Category: Starred Posts
The Atomic Bomb’s Legacy
In 1945, World War II ended with Japan’s surrender to the United States, as announced over the radio by Emperor Hirohito to his country on August 15th of that year. The events of the preceding week, on the 6th and 9th of August, forced Japan’s hand. After making the calculation that it was in the …
Awda Home
“His blue American passport allowed him to sit on the beach where he swam as a boy with dolphins and turtles, the beach his mother could see from her window as she drank her coffee. It was his unthreatening white hair and turtleneck shirts that allowed him to pass as a foreigner, not a dangerous […]
Both Sides to the Arab-Israeli Coin
The end of World War II marked the end of an era in many ways but one of those ways was that this was effectively the end of large empires and distant colonies. One of the most famous examples of…
Reconstruction Europe: The Victor’s Burden
‘The Big Three’: Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin sit for photographs during the Yalta Conference in February 1945. NAM 236 Part of WAR OFFICE SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION In the public mind, the surrender of Japan and Germany seemed like the ultimate victory. To be sure, the forces of “good” had …
Continue reading “Reconstruction Europe: The Victor’s Burden”
Postwar Prevention
Reconstructing Europe after World War Two had many different aspects. Aside from the obvious need to physically rebuild Europe, the economies – and thus, ideologies– also needed to be rebuilt. One of the key themes that emerged after WW2 was … Continue reading →
Key to Prosperity
In 1950, a design competition was held for a new poster that would advertise the European Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan as it would eventually be known. The purpose of this competition was to promote the idea of prosperity through unity in post-war Europe. Unlike some of the other entries, this poster emphasized that European … Continue reading →
#4 Human Rights in the Post War Era
The notion of human rights is a subject that has been at the forefront of international political discussions since the onset of World War 2. In the years leading up to WW2, however, human rights were a relatively new idea. After the failure of the League of Nations, the rise of the Nazi party, and … Continue reading →
Expanding the Family
When asked to envision 1950s America, many today would picture a two to three story home, a white mother and father with 2 children, a dog, and a white picket fence. The family is middle class, the father works nine to five, and the mother takes care of the home. This is the … Continue reading →
Domestic Human Rights Postwar
World War II made human rights an issue that the West believed it was their duty to get behind. The terrible human rights violations by Hitler and the German Nazi regime were so horrific that even the US and … Continue reading →
“Cowardice”
Today we have learned just how important and real mental illness is in our society, particularly among our veterans and military personnel. However, in the World War II era these men were not given this same respect or aid. They were viewed as cowards or deserters and told that they were weak (similar to the […]
