tolerant and liberal Jewish community with a modern outlook. Rehavia became an upper-class Ashkenazi Jewish neighborhood, home to professors and intellectuals. Almost all of Rehavia’s streets were named for poets and sages who lived during the Spanish Golden Age. The modern “International” houses integrated local elements, Middle Eastern or ancient. The homes were built in Jerusalem stone. The streets were lined by trees public gardens, playgrounds and even a tennis court. Don’t forget the vegetable gardens. Due to the arrival of olimim – refugees/emigrees from Nazi Germany – Rehavia earned its nickname “a Prussian island in an Oriental sea.”

Architect Richard Kaufmann designed Rehavia. He also planned many of Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, the plan provided for a central avenue – Ramban – crisscrossed by streets and Keren Kayemet, a curving street with many small shops.

Richard Kauffmann

This architect deserves a post of his own. His heritage helped create Zionist history. Richard Kauffmann was born in Germany. Arthur Ruppin met him in Germany and invited him to design new Jewish settlements in Palestine. Kauffmann immigrated to Palestine in 1920 and began his work as an architect. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s “International Style” influenced Kauffmann’s work. The International Style was nicknamed “Bauhaus” in Palestine and many tour guides still call it so. In contrast to the usual style of Jewish building at the beginning of the century. Then Jewish building was arranged around closed courtyards. In contrast, the houses of Rehavia faced outward, to the outside world.

His “Bauhaus” style was very popular in Palesting and became basis of the White City, as Tel Aviv’s International Style architecture became known.

He designed, almost alone, new rural villages, kibutzim and moshavim in the Jezreel Valley: most notably Ein Harod, Kfar Yehoshua, Degania Alef, Kfar Yehezkel and Nahalal.

Kauffmann designed some new Israeli cities: Afula, Herzliya, Rehavia. His neighborhood include Beit Hakerem, Talpiyot and Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem, and Hadar HaCarmel, Neve Sha’anan, Bat Galim and Central Carmel in the city of Haifa.

Quasi Government Institutions

Jewish National Fund purchased some of the land from the Palestine Land Development Corporation (PLDC). On this land the JNF built the Gymnasia Rehavia high school on Keren Kayemet Street, Yeshurun Synagogue on King George Street, and the Jewish Agency building at the corner of King George and Keren Kayemet Street. These quasi government institutions were meant to replace the Temple in the Old City. All these buildings overlook the Old City.

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Road

Keren Kayemet Street

At the corner of Keren Kayemet Street there is a three-winged structure National Institutions Building with a large open courtyard, designed by Yochanan Rattner, This building housed the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund and Keren Hayesod. Rattner gave it slanted walls, as in the walls of the Old City. Rattner, who was the first head of the Hagana’s National Command, also designed the Geography building in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Aeronautics building of the Technion in Haifa, the Kefar ha-Yarok Agricultural School, Bet Berl, Midreshet Ben Gurion, the Reali School in Haifa, and Beit Yad LeBanim in Beer Sheva.

Menachem Ussishkin, head of the Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund or KKL) decided that the street with the KKL headquarters should be changed from Shmuel Hanaggid Street to Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael Street. He transferred the name Shmuel Hanaggid Street to a nearby block.

National Institutions Building

Palestine’s second modern high school, after Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv, the Rehavia Gymnasium, was built in 1928 on Keren Kayemet Street.

Rehavia Gymnasium

Ramban Street

8 Ramban Street: The Greek Orthodox Church erected the windmill on Ramban Street some 150 years ago. When in operation, it ground wheat from the fields in the area into flour to feed Orthodox pilgrims visiting the Holy City.

Windmill on Ramban Street

26 Ramban Street: Gad Frumkin, the only Jewish Supreme Court justice to serve during the British Mandate, built the lovely dwelling on the corner of Ramban and Rehov Ibn Ezra in 1924. The sign “Havatzelet” (lily) over the door at #26 was a gesture to his father, who published a historic newspaper of that name for over 40 years.

Menachem Ussishkin

32 Ramban Street: Many years ago, I live on Ussishkin Street as a student, but this Ussishkin tale is new to me. As the story goes, Menachem Ussishkin was chairman of the JNF for 20 years. He was housed in a grand two-story villa near the Old City Walls, built by Swiss missionary banker who called it “Mahanaim” for the biblical verse:

“When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” [Genesis 32:2]

So Ussishkin named that place Mahanaim (camp). In 1927, however, a severe earthquake damaged the British High Commissioner’s residence in Talpiot. The British commandeered Mahanaim and replaced Ussishkin with the commissioner. Ussishkin inscribed the name “Mahanaim” over the door of his new home at #32 Ramban. He also managed to change the cross street named for Yehuda Halevi (a Spaniard, and one of the greatest Jewish poets of all time) to Rehov Ussishkin in honor of his 70th birthday in 1933.

Rabbi Yehuda Halevi was not forgotten by city fathers. When Jerusalem was reunified in 1967, the steps from Misgav Ladach Street to the Western Wall Plaza were renamed in Rabbi Yehuda Halevi’s memory. Historically, Rabbi Halevi was fatally run over soon after he immigrated to the Holy Land, while kissing the ground near the Western Wall.

14 Ramban Street: Rehavia’s first home, completed in 1924, is near the top of Ramban Street#14. It was built by Eliezer Yellin. Eliezer was the son of David Yellin. David Yellin himself was a grandson to one of the founders of Nahalat Shiv’a over half a century earlier. It was Eliezer Yellin who named the neighborhood for Moses’ grandson, “Rehavia”.

“The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer…and the sons of Eliezer were Rehavia the first. And Eliezer had no other sons; and the sons of Rehavia were very many” (I Chronicles 23:15–17).

Ibn Gabirol Street

14 Ibn Gabirol Street: The Ben-Zvi Institute of Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was founded by Izhak Ben-Zvi in 1947, for the purpose of research relating to the history, communal life and culture of the Jewish communities under Islam and in other countries of the Middle East and Asia.

Balfour Street

3 Balfour Street: The Bauhaus building at No. 3 Balfour (at the corner Smolenskin streets) was designed by Richard Kaufmann for the wealthy Aghion family from Egypt. In 1939-40 the Aghions let the house to exiled King Peter of Yugoslavia. Today it is the official residence of Israel’s prime ministers.

Beit Aghion Photo: Haimohana

Alfasi Street – Jason’s Tomb

10 Alfasi Street: A burial tomb from Hasmonean times (2nd century BCE) uncovered in 1956, its Greek and Aramaic inscription includes an epitaph to the unknown Jason. Jason was either:

A High Priest in the Second Temple, instated in 175 BC by Antiochus Epiphanes after he ascended the throne of the Seleucid Empire and Jason offered to pay him for the appointment.

Possibly a naval commander, based on the charcoal drawing of two warships discovered in the cave.

The tomb was discovered on Alfasi Street in the Rehavia in 1956. I lived on Alfasi Street in 1965-66. I prefer the priestly lineage for Jason so that would make us relatives.

Ben Maimon Street

6 Ben Maimon Street: In the year of 1930, in Alexandria, Egypt, a Christian-Arab lawyer, Nasib Abkarius Bay married the daughter of a well known ultra-orthodox family from Jerusalem, Lea Tenenboim. So, he built a large house in Rehavia Neighborhood in Jerusalem, across the street from and Terra Sancta College and what would become the Aghion’s home (the Prime Minister’s official residence). The home was named “Villa Lea”. A year later, Lea sneaked out with a new lover to Egypt after spending a large sum of Abkarius`s money and left him broke and broken hearted. They divorced officially in 1945 and a year later Abkarius died poor and lonely. Later, the house was divided into three apartments. Through the years, Ethiopia Haile Selassie, David Hagoel, Eliezer Kaplan, Yosef Burg, Moshe Dayan and his daughter Yael Dayan have lived in Villa Lea.

Keren Hayesod Street

2 Keren Hayesod Street: The Società di San Paolo of Milan built Terra Sancta College on Keren Hayesod in 1926. Critics called it the “Opera Cardinal Ferrari.” The designer of the building was the famous, Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi.

Shmuel HaNagid Street

26 Shmuel HaNagid Street: Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, a French convert from Judaism established the Ratisbonne Monastery in Rehavia. Work on the building began in 1874 on a barren hill, now in the center of Jerusalem.

Ratisbonne Monastery

Rehavia Today

Today, offices replace families. Parking lots uprooted gardens. Now, new roads bisect Rehavia.

Rehavia, Jerusalem * The Plans for Rehavia Begun in 1922, the Rehavia neighborhood served as a "garden suburb" for Jewish families of Jerusalem who sought to escape the crowded conditions elsewhere in the city.

#Bauhaus #Gad Frumkin #International Style #Jerusalem #Menachem Ussishkin #Rehavia #Richard Kauffmann #Yochanan Rattner

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fughtopia · 7 years

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The Myth of World War II & The Power of Propaganda

In light of recent events, online activists and others have taken to posting pictures of troops storming the beaches of Normandy as a way to tie current anti-Fascist struggles to the defeat of Italian Fascism and German Nazism during World War II. The problem with this sort of reactionary protest is that it feeds the ongoing myths surrounding WWII: namely, the notion that the U.S. got involved in the war to defeat Fascism and Nazism.

The U.S. Empire, like all previous empires, does not engage in wars because it’s the right or moral thing to do. The U.S. Empire has interests. And its interests are not our interests. If within the scope of U.S. imperial interests something positive takes place, such as the defeat of Nazism, it’s a mere coincidence, not a calculated objective. The primary objective of nation-states are not moral crusades (though moral crusades under the guise of enlightened Christianity were commonly used to dominate people around the globe), the primary objective of nation-states is to consolidate and wield power.

Without doubt, the momentary defeat of Nazism and Fascism should be hailed, but not in the way in which it’s currently being lauded. Remember, the Communists defeated Fascism, not the Americans. Some estimates suggest that the Soviet Union lost close to 27 million people during WWII. The Communists bore the brunt of Fascism and Nazism. Yet, Americans revel in the myth that our 500,000+ deaths were the deciding factor in the war effort. Let’s also remember the hundreds of thousands of anarchists, communists, socialists, Jews, Gypsies and others who valiantly fought against Fascism.

Today, the myths surrounding WWII continue to haunt the American psyche, crippling our ability to critically examine U.S. history, ideology and nationalism. Most Americans have concluded that our war against Japan was just, and our efforts against the Germans and Italians righteous. Yet, as the late-great historian Howard Zinn notes in his classic work, A People’s History of the United States:

When Mussolini’s Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the U.S. declared an embargo on munitions but let American businesses send oil to Italy in huge quantities, which was essential to Italy’s carrying on the war. When a Fascist rebellion took place in Spain in 1936 against the elected socialist-liberal government, the Roosevelt administration sponsored a neutrality act that had the effect of shutting off help to the Spanish government while Hitler and Mussolini gave critical aid to Franco.

Offner says:

“… the United States went beyond even the legal requirements of its neutrality legislation. Had aid been forthcoming from the United States and from England and France, considering that Hitler’s position on aid to France was not firm at least until November 1936, the Spanish Republicans could well have triumphed. Instead, Germany gained every advantage from the Spanish civil war.”

Was this simply poor judgment, an unfortunate error? Or was it the logical policy of a government whose main interest was not stopping Fascism but advancing the imperial interests of the United States? For those interests, in the thirties, an anti-Soviet policy seemed best. Later, when Japan and Germany threatened U.S. world interests, a pro-Soviet, anti-Nazi policy became preferable. Roosevelt was as much concerned to end the oppression of Jews as Lincoln was to end slavery during the Civil War; their priority in policy (whatever their personal compassion for victims of persecution) was not minority rights, but national power.

It was not Hitler’s attacks on the Jews that brought the United States into World War II, any more than the enslavement of 4 million blacks brought Civil War in 1861. Italy’s attack on Ethiopia, Hitler’s invasion of Austria, his takeover of Czechoslovakia, his attack on Poland-none of those events caused the United States to enter the war, although Roosevelt did begin to give important aid to England. What brought the United States fully into the war was the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Surely it was not the humane concern for Japan’s bombing of civilians that led to Roosevelt’s outraged call for war-Japan’s attack on China in 1937, her bombing of civilians at Nan king, had not provoked the United States to war. It was the Japanese attack on a link in the American Pacific Empire that did it.

So long as Japan remained a well-behaved member of that imperial club of Great Powers who-in keeping with the Open Door Policy- were sharing the exploitation of China, the United States did not object. It had exchanged notes with Japan in 1917 saying ‘the Government of the United States recognizes that Japan has special interests in China.’ In 1928, according to Akira Iriye (After Imperialism), American consuls in China supported the coming of Japanese troops. It was when Japan threatened potential U.S. markets by its attempted takeover of China, but especially as it moved toward the tin, rubber, and oil of Southeast Asia, that the United States became alarmed and took those measures which led to the Japanese attack: a total embargo on scrap iron, a total embargo on oil in the summer of 1941.

Leaving aside the justification for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, it’s important to remember that prior to WWII, the U.S. had an atrocious track-record of defending struggles for freedom and democracy.

Ask the Libyans (1801-1805), Haitians (1791-1804. 1888, 1891, 1914, 1915-1934), Cubans (1814-1825, 1906-1909, 1912, 1917-1922, 1933) Filipinos (1899-1913), Mexicans (1806-1810, 1842, 1846-1848, 1859, 1866, 1873-1896), Puerto Ricans (1814-1825), Chinese (1843, 1854, 1855, 1866, 1894-1895, 1899, 1900, 1911-1941), Russians (1918-1920), Nicaraguans (1853-1857, 1867, 1894-1899, 1910-1925), Panamanians (1856, 1865, 1885, 1912-1925), Algerians (1815), Hawaiians (1870, 1874, 1889-1893), or Guatemalans (1920) — just to name a few occasions when the U.S. military was used to protect U.S. interests and repress struggles for freedom and democracy.

Instead of glorifying state-sanctioned violence, activists in the U.S. would be wise to highlight the real heroes of WWII, people such as Gunnar Eilifsen, those who participated in the Warsaw Uprising, Irena Sandler, Lepa Radic, and countless unnamed others who defending their families and communities from Nazism and Fascism. They weren’t drafted. And they weren’t backed by the most powerful military empire in the world. They were true resistance fighters, and we should remember their sacrifices.

Meanwhile, we should do our best to challenge U.S. nationalism, historical myths and the fetishization of violence, which has reared its ugly head in light of recent white supremacist attacks on leftwing protesters.

In the end, WWII was the single-greatest tragedy in the history of the human species. And that’s exactly how it should be remembered.

Source: The Fetishization of Violence: Reflections on Charlottesville, WWII and Activism by Vincent Emanuele (CounterPunch)

#ww1 #amerikkka #roosevelt #lincoln #power #hegemony #nation of lawless nazi psychopaths #spain #ethiopia #charlottesville #fascism #nazism

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