New Errands: The Undergraduate Journal of American Studies
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HalfComic and HalfTragic: Irony in PostWorld War II Literature
Full text linkIn their 1982 January issue, Harper\u27s Magazine published Paul Fussell\u27s essay "My War: How I got irony in the infantry." Fussell served as a lieutenant in the American infantry during World War II and afterwards became an academic, eventually receiving widespread praise and literary awards for his 1975 study, The Great War and Modern Memory, investigating World War I and its force in altering aesthetics. Seven years later, Harper\u27s published "My War," documenting Fussell\u27s own shift in personal aesthetics as a result of his World War II experience. Fussell begins by disclosing a few responses from readers repulsed with his depiction of warfare. "Whenever I deliver [an] unhappy view of the war, especially when I try to pass it through a protective screen of irony, I hear from outraged readers" (40). Fussell admits to an emphasis of the "noisome materials" of the war in his treatments, the "corpses, maddened dogs, deserters and looters, pain, Auschwitz, weeping," and the list goes on. By refusing to ignore the cruelty and suffering of the war, and by rendering it ironic, Fussell has been labeled, "callous," his "black and monstrous" work revealing an "overwhelming deficiency in human compassion" (40)
Painting a Picture of Womanhood: Images of Rosie the Riveter
Full text linkWorld War II is often thought of as a revolutionary time for change in the lifestyles of women. Men were duty bound by their country to join the War, and this left a gap in the workforce for the war productions industry. Into this chasm fell women, who were allowed to carry the mantle of male work outside of the house. This marks a significant change in American history, for the first time women had an acceptable and encouraged reason to function outside of the domestic sphere. Women were recruited specifically in the defense industry and were responsible for creating and maintaining essential military goods
Disease Dialogues: How Medical Language Impacted the Lavender Scare
Full text linkDisease is a fickle thing, often it silently slips from person to person, casually stalking just below the radar and calculating the next victim. Before long an epidemic is on hand and containment becomes the primary focus. A silent, paralyzing fear of illness is an arguable hallmark of the Cold War period. In this era, dialogues on disease and infection permeate every facet, from social developments, to cultural artifacts, to medical research, and most notably to politics. In this era, the prevalence of medical vernacular and disease dialogues became ever present in political discourse, as leaders from Roosevelt to Eisenhower discussed the threat of "ailments" that could cripple the United States. But in the 1950s, a new threat so great, yet so undetectable, threatened to infect the healthy body politic. Political discourse filled with dread over the development of Communist States and the threat to the United States\u27 vitality. As the dialogue developed, an association between communism and disease formed in the early stages in of the Cold War. This view held that the American capitalist system was a healthy body being threatened by the "communist disease." The United States was understood to be under attack by the nefarious disease of communism. Keeping within a medical framework, the immune system of the United States needed to be secured, through identification of threats, shoring up protection, and keeping vital functions safe. Therefore, the alignment of medical and political dialogue in the early part of the century arguably laid the framework for the Lavender Scare, which acted as a treatment to protect the United States against the new threat of communism. Disease Dialogues: How Medical Language Impacted the Lavender Scare by David James Ward Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licens
American Women in World War Two: The Impact of Rationing and Shortages on Eating and Food Procurement
Full text linkThe American household of the 1930\u27s and 1940\u27s was much more centered around meals than the households of today. The cultural expectation was that the table would be set with dishes, cutlery, napkins, centerpieces, and a table cloth at every meal. Working men and schoolchildren would typically come home for lunch. It was the expectation that wives would provide three meals a day, each consisting of multiple courses and at least dinner would include a dessert. The wife was expected to make these meals pleasing for her husband, filling for all, and nutritionally balanced. The woman of the house also did the budgeting, meal planning, and shopping. With the United States\u27 entry into World War Two following the attack on Pearl Harbor, there was a stark increase in the obstacles to achieving this standard, though the expectations remained the same. Faced with limited time, a constantly changing rationing system, and wide-ranging shortages and scarcities, American shopping, cooking, and eating adapted to fit wartime needs. American Women in World War Two: The Impact of Rationing and Shortages on Eating and Food Procurement by Alicia Depler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licens
The United States vs. Big Soda: The Taste of Change
Full text linkRobert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist who specializes in childhood obesity once said, "Sugar is celebratory. Sugar is something that we used to enjoy. It is evident that now, it basically has coated our tongues. It\u27s turned into a diet staple, and it\u27s killing us."1 In the past decade the prevalence of sugar in American processed food and diet has become a growing domestic concern. It is evident that now more than ever, sugar has found its way into almost every food and drink consumed by Americans, "The United States leads the world in consumption of sweeteners and is number 3 in the world in consuming sugary drinks."2 Sugar alters the original taste of food and drink- it disguises itself using different names embedded in products such as high fructose corn syrup, maltose, and cane crystals in addition to artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, Neotame, and Sucralose.3 The media has focused attention on this topic as the health effects of sugar consumption have become more apparent. Sugar has become the target in recent legislation measures nationwide. Taxing sugar related beverages is now legal in large United States cities such as Philadelphia (PA) and Berkeley (CA). These taxes are intended to turn Americans off from sugary beverages in order to help reduce obesity, diabetes, rotten teeth, and other health related conditions that result from an influx in sugar consumption. Further research into this topic shows that the soda tax remains a controversial topic nationwide. The paper will focus on how the creation and implementation of a soda tax differs from the west and east coast based on the desired use for the revenue. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licens
Lochner v. New York
Full text linkThe Gilded Age in America was the best of times, it was the worst of times—truly a tale of two cities. One bore the fruits and architectural wonders of the industrial revolution, with sprouting skyscrapers and the elite air of America\u27s first billionaires. The other bore much different fruits: those of industrialization— squalor, urban sprawl, and abhorrent labor conditions justifed by liberty of contract. Notions of freedom and equality so hard-fought in the preceding decades and established by the 14th amendment were now out of date, manipulated to encompass antiquated defnitions of economic autonomy and succumbing to the greed of the wealthy industrial class and its permeating ideals of Social Darwinism. Politics were not immune to the influence of America\u27s new bourgeoisie class, often coalescing to form earmark legislation beneficial only to a handful of formidable businessmen and their puppet politicians. Given the political and economic environments, liberty of contract\u27s landmark ruling was based on little to no legitimate constitutional basis. Therefore, the ruling in Lochner v. New York arose in congruence with a financially guided Supreme Court that misconstrued the aim of the 14th amendment. The justices\u27 involvement with political machines and their far-reaching interpretation of the "due process" clause consequently relegated wage laborers as the new American slave power. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licens
Fantasy Football: Is It All Touchdowns and Victories?
Full text linkFantasy sports is an interactive, teammanagement activity played by millions all over the world. One of the most well-known fantasy sports there is to play is fantasy football. Currently played by millions of people each year by all age groups, fantasy football provides an opportunity for friends, families, and coworkers to make their football Sundays more interesting. The scoring system is based on statistics accumulated by athletes of real-life professional sport organizations. The end of August marks the start of the fantasy football season. After league members get together to draft their respective teams, participants set their rosters for the week and watch the week\u27s NFL games as their fantasy team accrues points. Fantasy football is a bonding activity for friends. Thus, fantasy football has psychological and social implications that are worth exploring. The social implications have the ability to affect the people who play together in their respective leagues, which at times is cut-throat and highly competitive. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licens
Lost Voices in America
Full text linkA felony is defined as the most severe type of crime within society and punishment can range from a year or more in prison to a death sentence.1 Felony disenfranchisement is “the removal of the right to vote following a felony conviction.”2 Thus, in states that have felony disenfranchisement laws, when an individual has been convicted of a felony and sent to prison they are not able to vote whilst serving their time. In some states, this may even extend to individuals who have been released from prison but remain on probation or parole. Ironically, despite the historical progress pertaining to suffrage, felons and ex-felons continue to be stripped of their right to vote through felon disenfranchisement laws. Embedded in this discussion is the historical tension that has existed between races that motivated the disenfranchisement of felons and ex-felons.3 This tension helps to articulate the narrative that felon disenfranchisement provisions were a tool to decimate the sociopolitical influence of African Americans. Although felon disenfranchisement laws appear race-neutral for African Americans on the surface, this paper will highlight the true historical intentions of the law, the disparities in punishment and disenfranchisement, and the ramifications of the law today
Liminality and the Triple Dream: Streetcar and PostWar Suburbs
Full text linkThe built landscapes that developed across American time and place are among the most significant resources of social history. Dell Upton has referred to architecture as an art of this sort of social storytelling. With Upton in mind, suburbs become a particular landscape of interest because of their place between the city and country, the rich and the poor. As liminal vernacular landscapes, both streetcar and postwar \u27sitcom\u27 suburban developments represent the built manifestations of the desire for homeownership and social wellbeing by the working and middle class of Americ
The Visual Production of Chinese Masculinity in Political Cartoons, Photography, and Laundry
Full text linkThe act of oppressing a group to improve the economic, social, mental, and racial standing of another has remained a constant within United States society. The ways historians and individuals have studied this systematic discrimination, however, have changed and will most likely continue to evolve as new evidence and theories are introduced. In considering today\u27s events and the political tone used to defne "us," versus "them," it is relevant to focus on this pattern of fear associated with immigrants or "foreigners." As a group that experienced some of the first xenophobic legislation and founding ideas for immigrant exclusion, the Chinese in North America provide an important narrative and contribution to the overall study of American exclusion. Their entrance into the United States and what it entailed for the racial order of society was unprecedented. In an attempt to study the Chinese American experience it proved to be a unique challenge because of the language barrier that rendered verbal primary accounts more obscure. The growing body of literature in material and gender studies has provided insightful avenues, however, for identifying the varying methods by which Chinese immigrants were subordinated, particularly in contradictory ways. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licens