South korea was very underdeveloped

South korea was very underdeveloped Introduction In the beginning of the twentieth century, South Korea was very underdeveloped. It was a country consisting of minimal economic activity to compete in the Global markets. South Korea was still integrated with North Korea as one state under the Rulership of Japan. Agriculture played a big role in the economic progress of Korea under the communist system. It was only a matter of time before Korea would be divided into the north and south After WW2 and the Korean War. But the South would prove to be much more prosperous than the North, through opening up its markets, its affiliations with The United States of America and turning into a Democratic state. Its economic transformation pushed South Korea become a competitive country in the Global market within three decades towards the end of the twentieth century. The following essay will take a brief look at Koreas economic progress in the first half of the twentieth century, and then focus on how South Korea started to progress economical ly after WW2. It will also look at what political and economical reforms took place in order to ensure economic Liberty of South Korea. 1st Half Of 20th Century Korea Loses Independence In 1910, Korea lost its independence to Japan, Korea became a province of the Japanese state. Initially Korea had been ruled by the Yi state, Korea was known to consist of Raw materials which could be beneficial to other countries economic wealth. Other western countries such as France, US and the USSR had attempted to overthrow the Yi state even before the twentieth century, but Korea fought and resisted western domination. Japan on the other hand had surrendered to the USA and had become an Industrialized economy, it needed raw materials in order to expand its economy. This was going to happen at the expense of Korea. The Japanese had backing of the USA, and could easily occupy Korea by 1905 after signing a treaty with the USA called the Taft-Katsura Agreement, stating that the USA will acknowledge the Japanese occupation of Korea. The Japanese finally got Korea to sign the treaty of annexation with it in 1910. The Yi state had proven to be weak in terms of resistance to external forces, as it had now lost independence, it had also lost its power to influence its Korean people to fight of colonialism. Japan could now have access to raw materials and foodstuffs, Korea would now have to become a highly productive Agricultural state for the benefit of Japans economic growth. This would hinder with the growth of the Korean economy, limiting it to a more rural, underdeveloped economy until the mid twentieth century, after the Korean war and WW2. The Japanese took over most of the fertile land through their own landlords, and would increase their exports of foods to Japan, this signaled the beginning of exploitation of the Korean people through cheap agricultural and rural labour. South Korea experienced a high industrial growth, but the Capital and profits were all focused towards Japans growth. Japan invested high capital towards industries in Korea. Even though there was high exploitation of Korea, there had been attempts by the Korean people to protest against Japanese rule, in 1919 people protested against Japanese rule but were unsuccessful as 6000 people lost their lives to Japanese Forces. There was always a Government- General appointed by the Japanese government to keep control of Korea. He could lead in a dictatorial way and all Koreans who did not abide by his law could be arrested by the police, he had total control of the Korean affairs. From 1910 onwards, the Government- General implemented a survey where useful agricultural land could be determined, if land was found to be useful to the economy of Japan, the general took control of it. Many of the Korean citizens lost their land as a result. By 1930, the Government-general owned 40 percent of the total agricultural and forest lands of Korea, most of the land would be sold by the Japanese government to Japanese development companies, land could also be sold for a cheap price to Japanese individuals looking to start farming in Korea. The land policies implemented by the Director general increased poverty in Korea for the farm population which formed the majority of the Korean population. This explains why Korea experienced so much poverty and why many of its citizens turned out to be peasants, the Generals land policies took many of the Korean citizens and farmers land in the wealthy areas of Korea. The Japanese did not determine their land policies with the interest s of Korean people at heart, at the same time a lot of Korean peasants suffered as most of the money they made from harvesting on the rented land paid for the rent. Korea was known to be a major exporter of rice when it came to agriculture, most of its rice was exported to Japan at the expense of Korean cheap labour, the land allocation system seemed to be prospering. From 1912 to 1936, over half of the total rice production was being exported to Japan, this was possible because the Koreans were forced to lessen their rice consumptions. In the Mining sector, the Government-General also implemented a Mineral assessment with some major Japanese Corporations in an attempt to extract mineral resources from Korea. Korea had great resources such as gold, silver, led, iron and coal. These resources worked highly to the advantage of Japan as they could exploit them during WW1 for military armaments production, the Military armaments could be sold by the Japanese to the Allies. This proves that the Korean Mineral and Land occupation was of high importance for a country like Japan, and they were going to exploited it for as long as they could, as long as Japan kept growing and developed a strong competitive economy for itself. But this was just one of two major economic factors Japan were interested in, the manufacturing sector also became an interest in which the Japanese were focused on. They would achieve through intense industrial development and cheap labour, since many of the farmers had lost their agricultural land. Korea started to experience mass industrialization through Japan, this could be seen as the beginning of Manufacturing on a large scale for Korea. The government-General encouraged many Japanese businesses looking for cheap production to invest their Capital in Korea. He achieved this through the new policies of manufacturing, which opened doors to Japanese investors to bring in their Capital at very low costs. The Japanese had control of almost 90 percent of all manufacturing Capital in Korea, this also applied to the mining industry, The Japanese companies had almost 95 percent of the coal mining industry of Japan. These percentages were achieved by 1945. The Industrialization of Korea pushed many peasants into becoming wage workers, by 1944 600 000 Koreans were working in factories and another 350 000 working in mines. The situation for Korean workers in the factories was so bad that the wages they got paid by 1935 were 50 percent less than in 1927. Peace and comfort did not happen and the Korean people suffered a lot from discrimination and exploitation during the period 1910 to 1945. The Japanese used a military dictator ruling style and got rid of any opposition from the local people. The people of Korea had no backup and could not express their feelings or voice their opinions as to how they wanted Korea to be run, or how their lives could be transformed from impoverished to better standards of living. This probably happened because Political and social groups were banned. The Japanese, in 1930, formed a basic structure, in the decade that followed national industrial planning was implemented through the political economy. This meant that planning could be extended to Japan in order to give major industries in Japan a chance to bring in their corporations into Japan through direct investment. State policies were formed by the Japanese, in order to regulate and control the market from the use of foreign technology. This was achieved through a licensing system which would control market entry. The new state policies also introduced big banks and large companies owned by the Japanese, towards the end of the 1930s there were four major industries responsible for the occupation of the majority of the Korean population. These companies were Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and Yasuda, they dominated the Japanese economy more than any other industries. These industries belonged and originated in Japan, but because Korea and Japan were so close to each other Geographically, and Japan had direct control of Korea, it meant Japan could easily expand their economic activities into Korea and integrate them into the Japanese markets. This the Japanese managed to achieve through investments in railroad, ports, communications and massive industrialization in Korea. Because the growth of the Korean economy was pushed by the colonial state and the economic activities were undertaken by a few major Japanese corporations, the Japaneses industrialization of Korea did very little to give the Korean businessmen some sort of power or leaderships in some of the industries or politics. In terms of politics, Koreas economy might have been occupied by the Japanese, but from the time Korea was declared a colonized state, there were underground movements which planned to help Korea regain its dignity and independence. These groups consisted of former Korean politicians who were in exile and had affiliations with the Soviet Union, USA and China. The group affiliated with the USA was run by a man called Syngman Rhee, he fled to the USA with the hopes of making friends with politicians from the state and gaining their support for Koreas independence. Another group which was in China, was one led by Pak Hon-Yong which was a communist movement. Finally there was the group ruled by Kim II Sung, this group was a anti-Japanese Guerilla communist group Kim would later become the long standing ruler of North Korea. There was little influence or success in their attempts to gain the independence of Korea by these groups. But one group which proved to have greater influence later, would be the group run by Kim Koo, right after the split with Rhee due to disputes and disagreements. This group was the anti- Japanese Guerilla, it formed close links with the Japanese Nationalists. Koo became president of the organization in 1931, with the support of the of one of its branches which were in Hawai and USA. Rhee who was in the US at the time had tried several times to influence the US group but failed. By 1940, the Provisional Korean exile government, based in China which was set on fighting for Korean independence, it managed to influence the Chinese government and was given the chance to form a general staff for strategic planning against Japanese colonialism. This would lead to the famous Pacific Korean war, where the Chinese and Koreans would fight side to side against Japan in Manchuria and China. Korea would invade Manchuria and declare war on Japan, which would take two and a half years before the Koreans could finally win with the support of the US and USSR During the duration of the war, Rhee became president of the provisional Government, in which nine Korean organizations supported by 10 000 Koreans backed the government. They set up a meeting in Washington and formed allies with the USA in order to determine how they would help the US defence on strategies of attack on Japan. What Rhee was mainly concerned about was the future of Korea after the war, how would it be run and under what economic policies would it be run? In 1942, during the talks of the future of Korea with the Allies, Rhees conditions were not met and the meeting was unsuccessful. In 1943 at the Cairo conference, Churchill, Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek resolved the issue stating that Korea would be declared an independent and free state. The war continued and as it progressed a trust agreement was signed by the USA and the USSR, stating that they would help Korea get back on its feet economically and politically. The USSR declared war on Japan in 1945, while the USA who had declared war on Japan earlier had now occupied the South of Korea by sending their troops to the South of Korea. The USSR would now send its troops to the North of Korea as the treaty of Cairo stated. This signaled the birth of what would become two separate worlds in Korea, the Division between North and South. The South would prosper tremendously due to its Global economic policies and affiliations and friendships with the allied powers that supported capitalism. The north on the other hand, would suffer due to their strict policies of Nationalization, independence and the support of a communist system as a way towards economic transformation. New Era, Korea Gains Back Independence By December 1945, a provisional government was set up by a joint group of allies; USA, United Kingdom and Chine. But the provisional government have to always consult with the allied powers who would have the task of being in charge of Korea for a period of five years. But right-wing parties of Korea were against the five year deal, as they did not want Russia making any decisions, as they believed it had ulterior motives towards Korea. Therefore they organized the anti-trusteeship organization. In the meantime, a more democratic committee was set up in the Southern part of Korea, it had Rhee as its permanent chairman. The USA established an assembly where elections would take place, but half of the assembly could be appointed and the other half could be voted for. Right wing groups of Korea saw it as the development of a Southern independent Korea and started to set up a separate state. Soon several elections took place, with those favouring democracy being in opposition with those who believed in Communism. The Battle between USA/ South and USSR/north would ensue within Korea. By 1948, the Dispute was resolved, where the United Nations Temporary Commission in Seoul gave the Koreans a chance to vote in the South, as the Soviets refused them occupation in the North of Korea. South Korea became declared as an independent state by 1948, but it was called the republic of Korea instead. The USA then withdrew its troops from the South in order to avoid further conflict and to prove that it was not intending on occupying South Korea. The new government under the rulership of Rhee had become an ally of America, and the best years of South Korea were to come. But in the beginning of the Souths rulership, it had lost its supply of hydro-power, and coal from the North. At the same time its population was increasing at a high rate, south Korea experienced a major shortage of food and housing, unemployment became rife in the state. After the USA and USSR withdrew their troops, the North declared war on the South through its communist leader Kim II Sung, but the USA sent troops in defence of South Korea. The war continued for several with Chinese, UN, Japan, Soviet Union and the USA involved. By 1953 the war ended and South Korea like North Korea were to reconstruct its state economically. In 1961, Park Chung Hee became the new leader of the South Korea and he intended to strengthen South Koreas relations with the USA and mainly other states which were capitalist states. A lot of attention would be put on the economic growth of South Korea. First Five-Year Plan By 1962, South Korea Introduced its first five-year plan in order to recover economically. South Korea approached Japan as a second major capital investor after the US in 1963 and Japan finally signed the agreement in 1965. Through these economic moves, South Korea would begin to prosper in terms of economic growth. The Korean economy was destroyed by the war. After the Korean War reconstruction was given support by huge amounts of foreign Capital from, in the North from Communist countries such as Russia, China and East Germany and in the South mainly from the United States and serious government economic development programs. The greatest industrial improvements were made during the 1960s. North Korea made progress in industrial growth while South Korea concentrated on feeding its people. When Park came into power there were certain obstacles he was faced with in reconstructing South Korea, his initial five-year plan started off at a very slow place for developing the economy, as he was to focused on social policy first before moving towards economic policies. From Parks economic policy changes in 1964, South Korea would now start to go through three different Democratic rulerships, each with their own plans of action towards economic transformation. Parks government, of 1963-1973 focused on a sort of limited democracy that wanted to restrict democracy to a certain extent. Park wanted to follow Japans idea of a military leadership, which had initially created a lot economic progress in Japan. Second Five-Year Plan In 1964 with the attempt at the five-year plan for the second time, Park now shifted his economic plans more to industrial growth instead of a focus on food self-sufficiency. The goals of the plan was to increase energy production, grain production and create a demand for exports. Korea had started to have a growth rate of 8.5 percent in GDP and the growth of the industry sector had been the major contributing factor to the sudden growth of the South Korea economy. Even though South Korea started to develop, it was mostly due to Americas contribution towards its economy. From the 1960s, Korea benefited from great relations with the United States. The relationship between the USA and South Korea was created because American policy-makers, saw South Korea as an important platform to confront the Soviet Union during the Cold war. American interests in South Korea allowed it to enjoy economic benefits in terms of aid, trade, capital, and technology from the U.S. It is said that South Kor ea could not have survived its economic prosperity if it wasnt for Americas assistance in the 1950s and Korean access to its export markets since the mid-1960s. America though, was not happy with Parks economic reforms in the first half of the 1960s because he had focused on agriculture in his early rulership. The United States had threatened to withdraw its financial aid to South Korea, because it was not gaining well enough due to Parks economic transformations in the early 1960s. America also had its own economic problems and couldnt handle having to back up a slow growing economy which did not follow a clear system of liberalized market and limited democracy. But the USA wasnt going to withdraw its aid that easily because, it feared that with South Koreas deficit spending due to its economic strategies, South Korea would experience a foreign debt crisis and its economy would collapse. Not prepared to let this happen, the US government started to put pressure on South Korea to start focusing on industrialization instead of agriculture and social policy. This the American government believed had to be implemented as South Korea could increase its exports and therefore lessen its foreign debt. America then put pressure on South Korea to strengthen its ties with Japan, because Japan could now become an investor in the South Korean labor raw material market. Therefore Japan would be able to provide aid and a market for exports in South Korea which could be very beneficial to the growth of its economy. The United States then began to issue more funds into the South Korean economy, US finance in South Korea paid for over 70 percent of imports, this gave the USA power to control the South Korean Government as the US expenditure on South Koreans obviously came with major conditions. As the result by 1964, the South Korean Government went into serious deals with the USA, an d the conditions meant that South Korea would follow USA orders. Over the next years after 1964 the Koreans would follow the US orders by stabilizing prices, creating more trade relations with other western countries, raising interest rates, devaluing the currency, taking down import barriers and increasing export incentives. This direction followed by South Korea would later be very beneficial to the countrys economic wealth, as it would influence rapid economic growth in space of just 30 years. Third Five-Year Plan The third five-year plan was to be introduced by Park from 1972-1976, this was and important era as South Korea aimed at job creation, and mainly the need to focus on rural development and creation of rural labour and revitalization. A very important factor by which Park did not adhere to during this time was the American conditions, which stated to him that he had to loosen the economy for open trade and rather focus on gaining economic wealth for the country. Instead, Park took his own measures would prove very successful before the fourth five-year plan. The government partly took control of over banks and controlled investment. During this period, the government imposed price controls, this they wanted to implement for a short period aimed controlling certain inequalities in industries where high profits were being made by foreign investors. These price controls were aimed at reducing inflation, but they were not imposed on all industries but a select major ones, which contributed highly to the economic wealth and the ones which were monopolistic in their markets. There were other areas in the economy were restructuring and mergers took place, where the government intervened during the rapid industrialization period which was to follow. The reason Park introduced this policy of government intervention was because by 1972, South Koreas economy had produced a high amount of industrial wealth, of which most of it lay in the hands of a select few owners and political leaders. This created an imbalance in the economic equilibrium of South Korea. At the same time, South Korea needed to solve its debts. Fourth Five-Year Plan The next step to be followed by Park would be very economic orientated, the Fourth Five-year plan. This plan was implemented from 1977-1981 more or less, it was regarded as the big push era of South Korea. Park now focused on heavy industrial policy by shifting towards electronics, machinery and shipbuilding to name a few. With this policy, Park wanted very minimal foreign borrowing of capital as his aim was to decrease the amount of debt South Korea was faced with. This five year plan would turn out to be a sort of disaster, caused by the oil crisis. Therefore the targets of this plan wouldnt be achieved to their full potential. At this point the South Korean Chemical industry boosted economic growth and was the major industry which contained the most foreign investment. South Korea had collaborated with Dow Chemicals from the USA, which was South Koreas largest business partner in industry sector, the problem now, was that Dow Chemicals was charged by the South Korean government for fixing its prices through its South Korean partner, this was aimed at creating profits which Dow chemicals used to transfer to its other plants out of South Korea. This led to the South Korean partner objecting to this plan, and the Government being in support of the South Korean partner intervened. Dow then decided to pull out of the joint business venture. This became a major knock to the states economic stability. South Korea during this period had also built a major Shipyard, probably one of the worlds largest, the problem although was that, in building the shipyard, South Korea had to export most of its expertise, machinery, engines and tools from Japan. This created an imbalance of payments for South Korea and increased her debts highly. Another major threat to the countrys growth was the oil boom of the Middle East, South Korea striked a deal with the Middle East to start a huge construction programme in the Middle East region. South Korea then sent an estimated 293 000 male workers to the Middle East region between 1977-1979 for construction. This number was equal to over half of the South Korean manufacturing labour force. It became a problem because wages went higher in the manufacturing sector of South Korea but production became slower because of the shortage of workers in the industries. While this happened, a lot of smaller companies were not making real profits, at the same time the state was spending highly on Industries for growth. Only the major foreign companies were profiting highly, causing the economy of South Korea to become unstable and unbalanced. This meant that industries could not meet the targets of the South Korean export sector, at the same time the lighter smaller manufacturing companies competition internationally. South Korea had become a country which imported a lot, which disadvantaged the economy during the rapid industrialization era. Technology and Capital goods had to be imported, causing South Korea to put itself in a position of overspending and having to borrow foreign Capital in order to increase growth. By 1979 it was clear that government growth could no longer benefit the economy, Park had devised a plan to solve the debt problem by lessening imports and increasing exports in the smaller manufacturing industries which proved to be the major hub of the economy when they were combined. This caused further inflation, pushing the country into a recession GNP fell by 6.5 percent in 1980. This was the first year of very poor growth since the Korean War, by the end of 1980 South Koreas debt increased at a very rapid rate from around $20 million to about $40 million in1983. Park died in 1979, while he was a dictatorial leader, but to many South Koreans it was seen as new era that would open doors to a more Democratic state, being able to improve the economic conditions of South Korea. Unfortunately it was not the case, another military dictatorship occurred, this time by Chu Doo Hwan, this led to major strikes in the labour force which wanted better working conditions and better wages. The workers had been promised by their labour unions that after Parks fall, things would turn out for the better and the workers would be able to get better working conditions and wages. And an end to military dictatorships would occur, which was seen as having a negative effect on the economy and lives of the working class. Strikes continued for the whole of 1980. Years Of Prosperity Through Exploitation By August 1980 Chun retired from military and announced that he would become a candidate for national presidency position. Chun came into power after the internal election and formed the Democratic Justice Party. But this was just a front, he immediately after coming into power exercised his military dictatorships in order to stop protests. Brutal force and arrests were made on protestors and a new law which destroyed worker unions was implemented. This was done by Chun, so worker exploitation could occur, but this would be to the much benefit of the South Korean economy. In doing this, wages would be at minimal but production would increase. By creating forced labour conditions were wages fell and productivity increased, became part of Chuns plan to improve the economy. The results were tremendously high, putting South Korea in the competitive Global arena as one of the leading export markets through its short term strategy of exploitative labour in the industries. By 1983 the econo my was ready for expansion. The US supported this direction and became a major technological contributor towards South Korea, with Japan also being a major financial contributor. Conclusion In less than twenty years after the Korean war tore apart the South Korean economy, economic stability became the major all South Korean leaders focused on. South Korea turned out from one of the worlds poorest nations to one of the richest in a short space of time. This it achieved through trial and error, and a open market, liberalized economy towards the rest of the world for investment and exploitation of its labour force. It became an Industrial hub of the world towards the end of the twentieth century. The rapid industrialization, as many would argue wouldnt have happened if the USA and Japan had not given financial support and guidance towards its economy. And most importantly, the rapid economic growth took place at the expense of the South Korean Peoples labour and hard work. Bibliography: M.S. Alam, Governments and Market Economic Development Strategies: Lessons from Korea, Taiwan and Japan (New York,1989) A . Amsden, Asias Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization (New York, 1989). B. Cumings, The Origins and Development of the North Eastern Political Economy, International Organisation 38, 1 (1984), pp.1-40. H. Landsberg, The Rush to Development: Economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea (New York, 1993) D.S. Lewis, Korea: Enduring Division? (United Kingdom, 1988) W.D. Reeve, The Republic of Korea: A political and Economic Study (London, 1963) J.B. Rosser, M.V. Rosser, Comparative Economics in a Transforming World Economy(USA, 2004) M. Tcha, C.S Suh, The Korean Economy at the Crossroads (London, 2003) M.H Landsberg, The Rush To Development: economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea p98-103 J.B Rosser M.V Rosser, Comparative Economics In a Transforming World Economy p 546-547 M.H Landsberg, The Rush To Development: economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea p104-105 W.D Reeve, The Republic of Korea: A Political and Economic Study p 19-20 M.H Landsberg, The Rush To Development: economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea p 106-107 M.H Landsberg, The Rush To Development: economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea p.109 D. Lewis, Korea:enduring division? P. 7 W.D Reeve, The Republic of Korea: A Political and Economic Study p22-23 W.D Reeve, The Republic of Korea: A Political and Economic Study p.23 W.D Reeve, The Republic of Korea: A Political and Economic Study p. 24 D. Lewis, Korea:enduring division? P. 31-33 M.S Alam, Governments and Markets in economic Development Strategies: lessons from Korea, Taiwan and Japan p.24-25 B.Cummings, The Origins and Development of the North east Asian Political Economy. International Organization p.34-36 M.S Alam, Governments and Markets in economic Development Strategies: lessons from Korea, Taiwan and Japan p. 29-30 J.B Rosser M.V Rosser, Comparative Economics In a Transforming World Economyp.558-561 M. Tcha C.S Suh, The Korean Economy at the Crossroads p.3-4 A. Amsden, Asias next Giant: South Korea and late Industrialization p. M.H Landsberg, The Rush To Development: economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea p.214-222

Children’s Literature Essay

It is hard to imagine a world without books for children. Ever since there were children, there has been children’s literature too. There have been children’s stories and folk-tales when man first learned to speak. Children’s books, however, are a late growth of literature. Miss Yonge says, â€Å"Up to the Georgian era there were no books at all for children or the poor, excepting the class-books containing old ballads and short tales†. We shall nevertheless see that there were English books for children long before this time. In western Europe, there was no separate category of books for children before the eighteenth century. The Bible, stories of saints and martyrs, and bestiaries or books about exotic animals, were probably the first printed books available to children. Childhood, as we think about it today, is a relatively new concept. Until the 17thcentury, children were thought of as small versions of adults and treated accordingly. In most societies, children were a source of labor. There were some books (mostly for the children of wealthy families) even before the invention of movable type by Gutenberg in 1455, but they were instructional in nature and were used to instill lessons of morality, manners, and religion.. With the rise of Puritanism in England early in the seventeenth century, literature for children became moralistic. Seeing children as amoral savages needing to be taught right, society used stories filled with death and damnation to frighten children into good behavior. Humor and imagination were banned. The Sunday School Movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which aimed at bringing religion to the working class, continued the didactic tone in the thousands of cheap tracts of simple stories distributed throughout England and the United States. Over the next centuries, there was a gradual shift in attitude toward children which was reflected in the reading material produced for them. Hornbooks and chapbooks appeared, still designed to instruct, but some included woodcut illustrations in addition to ABCs and religious lessons. The most famous and prolific publisher for children of the 18th century was John Newbery. He published books which were immediately attractive to children: in a small format, with illustrations, and bound in brightly-coloured flowered paper. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Robin Hood, Mother Goose tales, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver’s Travels were published and were the most attractive to the world of a child’s imagination. † A Visit from St. Nicholas† by Clement C. Moore was published in 1823 and was one of the first works to introduce humor and laughter into the world of children’s literature. The Victorian era was a golden age for childrens’ books. Victorian family life is realistically depicted in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868), whereas Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1880) emphasize adventure; all three books present fully developed characters. At the turn of the century several children’s magazines were being published, the most important being the St. Nicholas Magazine (1887–1943). It was also the time of classic books , such as Alice in Wonderland, and great illustrators– Kate Greenaway, Edward Lear, and Howard Pyle to mention a few. In the middle of the 19th century, there were major changes in illustrations of books. Until then, wood engraving was the norm; with the development of chromolithography, which permitted printing in many colors, the world of book illustration changed dramatically. Great writers teamed with great illustrators to produce the books. The industrial revolution led to advances in printing which made books colorful, affordable, and plentiful. The growing middle class, with its increased interest in education, expanded the audience for children’s books. Walter Crane, whose work is highlighted in this exhibit, was a British artist and one of the first people to use the new printing techniques to bring color and design techniques into the world of children’s literature. The twentieth century continued a publishing industry for young people with adventure stories, series books like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, science fiction and fantasy. During the 20th cent. in particular, new collections of tales that reach back to the oral roots of literature have come from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. International folktales have also received increasing attention. Among the many authors pursuing these themes, Verna Aardema compiles African folktales and Yoko Kawashima Watkins studies Asian oral traditions. During the 1980s and 90s in particular, multicultural concerns became an important aspect of the new realistic tradition in children’s literature. From the 1960s through the 90s â€Å"socially relevant† children’s books have appeared, treating subjects like death, drugs, sex, urban crisis, discrimination, the environment, and women’s liberation. Recent years have brought books of children related to movies and commercial products from Disney to Star Wars as well as the psychologically-oriented young adult novel. The great scientific and societal changes of the early twentieth century had a great influence on the adventure story. The exploits of the World War I fliers replaced the cowboy and big game hunter in the dreams of young boys. Many of these adventure stories were published in long series, written by different writers all using the same name. The best known was the Stratemeyer Literary Syndicate which produced such series as the Rover Boys, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, and Nancy Drew between 1906 and 1984. Maurice Sendak and Chris Van Allsburg are two important and contemporary children’s book author who publish their stories todays. Bibliographyh Hunt, Peter, (1995), Children’s Literature: An illustrated history, Oxford University Press. Cullingford , Cedric, (1998), Children’s Literature and its Effects, Cassel E. Gavin, Adrienne, (2001), Mystery in Children’s Literature. From the Rational to the Supernatural, Palgrave Publishers Ltd Lerer, Seth, (2008), Children’s Literature: A Readers’ History from Aesop to Harry Potter, University of Chicago Press. Lynch-brown, Carol, (2010), Essentials of children’s literature, Pearson O’Malley, Andrew, (2003), The Making of the Modern Child: Children’s Literature in the Late Eighteenth Century F. Touponce, William, Children’s Literature and the Pleasures of the Text, From: Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Volume 20, Number 4, Winter 1995, pp. 175-182

John Paul Vann

John Paul Vann is the central character of Sheehan's book, the character around whom the whole Vietnam War seems to turn. Fearless, misguided, Vann appears to stand for America itself. American ambassador and commanding general were informing the Kennedy administration that everything was going well and that the victory was theirs. Vann saw Vietnam War otherwise. In the end Vann was killed when his helicopter crashed and burned in rain and fog in the mountains of Vietnam's Central Highlands, leaving behind a most extraordinary legend.He succeeded in imposing himself as the real commander of a whole region in Vietnam, and the Pentagon, in an unprecedented move, gave him authority over all U. S. military forces in his area. He commanded as many troops as a major general. Vann never hesitated to use whatever level of force was necessary to achieve his ends, but considered it morally wrong and stupid to wreak violence on the innocent (another reason for his popularity with the anti-war p eople). The influence he wielded both within the U. S.civil-military bureaucracy and the Saigon government made him, by general agreement, the most important American in Vietnam after our ambassador and commanding general, a position recognized at his Arlington funeral, attended by the entire Washington military establishment. Neil Sheehan's book is now popular with both critics and public, and Hollywood would even think of making a film portraying an American military hero from the Vietnam War with such sympathy. DEVELOPMENT OF THEME Both John Paul Vann and Neil Sheehan went to Vietnam in the early 1960s, Vann as a military advisor, Sheehan as a reporter for United Press International (UPI).As the months passed, Vann’s disillusionment with the war’s progress eventually led him to share his frustrations with Sheehan and other reporters, and the advisor became one of the correspondents’ most valuable sources of information on the true dynamics of the situation ou t in the countryside. In the mid-1960s Sheehan left Vietnam for assignments in the United States, but Vann remained and, after assuming a civilian position, rose to become one of the most powerful Americans in the country.In 1972, a short time after Vann’s death in a helicopter crash, Sheehan began work on a biography of the soldier. Sixteen long years later, the book was finally published to a chorus of critical praise. John Paul Vann went to Vietnam in March 1962 at age thirty-seven. A lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Army, he served as senior advisor to the South Vietnamese Army’s 7th Infantry Division, which was headquartered at My Tho in the Mekong Delta south of Saigon. An intelligent, fearless man possessed of terrific stamina and a deeply held belief in the legitimacy of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Vann was an ideal advisor in many respects. Sheehan wrote in A Bright Shining Lie that the military man’s character and education had ‘‘combined t o produce a mind that could be totally possessed by the immediate task and at the same time sufficiently detached to discern the root elements of the problem. He manifested the faith and the optimism of post–World War II America that any challenge could be overcome by will and by the disciplined application of intellect, technology, money, and, when necessary, armed force. (134)’’But as the months passed and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops that he was advising continued to flounder, Vann’s frustration grew. South Vietnamese commanders proved reluctant to commit troops to confrontations because of political concerns back in Saigon and their own instinct for self-preservation, and the rosy forecasts of American policymakers troubled him as well. Moreover, Vann felt that both the South Vietnamese government and U. S. officials did not appreciate the significance of the social problems plaguing the country, and he argued that U. S.bombing po licies and the Strategic Hamlets program (in which peasants were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in group encampments) were eroding already tenuous support for the Diem regime out in the countryside. By the end of his first year in Vietnam, wrote Sheehan, ‘‘Vann saw that the war was being lost. The ambassador and the commanding general in South Vietnam were telling the Kennedy administration that everything was going well and that the war was being won. Vann believed then and never ceased to believe that the war could be won if it was fought with sound tactics and strategy† (102).Sheehan and the other members of the Saigon press corps bucked attempts by U. S. and Vietnamese officials to spoon-feed the media information on the war’s progress, and relations between the camps quickly deteriorated. Within a matter of months, however, the adventurous UPI reporter had developed an effective network of independent sources and established a productive p artnership with David Halberstam of the New York Times. One of the correspondents’ best sources in the U. S. military was John Paul Vann.Writing in A Bright Shining Lie, Sheehan described the relationship between Vann and the reporters in similar terms: ‘‘Vann taught us the most, and one can truly say that without him our reporting would not have been the same†¦. He gave us an expertise we lacked, a certitude that brought a qualitative change in what we wrote. He enabled us to attack the official optimism with gradual but steadily increasing detail and thoroughness’’ (254). Sheehan noted that he and most of the other correspondents initially supported America’s presence in Vietnam.‘‘We believed in what our government said it was trying to accomplish in Vietnam, and we wanted our country to win this war just as passionately as Vann and his captains did,’’ (211) Sheehan said. But the reports of Vann and other sourc es, coupled with their own firsthand observations out in the field, convinced the press corps that the U. S. prosecution of the war was fundamentally flawed. While attending the funeral for John Paul Vann in 1972, Sheehan was struck by the stature of those in attendance (from General William Westmoreland, who served as a pallbearer, to Ellsberg, who had been one of Vann’s closest friends).Upon returning home, Sheehan secured a two-year leave of absence from the New York Times, along with a contract from a publisher, and began work on a biography of Vann. The writer felt that by studying Vann’s life, he would also be able to examine America’s role in Vietnam. As he wrote in A Bright Shining Lie, ‘‘The intensity and distinctiveness of his character and the courage and drama of his life had seemed to sum up so many of the qualities Americans admired in themselves as a people. By an obsession, by an unyielding dedication to the war, he had come to person ify the American endeavor in Vietnam.He had exemplified it in his illusions, in his good intentions gone awry, in his pride, in his will to win† (325). As the 1970s blurred into the early 1980s, Sheehan’s obsession with Vann’s story grew. Month after month passed by as the writer tried to reconcile Vann’s dark secrets (a troubled childhood, a sexual appetite that doomed his army career) with the honorable soldier he had known in the Mekong Delta. And over it all lay the shadow of the war itself, the contradictions of which Sheehan continued to see encapsulated in Vann. Sheehan fell into a reclusive routine in which his waking hours were dominated by the book.In August 1986 Sheehan finally completed the manuscript for A Bright Shining Lie. Over the course of the next year, the author pared the book down to 360,000 words, still a massive work. In 1988—sixteen years after Sheehan began work on the Vann biography—A Bright Shining Lie was finally published. Paralyzed by our own Newtonian paradigm, we defeated ourselves by persistently viewing the Vietcong as being different from us in degree, when in fact they were different in kind. Underestimating them as being different only in degree, the U. S.military often contemptuously referred to them as â€Å"those raggedy-assed little bastards† (205). To Americans, the Vietcong simply had less technology to fight with; but the Vietcong knew they had a different kind of technology – the land, and they used it to great advantage against U. S. technology. In his A Bright Shining Lie, Sheehan relates a story that perfectly expresses how the Vietcong used nature in concert with their kind of technology. A Captain James Drummond is told by a prisoner that â€Å"the most important Vietcong training camp in the northern Delta is located in clumps of woods above a hamlet.When he gets there, Drummond finds . . . four thatched-hut classrooms furnished with blackboards under th e trees . . . † (88). The very idea that â€Å"blackboards under the trees† – a virtual oxymoron in American thinking -could be used to defeat the United States, is, once again, â€Å"unthinkable. † It represents what psychiatrist Charles J. Levy calls â€Å"inverted warfare,† which Gibson explains as â€Å"the sense in which American common sense on how the world operates was reversed or inverted in Vietnam†.A Bright Shining Lie confirms, that the core of the U. S. news operation in Vietnam during the crucial years from 1961 to 1963, came under the influence of a mid-level U. S. Army adviser, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann, who was convinced that he had solved the riddle of how to galvanize what was essentially a fifteenth-century South Vietnamese army into a twentieth-century fighting force: Get rid of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, and have the United States take over the war, in toto.On January 2, 1963, the ARVN 7th Infantry Division, which was under the command of General Huynh Van Cao, carried out orders to destroy a Vietcong radio transmitter located in the hamlet of Tan Thoi in the Mekong Delta. Acting on intelligence that indicated that the transmitter was protected by a force of about one hundred Vietcong in nearby Ap Bac, Vann and his staff settled on a plan of attack that featured his usual precise calculations. ‘‘Vann saw an opportunity to use the ARVN’s advantages in mobility, firepower, and armor to destroy a Viet Cong unit,’’ noted Harry G.Summers, Jr. in the Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War. But instead of wreaking havoc on the guerrillas (whose hit-and-run tactics had frustrated the American advisors over the preceding months), the operation proved disastrous for Cao’s troops. Larger-than-expected Vietcong forces at Ap Bac and Tan Thoi were ready for the attack, having intercepted radio messages concerning the upcoming operation. When the raidâ⠂¬â„¢s first helicopters arrived, they were met with withering ground fire, and three of the H-21 helicopters and one Huey (UH-1) gunship were promptly downed.The first few minutes of the battle set the pattern for the rest of the clash. As the hours dragged by, ARVN forces committed a series of strategic blunders—some over the objections of Vann and his staff—that served to further deteriorate their position. Finally, Vann felt that Cao’s forces showed little appetite for battle, a factor that further contributed to the debacle. By the next morning the Vietcong guerrillas had slipped away, leaving behind eighty ARVN dead and another one hundred wounded. Significantly, three Americans had been killed as well.Later in the morning, Cao ordered a fraudulent air strike on the area, nearly killing Sheehan and two other Americans who were surveying the long-abandoned battlefield. In the battle’s aftermath, U. S. and South Vietnamese officials tried to call the clash at Ap Bac a victory, but Vann and his staff quickly disabused the press corps of any such notions. Enraged by the whole operation, Vann called the ARVN effort ‘‘a miserable damn performance,’’ and even though correspondents who used the quote did not reveal his identity, U. S. officials familiar with Vann knew whose voice it was.‘‘As a battle it did not amount to much, but Ap Bac would have profound consequences for the later prosecution of the war,’’ wrote Summers. ‘‘Prior to Ap Bac,’’ Sheehan pointed out, ‘‘the Kennedy administration had succeeded in preventing the American public from being more than vaguely conscious that the country was involved in a war in a place called Vietnam†¦. Ap Bac was putting Vietnam on the front pages and on the television evening news shows with a drama that no other event had yet achieved’’ (421). Vann retired from the army several mont hs later.When those who knew him learned of his departure, many assumed that he had selflessly sacrificed his military career so that he could comment on the war with greater freedom, and his reputation was further enhanced. His admirers were unaware that Vann’s myriad sexual indiscretions (including a valid statutory rape charge that he ultimately beat) had permanently scarred his record, effectively limiting his advancement anyway. In 1965 Vann returned to Vietnam as a civilian, serving as a provincial pacification representative for AID (the Agency for International Development).As American involvement in the war expanded, Vann’s authority increased, even though he continued to be an outspoken critic of some aspects of the war’s prosecution. ‘‘His leadership qualities and his dedication to the war had assisted his promotion, as had a realization by those in power in Saigon and Washington that his dissent over tactics or strategy was always meant t o further the war effort, not hinder it,’’ wrote Sheehan (436). In May 1971 Vann was promoted to an advisory position that gave him authority over all U. S. military forces in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and adjacent provinces along the central coastline.The unprecedented arrangement gave Vann more power than he could have ever wielded had he stayed in the army. By this point, some people who knew Vann felt that the years of involvement in the war had changed the man, and not for the better. They noted that Vann had adopted a much more lenient philosophy about appropriate methodologies for winning the bitter war. Those who recalled his harsh criticisms of bombing strategies earlier in the conflict for the toll that they exacted on civilians found that he had become an enthusiastic proponent of intensive bombing campaigns.Sheehan wrote about an exchange between Vann and Washington Post reporter Larry Stern that dramatically reflected Vann’s change of heart : ‘‘Anytime the wind is blowing from the north where the B-52 strikes are turning the terrain into a moonscape, you can tell from the battlefield stench that the strikes are effective,’’ (365) Vann reportedly told Stern. In March 1972, North Vietnamese forces launched the three-pronged Easter Offensive, a bold effort to overwhelm South Vietnam by attacks on three strategic regions.All three thrusts were ultimately turned back, however, as the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) was handed a major setback. Vann was widely credited with being a key figure in the defense of An Loc, a site seventy-five miles north of Saigon that had been one of the NVA’s primary targets in the offensive. In June of that year, however, Vann was killed in an air crash when his helicopter, flying low over an otherwise treeless valley at night, hit a small group of trees standing over a primitive Montagnard cemetery (Montagnards are aboriginal tribespeople who make their homes in so me of Vietnam’s more mountainous areas).EVALUATION OF THE THEME AND BOOK PRESENTATION As the months passed, and disastrous events such as the Ap Bac debacle and the Buddhist uprising erupted, Sheehan emerged as one of the war’s finest—and most controversial—correspondents. He did so despite struggling with an almost paralyzing certainty that death would claim him when he went out into the field. When he first arrived in Vietnam, Sheehan had been exhilarated by violent, dangerous excursions out in the countryside, but the events at Ap Bac changed his attitude in dramatic fashion.While surveying the scene of the battle, Sheehan and two others (reporter Nick Turner and Brigadier General Robert York) had nearly been blown apart by General Cao’s fraudulent attack against the abandoned Vietcong positions in the area. In June 1964 Sheehan left UPI for the New York Times. A year later he returned to Saigon, where he stayed until 1966, when he was transferr ed to Washington, D. C. That same year he wrote an article, ‘‘Not a Dove, but No Longer a Hawk,’’ that reflected his growing disillusionment with America’s involvement in Vietnam. In the late 1960s he served as the newspaper’s Pentagon and White House correspondent.By 1971 Sheehan had come full circle; he emerged as a critic of the war. In 1971 Ellsberg’s disenchantment with U. S. policies led him to give Sheehan a massive collection of confidential government memorandums and reports on the war that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. To opponents of the war, the records in this archive—commissioned by Defense Secretary McNamara back in 1967, they included reports dating back to the 1940s—provided stark evidence that U. S. involvement in Southeast Asia had too often been characterized by deceit, misjudgments, and bureaucratic arrogance.Sheehan’s massive tome garnered many awards (Pulitzer Prize, National Book A ward for nonfiction, Columbia Journalism Award, Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and others) and laudatory reviews in the months following its publication. Boosted by the recognition, the book became a best-seller. Reviewers were almost unanimous in their praise for Sheehan’s work (the harshest dissent with the critical consensus appeared in the National Review). New York Times Book Review critic Ronald Steel commented that if there is one book that captures the Vietnam War in the sheer Homeric scale of its passion and folly, this book is it.Indeed, reviewers recognized that the book worked in large measure because of its choice of subject matter. Critics felt that, in John Paul Vann, Sheehan had found a larger-than-life figure whose experiences in Vietnam offered valuable insights into the character and nature of American involvement in the conflict. Making more sense of what happened in the conflict than most books, this is a thoughtful, well-made work. References Sheehan, Nei l. (1988). A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Random House.

Essay on Curleys Wife of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

Curley’s wife is the only woman from the novel of mice and men written by John Steinbeck. She is the wife of the boss’s son Curley. She has no friends besides Curley as the live on a ranch with all of the workers who are all men. She tries to speak to men throughout the novel but none of them want anything to do with her. She is lonely and bored because of this. She is a very pretty and young woman, when she is first mentioned in the novel when talking to George and Lennie in the bunk house ‘she had full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up’. Her finger nails were red. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules.’ Although she has a husband she still loves male attention which could be why she wears vibrant colours to be†¦show more content†¦She hasn’t got the best dialect and uses allot of slang for example when she is talking to Lennie in the barn she uses ‘tenement’ instead of tournament. She had a dream of being in the movies, having nice clothes, sitting in big hotels and having pictures taken of her. She believed that she had a chance of fulfilling her dream she says that she met a guy that ‘says I was a natural’ that was going to put her in the movies this shows that she is very naive in believing this but this is probably because she is young and still has al lot to learn. But john Steinbeck also makes her seem the victim at times in the novel for example she showed that she had always been used by men as none of them intended to put her in films. Because of this it leaves her bitter in her marriage knowing that being in films was once on offer for her because she was trapped with no contact with the outside world of wider opportunities. John Steinbeck also show a nasty and disrespectful side to Curleys wife when she is speaking to crooks George, Lennie and Candy in the barn ‘You bindle bums think you’re so damn good’, talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs, a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep’ this shows that she doesn’t respect her elders and thinks of herself allot better than them. She is very racist towards Crooks and uses the fact that she is a young woman against him ‘well you keep your trap shut then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy itShow MoreRelatedEnglish Essay- Explore the Ways in Which John Steinbeck Presents Power in the Fight Scene.884 Words   |  4 PagesOf mice and men English essay- Explore the ways in which John Steinbeck presents power in the fight scene. The 1930’s was hard time for most people who lost their money in the Wall Street crash. John Steinbeck tries to portray how tough life was back then in his novel mice and men. 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Lennie Small is a simple-minded, slow moving, shapeless hulk with pale eyes whose enormous physical strength often causesRead MoreOF MICE AND MEN1721 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿In the book Of Mice and Men, the single women that appeared in the book resented herself as an object. The statement Women today are more often treated by men as equals rather than objects can be true or false. A man that goes to Gentleman s Cubs every night is a different man that studies at Harvard Law School. A striper is going to be a different person than a CEO of a successful business. It’s all about how you present yourself. In Of Mice and Men, Curley s wife presents herself in a seductiveRead MoreOf Mice and Men Intolerance Essay842 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿Of Mice And Men : Intolerance Essay Societies that discriminate against the weak are unjust. In the novel Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, many characters are unfairly oppressed. 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