Global Thematic: Technology Essay

History has seen its fair share of technological innovations that were significant and impactful to the people and society of that time period. These advancements in technology brought about monumental changes, for good and for worse. An example of a noteworthy innovation was Johann Gutenberg’s printing press. During the Renaissance, the printing press played a key role in the spreading of new ideas. The use of roads was a technological innovation as well. During the reign of the Roman Empire, roads impacted humankind in multiple aspects of life, such as trade and transportation. After the study of the printing press during the Renaissance, and roads of the Roman Empire, one could make an argument that each was a significant technological innovation and had effects on their respective time periods. The printing press, invented by Johannes Guttenberg, was a technological advancement that had effects on humankind throughout history. Specifically, during the Renaissance, the printing press was impactful on society through the spreading of ideas. The Renaissance, literally â€Å"rebirth,† was a time period in which Europe flourished culturally and economically. In this golden age, philosophers, writers, and other thinkers expressed ideas that were revolutionary to society. Humanism and individualism were big parts of Renaissance thinking. A positive effect of the printing press, these ideas were spread to the public. Martin Luther expressed revolutionary ideas in his 95 Theses, thanks to the printing press. Furthermore, books became plentiful. The printing press catalyzed literacy, since works of literature were no longer a scarcity. Knowledge exploded as every corner of realms of thinking were explored and documented. The printing press, without a doubt, was an innovation of technology that impacted humankind during the Renaissance. An additional advancement in technology was the use of roads. The Roman Empire, a vast kingdom of lands including Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, all located around the Mediterranean, was connected through a network of roads. Covering thousands of miles, dirt trails wouldn’t work. The Romans engineered road by laying down large sheets of rock or bricks,  fitting them together like puzzle pieces to form a flat surface for trade and transportation. Wheel ruts wouldn’t be present, so travel was possible all year round no matter the weather. During a time period under Augustus Caesar known as Pax Romana, the Romans experienced 200 years of peace, in which trade flourished, cultural aspects of Rome thrived. The entire Mediterranean region was united and stable, thanks to an unwavering road system. A strong central government was able to protect its people and spread its ways to lands far from the center. The Twelve Tables were able to influence people from Europe, North Africa, and Southwest Asia, all because of perfectly engineered roads. A prosperous Roman Empire was able to provide a high standard of living to its people through booming trade, security provided by Roman legions, and a uniform law code. Roads in the Roman Empire were most certainly a crucial technological advancement to its time period. Technological innovations have marked their spots in history, two being the printing press and roads. Humankind and society alike have been impacted by these advancements. The printing press was a driving force in the Renaissance, spreading ideas. Renaissance thinking such as humanism and individualism were spread, and literacy boomed. Roads were also a huge technological innovation. In the Roman Empire, roads were the network connecting the empire, making Pax Romana possible. Roman culture spread, and economies boomed. Following the study of the printing press and roads, and their effects on their respective time periods, one could verify the fact that technological advancements have had effects on humankind and society.

The Women of Colonial Latin America

The Book is rich with topics describing opportunities and challenges that shaped the lives of women in Latin America influenced by Spain and Portugal. Engagingly written by Socolow the book can be a very useful reference for teachers of Latin American Studies. The piece abounds with historical information covering effects of conquests, colonization, and settlement of colonial women. It looks into the various roles played by women stressing on their responsibilities and duties as well as their limitations.It gives light as to how factors like race, social status, occupation and environment among others affect women in every circumstance. I would say the piece is one whole powerful presentation. Socolow being a member of the gender in discussion gives weight to the whole intellectual experience. The book might have a different feel if it was written by a man. Socolow made sure that she started her book with an attention grabbing Introduction. I think everyone who has read would agree t hat it is very effective.It is very perceptive but not overly dramatic, it hands the reader all the needed information to the last detail but not to the point that it becomes dreary. The author can be likened to a professional cab driver – expertly maneuvering a vehicle full of passengers to an intended destination. Chapter One, Iberian Women in the Old World and the New is an interesting historical account of how key players in history changed women’s role across time.Chapter Two, Before Columbus: Women in Indigenous America and Africa is an enlightening and at the same time intriguing description of history. Chapter Three, Conquest and Colonization documents the hardships and brutality experienced by women during war. All the other Chapters namely Women, Marriage, and Family, Elite Women, The Brides of Christ and Other Religious Women, Women and Work, Women and Slavery, Women and Social Deviance: Crime, Witchcraft, and Rebellion, Women and Enlightenment Reform bear t he same keen observation and consistency of purpose.The book seems just historical at first but it has more than just historical information. I would say it is a must read – for those who wants to understand how the role of women evolve from early Spanish conquest to what it is presently. The author use easy and simple language that her ideas just flow from page to page. All in all – Socolow’s ‘The Women of Colonial Latin America: New Approaches to the Americas’ is a rich book that surely gets its reader’s hooked.

What is Chivalry Essay

What is Chivalry Originally Latin, actually spelled â€Å"caballarius† and pronounced â€Å"SHivÉ™lrē†, is chivalry. Chivalry is the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight. Such qualities include honor, courtesy, courage, justice, and willing to assist those in need. If one is chivalrous in character, then one is a gentleman and noble in his good deeds. He would in no manner hesitate to serve others and serve his God. This is evident as Honore de Balzac puts it: â€Å"the motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.† Chivalry, besides its original usage as â€Å"calvary,† can truly only be delineated in only one way, which is to refer to a virtuous code of conduct. There isn’t any negative connotations to the word either, unless somebody called a fellow thane chivalrous in Old Anglo-Saxon times! Other than that, the only emotional association with the word is generally positive. This noble idea of conduct is constituted of several virtues in spite of the narrow usage of the word. So, how did chivalry come into existence? Journey to the medieval times and you will discover that chivalry was once an existential characteristic of every man sworn into nobility or born into it. These men were knights. Medieval knights battled horseback and practiced outstanding gallantry. Knights were always calvary in battle, and exhibited righteous morals. A group of knights was actually called â€Å"the chivalry† of the militia. They were excelled in sword craft nearly comparable to their high level of graciousness, and could ride a horse well-nigh to the speed of which they are willing to assist a damsel in distress. Chivalry came to be known as the demeanor of an ideal knight, rather than simply a group of knights. As Chaucer puts it in Canterbury Tales, an ideal knight â€Å"loved chivalry, truth and honor, freedom and courtesy; †¦ a very gentle, perfect knight.† Whatever happened to chivalry? Certain writers may say chivalry is dead, or it might just have a bad case of the flu. As long as wrongs are still righted, chivalry will survive. Chivalry cannot and will never die out. It may become exponentially less evident everyday, but underlying all the rudeness and discourtesy, chivalry is there. Chivalry does indeed need to be implemented more and more into society. Every single man’s major desire should be to act magnanimously and reveal a generous and noble state of mind. If every man were to be genuinely chivalrous then hardly would there ever be any cheating, debt, adultery, stealing, or even bad attitudes. Each and every man would be true in their religion, honest, courteous, and would have a burning passion to do what is right. Think of that chivalry based utopian society. A world where people were more worried about humbling themselves rather than raising themselves up would be phenomenal. Modern chivalry should predominate like it did with Sir Lancelot around Queen Guinevere. Contemporary America could learn from John Bowring’s â€Å"Chivalry† poem which reads: â€Å"Now tell me what is chivalry? To battle in the foremost fight For anything—for wrong—for right, For some fair lady’s scornful smile, For what is virtuous, what is vile, Come, tell me, is this chivalry? No! in the men for truth who pant, In wretchedness and woe and want, Who bear the world’s contemptuous hate, With patient soul, with heart elate. No! in the woman in whose home No peace is found, no comforts come, Yet bends in silence,—feeling still ‘Tis God’s most kind, most holy will. This—this is truest chivalry!† Chivalry essentially is the essence of all that is good, virtuous, and holy, conglomerated into one admirably cultivated code of conduct to live by.

Legal Perspectives of International Football Essay

Legal Perspectives of International Football - Essay Example The first role as can be deduced from the above definition is the fact that the player's agent is charged with the responsibility of introducing a player with a club so as to negotiate an employment contract of the player with the club(of course at a fee). He is often paid by the club for bringing the player to accept a contract with the club. This is the only channel of payment recommended meaning that the agent is working for the club to sign up competent players with the club. However, at the same time, the player's agent is also working for the player negotiating for his terms and conditions for the contract with the club in which case the player can also pay the agent. These double payments are common but they have happened as shall be seen from the example to be illustrated in a little while. FIFA forbids player's agents from working for two parties when negotiating a transfer or an initial sign up of a player but the FIFA laws are not very clear hence reason why we have witnes sed some double payments especially in Wayne Rooney's transfer in 2004. It can be recalled that Wayn... Paul Stretford was paid by Manchester united football club for delivering the 18 year old able striker from Everton to the Club (Manchester United) and the amount was promised to hit 1.5 million if Rooney stayed at the United's Old Trafford for 5 years. Rooney on his part also paid Paul Stretford, his agent, for his role of negotiating his contract terms of 50,000/week (Conn, 2004). In defence of Rooney's act of receiving payments from both parties in a single transfer the, Andrin Cooper, the FA spokesperson, said that he did not consider the act a breech to the FIFA regulations because the regulations did not in any way outlaw payments made by both the club and the player. This therefore represents and at the same time amplifies the fact that the law form FIFA about agents may seem to be clear but it is not clear at all. FIFA regards the role of the player's agent to be mainly that of persuading his player to join a club, the work for which he gets paid by the club. It should me noted that the federation, FIFA, therefore in this accord regards the above role as very much separate from negotiating the players terms with the club in the same transfer. The two roles, though separated by FIFA, are inseparable because they are dependent in that the player will not accept to join a club (for the agent to be paid the player must accept to join the club) if his persona l conditions are not taken care by the club in the contract, an issue that the player's agent ensures through an active and engaging negotiation with the club owners. Therefore, at all times, the player's agents have been carrying out the role of getting the player to sign up for a given club but this role depends on another implied role of getting the club to accept to the terms of the player

Hong Kong Disneyland Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hong Kong Disneyland - Research Proposal Example The plan consists of establishing six concepts generalizing the whole theme park. These concepts include Main Street USA concept (which is the dramatic entry to the park), Fantasyland concept (which will highlight the Disney animated characters and stories), Toontown concept (that provides venue for the visitors to actually meet the Disney characters in a whimsical roller coaster), the Adventureland concept (which will highlight several of the movies produced by Disney such as the Lion King), the Frontierland concept (where the visitors will feel the breeze of the Old Western living), and the Tomorrowland concept (showcasing the world of sci-fi fantasies and adventure). The plan also includes three to four Disney - themed resort hotels offering up to 2,100 hotel rooms to be constructed adjacent to the Park. A variety of shopping and dining experiences within proposed 28,000-square-meter retail, dining, and entertainment complex is also part of the initial plan for overall Hong Kong D isneyland experience   The tourists from who visited Hong Kong Disneyland have varied feedbacks about the said tourist attraction. Some are satisfied with the theme park while there are some who thinks that this is just pure media hype. Some of the interviewed visitors revealed that: The site is very good. Having Disneyland here in Hong Kong, which is very near to my country, is a very good idea. Disneyland is very famous. Having this in Hong Kong means that we don't need to go to the US or to another country just to know what is inside Disneyland." - Akona Leh, from Shen Zhen China.

Darwinism vs creationism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Darwinism vs creationism - Research Paper Example Darwinism focuses primarily on science and is explained through scientific methodology (Witham, 2002). Additionally, biological evolution focuses intently on changes existent in living organisms during their life span. The biological theory explains comprehensively that living organisms share common ancestry and in the fullness of time, evolutionary alterations result in the development of new species. On the other hand, the creationism theory focuses primarily on the notions of creation science. The theory derives from the conviction of a vast majority of Abrahemic religions, which poise that God created the universe, which includes humans and all living organisms all at the same time in the fairly the recent past. This paper will contrast Darwinism and creationism, appreciating both theories’ most prominent assumptions as they relate to the origin of life. Creationists argue that all living beings started out as diverse and individual organisms when God created them. Creatio nism also does not hold the opinion that organisms alter into complete distinct and different animals via evolution. For instance, creationists do not accept as true the idea that single-celled organisms evolved into extremely complex plants and animals, with man eventually evolving into Homo sapiens. Notably, while creationism is not necessarily a scientific theory, creationists continually make use of scientific evidence in order to support their basic argument that it is impossible to prove Darwinism scientifically since Darwinism goes contrary to creationism (Witham, 2002). In addition to condemning evolution, creationists also seek scientific evidence of their own in order to buttress the creation description in Genesis. However, this is highly problematic since it means that creationists cross the bounds between science and religion by attempting to entangle the two origins. This is an extremely ineffective pairing since religion has no proof-giving capacity but science does. Scientists are presently doing the same. Initially, scientists remained in their own realm regarding the origin of life. However, even after arguing that the evolution theory can be proven, scientists are still going contrary to the Bible in order to affirm that the Bible provides a false account. This means that scientists who abide by the Darwinism theory are also crossing the bounds to argue against creationism. Creation science, which affirms the belief that God created the universe, as well as creatures found in it, is essentially not a science since creation by God or other divine beings do not provide concrete scientific rationalizations regarding the origin of life (Witham, 2002). Instead, the creationism theory is an explanation consistent with religious beliefs that an intelligent creator (God) exists and created the entire universe. Creationists attempt to assert this concept, as well as other Biblical stories, by appraising them on scientific grounds. For example, geolog ists attempted to explain all the universe’s geological features with regard to Noah’s flood. To date, no other book apart from the Bible has had more momentous effects on the Western world than the Origins of Species by Charles Darwin. Darwin is renowned for his theories of natural selection and evolution that are presently known as Darwinism. At the moment, evolution is referred to as the alteration of simple forms of life to higher ones as theorized by Darwin (Morris, 1974). Darwin utilized the term evolution for the first time

Toyota international business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Toyota international business - Essay Example The decision to operate and expand in Poland compared to other EU countries is dependant on a lot of factors, however we can look at some major aspects of investment decisions. Poland has been one of the most successful transition economies of the last decade thanks to consistently sound economic policies (DTI). It has consistently produced growth in GDP which slowed down in 1999-2000 which was mitigated with the prospects of closer integration with EU. Poland has dynamically converted from state capitalist economy to privately owned market economy. Even though conversion to private market economy and focus on EU increased consistency in economic policies, unnecessary red tape still needs to be eliminated. However until Poland joins the Eurozone, which is expected approximately by 2010, companies operating in Poland will be exposed to foreign currency risks. Considering the stringent requirements that have to be met in order to become a member of EU e.g. trade deficit of less than 3% and maximum government public debt of 60% of GDP, it is expected that until Poland joins Eurozone, the exchange rate will be stable enough so as not to effect investment and trade decisions by companies such as Toyota. Since the establishment of European Union and introduction of Euro, economic environment has dramatically changed. The EU represents a market of over 450 million people with minimal barrier’s to trade and movement of factors of production. The market size is expected to be effected due to inclusion of new member states into EU, however it is expected to normalize and increase by 2010 (DTI) and not only provide a larger target market but also skilled human resource – which is available at competitive cost compared to other European countries. Owing to the market size and purchasing power of the consumers, Toyota has posted 12% YoY increase in sales in

Bloom Energy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bloom Energy - Research Paper Example Even though one can view energy in relation to the full functioning of urban areas, this analysis may focus on the energy features of a contemporary urban settlement, such as Delaware. Bloom Energy, through its revolutionary effort with fuel cell technology, aspires to aid businesses and homes in fueling their own automobiles and producing their own power, giving light and electricity to outlying communities and even decreasing dependence on existing electricity grids. The technology at the core Bloom Energy’s aim to support the environment and the planet was initially designed for utilization in deep space (Schenker 2009). K.R. Sridhar, the co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, received a request from NASA to formulate a way to make Mars suitable for human habitation. His original plan was an instrument that would utilize Martian water and solar energy to power a reactor cell that produced hydrogen to fuel vehicles and oxygen to breathe (Schenker 2009). The plan formed a brilliant idea in Sridhar. If the reaction will be reversed, putting fuel and oxygen into the cell to produce power, he could transform the way people produced and used energy. He created the prototype of his purported Bloom Boxes to perform the reaction reversal, but required a lot more effort to make the mechanism reversible (Schenker 2009). In that manner, when attached to a source of renewable energy like solar panel, the Bloom Boxes produce and amass oxygen and hydrogen. And when the renewable energy source disappears, it shifts direction and utilizes the amassed gases to produce current. As disclosed by Sridhar, â€Å"I quit doing my NASA work because I believe this particular technology can change the world. Just like developing nations leapfrogged over fixed telephony to mobile, we think our technology will allow developing nations to do the same thing for

Pediatric Nurse Practive Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Pediatric Nurse Practive - Assignment Example Key word: Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP), Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (PNPs) Nurse Practitioner (NP). Historical Background and Certification Requirements Pediatric Nurse Practice (PNP) refers, the practice of nursing concerned with infants, children and adolescents together with their families providing health promotion, illness management and health restoration across the entire healthcare spectrum (Tylor as cited in eHow, 2011). It requires knowledge of both child development and the physiological difference between children and adults. PNP is also family centered requiring the realization of the essential role that the family plays in children lives, growth and development which should be reflected in the children’s care whenever they are ill. It involves collaborative partnership between families and health care professionals built on respect and embedded in the families’ strengths, choices and values (Tylor, 2006). Pediatric nurses also attempts to provide a ttramautic care in order to eliminate or minimize the physiologic and physical distress experienced by children and their families in the health care system. Pediatric nurses may function in many roles that include direct caregiver, educator, counselor, consultant, advocate, care coordinator, or health systems manager (Tylor, 2006). They also work as researchers or pediatric clinical nurse specialists. Pediatric nurses may practice in many locations such as homes, clinics, hospitals, long term care facilities and schools (Schachtel, 2008). The opening of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (the first children’s hospital in the U.S) in Pennsylvania in 1855 formed the cornerstone upon which the specialty of pediatric nursing developed (Tylor, 2006). In colonial America, most children were delivered by the help of midwives and treated with folk medicine. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia goal was to provide excellent healthcare and reduce child mortality. Other children hospitals were later established in different regions but, none would admit children with communicable diseases because of high mortality. In 1895, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia began to admit children. It also started its own nursing school in the same year (Tylor, 2006). The approach enabled the hospital to amass knowledgeable staff that provided the level of care, education, observation and assessment that the children and their families needed. Some private duty nurses of the hospital specialized in care of children. With services for nurses increasingly needed, what followed was an awakening in the nursing practice. The directive on the 1917 standard curriculum for nursing schools to increase some detailed topics in regard to pediatrics and the Rockefeller Foundation publication in 1923 (Nursing and Nursing education in USA), generally impacted positively on the pediatric nursing specialty and the nursing profession as a whole (Tylor,2006). Late r, in the century pediatric nursing moved to advanced degrees and advanced practice. It is not unusual that, the first nurse practitioners were pediatric nurse practitioners. Those who aspire to become Pediatric Nurse Practitioners in the U.S have various options. In order to work as Pediatric nurses, students must first become Registered Nurses (RN)†¦An RN may be achieved through hospitals or educational institutions (PNERCI, 2011). The coursework may differ but graduates from these programs

Weigh on Societal Realities Essay Example for Free

Weigh on Societal Realities Essay The movie V for Vendetta gives its viewers an intimate look into the mind of a very creative and ultimately very patient political â€Å"terrorist. † But the question remains, how far-fetched is an idea like this? Could the United States be on its way to such a revolution and if so, is such a revolution really necessary? After having seen this movie a number of times and taking into consideration the current state of our country, I would have to say the answer is yes on both counts. With the recent rash of corporate bailouts and evidence of our government’s involvement in wire tapping, I feel it would be naive and even a bit irresponsible to think our government incapable of causing such an emotional response to take place. While our own media may not completely be controlled by our government, as seemed so obvious in V for Vendetta, a person cannot tune to a news program these days without knowing almost instantly which political party that station sides with. Our foreign enemies have already done a good job of forcing Americans to question their own loyalties, how long before an individual or group takes a broad step to alter our governmental policy? V realized then what so few of us seem to accept now, that a constitution does not necessarily protect us from a government gone awry. Our own history, especially that most recent, has taught us that with enough money and power you can practically get away with murder. Not only can you hold political office, but apparently your means give you the authority to do with it what you will. Of course while vying for this office you’ll stoop to almost any level, tell the most outrageous lies. For example in V for Vendetta, wasn’t it convenient how a cure for this uncontrollable â€Å"plague† was suddenly discovered soon after Sutler took office? And isn’t convenient how all wars will end and all taxes will be eliminated when said favored politician takes control? But nothing really ever seems to work out for the common man; they only seem to work out for those who have the control and the power. Minimum wage may increase, but so does the price of everything else. Those with means, motive and opportunity need only wave their hand or put their signature to paper and their will be done. The average citizen does not have that luxury. The average citizen has but two things to be concerned with, death and taxes, when isn’t their concern supposed to lie with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? While it may be true that not everyone has sacrificed freedom and liberty for sanctity of life, there are many that have and this is just the beginning. Everyday people have to give up on their once noble hopes and dreams merely to make ends meet and give Uncle Sam his fair share. While Congress helps itself to more money and the oil companies are reaping record profits, average hard-working Americans are forced to sell their homes and work two jobs. And it is true that America is the land of dreams, but at what price? The so-called dreams that America stands for are now all but unreachable to the large majority. But the hardship for many Americans does not end with the job or housing market, our own ability to choose and decide for ourselves is also in question. Gay marriage, for example is not recognized in most states, and if politicians had their way the concept would be outlawed altogether. This idea is reflected on a larger scale in V for Vendetta when Valerie recounts the hardships of homosexuals in the intolerant society in which she lived. Gay relationships are not only frowned upon in this society, but having been found to be involved in such a relationship is punishable by death. The United States government may not be acting so rashly now, but who’s to say what the reaction will be when a decision about gay marriage is reached on a national level. Part 2: After seeing V for Vendetta, some may view the character V as nothing more than a terrorist out for blood; a criminal no better than the men who crashed airplanes into our beloved landmarks. However, V represented so much more to so many people; he represented change for the better and a fresh start. What V does in this movie is more than justified, it is necessary. Although he may have been forced to murder some seemingly innocent people, his purpose was always clear; he never faltered. V’s life, his entire existence was a product of a corrupt government, and everyone he crossed paths with was directly involved. He had no name, no history and no identity other than â€Å"patient number five. † It is not until he meets Evey that his life becomes about something more. Evey is connected to V in more ways than he could have at first imagined. Her own parents were â€Å"black-bagged† for being political activists and her brother was a patient at the notorious St. Mary’s. V gains respect for Evey almost instantly and begins to fall in love with her within days of keeping her with him. But even his love for Evey does not transform his ultimate desire to transform a corrupt world. He realizes that it is for people like Evey and he that he put these plans into motion to begin with. By the end of the film V has made an impact on everyone, from average citizen to Sutler himself. He convinces people, as he convinced Evey that a change is inevitable but it could not wait any longer. He called upon people to stand with him and recognize the need for change and bear witness to his revolution. V is not a terrorist because his goal was not to harm innocents and bring about hardship, it is quite the opposite. He is indeed a freedom fighter because freedom is precisely what he was fighting for. He wanted to bring about a better life for his nation’s citizens, much like Robin Hood in a way. He was merely putting the power in the hands of those who should’ve had it all along, hoping in the end they’d know how to use it. I suppose V could be viewed as a martyr because he sacrificed himself for a chance at a new and better age, but I don’t believe martyrdom was his intent at all. Nobody knew his name, where he was from or had ever even seen his face. His actions were for the greater good, not for the purpose of having a monument erected in his visage. While violence may not be the answer, an attitude and a desire like that of V’s is exactly what this country needs. And who knows, it very well may be happening now. V had the wherewithal to wait years for his plans to come to fruition, with only the hope in his heart that they would be fulfilled. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to think that such a soul could be living among us, with such courage of conviction and a will to see change? It is just as V declares to Evey, â€Å"there is no certainty, only the opportunity. † References Wachowski, Andy Larry. (Producers). (2006). V for Vendetta[Motion Picture].

Literature Review on Hand Dominance

Literature Review on Hand Dominance Much research has gone into the study of hand dominance. Strangely, it is common for right and left handed people to use the opposite side of their bodies for activities.5 If you use your left hand, you are right brained, and if youre right handed, you use the left side of your brain.5 A rare form of handedness is ambidexterity.1 Common things such as scissors, paper and instruments such as guitars have to be specially made for left handed people. Surprisingly, the true meaning of left and right is much more than we think. No theories have yet been accepted as to why some people are left handed and others right handed.3Â   Right and left handedness is an interesting topic to study. Handedness is the skill of using one hand more than the other, such as right and left handedness.1 Another word for handedness is laterality, or the human preference to use one side of the body over the other.2 Right handedness is the most common form of handedness.6 According to, The Right Mind, by Robert Ornstein, only ten percent of the population are left handed. This percentage indicates that left handedness is much less common that right handedness.9 There is no prevailing theory that explains why right handedness is so much more common than left handedness.3 Numerous neurological studies and physiological analysis have stated that right handed people use the left side (or cerebral hemisphere) of the brain, and left handed people use the right side.5 It is not uncommon for right handed people to use their left legs and left handed people to use their right legs when playing sports such as soccer.2 There are different types of handedness such as ambidexterity and mixed- handedness (also known as cross- dominance).1 Ambidexterity is the ability to perform tasks equally with the left and right hand.2 Mixed- handedness is the ability to perform some tasks with one hand and other tasks with a different hand.4 Although ambidexterity can be learned, it is a very rare form of handedness.1 Robert Ornstein indicates that only three percent of humans are ambidextrous.9 Even though ambidextrous people can use both hands, they still demonstrate a strong preference for one or the other. Mixed handedness often appears in the example of using the right hand to write and the left to throw a ball. Because our society often defines handedness by which hand is used to write with, mixed handedness is often overlooked. Both ambidexterity and mixed-handedness are rare things to come by. 1 Although America has moved on from the days of disregarding left-handedness, treating left handed people as evil or outcasts, many societies still prefer only to use the right hand. In prior years, people, who were naturally inclined to use their left hand, were forced to write with their right hands.6 Most of the alphabet is written with a preference to right handed people. Because our society is so right hand dominant, writing tablets, books and binders are manufactured for right handed writing. So much so that using your left hand may cause smudges on freshly written words. Hindus only use their right hands for respectful activities, as the left hand is reserved for less desirable usage. Muslims believe that on the day of judgment their good deeds will be written on the right side of the book and their bad deeds on the left.3 Many writings show preference to right over left; the bible is not excluded. In Matthew 25: 32-34, 41 it says, Before him will be gathered all the nations an d he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World. Then He will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.10 In Perhaps right handedness being associated with goodness is part of the foundations of our beings as set forth by God. Even in technology right handedness is preferred. Such things as scissors, can openers, and cameras were originally designed only for right handed use. Papers and binders are also made for right handed people. As society matures, designers have re-engineered many items for right or left hand uses.3 There are now such things as left handed scissors. It is interesting to see the effects of handedness in society. Â  Although we only think of left and right as directions, the meanings of the words are not widely known. Many languages interpret left and right as bad or good. In many areas left means weak, useless, awkward and sinister. On the other hand, right means correct, straight and right.6 Websters Dictionary describes left as clumsiness, underhand, inept, and devious.8 The Oxford Dictionary records that left means weaker, awkward, clumsy, ambiguous, double-edged, of doubtful sincerity or validity, ill-omened and sinister.7 Rogets Thesaurus gives unskillfulness as a synonym for left-handed. These are only a few of the descriptions given.8 As stated before, even the Bible says that the right is blessed and the left is cursed.10 Several languages even associate left with bad things. In French, their word for left, gauche, is translated to awkward. Sinister, is the Latin word for left, which means bad, ominous, and treacherous. The Anglo-Saxon word, lyft, which is where we derive our words left, is translated to mean weak or worthless.6 Meaning left and deceitful, mancino, is the Italian word for left. No ser zurdo, a Spanish idiom, means to be very clever, but a word for word translation means not to be left-handed.8 Words can mean so much more than we realize. Although many theories have been proposed about how handedness occurs, no single theory has been accepted.3 A new theory says that there really is no dominant hand. Both hands work together. In writing, one hand writes the words while the other grips and holds the paper steady. The Brain Hemisphere Division of Labor theory, proposed by the American Psychological Association, is the most accepted theory. This states that speaking and handiwork both require fine motor skills to accomplish them. In order to work efficiently, the brain uses only one hemisphere to do this, instead of splitting the job into two hemispheres, which would require more work for the brain. Although very popular, no single theory has yet been widely accepted by scientists.1 Handedness, the natural tendency to use your right or left hand, has been studied and observed by many scientists and psychological organizations.1 Only three percent of humans have the amazing ability to function equally with both their right and left sides of the body.9 In years past many children were forced to be right handed.6 Websters Dictionary claims that left means devious, clumsy and underhand.8 The Brain Hemisphere Division of Labor theory is the most popular theory as to why some people are left handed and some are right handed.1 The discrimination of left handedness is no longer an issue, but it is still a part of our history. Works Cited Wikipedia. Handedness. Wikipedia.com. 2 December 2009. 4 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness Wikipedia. Laterality. Wikipedia.com. 24 September 2009. 4 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterality Wikipedia. Right-Handedness. Wikipedia.com. 19 November 2009. 4 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-Handedness Wikipedia. Cross-Dominance. Wikipedia.com. 14 November 2009. 4 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-Dominance Williams, H. Robert, Stockmyer, John. Unleashing The Right Side Of The Brain. U.S.A: The Stephen Greene Press, Inc., 1987. Edwards, Betty. The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. New York City, New York: Betty Edwards, 1999. Brown, Mark. Left Handed: Right Handed. North Promfret, Vermont: David and Charles Inc., 1979. Springer, P. Sally, Deutsch, Georg. Left Brain, Right Brain. U. S. A: Sally P. Springer and Georg Deutsch, 1993. Ornstein, Robert. The Right Mind. Orlando, Florida: Robert Ornstein, 1997. God. The Holy Bible. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2005. Edition: ESV (English Standard Version).

Analysis Of The News Corporation Company

Analysis Of The News Corporation Company This case study is about worlds largest new company which is created by Rupert Murdoch in the binging of twenty first century. In this case study we learn about three area of The News Corporation Company. 1: Corporative Logic 2: Business Portfolio 3: Corporative news style of corporation. According to original web site of The News Corporation is described that this company is a global media company with operations in various industry segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming; direct broadcast satellite television; magazines and inserts; newspapers and information services; book publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and America since 1973 to 2010. In 1986 and 1987, News Corporation moved to join the various developmental projects and plan its production processess of its to many British newspapers. A number of seniors Australianian media persons were brought into Murdochs compeny to gave hin strenght , including John Dux. News Corporation made its first compain in the US in 1973, when it purchased few news companey like TV Direct etc. In 198, 1984 and 1985 the News Corporation bought all of the movie studio like 20th Century Fox, Metromedia group of stations, setting the stage for the launch of a fourth U.S. broadcast network. And then in 1986, the Metromedia deal closed, and the Fox Broadcasting Company was launched. This network.(en.wikipedia.org). According to press in 1987 The News Corporation bought The Herald and Weekly Times in Australia. The company that Rupert Murdochs father had once managed. By 1992, News Corporation had amassed big debts, which forced it to sell many of the American magazines interests it had acquired in the mid1980s. Much of this income came from the Sky Television satellite network in the UK. In 1995 and 1996 Fox showed a great development to established the Fox News Channel and channel CNN. Between 1999 to 2009, News Corporation significantly expanded its music holdings in Australia Uk and America by acquiring the controlling shares in many media projects. Corporate Governance Issues in the News Corporation: News Corporations Board of Directors and management are committed to strong corporate governance and sound business practices. According to report which was published on web side of The news corporation in 2005, the Murdoch and his family owned only about 29 percent of the company shares. Almost all of these shares were selected voting shares, and Rupert Murdoch take control of the companys policies. And in 2006, The News Corporation showed its intention to transfer its 38.5% managing interest in DirecTV to open new projects in new field. According to our case study Rupert Murdoch approaches showed that was not a man who likes to take with the regulators and participants. Mr Rupert Murdoch and his style is usually to conform and better still, to anticipate new laws and use his lobbying power to ensure they do not harm his business. But now a situation is evolving with the passage of time which gives us the good example of corporate governance, and one which will be closely observed by many others companies worldwide to look results and follow it. For example BSkyB, that British most powerful broadcasting business and its owned 35.4% of its shares owned by Mr Murdochs News Corporation and another example BSkyB is also owned by Mr Murdoch and his family to take control of the news Corporation. In latest press release of the news corporation managers from the ten largest institutional investors in BSkyB serious discussion that the companys independent director to defined policies for new companey. While all three had few common things like to robust characters, not afraid to speak their minds, they all enjoy a friendly relationship with their former boss were their main objectives. Were they to be appointed after November, their appointments would breach UK governance guidelines, and those of many other countries. And created problems. This case study explained that these people faced too many of the difficulties where one individual is dominant, who take all control on company or where there is an element of a family ownership. The companies like The News Corporation may be the only company in the West, in Asia and all most the rest of the world. Corporate Control Style of News Corporation: After the different deals in more than three years of wrangling over control of DirecTV and provides the apportuniries to Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, with the final component needed to fulfil his long-held ambition of creating a global satellite broadcasting network in world . Under the terms and conditions of the deal, The News Corporation become able to buy more shares of General Motors. Murdoch described that a genuinely exciting and transforming deal for News Corporation. The company has already built significant satellite broadcasting operations in the UK, through BSkyB, as well as in Central and South America with Sky Latin America, and across Asia with StarTV(The Time Magazine, 1996). Ahter this they buy to many shares in differet places like Direct TV about 11.3 millions in US, Fox News Coproration and Hughes also in US and all these deals have been a long time in the making, the benefits will be felt almost immediately in the competition it will offer cable, the richer services its provided to American viewers. And then they moved to EchoStar DirecTV merger was blocked in October 2007 by the Federal Communications Commission the US telecoms regulator. News Corporation finally prevailed at its second attempt. Liberty Media. Mr Murdoch described this process of pursuing of all these shares as having been three years of patient negotiations, occasional frustration but ultimately great satisfaction(Case study) Acoording to our case study all these deals remains subject to regulatory and GM shareholder approvals, but Mr Murdoch said News Corp and DirecTV had agreed to adhere to programme access regulations set by the FCC, ensuring that News Corp content is made available to all satellite broadcasters, as well as cable and other competing platforms. In the mean time Mr Murdoch will become chairman of Hughes, with Chase Carey, News Corps former co-chief operating officer, taking the role of chief executive officer. Eddy Hartenstein, Hughess corporate senior vice-president, will become vice-chairman of Hughes, reporting to Mr Carey (case study). Sustainability of the Business: News Corporation in its web site says its put its media muscle behind reducing its operations carbon emissions and engaging its almost 47,000 employees around the globe and its millions of viewers readers, and web users on internet . According to its web site in 2006, The News Corporations carbon footprint is 641,150 tons of CO2 which was equivalents and was measured across the 52 countries in which News Corporation. has activities measured. Chairman of news corporation Rupert Murdoch said that all The News Corporation business units become carbon neutral by start of 2010 through energy efficiency projects , buying renewable power resources and offsetting otherwise unavoidable emissions. (According to their press release 2006). In this press release they mentioned some of the companys initiative towords sustainability of the business. For example. 1: The News Corporation has colliberted with The Climate Group, an independent, nonprofit organization which help to advancing business and prevent the climate change. 2: MySpace has launched a channel also dedicated to climate change. 3: Fox Group and other companey has offered its employes to purchase hybrid cars and the companys first LEED-certified building is under construction on the Fox group studio to stop pollution 4: The many media ompaney in various countries of world marketing in the are replacing vehicles with hybrids for friendly environment. 5: The News corporation have entered into agreements with various Government to purchased renewable energy to redueced air pollution. Corporate Logic in News Corporation: Like any other successful organisations the news corporation they followed a very well corporate logic to give protection, efficiencies and satiability to software publisher Security and give protection software, Utility and device driver software, Information exchange software, Electrical Equipment software, Software, Business function specific software. All these need proper security and satiability to work well. The news corporation arrange very good meachnisiom of corporate logic. Rupert Murdoch Style of Management and its effectiveness According to en.wikipedia approaches Rupert Murdoch showed that was his style is usually to conform and give us clue to understand better and to anticipate new laws and ensure they do not harm the business. The plan of News Corporation expansion looks to the areas where growth is expected to be greatest for commercial media this includes continental Europe, Asia and America. News Corporation is almost as concerned with producing content as with owning distribution channels. Aside from tried and tested filmed entertainment and music videos, the fire winners in global television are news, animation and sports. Willingness to accept changes in terms of management approach to meet the needs of the global market to investing in new businesses and generating new trends in the media and broadcasting industry than acquiring and buying existing companies. Consideration of the shareholders and maintaining good relationship among shareholders to enhance market share and their strengthening bargaining power as well as market position through the use of purchasing on their supply chain, specifically for Sun and Times newspaper and their Raising investment fund through the use of bank loans and loans from other financial institution that offers minimal interest. General Opinion on Rupert Murdoch Strategic Vision The informations from press release 2003 the strategic vision of Mr. Rupert Murdoch can be understandable by the example of year 2003, when News Corporation recovered itself from the record losses in the two preceding years and the revenues at News Corporation reached over A$1.8bn and assets were stated as A$67.7bn. Therefore, the failures in the last two years and then the subsequent success of the News Corporation and its subordinate businesses were entirely due to the strategic vision and choices made by Rupert Murdoch. Whether there was a formal corporate strategy in the News Corporation or not, however, we can say without any doubt that the expansion in the business of News Corporation and its subordinate was mainly the product of Rupert Murdochs strategic vision. In annual report for the year 2003, Mr Rupert Murdoch outlined the different vision of the News Corporation; Throughout news Corporations evolution our goal has been to create a Company as unified, as logical and as creative as possible. Our vision has been one of a media company that is as well-integrated as it is international; one capable of delivering shot-term results as well as building long-term value. We have worked to build a company with the agility to seize strategic opportunities when they arise, with little patience for conventional wisdom. Some analysts describe the personal vision of Mr. Rupert Murdoch as an expansion minded person, who always wanted to buy assets, wanted to take over, to move around the world, to build his media empire, but on the other hand he also wants to retain the control.

Anna Karenina Booknotes :: essays research papers

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ranks as one of the world's great writers. He was also an important moral thinker and reformer. Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, the fourth of five children. After being educated at Kazan in 1844, he joined the army in 1852. He fought proudly in the Crimean War, and after he left the army, he traveled abroad. He inspected German schools to insure their quality before going to his brother's side outside of Marseille, France. Nicolai died at a spa with his brother at his side. This death affected Tolstoy so deeply that his writing was the only thing that kept him afloat. Upon his return, Tolstoy settled on his Volga estate, where he wrote his epic masterpiece War and Peace - the story of five families during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. His next novel, Anna Karenina, written in the romantic period, is one of the great love stories of the world. He married Sofya Andreyevna Bers, a.k.a. Sonya, and had nine children. Tolstoy then experienced a spiritual crisis which led to such works as A Confession and What I Believe. Some of his similar, earlier struggles were recorded in Anna Karenina, which he had previously published. Tolstoy converted to his religion, Tolstoyism. This faith said that "only through emotional and religious commitment can one discover this natural truth". His family disapproved of this and made life around the Tolstoy house unbearable for almost everyone. In his last days, he transferred his fortune to his wife and lived poorly as a peasant under her roof. Leaving home secretly, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy died of pneumonia some days later at nearby railway station. Anna is portrayed as a beautiful, mysterious woman who encompasses the quest for personal discovery. She is content in her life, but sees something that she wants more. This love, the love for Vronsky, drives her to unimaginable heights to keep her life and mental state at a safe level. As a woman, Anna suffers great injustices for her actions. These unfair laws of society drive her to her grave. Levin is representative of Tolstoy's life. He is a respected, educated, and well off landowner in the aristocracy. His quest for self-discovery leads him out into the fields with his workers, thrashing grass with the rest of them. He also lusts after Kitty, and finally attains her love when she realizes what a good and true man he is.

Comparing Boys and Girls by Alice Munro and A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Hemingway :: comparison compare contrast essays

Importance of Foils in Boys and Girls and A Clean Well-Lighted Place A Handbook to Literature says that the word "foil" literally means a "leaf" or a sheet "of bright metal placed under a piece of jewelry to increase its brilliance" ("Foil"). Thus when applied to literature, the term refers to "a character who makes a contrast with another, especially a minor character who helps set off a major character" (Barnett et al. 1331). For example, a foolish character may place a wise character's wisdom in a stronger light, or a cowardly character may make the hero's actions appear even more courageous. A foil is frequently an antagonist or confidant, but whoever the foil might be, the purpose is to illuminate one or more significant traits, attitudes or actions of a main character ("Foil" NTCE). In the story, '"A Clean Well-Lighted Place," by Ernest Hemingway, the younger waiter is a foil for both the older waiter and the old man who comes to drink in the café. The older waiter is concerned for the old man who has tried to kill himself. He understands that there are many lonely people who need a safe, well-lighted place to escape loneliness at night. The older waiter makes the comment near the end of the story that "each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the café" (1172). The older waiter is sympathetic to the old man because he himself is lonely. He confesses that " I am of those who like to stay late at the café, with all those who need a light for the night" (1172). On the other hand, the younger waiter has a wife to go home to and is irritated at the old man because he will not leave. He even says to the old man, who is deaf, "You should have killed yourself last week" (1170). This cruel remark contrasts sharply with the older waiter's characteristics of compassion, friendliness, and tolerance. In the story, " Boys and Girls," by Alice Munro, Laird is the foil for his sister, the narrator of the story. When the children are young, Laird's behavior contrasts with the maturity and responsibility shown by the girl. While she is busy watering the foxes, he goes off and swings "himself sick . . . going around in circles" or tries to catch caterpillars (987).

HP Case study analysis Essay

Hewlett Packard Company was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. The company was incorporated in 1947 and became a public company in 1957. HP is based in the United States and has its headquarters located in Palo Alto, California. The company has specialized in the development and manufacture of personal computers, computer peripherals, software and hardware. The main products are personal computer hardware, data storage appliances and other related devices. HP markets its products to individual customers as well as corporate customers. The company has adopted both direct and online marketing strategies for its products in the global markets. Since its establishment, the company has encountered stiff competition from other companies in the global markets. In the last one decade, the company has adopted several strategies to improve performance and create sustainable market position in the global scene. The merger with Compaq was established with an aim of improving the global position of the company as well as adopting better technologies (Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L. P. 2010). HP has adopted various strategies to improve its market share in the global scene. Adoption of modern technology has been a major success factor in the efforts to come up with differentiated products. There has been stiff competition in the market leading to decline in the market share for the company. The management has made tremendous change to ensure its brands are acceptable in many markets all over the world (Harris, 2007). External Environment Technology in the personal computing industry has been very innovative and this has been adopted by HP to manufacture competitive products. A team of researchers has been hired to carry out innovative products. The company has a good system which integrates cultural diversity by working with different personnel and customers. The culture of the company is compatible with different national cultures as well as diversified social systems. HP employs people from different cultures to work in regions where they understand the cultural practices. Few cultural conflicts have been experienced at the company. The political climate has been very good in the regions where the company has its operations. Global economic crisis of the 2007/2008 affected the performance of the company since the sales volume reduced by a great margin. The company is recovering from the shock of the economic crisis and profits have been recorded in the recent past (Malone, 2007). Industry Analysis (Porter’s Framework) Bargaining power of buyers There is no single influential buyer in the industry. There are many buyers in the market this does not provide any single buyer a strong bargaining power. Since the company markets its products to both corporate and individual customers, there are a diversified number of customers and in case one customer fails, there are others to support the company (Banna, 2008). Bargaining power of suppliers Suppliers to the company are many and there is no single supplier with monopoly of providing materials to the company. This provides the company with enough control over its suppliers since prices for products are reduced. There is no dominant supplier in the market and the company has adequate control over the pricing strategies adopted by the suppliers (Banna, 2008). Rivalry among competitors Stiff competition in the industry has resulted to rivalry among competing firms. Each company has differentiated its products to attract as many customers as possible. Use of modern technologies to develop market oriented products has been a common practice at the company and this has enabled the management to come up with better products. Rivalry among competitors in the market has resulted into price wars where companies are introducing different pricing strategies for their products (Banna, 2008). Threat of potential entry of new companies There is no regulation on entry of new companies in the industry and this has resulted into many companies entering the market. This has resulted into stiff competition for the available opportunities in the market. There are no barriers of entry to the industry and this has provided better opportunities for new investors to establish themselves in the market. The technology used in the industry is not restrictive and new companies can access ideas and knowledge about production of similar products. High profits made by existing companies in the industry have attracted more potential companies to invest in the industry. In addition, there are no barriers for excess capacity to exit the industry. The potential profits in the industry have made the large number of competitors fail to exit the market and this has resulted into price wars (Banna, 2008). Threat of substitute products Threat for substitute products has been great since there are different products which can be substituted for the HP product range. There are no barriers to introducing substitute products and companies are free to come up with better alternative products in the industry. There are many substitute products in the industry and this has intensified the level of competition (Banna, 2008). Critical Success Factors (CSFs) HP has a strong brand image in the global market. The computing industry has recognized that HP has developed better strategies of promoting its brand image. Brand management has been successfully been done by creating innovative technologies which provide better market position to the company. The quality of the products manufactured by the company is high and this has provided better opportunities to compete successfully in the global market. As the company maintains a high quality profile for its products, it has also managed to increase the volume of output from its production systems. The company has adopted mass production and this provides economies of scale. As the volume of production increases; the cost of production decreases. The company has established strong systems of governance to manage its resources effectively. Project management strategies have been adopted to maintain high technology levels in the company. IT systems of the company have been developed to compete successfully with substitute products in the market. A strong team of research has been established to carry out market surveys for developing products which will provide a large market share in the current market situation and in the future (Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L. P. 2010).

American culture Essay

The arts, more than other features of culture, provide avenues for the expression of imagination and personal vision. They offer a range of emotional and intellectual pleasures to consumers of art and are an important way in which a culture represents itself. There has long been a Western tradition distinguishing those arts that appeal to the multitude, such as popular music, from those—such as classical orchestral music—normally available to the elite of learning and taste. Popular art forms are usually seen as more representative American products. In the United States in the recent past, there has been a blending of popular and elite art forms, as all the arts experienced a period of remarkable cross-fertilization. Because popular art forms are so widely distributed, arts of all kinds have prospered. The arts in the United States express the many faces and the enormous creative range of the American people. Especially since World War II, American innovations and the immense energy displayed in literature, dance, and music have made American cultural works world famous. Arts in the United States have become internationally prominent in ways that are unparalleled in history. American art forms during the second half of the 20th century often defined the styles and qualities that the rest of the world emulated. At the end of the 20th century, American art was considered equal in quality and vitality to art produced in the rest of the world. Throughout the 20th century, American arts have grown to incorporate new visions and voices. Much of this new artistic energy came in the wake of America’s emergence as a superpower after World War II. But it was also due to the growth of New York City as an important center for publishing and the arts, and the immigration of artists and intellectuals fleeing fascism in Europe before and during the war. An outpouring of talent also followed the civil rights and protest movements of the 1960s, as cultural discrimination against blacks, women, and other groups diminished. American arts flourish in many places and receive support from private foundations, large corporations, local governments, federal agencies, museums, galleries, and individuals. What is considered worthy of support often depends on definitions of quality and of what constitutes art. This is a tricky subject when the popular arts are increasingly incorporated into the domain of the fine arts and new forms such as performance art and conceptual art appear. As a result, defining what is art affects what students are taught about past traditions (for example, Native American tent paintings, oral traditions, and slave narratives) and what is produced in the future. While some practitioners, such as studio artists, are more vulnerable to these definitions because they depend on financial support to exercise their talents, others, such as poets and photographers, are less immediately constrained. Artists operate in a world where those who theorize and critique their work have taken on an increasingly important role. Audiences are influenced by a variety of intermediaries—critics, the schools, foundations that offer grants, the National Endowment for the Arts, gallery owners, publishers, and theater producers. In some areas, such as the performing arts, popular audiences may ultimately define success. In other arts, such as painting and sculpture, success is far more dependent on critics and a few, often wealthy, art collectors. Writers depend on publishers and on the public for their success. Unlike their predecessors, who relied on formal criteria and appealed to aesthetic judgments, critics at the end of the 20th century leaned more toward popular tastes, taking into account groups previously ignored and valuing the merger of popular and elite forms. These critics often relied less on aesthetic judgments than on social measures and were eager to place artistic productions in the context of the time and social conditions in which they were created. Whereas earlier critics attempted to create an American tradition of high art, later critics used art as a means to give power and approval to nonelite groups who were previously not considered worthy of including in the nation’s artistic heritage. Not so long ago, culture and the arts were assumed to be an unalterable inheritance—the accumulated wisdom and highest forms of achievement that were established in the past. In the 20th century generally, and certainly since World War II, artists have been boldly destroying older traditions in sculpture, painting, dance, music, and literature. The arts have changed rapidly, with one movement replacing another in quick succession. a) Visual arts. The visual arts have traditionally included forms of expression that appeal to the eyes through painted surfaces, and to the sense of space through carved or molded materials. In the 19th century, photographs were added to the paintings, drawings, and sculpture that make up the visual arts. The visual arts were further augmented in the 20th century by the addition of other materials, such as found objects. These changes were accompanied by a profound alteration in tastes, as earlier emphasis on realistic representation of people, objects, and landscapes made way for a greater range of imaginative forms. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American art was considered inferior to European art. Despite noted American painters such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and John Marin, American visual arts barely had an international presence. American art began to flourish during the Great Depression of the 1930s as New Deal government programs provided support to artists along with other sectors of the population. Artists connected with each other and developed a sense of common purpose through programs of the Public Works Administration, such as the Federal Art Project, as well as programs sponsored by the Treasury Department. Most of the art of the period, including painting, photography, and mural work, focused on the plight of the American people during the depression, and most artists painted real people in difficult circumstances. Artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Ben Shahn expressed the suffering of ordinary people through their representations of struggling farmers and workers. While artists such as Benton and Grant Wood focused on rural life, many painters of the 1930s and 1940s depicted the multicultural life of the American city. Jacob Lawrence, for example, re-created the history and lives of African Americans. Other artists, such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, tried to use human figures to describe emotional states such as loneliness and despair. Abstract Expressionism. Shortly after World War II, American art began to garner worldwide attention and admiration. This change was due to the innovative fervor of abstract expressionism in the 1950s and to subsequent modern art movements and artists. The abstract expressionists of the mid-20th century broke from the realist and figurative tradition set in the 1930s. They emphasized their connection to international artistic visions rather than the particularities of people and place, and most abstract expressionists did not paint human figures (although artist Willem de Kooning did portrayals of women). Color, shape, and movement dominated the canvases of abstract expressionists. Some artists broke with the Western art tradition by adopting innovative painting styles—during the 1950s Jackson Pollock â€Å"painted† by dripping paint on canvases without the use of brushes, while the paintings of Mark Rothko often consisted of large patches of color that seem to vibrate. Abstract expressionists felt alienated from their surrounding culture and used art to challenge society’s conventions. The work of each artist was quite individual and distinctive, but all the artists identified with the radicalism of artistic creativity. The artists were eager to challenge conventions and limits on expression in order to redefine the nature of art. Their radicalism came from liberating themselves from the confining artistic traditions of the past. The most notable activity took place in New York City, which became one of the world’s most important art centers during the second half of the 20th century. The radical fervor and inventiveness of the abstract expressionists, their frequent association with each other in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and the support of a group of gallery owners and dealers turned them into an artistic movement. Also known as the New York School, the participants included Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Arshile Gorky, in addition to Rothko and Pollock. The members of the New York School came from diverse backgrounds such as the American Midwest and Northwest, Armenia, and Russia, bringing an international flavor to the group and its artistic visions. They hoped to appeal to art audiences everywhere, regardless of culture, and they felt connected to the radical innovations introduced earlier in the 20th century by European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Some of the artists—Hans Hofmann, Gorky, Rothko, and de Kooning—were not born in the United States, but all the artists saw themselves as part of an international creative movement and an aesthetic rebellion. As artists felt released from the boundaries and conventions of the past and free to emphasize expressiveness and innovation, the abstract expressionists gave way to other innovative styles in American art. Beginning in the 1930s Joseph Cornell created hundreds of boxed assemblages, usually from found objects, with each based on a single theme to create a mood of contemplation and sometimes of reverence. Cornell’s boxes exemplify the modern fascination with individual vision, art that breaks down boundaries between forms such as painting and sculpture, and the use of everyday objects toward a new end. Other artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, combined disparate objects to create large, collage-like sculptures known as combines in the 1950s. Jasper Johns, a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, recreated countless familiar objects, most memorably the American flag. The most prominent American artistic style to follow abstract expressionism was the pop art movement that began in the 1950s. Pop art attempted to connect traditional art and popular culture by using images from mass culture. To shake viewers out of their preconceived notions about art, sculptor Claes Oldenburg used everyday objects such as pillows and beds to create witty, soft sculptures. Roy Lichtenstein took this a step further by elevating the techniques of commercial art, notably cartooning, into fine art worthy of galleries and museums. Lichtenstein’s large, blown-up cartoons fill the surface of his canvases with grainy black dots and question the existence of a distinct realm of high art. These artists tried to make their audiences see ordinary objects in a refreshing new way, thereby breaking down the conventions that formerly defined what was worthy of artistic representation. Probably the best-known pop artist, and a leader in the movement, was Andy Warhol, whose images of a Campbell’s soup can and of the actress Marilyn Monroe explicitly eroded the boundaries between the art world and mass culture. Warhol also cultivated his status as a celebrity. He worked in film as a director and producer to break down the boundaries between traditional and popular art. Unlike the abstract expressionists, whose conceptual works were often difficult to understand, Andy Warhol’s pictures, and his own face, were instantly recognizable. Conceptual art, as it came to be known in the 1960s, like its predecessors, sought to break free of traditional artistic associations. In conceptual art, as practiced by Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth, concept takes precedent over actual object, by stimulating thought rather than following an art tradition based on conventional standards of beauty and artisanship. Modern artists changed the meaning of traditional visual arts and brought a new imaginative dimension to ordinary experience. Art was no longer viewed as separate and distinct, housed in museums as part of a historical inheritance, but as a continuous creative process. This emphasis on constant change, as well as on the ordinary and mundane, reflected a distinctly American democratizing perspective. Viewing art in this way removed the emphasis from technique and polished performance, and many modern artworks and experiences became more about expressing ideas than about perfecting finished products. Photography. Photography is probably the most democratic modern art form because it can be, and is, practiced by most Americans. Since 1888, when George Eastman developed the Kodak camera that allowed anyone to take pictures, photography has struggled to be recognized as a fine art form. In the early part of the 20th century, photographer, editor, and artistic impresario Alfred Stieglitz established 291, a gallery in New York City, with fellow photographer Edward Steichen, to showcase the works of photographers and painters. They also published a magazine called Camera Work to increase awareness about photographic art. In the United States, photographic art had to compete with the widely available commercial photography in news and fashion magazines. By the 1950s the tradition of photojournalism, which presented news stories primarily with photographs, had produced many outstanding works. In 1955 Steichen, who was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, called attention to this work in an exhibition called The Family of Man. Throughout the 20th century, most professional photographers earned their living as portraitists or photojournalists, not as artists. One of the most important exceptions was Ansel Adams, who took majestic photographs of the Western American landscape. Adams used his art to stimulate social awareness and to support the conservation cause of the Sierra Club. He helped found the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, and six years later helped establish the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute). He also held annual photography workshops at Yosemite National Park from 1955 to 1981 and wrote a series of influential books on photographic technique. Adams’s elegant landscape photography was only one small stream in a growing current of interest in photography as an art form. Early in the 20th century, teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine established a documentary tradition in photography by capturing actual people, places, and events. Hine photographed urban conditions and workers, including child laborers. Along with their artistic value, the photographs often implicitly called for social reform. In the 1930s and 1940s, photographers joined with other depression-era artists supported by the federal government to create a hotographic record of rural America. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein, among others, produced memorable and widely reproduced portraits of rural poverty and American distress during the Great Depression and during the dust storms of the period. In 1959, after touring the United States for two years, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank published The Americans, one of the landmarks of documentary photography. His photographs of everyday life in America introduced viewers to a depressing, and often depressed, America that existed in the midst of prosperity and world power. Photographers continued to search for new photographic viewpoints. This search was perhaps most disturbingly embodied in the work of Diane Arbus. Her photos of mental patients and her surreal depictions of Americans altered the viewer’s relationship to the photograph. Arbus emphasized artistic alienation and forced viewers to stare at images that often made them uncomfortable, thus changing the meaning of the ordinary reality that photographs are meant to capture. American photography continues to flourish. The many variants of art photography and socially conscious documentary photography are widely available in galleries, books, and magazines. A host of other visual arts thrive, although they are far less connected to traditional fine arts than photography. Decorative arts include, but are not limited to, art glass, furniture, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and quilts. Often exhibited in craft galleries and studios, these decorative arts rely on ideals of beauty in shape and color as well as an appreciation of well-executed crafts. Some of these forms are also developed commercially. The decorative arts provide a wide range of opportunity for creative expression and have become a means for Americans to actively participate in art and to purchase art for their homes that is more affordable than works produced by many contemporary fine artists. 4. Performing arts As in other cultural spheres, the performing arts in the United States in the 20th century increasingly blended traditional and popular art forms. The classical performing arts—music, opera, dance, and theater—were not a widespread feature of American culture in the first half of the 20th century. These arts were generally imported from or strongly influenced by Europe and were mainly appreciated by the wealthy and well educated. Traditional art usually referred to classical forms in ballet and opera, orchestral or chamber music, and serious drama. The distinctions between traditional music and popular music were firmly drawn in most areas. During the 20th century, the American performing arts began to incorporate wider groups of people. The African American community produced great musicians who became widely known around the country. Jazz and blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday spread their sounds to black and white audiences. In the 1930s and 1940s, the swing music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller adapted jazz to make a unique American music that was popular around the country. The American performing arts also blended Latin American influences beginning in the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940, Latin American dances, such as the tango from Argentina and the rumba from Cuba, were introduced into the United States. In the 1940s a fusion of Latin and jazz elements was stimulated first by the Afro-Cuban mambo and later on by the Brazilian bossa nova. Throughout the 20th century, dynamic classical institutions in the United States attracted international talent. Noted Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine established the short-lived American Ballet Company in the 1930s; later he founded the company that in the 1940s would become the New York City Ballet. The American Ballet Theatre, also established during the 1940s, brought in non-American dancers as well. By the 1970s this company had attracted Soviet defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, an internationally acclaimed dancer who served as the company’s artistic director during the 1980s. In classical music, influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed symphonies using innovative musical styles, moved to the United States in 1939. German-born pianist, composer, and conductor Andre Previn, who started out as a jazz pianist in the 1940s, went on to conduct a number of distinguished American symphony orchestras. Another Soviet, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, became conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D. C. , in 1977. Some of the most innovative artists in the first half of the 20th century successfully incorporated new forms into classical traditions. Composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and dancer Isadora Duncan were notable examples. Gershwin combined jazz and spiritual music with classical in popular works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Copland developed a unique style that was influenced by jazz and American folk music. Early in the century, Duncan redefined dance along more expressive and free-form lines. Some artists in music and dance, such as composer John Cage and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, were even more experimental. During the 1930s Cage worked with electronically produced sounds and sounds made with everyday objects such as pots and pans. He even invented a new kind of piano. During the late 1930s, avant-garde choreographer Cunningham began to collaborate with Cage on a number of projects. Perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most popular, American innovation was the Broadway musical, which also became a movie staple. Beginning in the 1920s, the Broadway musical combined music, dance, and dramatic performance in ways that surpassed the older vaudeville shows and musical revues but without being as complex as European grand opera. By the 1960s, this American musical tradition was well established and had produced extraordinary works by important musicians and lyricists such as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II. These productions required an immense effort to coordinate music, drama, and dance. Because of this, the musical became the incubator of an American modern dance tradition that produced some of America’s greatest choreographers, among them Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly, and Bob Fosse. In the 1940s and 1950s the American musical tradition was so dynamic that it attracted outstanding classically trained musicians such as Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, an updated version of Romeo and Juliet set in New York that became an instant classic in 1957. The following year, Bernstein became the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. He was an international sensation who traveled the world as an ambassador of the American style of conducting. He brought the art of classical music to the public, especially through his â€Å"Young People’s Concerts,† television shows that were seen around the world. Bernstein used the many facets of the musical tradition as a force for change in the music world and as a way of bringing attention to American innovation. In many ways, Bernstein embodied a transformation of American music that began in the 1960s. The changes that took place during the 1960s and 1970s resulted from a significant increase in funding for the arts and their increased availability to larger audiences. New York City, the American center for art performances, experienced an artistic explosion in the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental off-Broadway theaters opened, new ballet companies were established that often emphasized modern forms or blended modern with classical (Martha Graham was an especially important influence), and an experimental music scene developed that included composers such as Philip Glass and performance groups such as the Guarneri String Quartet. Dramatic innovation also continued to expand with the works of playwrights such as Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet. As the variety of performances expanded, so did the serious crossover between traditional and popular music forms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, an expanded repertoire of traditional arts was being conveyed to new audiences. Popular music and jazz could be heard in formal settings such as Carnegie Hall, which had once been restricted to classical music, while the Brooklyn Academy of Music became a venue for experimental music, exotic and ethnic dance presentations, and traditional productions of grand opera. Innovative producer Joseph Papp had been staging Shakespeare in Central Park since the 1950s. Boston conductor Arthur Fiedler was playing a mixed repertoire of classical and popular favorites to large audiences, often outdoors, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. By the mid-1970s the United States had several world-class symphony orchestras, including those in Chicago; New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even grand opera was affected. Once a specialized taste that often required extensive knowledge, opera in the United States increased in popularity as the roster of respected institutions grew to include companies in Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. American composers such as John Adams and Philip Glass began composing modern operas in a new minimalist style during the 1970s and 1980s. The crossover in tastes also influenced the Broadway musical, probably America’s most durable music form. Starting in the 1960s, rock music became an ingredient in musical productions such as Hair (1967). By the 1990s, it had become an even stronger presence in musicals such as Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996), which used African American music and dance traditions, and Rent (1996) a modern, rock version of the classic opera La Boheme. This updating of the musical opened the theater to new ethnic audiences who had not previously attended Broadway shows, as well as to young audiences who had been raised on rock music. Performances of all kinds have become more available across the country. This is due to both the sheer increase in the number of performance groups as well as to advances in transportation. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of major American symphonies doubled, the number of resident theaters increased fourfold, and the number of dance companies increased tenfold. At the same time, planes made it easier for artists to travel. Artists and companies regularly tour, and they expand the audiences for individual artists such as performance artist Laurie Anderson and opera singer Jessye Norman, for musical groups such as the Juilliard Quartet, and for dance troupes such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Full-scale theater productions and musicals first presented on Broadway now reach cities across the country. The United States, once a provincial outpost with a limited European tradition in performance, has become a flourishing center for the performing arts. . Arts and letters The arts, more than other features of culture, provide avenues for the expression of imagination and personal vision. They offer a range of emotional and intellectual pleasures to consumers of art and are an important way in which a culture represents itself. There has long been a Western tradition distinguishing those arts that appeal to the multitude, such as popul ar music, from those—such as classical orchestral music—normally available to the elite of learning and taste. Popular art forms are usually seen as more representative American products. In the United States in the recent past, there has been a blending of popular and elite art forms, as all the arts experienced a period of remarkable cross-fertilization. Because popular art forms are so widely distributed, arts of all kinds have prospered. The arts in the United States express the many faces and the enormous creative range of the American people. Especially since World War II, American innovations and the immense energy displayed in literature, dance, and music have made American cultural works world famous. Arts in the United States have become internationally prominent in ways that are unparalleled in history. American art forms during the second half of the 20th century often defined the styles and qualities that the rest of the world emulated. At the end of the 20th century, American art was considered equal in quality and vitality to art produced in the rest of the world. Throughout the 20th century, American arts have grown to incorporate new visions and voices. Much of this new artistic energy came in the wake of America’s emergence as a superpower after World War II. But it was also due to the growth of New York City as an important center for publishing and the arts, and the immigration of artists and intellectuals fleeing fascism in Europe before and during the war. An outpouring of talent also followed the civil rights and protest movements of the 1960s, as cultural discrimination against blacks, women, and other groups diminished. American arts flourish in many places and receive support from private foundations, large corporations, local governments, federal agencies, museums, galleries, and individuals. What is considered worthy of support often depends on definitions of quality and of what constitutes art. This is a tricky subject when the popular arts are increasingly incorporated into the domain of the fine arts and new forms such as performance art and conceptual art appear. As a result, defining what is art affects what students are taught about past traditions (for example, Native American tent paintings, oral traditions, and slave narratives) and what is produced in the future. While some practitioners, such as studio artists, are more vulnerable to these definitions because they depend on financial support to exercise their talents, others, such as poets and photographers, are less immediately constrained. Artists operate in a world where those who theorize and critique their work have taken on an increasingly important role. Audiences are influenced by a variety of intermediaries—critics, the schools, foundations that offer grants, the National Endowment for the Arts, gallery owners, publishers, and theater producers. In some areas, such as the performing arts, popular audiences may ultimately define success. In other arts, such as painting and sculpture, success is far more dependent on critics and a few, often wealthy, art collectors. Writers depend on publishers and on the public for their success. Unlike their predecessors, who relied on formal criteria and appealed to aesthetic judgments, critics at the end of the 20th century leaned more toward popular tastes, taking into account groups previously ignored and valuing the merger of popular and elite forms. These critics ften relied less on aesthetic judgments than on social measures and were eager to place artistic productions in the context of the time and social conditions in which they were created. Whereas earlier critics attempted to create an American tradition of high art, later critics used art as a means to give power and approval to nonelite groups who were previously not considered worthy of including in the nation’s artisti c heritage. Not so long ago, culture and the arts were assumed to be an unalterable inheritance—the accumulated wisdom and highest forms of achievement that were established in the past. In the 20th century generally, and certainly since World War II, artists have been boldly destroying older traditions in sculpture, painting, dance, music, and literature. The arts have changed rapidly, with one movement replacing another in quick succession. a) Visual arts. The visual arts have traditionally included forms of expression that appeal to the eyes through painted surfaces, and to the sense of space through carved or molded materials. In the 19th century, photographs were added to the paintings, drawings, and sculpture that make up the visual arts. The visual arts were further augmented in the 20th century by the addition of other materials, such as found objects. These changes were accompanied by a profound alteration in tastes, as earlier emphasis on realistic representation of people, objects, and landscapes made way for a greater range of imaginative forms. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American art was considered inferior to European art. Despite noted American painters such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and John Marin, American visual arts barely had an international presence. American art began to flourish during the Great Depression of the 1930s as New Deal government programs provided support to artists along with other sectors of the population. Artists connected with each other and developed a sense of common purpose through programs of the Public Works Administration, such as the Federal Art Project, as well as programs sponsored by the Treasury Department. Most of the art of the period, including painting, photography, and mural work, focused on the plight of the American people during the depression, and most artists painted real people in difficult circumstances. Artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Ben Shahn expressed the suffering of ordinary people through their representations of struggling farmers and workers. While artists such as Benton and Grant Wood focused on rural life, many painters of the 1930s and 1940s depicted the multicultural life of the American city. Jacob Lawrence, for example, re-created the history and lives of African Americans. Other artists, such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, tried to use human figures to describe emotional states such as loneliness and despair. Abstract Expressionism. Shortly after World War II, American art began to garner worldwide attention and admiration. This change was due to the innovative fervor of abstract expressionism in the 1950s and to subsequent modern art movements and artists. The abstract expressionists of the mid-20th century broke from the realist and figurative tradition set in the 1930s. They emphasized their connection to international artistic visions rather than the particularities of people and place, and most abstract expressionists did not paint human figures (although artist Willem de Kooning did portrayals of women). Color, shape, and movement dominated the canvases of abstract expressionists. Some artists broke with the Western art tradition by adopting innovative painting styles—during the 1950s Jackson Pollock â€Å"painted† by dripping paint on canvases without the use of brushes, while the paintings of Mark Rothko often consisted of large patches of color that seem to vibrate. Abstract expressionists felt alienated from their surrounding culture and used art to challenge society’s conventions. The work of each artist was quite individual and distinctive, but all the artists identified with the radicalism of artistic creativity. The artists were eager to challenge conventions and limits on expression in order to redefine the nature of art. Their radicalism came from liberating themselves from the confining artistic traditions of the past. The most notable activity took place in New York City, which became one of the world’s most important art centers during the second half of the 20th century. The radical fervor and inventiveness of the abstract expressionists, their frequent association with each other in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and the support of a group of gallery owners and dealers turned them into an artistic movement. Also known as the New York School, the participants included Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Arshile Gorky, in addition to Rothko and Pollock. The members of the New York School came from diverse backgrounds such as the American Midwest and Northwest, Armenia, and Russia, bringing an international flavor to the group and its artistic visions. They hoped to appeal to art audiences everywhere, regardless of culture, and they felt connected to the radical innovations introduced earlier in the 20th century by European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Some of the artists—Hans Hofmann, Gorky, Rothko, and de Kooning—were not born in the United States, but all the artists saw themselves as part of an international creative movement and an aesthetic rebellion. As artists felt released from the boundaries and conventions of the past and free to emphasize expressiveness and innovation, the abstract expressionists gave way to other innovative styles in American art. Beginning in the 1930s Joseph Cornell created hundreds of boxed assemblages, usually from found objects, with each based on a single theme to create a mood of contemplation and sometimes of reverence. Cornell’s boxes exemplify the modern fascination with individual vision, art that breaks down boundaries between forms such as painting and sculpture, and the use of everyday objects toward a new end. Other artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, combined disparate objects to create large, collage-like sculptures known as combines in the 1950s. Jasper Johns, a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, recreated countless familiar objects, most memorably the American flag. The most prominent American artistic style to follow abstract expressionism was the pop art movement that began in the 1950s. Pop art attempted to connect traditional art and popular culture by using images from mass culture. To shake viewers out of their preconceived notions about art, sculptor Claes Oldenburg used everyday objects such as pillows and beds to create witty, soft sculptures. Roy Lichtenstein took this a step further by elevating the techniques of commercial art, notably cartooning, into fine art worthy of galleries and museums. Lichtenstein’s large, blown-up cartoons fill the surface of his canvases with grainy black dots and question the existence of a distinct realm of high art. These artists tried to make their audiences see ordinary objects in a refreshing new way, thereby breaking down the conventions that formerly defined what was worthy of artistic representation. Probably the best-known pop artist, and a leader in the movement, was Andy Warhol, whose images of a Campbell’s soup can and of the actress Marilyn Monroe explicitly eroded the boundaries between the art world and mass culture. Warhol also cultivated his status as a celebrity. He worked in film as a director and producer to break down the boundaries between traditional and opular art. Unlike the abstract expressionists, whose conceptual works were often difficult to understand, Andy Warhol’s pictures, and his own face, were instantly recognizable. Conceptual art, as it came to be known in the 1960s, like its predecessors, sought to break free of traditional artistic associations. In conceptual art, as practiced by Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth, concept takes precedent over actual object, by stimulating thought rather than following an art tradition based on conventional standards of beauty and artisanship. Modern artists changed the meaning of traditional visual arts and brought a new imaginative dimension to ordinary experience. Art was no longer viewed as separate and distinct, housed in museums as part of a historical inheritance, but as a continuous creative process. This emphasis on constant change, as well as on the ordinary and mundane, reflected a distinctly American democratizing perspective. Viewing art in this way removed the emphasis from technique and polished performance, and many modern artworks and experiences became more about expressing ideas than about perfecting finished products. Photography. Photography is probably the most democratic modern art form because it can be, and is, practiced by most Americans. Since 1888, when George Eastman developed the Kodak camera that allowed anyone to take pictures, photography has struggled to be recognized as a fine art form. In the early part of the 20th century, photographer, editor, and artistic impresario Alfred Stieglitz established 291, a gallery in New York City, with fellow photographer Edward Steichen, to showcase the works of photographers and painters. They also published a magazine called Camera Work to increase awareness about photographic art. In the United States, photographic art had to compete with the widely available commercial photography in news and fashion magazines. By the 1950s the tradition of photojournalism, which presented news stories primarily with photographs, had produced many outstanding works. In 1955 Steichen, who was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, called attention to this work in an exhibition called The Family of Man. Throughout the 20th century, most professional photographers earned their living as portraitists or photojournalists, not as artists. One of the most important exceptions was Ansel Adams, who took majestic photographs of the Western American landscape. Adams used his art to stimulate social awareness and to support the conservation cause of the Sierra Club. He helped found the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, and six years later helped establish the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute). He also held annual photography workshops at Yosemite National Park from 1955 to 1981 and wrote a series of influential books on photographic technique. Adams’s elegant landscape photography was only one small stream in a growing current of interest in photography as an art form. Early in the 20th century, teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine established a documentary tradition in photography by capturing actual people, places, and events. Hine photographed urban conditions and workers, including child laborers. Along with their artistic value, the photographs often implicitly called for social reform. In the 1930s and 1940s, photographers joined with other depression-era artists supported by the federal government to create a photographic record of rural America. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein, among others, produced memorable and widely reproduced portraits of rural poverty and American distress during the Great Depression and during the dust storms of the period. In 1959, after touring the United States for two years, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank published The Americans, one of the landmarks of documentary photography. His photographs of everyday life in America introduced viewers to a depressing, and often depressed, America that existed in the midst of prosperity and world power. Photographers continued to search for new photographic viewpoints. This search was perhaps most disturbingly embodied in the work of Diane Arbus. Her photos of mental patients and her surreal depictions of Americans altered the viewer’s relationship to the photograph. Arbus emphasized artistic alienation and forced viewers to stare at images that often made them uncomfortable, thus changing the meaning of the ordinary reality that photographs are meant to capture. American photography continues to flourish. The many variants of art photography and socially conscious documentary photography are widely available in galleries, books, and magazines. A host of other visual arts thrive, although they are far less connected to traditional fine arts than photography. Decorative arts include, but are not limited to, art glass, furniture, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and quilts. Often exhibited in craft galleries and studios, these decorative arts rely on ideals of beauty in shape and color as well as an appreciation of well-executed crafts. Some of these forms are also developed commercially. The decorative arts provide a wide range of opportunity for creative expression and have become a means for Americans to actively participate in art and to purchase art for their homes that is more affordable than works produced by many contemporary fine artists. . Performing arts As in other cultural spheres, the performing arts in the United States in the 20th century increasingly blended traditional and popular art forms. The classical performing arts—music, opera, dance, and theater—were not a widespread feature of American culture in the first half of the 20th century. These arts were generally imported from or strongly influenced by Europe and were mainly appreciated by the wealthy and well educated. Traditional art usually referred to classical forms in ballet and opera, orchestral or chamber music, and serious drama. The distinctions between traditional music and popular music were firmly drawn in most areas. During the 20th century, the American performing arts began to incorporate wider groups of people. The African American community produced great musicians who became widely known around the country. Jazz and blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday spread their sounds to black and white audiences. In the 1930s and 1940s, the swing music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller adapted jazz to make a unique American music that was popular around the country. The American performing arts also blended Latin American influences beginning in the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940, Latin American dances, such as the tango from Argentina and the rumba from Cuba, were introduced into the United States. In the 1940s a fusion of Latin and jazz elements was stimulated first by the Afro-Cuban mambo and later on by the Brazilian bossa nova. Throughout the 20th century, dynamic classical institutions in the United States attracted international talent. Noted Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine established the short-lived American Ballet Company in the 1930s; later he founded the company that in the 1940s would become the New York City Ballet. The American Ballet Theatre, also established during the 1940s, brought in non-American dancers as well. By the 1970s this company had attracted Soviet defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, an internationally acclaimed dancer who served as the company’s artistic director during the 1980s. In classical music, influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed symphonies using innovative musical styles, moved to the United States in 1939. German-born pianist, composer, and conductor Andre Previn, who started out as a jazz pianist in the 1940s, went on to conduct a number of distinguished American symphony orchestras. Another Soviet, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, became conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D. C. , in 1977. Some of the most innovative artists in the first half of the 20th century successfully incorporated new forms into classical traditions. Composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and dancer Isadora Duncan were notable examples. Gershwin combined jazz and spiritual music with classical in popular works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Copland developed a unique style that was influenced by jazz and American folk music. Early in the century, Duncan redefined dance along more expressive and free-form lines. Some artists in music and dance, such as composer John Cage and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, were even more experimental. During the 1930s Cage worked with electronically produced sounds and sounds made with everyday objects such as pots and pans. He even invented a new kind of piano. During the late 1930s, avant-garde choreographer Cunningham began to collaborate with Cage on a number of projects. Perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most popular, American innovation was the Broadway musical, which also became a movie staple. Beginning in the 1920s, the Broadway musical combined music, dance, and dramatic performance in ways that surpassed the older vaudeville shows and musical revues but without being as complex as European grand opera. By the 1960s, this American musical tradition was well established and had produced extraordinary works by important musicians and lyricists such as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II. These productions required an immense effort to coordinate music, drama, and dance. Because of this, the musical became the incubator of an American modern dance tradition that produced some of America’s greatest choreographers, among them Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly, and Bob Fosse. In the 1940s and 1950s the American musical tradition was so dynamic that it attracted outstanding classically trained musicians such as Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, an updated version of Romeo and Juliet set in New York that became an instant classic in 1957. The following year, Bernstein became the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. He was an international sensation who traveled the world as an ambassador of the American style of conducting. He brought the art of classical music to the public, especially through his â€Å"Young People’s Concerts,† television shows that were seen around the world. Bernstein used the many facets of the musical tradition as a force for change in the music world and as a way of bringing attention to American innovation. In many ways, Bernstein embodied a transformation of American music that began in the 1960s. The changes that took place during the 1960s and 1970s resulted from a significant increase in funding for the arts and their increased availability to larger audiences. New York City, the American center for art performances, experienced an artistic explosion in the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental off-Broadway theaters opened, new ballet companies were established that often emphasized modern forms or blended modern with classical (Martha Graham was an especially important influence), and an experimental music scene developed that included composers such as Philip Glass and performance groups such as the Guarneri String Quartet. Dramatic innovation also continued to expand with the works of playwrights such as Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet. As the variety of performances expanded, so did the serious crossover between traditional and popular music forms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, an expanded repertoire of traditional arts was being conveyed to new audiences. Popular music and jazz could be heard in formal settings such as Carnegie Hall, which had once been restricted to classical music, while the Brooklyn Academy of Music became a venue for experimental music, exotic and ethnic dance presentations, and traditional productions of grand opera. Innovative producer Joseph Papp had been staging Shakespeare in Central Park since the 1950s. Boston conductor Arthur Fiedler was playing a mixed repertoire of classical and popular favorites to large audiences, often outdoors, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. By the mid-1970s the United States had several world-class symphony orchestras, including those in Chicago; New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even grand opera was affected. Once a specialized taste that often required extensive knowledge, opera in the United States increased in popularity as the roster of respected institutions grew to include companies in Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. American composers such as John Adams and Philip Glass began composing modern operas in a new minimalist style during the 1970s and 1980s. The crossover in tastes also influenced the Broadway musical, probably America’s most durable music form. Starting in the 1960s, rock music became an ingredient in musical productions such as Hair (1967). By the 1990s, it had become an even stronger presence in musicals such as Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996), which used African American music and dance traditions, and Rent (1996) a modern, rock version of the classic opera La Boheme. This updating of the musical opened the theater to new ethnic audiences who had not previously attended Broadway shows, as well as to young audiences who had been raised on rock music. Performances of all kinds have become more available across the country. This is due to both the sheer increase in the number of performance groups as well as to advances in transportation. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of major American symphonies doubled, the number of resident theaters increased fourfold, and the number of dance companies increased tenfold. At the same time, planes made it easier for artists to travel. Artists and companies regularly tour, and they expand the audiences for individual artists such as performance artist Laurie Anderson and opera singer Jessye Norman, for musical groups such as the Juilliard Quartet, and for dance troupes such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Full-scale theater productions and musicals first presented on Broadway now reach cities across the country. The United States, once a provincial outpost with a limited European tradition in performance, has become a flourishing center for the performing arts.