Agriculture

The Iron Age was crucial as it was the development of highly sophisticated social and physiological development of humans’. There are multiple reasons why the Celtic Iron age has such significant. Firstly, the technology that had been created by the new found metal had major impacted on the Celtic society. Secondly, new lifestyles that massively change how humans use to live. Amongst this coinage had also been Introduced within Celtic regions which Invented more practical ways of trading. There was also an Increase interest In personal appearance along with a more relaxed lifestyle.

Celtic people also began to Invent things to do for leisure. Lastly, Celtic religion started to evolve and politics was beginning to be invented. The Celtic Iron Age would be considered the most important within the Three-age System regarding to human societal development in Europe. It has made many improvements for humans to achieve the level of societal complexity today. The development of advance human society has mostly evolved though the revolutionary advances in weapons and crafts that were forged by Iron. Iron was very significant and made life for humans much easier after its discovery.

Many of the weapons forged by iron was much stronger and lighter Han bronze, this allowed for improvements to be made to weapons and agricultural tools. Many of the common tools that were used during the Celtic Iron Age are till used today. For example the sickles or pruning hooks which were used by Iron Age farmers, the tool was used for cutting and shaping branches and hurdles unlike most farmers that use them today as to harvest cereal crops or cutting grass for hay. There were also several other tools that were developed during the Iron Age and its designs have been kept and improved on for many years.

Tools such as the hammers, files, axes and many other metal-working tools. Even though early stages of these tools have already been developed during the Stone and Bronze Age, the Celtic Iron Age has truly perfect it. Evidence form everyday tools that society still uses in the 20th century shows many similarities and some can be considered virtually identical to the tools that were used more than two thousand years ago. The tools were made to build houses, make weapons and farm. These were the necessary tools to that develop human society Into a more complex one.

Thus, this demonstrates that the Celtic Iron Age In Europe has help significantly to the development of human society s the discovery of Iron was revolutionary wealth humans. Without this ore, modern society In Europe would have not reach Its level of sophistication as Iron played a also shown impressive improvements that are still useful to everyday life in modern society. Therefore this shows how the Celtic Iron age has a high level of importance regarding to societal development in Europe. 1 Oliver, N. 2011. A History of Ancient Brittany.

United Kingdom, Phoenix. Up. 217 2 Ibid. , 3 S. James and V. Rugby, ‘Iron Farming Tools’, British Museum [weapon], (1997) http:// www. Brutishness. Org/explore/highlights/highlight_bob]sects/pee_BRB/I/ Ron_farming_tools. Asps Para. 3, accessed 27 June 2013. The importance of the Celtic Iron age regarding to human societal development in Europe was significant as the development and improvements of agriculture had greatly affected the way that people had lived in the in the past ages. It has also have shaped how humans tend to live today.

The Stone Age and the Bronze Age had consisted of hunting and gathering food and there was little to no agricultural activity. However, the Celtic Iron Age was primarily agricultural and their daily routines would have consisted with maintaining crops and livestock. This can be seen though evidence in the environment. Evidence in forms of carbonized grains and pollen, it was shown that new crops were introduced and many wheat’s had been farmed and grown in the fields. This meant that people began to develop permanent settlement as they were preoccupied by farming and caring for livestock.

As humans began to stay in permanent housing they also began to live in villages. This was unlike the previous ages as they were mostly hunter-gather societies when it was rarely done. They would only hunt in small groups and constantly travel as there were high risk of danger. The new agricultural life style opened many opportunities of improvement to the human society. Living in villages increase and improved human social development as they gain new skills through looking after life stock and farming as this improved their intelligence.

As historian, a Neil Oliver quotes, ‘These steps alone had made a profound and deeply transforming social revolution’s. The Iron Age did not Just improve human society by advancing in technology, however, they have also improved on having a better grasp on the practical necessities such social and leisure activities. During the Celtic Iron Age, the Celtic had much more time than their ancestors after the development of permanent housing. They were able to socialism more and focus on things that they were not able to in the past.

This included on their personal appearances and activities for leisure. Archaeological evidence of Celtic Iron Age housing shows that many of these houses contained looms. Evidence of clothing form the Celtic Iron Age have shown to be made out of either linen or wool. The fabric would have been dyed bright colors and were woven with striped or checked patterns. There was also evidence from the archaeological record of brooches, pins and other dress accessories that would have played both a functional and decorative role on the clothing.

Classical text also gives clues of what the Cells may have looked like an example of this is Odorous Sculls who was an Ancient Greek Historian, who wrote: When they are eating the moustache becomes entangled in the food, and when they that both men and women may have grown their hair long and also plaited it. This evidence has truly shown how human society had changed after the Iron Age. It demonstrates how humans have developed in intelligence by domesticating animals and also on how they have evolved.

Thus, the importance of the Celtic Iron Age regarding to societal development is very significant as this had not only taught them a more relaxing way of life. It was also the first steps of humans being more social and advance creatures though their physiological development. Being able to maintain livestock, farm and also create accessories and tools that were much more developed than previous ages. 4 Jinni. S. , ‘Ancient History in depth: Life in an Iron Age Village’, BBC History [weapon], (2013) http://www. BBC. O. UK/history/ancient/British_prehistory/ orange_intro_01 . SHTML Agriculture Para. , accessed 4 July 2013. Upriver, pop. Cit. , p. 217 6 Jinni, pop. Cit,. Appearance Para. 2 accessed 4 July 2013. Fernando. C. , ‘Pair of metal detector friends discover three quarters of a ton of Iron Age coins worth Loom buried in a field in Jersey after searching for 30 years’, Mainline [weapon}, (2012) http://www. Dilemma. Co. UK/sciences/article-2164897/ Iron-Age-coins-worth-l Mom-discovered-]erase-metal-detector-friends. HTML accessed 6 July Lastly, the importance of the Celtic Iron age regarding to human societal development in Europe is significant as the religions and rules that existed during he time has truly effected on how society is run in the present. The Celtic Iron Age demonstrated that religion had a large impact in Celtic society much like it has in modern society. The Cells shared a common religious system, it also revealed that the Cells had strict rules of worship to their religion as evidence of human sacrifices such as the Tolland Man and Windy Girl have been found.

The Greek and Roman texts provide a number of pertinent observations and a comprehensive account was given by Caesar in his description of Goulash society. The largest religion in modern society had also came out of the Celtic Iron Age. The Monastery of Illuminant Afar also known as the Illuminant Major can be considered the axis of early Celtic Christianity. Evidence of this includes the ruins of churches that are in modern Ireland and Britain. Many Celtic Scripps and illustrations have also suggest that Christianity has emerged from the era.

This also wildly demonstrates how important the Celtic Iron Age is to the development of human society as without it, many things in modern society may not have existed. Political control and early stages of feudalism was also introduced as in each city state or village. In each village there would be an en or lord’, legal or ‘king’ and ins or ‘governor-priest’ controlling it. This example demonstrates a high level of human intelligence and also an example of how the Iron Age was very significant regarding to humans societal development as this system last for centuries which demonstrated its success.

Another significant introduction was the introduction of coins within Europe. This demonstrated a large change in how humans were now living. Through coins, it was positive that trading had become a popular lifestyle, by having coins, the Cells were beginning to have an easier life style as they didn’t need to trade in the crops that they grow. They were able to grow more food and grow wealthy. As this system of exchanging money for goods is still the impact it has on the development of human society, as from the Iron Age many new systems have developed.

Which demonstrates how significant the Celtic Iron Age really is as many things may not exist if the Iron Age had not occur. Thus, the Celtic Iron Age was highly significant to human societal development in Europe. The Iron Age had introduced a number of complex things that enabled human intelligence to expand. This included farming, new tools, religion, politics and the adaptation of a new epistyle. The Celtic Iron Age had truly changed how humans have lived and improved.

The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s had such an antagonistic effect on the United States economy that was already plummeting. The Dust Bowl affected the U. S economy in just about every way possible ranging from agriculture to finances including government expenses to population changes. This phenomena can be considered as one of the worst natural disasters that has affected the United States. The “Dust Bowl” was the name given to the Great Plains region that was greatly affected by drought in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. The major contribution that led to the Dust Bowl was overproduction of crops however there were some natural causes. Much of the soil there had been damaged by wind and rain. The soil in this area was subjected to water and wind damage because the protective cover of vegetation was impaired through poor farming and the grazing of too many animals” (World Book Encyclopedia). The overproduction was due in part to the fact that the country was in the midst of World War I. “During World War I international demand for food crops like wheat and corn soared. Because of this farmers planted more crops and took out loans to buy land and equipment. But after the war demand for farm products declined and crop prices fell by fifty percent” (Danzer 651-652).

In and effort to make up for the falling prices, farmers tried to plant even more crops, but this only caused lower prices. As a result of these poor land management practices and lack of precipitation the land became arid. There was little grass and few trees to hold the soil down. When the wind storms hit, dust was blown all over, making it virtually impossible for farming. When farming in the Great Plains was no longer a way of making a living many of the inhabitants left the land behind and moved west to California in search of work. “Plagued by dust storms and evictions, thousands of farmers and sharecroppers left their land behind.

They packed up their families and their few belongings and headed west, following route 66 to California” (Danzer 652). The term Okies was coined to describe the migrants from Oklahoma but was later used to describe all migrants. “By the end of the 1930’s, the population of California had grown by more than one million” (Danzer 652). Those who remained in the drought regions were forced to endure severe dust storms and their health effects, diminished incomes, animal infestations, and the physical and emotional stress over their uncertain futures was unbearable (National Drought Mitigation Center, online).

As the Great Depression wore on, the government took steps to intervene and try to save the nation. Led by the effort within the U. S. Department of Agriculture, newly created agencies like the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), the Resettlement Administration (RA), and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) were the loudest to publicize and deplore the Dust Bowl wracking America’s heartland (Cunfer, online). Also led by the President Herbert Hoover and the United States Congress, the Federal Home Loan Bank Act was passed in 1933.

This act lowered mortgage rates for homeowners and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosure. Newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt succeeded Hoover in 1932 during the ongoing Depression. FDR proposed many acts to try and resolve the national issues in his program titled the “New Deal” . One of his most recognized acts that directly assisted farmers was known as the Agricultural Adjustment Act. “This act sought to raise crop prices by lowering production, which the government achieved by paying farmers to not grow” (Danzer 667). A second program that was passed was the Civilian Conservation Corps.

This program put young men to work to perform public jobs including planting trees and helping soil erosion. The United States government spent unprecedented amounts of money to recover from the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. “The magnitude of the droughts of the 1930s, combined with the Great Depression, led to unprecedented government relief efforts. Congressional actions in 1934 alone accounted for relief expenditures of $525 million, the total cost would be impossible to determine” (National Drought Mitigation Center, online). Despite all the negative effects of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression there were a few positives.

For one thing all the government sponsored programs provided jobs and a source of income for those who were unemployed. Also the Roosevelt era marked the beginning of large-scale aid. This also ushered in some of the first long-term, proactive programs to reduce future vulnerability to drought (National Drought Mitigation Center, online). The Dust Bowl was one of the worst natural disasters that has affected the United States. This disaster along with the Great Depression had negative influences on agriculture, state populations, and finances including individual families and the government.

However, in the face of all this commotion a few positive results occurred. People found jobs and a source of income and the government was able to bring the nation out of turmoil. Work Cited Danzer, Gerald A, et al. “The Depression. ” The Americans. Boston: McDougal Littell, 2000. 642-676. Print. “Dust Bowl. ” The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. N. p. : Field Enterprises, 1958. Print. 18 vols. Drought in the Dust Bowl Years. National Drought Mitigation Center, 2006. Web. 14 Nov. 2009. . Cunfer, Geoff. EH. Net Encyclopedia: The Dust Bowl. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 Nov. 2009. .

Objections While flower industry donates a lot in Africans economy and society, detractors are against the proposal of rising the quantity and value of flower exports in Africa basing on its social and environmental drawbacks. According to data researched by Kenya Human Rights Commission (CORK) and Kenya Women Workers Organization (COW), Job abuse and poor working conditions, including low by reasonable rates, congested and unprotected work place, sexual harassment, no maternity leave and so on (Majority, 2002). Both growing process and delivering process of flower industry do harm to the environment.

Pesticides and fertilizers are necessary to be applied to cultivate flowers (Whelan, 2009). Although a flower farm takes action to reduce energy use and moves km away from the lake to make the lake environment under secure guarantee, it was accused of over-applying pesticide as a result polluted the lake in 2004(Whelan, 2009). Moreover, as the main consumer market is not located in African but Europe, plus the necessity to maintain its fresh and quality, fast and expensive way of transportation is needed. As a result, referring from Evaluation On the African Flower Industry By Manville he process of delivering 100 million rose (Whelan, 2009).

Evaluation Evaluation of the proposal projected by SAID of aiming at increasing the flower exports in East Africa can be assessed from angles of economy, society and environment. In the perspective of economy, it is indeed a high improvement for African economy by developing flower industry. In addition to the employment creation and value rendering that come together with agricultural development, flower industry can lead a large amount of currency exchange which is a vital part of Africans incomplete economy system.

The more value and volume is made by the industry, the more market value would be created so that not merely the economy but also other aspects can be progressed in African. There is evidence that developing flower industry in Africa is detrimental to its social system. The lack of regulation in Job market and protections for employer is the disadvantage stated by the objectors. However, considering how the industry, and the responsible flower companies have speeded up the developmental progress in Africa by offering shelters, schooling, welfare and infrastructures including water and electricity, it is seasonable to support the proposal.

Environment damage is inevitable in developing industry in every area. Particularly for African flower industry, there is delivering pollution that is harmful. However, applying the proposal would lessen the environmental problem caused in the past as companies are seeking solutions to avoid more pollution. Therefore, the proposal should be pushed up in the following 4 years but a more sophisticated plan should be proposed. Conclusion Generally, the advantage of increasing the volume and value of flower exports by at least 30% overweight the drawback of it.

Developing high-value industry is a helpful solution to lesson the poverty in Africa while flower industry functions positively in economy. Once the economy is developed, the social problem would be lessening.

If you asked me how much I valued literature a few months ago, I would have probably laughed it off and proclaimed it has no value because it does not affect me. What kind of value could literature possibly have? It is just books. Random characters dealing with their random problems. What could that possibly offer me except giving me something to kill time?

It was not until I began researching about the value of literature that I realized its vital contributions to my life and the lives of everyone around me. I found out no matter how often (or not so often) that you read, literature can and will still affect you in a way nothing else can. The value of literature to me can not only be found in what I have learned from reading, but how it has influenced my life. In this essay, I am going to talk about how literature has affected me, and in a small way determined who I am today, and how it has affected my views on certain subjects.

Various types of literature have taught me many interesting things about the world, cultures, and most importantly, myself. In addition, I will describe my history as a reader and my plan for reading in the future. Literature has somewhat sculpted me into the person I am today. I believe that children are very easily influenced, and as a child, I was exposed to literature almost every night. I began to read Goosebumps books when I was only five years old.

I think that habit has affected my personality because literature is about connecting with the characters on a more-than-personal level, and I feel like I can do that now to my friends better than most people can. I have a great sense of empathy that keeps me from doing anything to anyone that I would not like do to myself. An English teacher named Tim Gillespie, who has studied the value of literature and written many articles about it, concludes: By its truthful portrayal of life’s complex moral choices, literature draws us in, submerges us into a story, and summons our imaginative power to identify with characters.

Literature thus might be one antidote to the disease of disconnection that afflicts us. Assaulting someone, tagging a wall with spray paint, sexually harassing another, or yelling a racial slur all show incapacity to empathize, to imagine another’s deepest responses, to consider the real consequences of actions on others. In the fractious world we inhabit, empathy is a much-needed skill, and literature is a form in which we can practice this skill (Gillespie 61). Assuming this is true, I attribute my empathy to my childhood reading.

And who knows what other characteristics and changes to my personality reading has brought me. This is an aspect of reading I think is extremely underrated, and I think it should be more publicly known. When I think about it, there must be a link between empathy and reading at a young age, as my friends who seem to completely lack empathy don’t read at all and don’t have the strong family values that would support reading, especially at a young age. Empathy is one of the most valuable things literature can offer its readers.

Bill Clinton once said that children could not be expected to live a life they cannot imagine. Moreover, there is no better way to expand one’s imagination than with reading. The books I enjoy reading involve the protagonist embarking on a long and unlikely journey, which would be impossible for me to experience for myself in real life. However, I feel like by reading about this adventure, in a sense I am experiencing it for myself. There’s something about reading that makes it so involving, unlike movies or television where I can become distracted and miss parts of it.

Reading requires all of my senses to be focused on the literature, which I believe helps expand my imagination. An article in the magazine World & I states: “The study of great literature nurtures the learner’s imaginative power… and this imaginative power restores us to our real selves… and enriches an inner self. Great literature helps revive what is most precious in our souls” (“The Enduring Value”). Literature is the key for a healthy imagination. Although literature has, some “hidden” powers like expanding your imagination and promoting empathy, it serves another obvious purpose, to teach.

Literature, fiction or non-fiction, usually has something to offer. A great example of this is A Complicated Kindness. Before reading this novel, I believed the typical stereotype of Mennonites: boring, religious people who shun themselves from the outside world because for some reason, they think their way of life is better than ours. This book taught me how wrong I was. I learned that many of the Mennonite teenagers go through the same troubles and experiences many average Canadian teens go through.

I discovered the author grew up as a Mennonite in Manitoba, and although it is by no means a factual memoir, I am still confident, much of the information about the culture and the people’s behavior is accurate. Reading the book was much more enjoyable than I had anticipated because I was learning about a new culture and I could in some ways, relate to Nomi, at least much more than I thought I would. Literature was able to teach me about the behind-the-scenes Mennonite lifestyle that I don’t think I could learn about anywhere else.

In an essay by Cynthia Ozick, she states that “the pulse and purpose of literature is to reject the blur of the “universal”; to distinguish one life from another; to illumine diversity; to light up the least grain of being, to show how it is concretely individual, in particularized from any other; to tell, in all the marvel of its singularity, the separate holiness of the least grain. Literature is the recognition of the particular” (Ozick 248). This is saying that literature can help you learn by showing you the hardships and experiences of one person: usually the protagonist.

This is especially true with Nomi. Instead of seeing a news special about Mennonite villages helping out by building houses for one another and then living happily ever after, we “reject the blur of the universal” and “light up the least grain of being”: Nomi. It was not until grade four or five that I found out how much you can learn from a piece of fiction. I read a book called Under a War Torn, which was the by far the longest book I had read up to that point. It was about a oldier named Henry Forester who found himself behind enemy lines in the World War II. Henry travels through France on a journey to return home, and through the process, I was exposed to all sorts of information about the war.

Blitzkriegs, battles, attitudes, and tragedies were some of the important things I learned about which still stick with me today. Even during history class in tenth grade, many of the facts that were taught from the textbook I had already learned through literature. Only this is a special kind of literature called “historical literature. Patricia Crawford, a professor in the Instruction and Learning department of the University of Pittsburgh, writes about how “Scholars and practitioners in the field recognize the importance of learning history in ways that actively engage students in their learning. The inclusion of high-quality literature in general and historical fiction in particular, within the social studies curriculum provides a powerful means of facilitating this type of engagement “(Crawford). I can personally say through my own experiences that historical fiction is an extremely valuable tool that should be included in history curriculums.

I do not enjoy reading fact-heavy textbooks, and would much rather read a story that incorporates the information into the plot. This way I will be more absorbed by the writing, and it is more likely I will retain the information. That is why historical literature is so valuable to me. A few years ago, I read a book called The Secret. It had been featured on Oprah and claimed to posses an ancient secret. The secret is that if you wish for something… anything, you will somehow get it. To prove this it uses testimonies and interprets the Laws of Attraction.

It went as far as to say “What you think and what you feel and what actually manifests is always a match – no exception” (Byrne 23). If you wish for a shiny new red bicycle, you will be rewarded with one. After hearing about so many people having success with this “secret”, even though it made no sense scientifically, I decided to read it. In addition, the strange thing is, the more I read into it, the more believable it was. I began trying it out, and sure enough, sometimes it did seem to work. However, deep down I knew it had to be a coincidence. Therefore, I researched it on the internet and realized how completely bogus it was.

I realized that only literature has the power to make you believe the impossible. In addition, in a sense, it made the impossible true. I have seen countless interviews with people who swear by it with real stories about how it worked, yet, it is impossible, and I think deep down everybody knows that. This just goes to show the power of literature. I consider myself to have a very high level of common sense, so the fact that I even googled it baffles me. There are many other texts out there that have influenced me along with millions of others, one being The Da Vinci Code.

That work of fiction brought down a wave of suspicion based on the Christian religion just because it was written as if it was a true story, and it used real locations and real historical evidence. This just goes to show that literature can influence people’s beliefs beyond what should be possible. I feel that literature can help improve my life because it makes me a better learner. Reading and literature force you to make connections and relate things to and to always be thinking, which are skills that allow me to learn things easier.

Author Bruce Meyer wrote in one of his books The Golden Thread: A Reader’s Through the Great Books: “Here’s the simple truth: nothing prepares us better for reading than reading. Reading is a process not just of assimilating ideas but of learning the skills, the fundamental structures, and the repeated story line that make further reading a richer, more enjoyable and much more powerful experience” (Meyer 4). I feel like the more I read, the easier it is to read and the more inclined I am to read more. During high school, I will admit I fell into a reading slump. I barely read.

I was far too busy with football, wrestling, homework, work, and other distractions to be bothered to pick up a book. For the most part, the only books I have read have been in the four English classes I have taken. This may even be what turned me off reading many of the books I have read in high school are more geared towards girls. The main character is usually a girl, and the conflicts and problems in the book usually do not interest me. However, no matter how busy I am, I think I will always be able to make time for reading. So what is the value of literature to me?

I do not think I can put a value on something that helped shape me into the good person I am today. Something that expands my imagination and helps me learn. Something that teaches me about different cultures, and times then those that I’m already familiar with. Something that can influence and persuade me to do great things. Literature is far too powerful to put any value on. And that’s why I’ll continue to read throughout my life; so I can continue to benefit from all of literature’s power.

Works Cited

1. Byrne, Rhonda. The Secret. New York: Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2006.
2. Crawford, Patricia A. , and Vicky Zygouris-Coe. “Those were the days: learning about history through literature. ” Childhood Education 84. 4 (Summer 2008): 197(7).
3. Academic OneFile. Gale. Guelph Public Library. 8 Nov. 2008 “The Enduring Value of Literature. ” World & I 11. 5 (May 1996): 282 Gillespie, Tim. “Why literature matters. ” Education Digest 61. 1 (Sep. 1995): 61.
4. Meyer, Bruce. The Golden Thread: A Reader’s Through the Great Books. Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2000. Ozick, Cynthia. Art & Arder. New York: Random House, 1983.

From the point of view of farmers, minorities and labor, were the 1920’s the “Golden Twenties” as often portrayed? BY: ROBERT TANNER U. S. History 101. 5 Jim Blackwood 11/25/2009 Bibliography Allen, Frederick L. Only Yesterday: An informal history of the 1920s. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1931. Drowne, Kathleen, and Huber, Patrick. The 1920’s. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004. Irving L. Bernstein. The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker 1920-1933. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960. Sage, Henry J. The Roaring Twenties. October 11, 2006): Internet. http://www. sagehistory. net/twenties/Twenties. htm. November 25, 2009. Williams, Betty. The 1920’s. London: Batsford, 1989 The 1920’s or the “Roaring Twenties” were a time in U. S. History of great change. This period could be described as the “Golden Twenties”, where many discoveries and inventions of great importance were made, prosperous industrial growth, increase in the standard of living, rise of consumerism, and significant changes in people’s lifestyles. But were the 1920’s “Golden” for everyone?

In my essay I will first take a look at the “Golden” aspects of the twenties, highlighted by some of the inventions and discoveries that took place during the era, which helped define and shape the twenties, and follow that up with the farmers’ point of view on the twenties. First off, let’s take a look at some of the stuff that defined the 1920’s. The 1920s, or the “Roaring Twenties” were a decade in which nothing big happened, no major catastrophes of large events, at least until the stock market crash of 1929, yet it is one of the most significant decades in U.

S. history because of the great changes that came about in American society. The Twenties were known by various images and names: the Jazz Age, the age of the Lost Generation, flaming youth, flappers, radio and movies, bathtub gin, the speakeasy, organized crime, confession magazines, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, the Great Crash, Sacco and Vanzetti, AL Smith, cosmetics, Freud, the “New” woman, the Harlem Renaissance, consumerism, all these images and more are part of the “Golden” Twenties.

In fact, the 1920s may have been the decade of the greatest social change in American history. Reacting perhaps to both the disillusionment from the First World War and against the strictures of Victorian culture, Americans abandoned old ideas with a vengeance and adopted new concepts wholesale. It was also a time of deep divisions: wets (for repeal of prohibition) against dries, town against country, natives versus foreigners, Catholics against Protestants; the decade also saw a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and an American sense of alienation from the rest of the world.

The decade began amidst the ashes of the Great War, blossomed into a riotous age of spending and profit making, cheap automobiles and new consumer products. Everybody seemed to be on a roll. Then in 1929 the Crash hit the stock market, and for many complicated reasons the Great Depression followed. It was a decade of huge figures, heroes of the kind we don’t see any more, or not often: Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones and others. Americans started going to the movies and listening to the radio in enormous numbers, and they found themselves becoming more affluent as the markets rose, seemingly without end.

It was a time of new awakening for African-Americans, many of whom had fought in France, and the Harlem Renaissance opened Americans to Black literature, poetry, music and other arts of a quality never seen before. Literary figures like Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe brought white American literature to a new plane as well. The Progressive movement was not dead in the twenties, a Progressive Presidential candidate got almost 5 million votes in 1924, but it was not an activist decade. Everybody knew what Harding meant when he called for a return to “normalcy,” even hough there was no such word in the dictionary. The Twenties began on a somber note, rose to great heights of excitement. Then on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it all came crashing down, and things were never the same again, but then again, they never are. “1” A “Golden Age”, Americans in the 1920s had discovered many things. They had more leisure time, and they discovered radio and movies. The first “talkie,” “The Jazz Singer” was produced in 1927; color pictures followed a few years later. Americans of that era loved film stars like Charlie Chaplin, and they honored heroes like Charles Lindbergh.

They had more time to participate in and watch sporting events, and Babe Ruth became the first athlete to earn a salary of $100,000 for a season. When reminded that that was more than President Hoover made, the Babe replied, “I had a better year. ” It was also a golden age of literature as well. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Rawlings, the Black writers mentioned above and many others brought American literature to new heights. “2” As for Business in the 1920s: It was the Age of the Consumer.

During the 1920s everybody seemed to be buying everything. Cars, radios, appliances, ready-made clothes, gadgets and other consumer products found their ways into more and more American homes and garages. Americans also started buying stocks in greater numbers, providing capital to already booming businesses. All the signs pointed upwards, and starry-eyed men and women began to believe that it was going to be a one-way trip, possibly forever. Henry Ford’s assembly line not only revolutionized production, it democratized the ownership of the automobile.

Ford showed that handsome profits could be made on small margin and high volumes. By 1925 his famous Model-T sold for under $300, a modest price by the standards of the 1920s. Americans had never had it so good. Thanks to pioneers like Charles Lindbergh, the airplane began to come of age in the 1920s. Although used for various purposes in the World War, airplanes were still exotic gadgets until after Lindbergh’s flight, when planes began to carry mail as well as passengers for travel rather than just for thrills.

Regularly scheduled flights began, and airports were constructed to handle passengers and small amounts of cargo. The end was in sight for railroad domination of the transportation industry. “2” Not everyone prospered in the 1920s. Farmers, becoming increasingly more skillful and efficient in producing food, found that laws of supply and demand still plague them. The more they produced, the lower prices tended to fall. In the early 1920s bread was at its lowest price in 500 years relatively to other necessities.

It was still tough to make a living down on the farm. The 1920s afforded unprecedented economic opportunities for many Americans, but not for the nation’s farmers. They had enjoyed unusual prosperity during World War I, owing to the increased demand for American agricultural products in war-torn Europe, but in the 1920s they were plagued by low prices for agricultural products, high costs for producing these goods, and heavy debt. Increases in the American farmers’ productivity created surpluses that drove commodity prices down and lowered their income.

While prices for agricultural products remained low, costs for land, machinery, equipment, labor, transportation, and taxes were rising, creating greater disparity between a farmer’s costs and income. The pervasive “farm problem” of the 1920s was complex. The market compensated a farmer’s increased productivity and efficiency with a lower standard of living. Collectively, Americans devoted too many resources: land, labor, and capital, to agriculture. Consequently, the supply of agricultural products far outstripped the demand for them.

The problem, however, is much easier to diagnose in retrospect than it was during the 1920s. Arguing that the problem with American agriculture was overproduction seemed paradoxical to contemporaries who closely associated the independent farmer with the essence of American virtue and character, someone to be emulated, not discouraged, from increasing his crop yields. Instead of realizing the link between low prices and overproduction, farmers blamed their adversity on insufficient credit, high interest rates, inadequate tariffs, and declining world trade.

Overwhelmed by the seriousness of their problems, farmers looked to the federal government for assistance. Farmers’ demands for federal help ran against the popular political mood of the 1920s, which demanded a reduction in government involvement in business. Moreover, the growing urban character of the nation weakened farmers’ political influence. Yet agriculture had powerful allies in Congress. In 1921 two Republican legislators from Iowa, Sen. William Kenyon and Congressman L. J.

Dickinson, organized the “farm bloc,” a bipartisan group of congressmen that exerted political pressure for legislation to alleviate the farmers’ economic misery. During President Harding’s administration this legislative caucus advocated generous credit, higher tariffs, and cooperative marketing, all proposals that treated symptoms rather than the core problems, production surpluses and price disparities. From 1920 to 1921, farm prices fell at a catastrophic rate. The price of wheat, the staple crop of the Great Plains, fell by almost half; the price of cotton, still the lifeblood of the South, fell by three-quarters.

Farmers, many of whom had taken out loans to increase acreage and buy efficient new agricultural machines like tractors, suddenly could not make their payments; throughout the decade, farm foreclosures and rural bank failures increased at an alarming rate. Agricultural incomes remained flat, with rural Americans’ wealth falling far behind their urban counterparts. Rural electrification increased at a snail’s pace, with more than 90 percent of American farms still lacking power into the 1930s. The proportion of farms with access to a telephone actually fell during the Roaring Twenties.

So, it’s no great exaggeration to say that for rural America, the Great Depression began not in 1929 but in 1920, and it continued for an entire generation. The roaring prosperity of America’s cities during the 1920s made the privation of rural life all the more painful, by contrast. The divide between Haves and Have Nots in the 1920s was the divide between city and country. “3” In Conclusion, the 1920s, “Roaring” Twenties, or “Golden” Twenties, can be viewed as two distinct points of views.

That of the urban society, which experienced an increase in the standard of living, rises of consumerism, and significant changes in their lifestyles. Times were good, and era of the 20s could truly be viewed and defined as the “Golden” Twenties. On the other hand, there was the farmers’ point of view, which could be described as the exact opposite. By becoming increasingly more skillful and efficient in producing food, the farmers had found that the laws of supply and demand were not working in their favor. The more they produced, the lower prices tended to fall.

Hence, times were tough, and it was hard for them to make ends meet. Overall, one would almost have to reword the 20s, maybe by calling them the “Golden” twenties for some but not all. Endnotes ( Henry J. Sage, The Roaring Twenties. (October 11, 2006): Internet. http://www. sagehistory. net/twenties/Twenties. htm. 1 2 Kathleen Drowne, and Patrick Huber. The 1920’s. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004. 3-29 3 Irving L. Bernstein. The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker 1920-1933. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960. 216-350

For a long period of time, Philippine land was owned by the private sectors. This started during the Spanish regime when the land was primarily owned by the large landlords and the friars. The Philippine farmers found it hard to acquire land during that time because the only basis for ownership is ancestral domain ship. Agrarian rights were established during the American occupation, but only few initiatives were given and the rich families still continue to own the Philippine land.

The first comprehensive agrarian reform order was attempted in the country in 1972. A month after the martial law, President Marcos issued Presidential Decree no. 27 making the Philippines a land reform nation. This reform order states that an individual cannot own more than seven hectares of land. The remaining area will be given out in portions to individual tenants. The tenant may acquire a maximum of 3 hectares of irrigated land or 5 hectares of unused land in exchange for payments such as royalty taxes, etc. This reform program was unpopular thus making it a total failure.

On June 22, 1987, President Corazon Aquino outlined the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) through Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229. The law was enacted by the 8th Congress of the Philippines and signed by former President Aquino on June 10, 1988. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law is the basis of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which was the centerpiece program of President Corazon Aquino’s Administration. The program was said to have an underlying political motivation for it formed one of the major points against Marcos during President Aquino’s Presidential campaign.

The essence of CARP is asset revaluation or redistribution of wealth so that the landless farmers can have access to capital resources in order to promote their welfare. Its aim is the equitable distribution and ownership of land to the tiller and to provide opportunities for a dignified quality of life to the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs). To accomplish these objectives, provisions were made for adequate support services for rural development and economic-size farms were established as the basis of Philippine Agriculture. The program was given a special fund of P50 billion.

The sources of the Agrarian Reform Fund was proceeds of the sale of the Assets of the Asset Privatization Trust (ATP), the sale of the ill-gotten wealth recovered through the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and other appropriate sources. The CARP has an 8. 1 million hectare scope. The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) was assigned to distribute 4. 3 million while the Department of Environment and Natural Resources was assigned with 3. 8 million hectares to distribute. As of December 2005, it was reported that The Department of Agrarian Reform had distributed 3. 5 million hectares and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 2. 93 million hectares.

Even though the DAR and the DENR distributed a large number of lands, it didn’t reach the goal set in the program. “Twenty Years later, the Government’s land reform effort has woefully short of its goals – by some 1. 3 million hectares of private farmland” (Facts not Slogan, the Business Mirror) The distribution of land to the tiller is below the expected target. It was not accomplished during the first term of CARP which was 10 years.

The government’s slowness in land transfer activities is because of the following factors: 1. lack of political will to implement agrarian reform 2. manifest in operational and legal bottlenecks 3. blockades by big land owners who have seats in Congress and posts in the Government bureaucracy But the main reason was the lack of resources to fund the program. The actual requirement estimated by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) in 1987 was 221. 09 billion to ensure the program’s full implementation. However, only P100 billion was given under the law. The fund provided was less than half of what is required.

There were numerous issues concerning the implementation of CARP. The biggest of which is the lack of support services for the ARBs to ensure the productivity of the lands that were distributed to the farmers. “Then there is the matter of official commitment to the program—or rather, the lack of it. Frequently cited is a study in Negros Occidental, which showed that 97 percent of agrarian-reform beneficiaries (ARBs) have received no government support services, that 41 percent of ARBs have either abandoned or sold the rights to the land awarded to them under the CARP, that 98. percent of ARBs have not paid land taxes, etc.

Moreover, Negros Occidental has remained a hotbed of insurgent activity. ” (Facts, not Slogans. Business Mirror) “Beneficiaries of land reform also lacked sufficient support to make their farms viable. Ownership is just one step in making a decent living out of farmland. The owner needs agricultural know-how as well as technical and financial resources to plant the right crops at the right time, and use the proper pesticides and fertilizers. At harvest time he needs access to post-harvest facilities, and then assistance in marketing his crops.

Knowledge of crop rotation could maximize the use of small farmland. ” (The Promise of Agrarian Reform. The Philippine Star, 6/02/09) “There weren’t enough farm-to-market roads, processing and distribution facilities, irrigation and market support. ” Because of the absence of these minimum requirements, a number of CARP Beneficiaries were prompted to sell their farms, sometimes to “buyers” hired by the original owners. Without the necessary support, ownership is useless. Another problem is landowner resistance.

The poor implementation of the program is the reason why private agricultural lands remain undistributed. A common carp loophole used by landowners to escape relinquishing their lands is through the reclassification of their land into residential, commercial and industrial lands which are excluded from CARP. Just this year, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed the extension of the Agrarian Reform Program, Republic Act No. 9700 or the CARP Extension and Reform Law (CARPer), which allocated P150 billion for agrarian reform, to be distributed in five years.

Sixty percent of the budget will go to land acquisition and forty percent to support services. “The new law, a consolidation of House Bill 4077 and Senate Bill 2666, is called CARP Extension with Reforms (CARPer) and extends the program from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2014. It provides a P150-billion outlay for the acquisition and distribution of 1. 6 million hectares of all agricultural lands, as well as support services for 1. 2 million farmer-beneficiaries. ” (Booster Shot for Agrarian Reform.

Business Mirror) “The reforms in RA 9700 include provisions on the sourcing of the funds, which will allow the Department of Agrarian Reform to target the acquisition and distribution of the remaining 1 million hectares or so of agricultural lands covered by CARP at a much faster pace; the creation of a joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Agrarian Reform, or COCAR, to closely monitor the implementation of the new law; the strengthening of the ban on land-use conversion by landowners eager to avoid CARP, by extending the scope of the ban to allow no exceptions, by levying heavier penalties for illegal conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural use and by mandating the automatic coverage of converted land if the conversion is unimplemented or its terms violated—thus legislating the lesson from the Sumilao farmers’ issue. ” (CARPer, Right and Wrong. Philippine Daily Inquirer)

CONCLUSION

In my opinion, the government focused only on distributing lands and not in the other objectives that were stated in the law. As pointed out in the editorials which I’ve read. It’s not enough to own land in order to become prosperous in agriculture.

A farmer needs the necessary equipment to harvest his crops and also knowledge in marketing in order to sell his crops. A poor farmer even if given rights to own land won’t be able to change financial status because what is given to him is not enough. As for the loopholes in the CARP, I hope the implementation of the CARPer will resolve the problem concerning the evasion of redistribution of estates.

The revised CARPer should target the weaknesses of the old program and make sure that the implementation would be better this time than the previous program. The Philippines is still far from accomplishing agrarian reform even after 50 years. If they keep it up in this rate, it’ll take a very long time to lift our Filipino farmers from poverty.

Differences of Africa’s civilizations: a. Small regions of Mediterranean culture in N. and S. extremes, large deserts (Sahara, Kalahari), larger regions of savanna grasslands, tropical rain forest in continent’s center, highlands + mountains in E. Africa iii. One distinctive environmental feature: bisected by equator = most tropical of the world’s three supercontinents a. Persistent warm temp. = rapid decomposition ot vege table matter (humus) = poorer and less fertile soils and less productive agriculture than in more emperate Eurasia + spawned disease-carrying insects/parasites ‘v. Feature: proximity to Eurasia a. Allowed parts of Africa to interact w/Eurasian civilizations b. N.

Africa incorporated into Roman Empire, produced wheat/olives w/slave labor, Christianity spread widely famous martyrs c. Saint Augustine: theologian d. Christian faith found more permanent foothold in present-day Ethiopia v. Arabia ” another point of contact w/larger world v’. Domesticated camel = nomadic pastoral way of life; later, made trans-Saharan commerce possible (linked W. Africa 0 Med. Civilizations) vii. Over centuries, E. African coast = port of call for Egyptian, Roman, Arab merchants = became integral part of Indian Ocean trading networks viii. External connections + internal development of African societies generated patterns of change during classical era A.

Geez: language used @court, in towns, for commerce; written in script derived from S. Arabia c. Measure of ctrl over mostly Agaw-speaking ppl of country thru loose administrative structure – tribute payments d. Romans P Axum ” third major empire after own and Persian ‘v. Introduced to Christianity thru connections to Red Sea trade + Roman world (Egypt) v. King Ezana: monarch of fourth century (when Christianity was introduced), adopted Christianity (same time as Constantine in Roman) v’. Mounted campaign of imperial expansion across Red Sea 0 Yemen in S. Arabia vii. Decline: environmental changes (soil exhaustion, erosion, deforestation brought about intensive farming) viii.

Rise of Islam 0 altered trade routes, diminished revenue available to Axumite state, emerged Christian church (present-day Ethiopia) ‘x. Meroe + Axum paralleled on smaller scale major features of classical civ. Of Eurasia: long-distance trading connections, urban centers, centralized states, complex societies, monumental architecture, written language, imperial ambitions, direct contact w/Med. civilizations II. Along the Niger River: Cities without States Urbanization in middle stretches of Niger R. in W. Africa Growing #s of ppl from S. Sahara into fertile floodplain of middle Niger in search of access to water w/domesticated cattle, sheep, goats, agricultural skills, ironworking tech.

Ppl created distinctive city-based civilization Oenne-Jeno) No imperial system No centralized political structure “cities w/o citadels” Emerged as clusters of economically specialized settlements surrounding a larger central town Earliest + most prestigious specialized occupation = iron smithing Roderick McIntosh: archeologist, leading fgure in excavation of Jenne-Jero Villages of otton weavers, potters, leather workers, griots grew around cent. Towns Occupational castes (passed Jobs/skills to children, could only marry within own group) Farmers tilled soil, raised animals, specialization in farming – fishing, rice cultivation Growing network of indigenous W.

African commerce Middle Niger flood-plain supported rich agriculture and had clay for pottery, lacked stone, iron, ore, salt, fuel Ghana, Mali, Songhai – W. Africa Ill. South of the Equator: The World of Bantu Africa i. Most significant development involved accelerating movement of Bantu-speaking ppls into enormous subcontinent i’. Bean from homeland region (present-day SE. Nigeria + Cameroons) iii. Bantu expansion – slow movement of peoples brought to Africa south of equator measure of cultural and linguistic commonality, marking it as a distinct region of the continent A. Cultural Encounters ‘v. Advantages: a. as agriculture generated more productive economy 0 larger #s to live in smaller area b.

Farmers brought both parasitic and infectious diseases (to which foraging people had little immunity) c. Iron, tools/weapons v. Kalahari regions of SW. Africa and few places in E. Africa, gathering and hunting urvived (such as San) vi. In rain forest region of Central Africa, foraging Batwa (Pygmy) = “forest specialists” 0 honey, wild game, elephant products, animal skins, medicinal barks and plants vii. Adopted Bantu languages viii. In drier env