Job Motivation Differnce Ampong Male and Female Employees

Introduction to Motivation There are countless books, seminars, and videos on the subject of motivation, particularly with regard to motivating employees. As businesses continue to try to find ways to squeeze more and more productivity out of a shrinking number of workers, motivating those employees is a critical factor in the business' success. Being in a management position is not easy, and not always fun. The position comes with much responsibility and can prove very stressful.Holding a management position often means you are put in charge of large numbers of people, all with different attitudes, moods and dispositions; whose performance you are held accountable for. That is the bad news. The good news is even if things are not optimal; you can do something about it. Learn to motivate your employee's and you can turn things around for everyone. You may be thinking that the change needs to come from the individuals when really the change begins with you. Being in a management posit ion by default makes you a leader.Others are looking to you for guidance and support. You must rise to the occasion. Your management style can greatly improve the general attitude in the workplace. Positive messages coming from you as a manager will go a long way towards improving your productivity and the work performance of your employees. As a manager the small ways you interact with the workforce everyday greatly impacts how they carry out their duties as individuals. So may be you have not been so positive in the past, it's never too late to change. Start anew. Start with you.Women and men holding managerial posts do not differ in the way they rate individual motivation factors, an analysis of motivation according to superiority in the workplace reveals. Gender differences were found only among rank-and-file staff. This finding supports the notion, often cited in specialist literature, that women in management adapt to ‘male’ thinking and conduct, whether knowingly or not, and internalize the values prevailing in a male-dominated labor market. As certain public opinion surveys have shown, female managers are not universally accepted by the Czech public. The fact that Czech society still egards women in management as unusual may result in a greater likelihood of these managers encountering prejudice or discrimination. For this reason, it might be beneficial for female managers to assimilate behavior patterns typical for men in the same positions. This kind of behavior will more likely enable them to meet the general expectations associated with the role of manager. One of the trends today is taking care to be sensitive when dealing with employees, but once again a good idea has been corrupted by political correctness run amok. Sensitivity didn't get the pyramids, or the transcontinental railroad, or Rome built.It wasn't sensitivity that beat the Kaiser, Hitler, and Saddam (twice). It was hard work, appropriate rewards, and a team effort. Consi deration Point Of Differences In Motivation Among Genders†¦.. Motivation and achievement are concepts that are closely related. Motivation is the force that drives a person toward wanting to achieve certain goals and levels of excellence. Research into gender differences in motivation and achievement between males and females has been a common study by researchers and psychologists. These differences manifest themselves in different areas of life such as at work, in school and in extracurricular activities.Performance †¢ Achievement-motivation theory relates to the desire to perform well in a certain area and to attain success. Different factors motivate people to achieve success. According to a survey carried out by the Czech-based Research Institute of Labor and Social Affairs, male and female workers have different motivations for good performance at work. The survey indicates a good basic salary and bonuses motivate males to perform well, while the driving work force f or female employees is healthy interpersonal relations at work, flexibility to balance work and family and proper treatment by other employees and the employer.This shows that different factors inspire males and females to achieve and perform well in their areas of work. According to the research, males are more motivated by â€Å"instrumental values† such as remuneration, compared with women. Expectations †¢ The beliefs and expectations held by parents, peers and the school environment greatly influences the behavior patterns of males and females. Society grooms parents, peers and teachers to expect females and males to derive motivation from different things and to have different levels of achievements in certain areas.For example, teachers expect boys to excel better than girls in math and sciences, while girls are expected to excel better in languages. Additionally, society expects girls to be agreeable and expressive, while boys are expected to be aggressive and ass ertive. Children of both genders grow up and internalize these expectations and beliefs with a certain perception that they are more competent in certain areas than in others. This socialized view causes females and males to derive inspiration in those different areas, and thus, they may achieve success in these specific areas.Employers who use money to motivate employees may find that the overall response from both men and women is nearly the same. Raises, bonuses and other monetary rewards may only be a short-term motivator for both genders, according to a 2011 article from the University of Phoenix business school. An employee's motivation may rise for a brief time after he receives a pay increase. However, the article notes studies that show employees often increase their spending after receiving a raise, which consumes their additional pay. That potentially lowers their motivation to its previous level because their financial situation remains unchanged.Effort and Ability †¢ The attribution theory explains how achievement and motivation in both genders is determined by perceptions of effort and ability. This theory relates the gender differences in achievement and motivation on how individuals attribute their achievements. In areas such as math, science, technology or sport, males attribute their achievements to ability while females may attribute their success in these fields to effort. Unlike females, males are therefore able to show a higher level of motivation due to attributing their achievements to ability because they believe that their talents in these areas are natural attributes.The differences resulting from attributing achievements to ability rather than effort between the genders are that males attribute their success in areas such math, science and sport to ability and therefore show high motivation toward these areas. Females attribute their achievements to effort and their failures in fields such as math and sciences to lack of abilit y and thus tend to show lower motivation in these fields. Self-Efficacy †¢ Self-efficacy is the belief in your capacity to achieve certain goals, whether through effort or ability.A strong sense of self-efficacy motivates a person to achieve highly, but lower self-efficacy dampens motivation and achievement. Like attribution, the level of self efficacy a person has is often influenced by parents, peers and teachers. According to research findings published in the Center for Positive Practices site, notable differences exist in how males and females students chose their majors in college. Self-efficacy toward subjects like mathematics is often higher in males than in females, whose self-efficacy is usually higher in subject areas such as reading.Male and female workers ‘differ in approaches' †¢ The opinions and approaches of male and female employees tend to differ when it comes to work-related matters, it has been found. According to the Randstad Work monitor for the third quarter of 2011, respondents stated that they prefer to co-operate with the opposite sex rather than their own. However, India, Singapore, Japan and Greece saw little difference in gender preferences among workers. Perception of Rewards †¢ Men and women differ in their perceptions of what is important and motivating for good work performance, a Czech survey reveals.The distribution of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards should, therefore, be tied to the specific needs or preferences of men and women. †¢ In Perception of reward systems, women think that regard reward systems as unfair and unrelated to their performance more frequently than men do. Each female employee is convinced that they are not remunerated according to their performance; just one in five male employees thinks so. More women than men feel undervalued compared with male/female colleagues in the same position in the company.When respondents compared themselves with colleagues in the same position, 57. 2% of men and 51. 6% of women rated their remuneration as fair. More women than men also believe that they work in companies where they are paid less than employees in other firms in the same locality. This suggests that, in the subjective opinion of respondents, there still exist a number of companies where equal and transparent, performance-related pay is not a matter of course. †¢ Focusing solely on women, the logical consequence of the previous conclusions is the emergence of two different employee categories.Compared with other female employees, women in management are more motivated by: the nature of the work (67%, compared with 61% of female employees who stated that the particular aspect of work/reward is extremely or very important); the chance of promotion (48%, compared with 29%); and long-term career growth (47%, compared with 31%). Female managers are also more likely than other working women to regard as motivating the chance of acquiring new skills and opport unities for personal growth (57%, compared with 37%).Gender as Key drivers of motivation and commitment †¢ From a gender perspective, men place a higher value than women do on the so-called ‘instrumental values’ (basic salary and bonuses) as motivational factors in their work performance and identification with the employer. Women, on the other hand, place more importance than men do on inter-personal relationships at the workplace, respectful treatment by the employer, and the possibility of reconciling work and family life.Thus, it is clear that women place more value on so-called ‘soft issues. Gender gap in key drivers of motivation and commitment. Possibilities to work part-time †¢ The quarterly report is created by recruitment specialist Randstad Holding and revealed that women are more likely to believe it is possible to work part-time in a management role, while men more often think that such employment can damage careers, although there is little difference between genders in most nations regarding part-time positions.Almost half of those polled (46 per cent) stated they feel it is a bad career move to work part-time, with 51 per cent of men claiming this. Workers in Greece (69 per cent) were most likely to hold such views, in addition to those in Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark and Sweden, while workers in Turkey, Japan and the Czech Republic are least likely to agree. †¢ Globally around 15 per cent of individuals in employment work part-time, with the highest rate found in China (35 per cent) and ten percent discovered in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Belgium and Sweden.Entitled Opinions on part-timework & gender diversity – job market trends around the globe, the publication highlighted that countries including Germany, Sweden, Turkey, Slovakia and Luxembourg believe an equal balance of male to female members of staff produces the best results within their firm. Acknowledgment †¢ Acknowledgm ent from the boss motivates men and women, but women may respond more favorably to frequent acknowledgment.For example, â€Å"Incentive Magazine† columnist Roy Saunderson notes advice from a training consultant who indicated that women like to get verbal and written forms of acknowledgment for their work more often than men do. However, workplace recognition that seems bias hampers motivation for male and female employees. In such cases, Saunderson indicates some workers see certain employees consistently recognized for their work when they feel they're just as deserving of such acknowledgment, but they don't receive it. Training Opportunities †¢ Educational opportunities that can help employees improve their job erformance and advance their careers are motivating to both genders. Nonetheless, Saunderson notes that women may need to have such opportunities structured differently for them to raise their job motivation. That's because women who are parents or who take care of elderly parents may have too many care-taking responsibilities to participate in college courses or other training opportunities. Therefore, Saunderson indicates that women may be more motivated by skill-development days that allow employees to spend the workday honing their job skills at classes or workshops.Training during the workday would prevent women from having to take extra time away form care-taking duties. Respect Level †¢ Expressing respect for employees is another workplace motivator. Saunderson notes that women generally want their employers to show consistent respect for them and the work they do. However, an article by Karen Haywood Queen on the Bankrate website draws no distinction among men and women concerning how respect motivates them to do good work. For example, asking all workers for their suggestions on improving business operations demonstrates respect for their input and may increase their overall job satisfaction.Trends relating to mobility, †¢ It examined trends relating to mobility, motivation and job satisfaction among the global workforce and discovered that in many nations, where there is no difference in suitability between candidates, male bosses are more likely to favor men rather than women when hiring. Although there has been a slight decline in the Mobility Index in recent months, most indicators of labor market strength, including trust, fear of job loss and employment searching have remained relatively stable compared with the second quarter of this year.In addition, there were no significant changes between the periods in question in terms of job satisfaction, with those in Norway (81 per cent) reporting their roles and current employer are most acceptable, while personal motivation was highest outside Europe in Mexico and India during the third quarter of 2011. Trends Relating to work nature, The majority of employees around the world reported having male immediate superiors and men were more likely than women to state this.Covering 29 nations worldwide, the survey includes responses from the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, finding those believing that the performance of their organization would be improved with more female senior managers were in the minority. Entitled Opinions on part-timework & gender diversity – job market trends around the globe, the publication highlighted that countries including Germany, Sweden, Turkey, Slovakia and Luxembourg believe an equal balance of male to female members of staff produces the best results within their firm.Key Factors To Motivate Female Employees†¦.. Employers know that there is a difference in the needs of male and female employees. Males are often driven by a paycheck, whereas women are more inclined to take a pay cut in exchange for a desirable work environment. While men look to excel by moving up in their companies and developing their careers, many female employees (although not all, of course) are concerned with g aining a position that simply allows them more freedom and flexibility, as well as the opportunity to make a difference and display their talents.This being true, employers can no longer rely on antiquated motivational tactics, which were originally developed for men, to get the most productivity from their female employees. It's not always clear whether certain things motivate male and female employees differently. For example, money and other financial rewards potentially have the same effect on both genders, according to some workplace studies. Nonetheless, motivational differences may appear among men and women based on how employers handle the objects of motivation.The key to getting a female to give her all in the workplace is to understand what it is that really spurs her on, and how to use that to your advantage. FIRST PHASE†¦.. †¢ You must understand how extremely vital a good working environment is for your female employees. †¢ Minimizing stress and creating a friendly atmosphere are a must. While men are able to zero in on their breaking points, women have a habit of working so hard that they wear themselves out. †¢ Add unnecessary stress to the mix, and what you'll find is an office full of disgruntled, moody, and unproductive women. Sound familiar?To avoid, or alleviate, this problem, create an office that is well run and effectively maintained on your part. †¢ Minimize office supply shortages, create well structured deadlines and schedules, and remember to keep your commitments to the staff. †¢ Not only should you avoid similar mistakes, but you might even go that extra mile to create a serene environment. †¢ Think along the lines of relaxation CD's, meditation areas, and aromatherapy. †¢ These are small additions that many corporations have learned can greatly increase productivity, especially among female workers. SECOND PHASE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Consider using recognition, rewards, and competition to motivate your workers (this works well for male employees, also). †¢ Women need to display their talents and know that they are being appreciated. †¢ Working for a boss that overlooks those needs is degrading, especially when females today are working with the knowledge that their mothers and grandmothers were forced to work without any respect, and that many places of employment still offer little in these areas for women. †¢ As mentioned before, men work for a paycheck, which works as a tangible piece of evidence that lets them know that they are appreciated.Women, even in this modern world, have their families and homes on the mind first. That means they often forgo advancement opportunities that would offer higher paychecks but place greater demands on their already limited time. †¢ Employers can greatly benefit by offering their workers competitions, either against their own previous performances or against others, that offer incentives for completion. For example, y ou might offer a half day off of work near the holidays in exchange for meeting a high sales quota that month. †¢ Get creative, and ask for input from your employees as to what incentives would be best. Be ready to compromise, because they will initially ask for more than you are ready to give, but that's to be expected. †¢ Be flexible and come to a middle ground. THIRD PHASE †¦.. †¢ Consider providing opportunities for self-advancement for your female employees. †¢ Free courses, certificate programs, and incentives for completing higher education requirements are excellent ways to not only keep your female employees loyal, but also to refine the skills of your workforce. †¢ You see, women are extremely pressed for time as it is.We often neglect to further advance our knowledge because it is not a necessity to keep our jobs, even though we would like to. †¢ Give your female employees paid opportunities to sharpen their skills, increase their knowle dge, and become more valuable to you. FOURTH & FINAL PHASE†¦.. †¢ Create an environment that is family friendly and you will have loyal female employees forever. †¢ Most men aren't usually worrying about meetings, baking cookies for a Girl Scouts meeting, picking up the kids from daycare, etc. For whatever reason, women still perform most of these chores.Whether that's fair or not is irrelevant. It's simply a fact. †¢ Therefore, providing daycare vouchers (or, even better, daycare within the office itself). †¢ Flexible schedules and being lenient when being asked for time off to tend to family duties are steps you can take to ensure your female employees work hard for you. †¢ These opportunities don't exist everywhere, and even female employers often aren't compassionate toward their employees' family issues, so being family-friendly will make you a highly desirable employer, regardless of what you pay. †¢ If you hire mostly females, make this your first priority.What you shell out in added expenses will come back to you forever in increased productivity and happier, healthier employees. †¢ Keeping the aforementioned tips in mind can decrease the number of sick days used, increase work ethic, improve company morale, and, finally, spur the financial growth of your company. Savvy employers are catching on to the fact that females are dominating the general workforce, and the needs of that workforce are very specific. What you do to cater to your female employees can determine your own success. |Brains of Male and Female Worms Work Differently†¦.. |Scientists have determined that our gender impacts our brains, making them predisposed to particular smells. In a recent press release, researchers | |released details of their study. They used worms that had characteristics of both females and males. Why do more girls suffer from depression and | |autism than boys? Why do more boys suffer from ADD than girls? | | | |Researc hers hope that this study will open the door for further research into fundamental differences in how the brain functions, and its impact on | |diseases, including ADD, autism, and depression.While it's not a popular subject, there is no doubt that women are diagnosed with depression far | |more than men, and men are diagnoses with ADD far more often than women. | | | |†For so many diseases, like autism or mood disorders, it's clear that they either are more prevalent in one sex than the other, or they manifest | |themselves differently. But no one really knows why. We think that sex differences in the brain may play a role.If we can understand these | |differences, it may give us some clues about how we can diagnose, prevent, and treat these diseases more effectively,† said Geneticist Douglas | |Portman, Ph. D. , and an assistant professor of Biomedical Genetics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. | |Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center u sed worms that were hermaphrodites (female worms who can reproduce alone, since they can | |produce both egg and sperm) to see what smell these worms were attracted to.When researchers changed their brain cells into thinking they were the | |opposite sex, the worms gravitated toward the other item. | | | |Worms that thought they were male gravitated to the buttery popcorn smell. Those who thought that they were female gravitated to the smell of fresh | |green vegetables. To see whether or not this was just coincidence, researchers changed a genetic switch in the brains of these worms. | |When they did this, the worms didn't change at all, but they sensed that they were the opposite gender. | | |Did the smell that the worms were attracted to change? Yes. After tricking the worms to think they were the opposite gender, male worms had a | |definite preference for buttery popcorn and female worms had a definite preference for fresh green vegetables. | | | |Researchers hope to continue t o study how sex chromosomes influences differences in brain function and the diseases and disorders that people | |develop. |The organization Autism Speaks, which is dedicated to autism research and awareness, provided funding for this program. | †¢ Beat out the competition for well trained employees by starting small, and continue adding to your arsenal of female-friendly incentives over time. Social Method to Motivate Employee †¦ Keeping in mind the current labor laws, here are a few suggestions on how to â€Å"gently† motivate your employees: Start a program where the lowest-performing employee each week is mocked mercilessly over the intercom system by their peers.Contrary to what the experts will tell you, people will work just as hard to avoid ridicule as they will to gain praise. This is also a great team-building exercise. Begin performance evaluations with the statement: â€Å"I hope you've enjoyed your time here. † Then sit silently, because in any negotiation the first one to speak loses. After a sufficient period of time, tell the employee you have reconsidered and are giving them one last chance. Their relief will increase productivity dramatically. Declare one day per month as â€Å"Come As a Clown† day. This has little to do with motivation, but is entertaining because many people, and probably ome of your employees, are terrified of clowns. And who wouldn't be? Clowns are creepy. Start each staff meeting with a list of companies in your industry that have recently downsized. Follow this by saying â€Å"If things don't start picking up around here†¦ † and then let your voice trail off menacingly. You should see a noticeable up-tick in your employees' self-motivation. Many companies have enthusiastic male and female employees who work as cohesive and productive teams. The benefits of having employees such as these or numerous and may consist of achieving accomplishment, company receiving a great reputati on and longevity.The companies also have great teamwork in which boosts the employee's enthusiasm as well as they have less absenteeism and also maximize productivity. These companies know that†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. You can’t motivate others but can create the environment for motivation. So these firms simply provide following services to their employees 1. For career growth, development and learning 2. Exciting work as well as a challenge 3. Meaningful work by making a difference 4. Great people such as co-workers 5. Being a part of a team 6. Having a great boss 7. Recognition for work that is well done 8. Having fun on the job . Sense of control over their work 10. Flexibility in dress code and/or working hours Motivating Employees a Key Factor To Success†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ If you have employees, chances are good that you want them to be happy, productive and motivated. Motivated employees work more efficiently and produce better results. Productive and happy employees lead to success. Unfortunately, there's no secret formula for motivating employees. In fact, motivation can be as individual as the employees who work for you. Some employees may be motivated by money, while others may be motivated by personal recognition.In order to better understand how to motivate employees you must first understand how motivation works. Psychology tells us that motivation can only come from within. Motives are what drive human attitudes and behavior. Motives are internal, and they work from the inside out. Motivation is that little push or nudge that people need to keep working toward a desired goal. It works in many ways and for nearly any situation; you simply need to find the right motivational tool to achieve the desired results. To motivate employees you need to find out what your employees want and find a way to give it to them or enable them to earn it.One of the keys to being a successful manager is the ability to motivate employees and help them achieve their goals. On e way to accomplish that is to provide added incentive. It's a proven fact that if people like their job, they will be more productive. Generally, employees are willing and able to work if they feel their job is important and they are appreciated. The following are motivational techniques used by successful entrepreneurs. Power of praise. A simple â€Å"Good job† or â€Å"Thanks a million† can do more to motivate people than just about any other method.The vast majority of employees yearn for recognition. Pausing to offer praise or words of encouragement can truly make someone's day and motivate them to greatness. Money talks. It's a well-known fact that money makes people happy. Traditional ways to reward performance include pay raises, bonuses and promotions. However, gift cards are quickly becoming the incentive of choice for many organizations. Pump up the perks. Staff members always appreciate perks. These can include extra vacation days, use of a company vehicle, or an exclusive club membership.Be creative in finding unique ways to celebrate success. In the spotlight. Everyone enjoys being in the spotlight. Considering featuring top performing employee's on the company Web site or talk about their achievements in the company newsletter. Present workers with an attractive certificate that can be posted in their work area. Host an awards ceremony. If you want to pump somebody up, acknowledge their hard work in front of their peers. Awards ceremonies can be a simple event that takes place in the office, or can be an annual event that everyone looks forward to, especially those to be recognized.Let them eat. Food has a way of bringing people together and can be a fun way to motivate employees. Host a company picnic or cater a company dinner. These types of gatherings make perfect opportunities to invite family members to join in celebration of employee recognition and the company's success. All of us enjoy recognition of our efforts to be succe ssful. Take time to help your staff feel honored as you guide them along the road to success and glean the benefits of company loyalty. What Factors to be Considered For Motivation of Employees†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Don't expect things to change overnight.If the environment is now negative – implement these ideas over time and you will see attitudes start to turn. It may take people a while to adjust to your new attitude and behaviors. It's ok. You are a mirror for their workplace experience, if you remain positive and implement positive behaviors sooner or later they will too. Motivation must start with you. Start off with hiring a diverse group of individuals. Give them generously your full attention. You must be willing to listen to them to create an open and receptive environment. Be pleasant and motivated yourself thus offering harmony.Be sure to use respect when dealing with others. As a leader you must create intention of being successful in reaching the companies goals. Help visualize the goals to your employees. You as well as your employees must actively work at the goals. People are the most comfortable when you are in touch with their environment. Be sure to provide opportunities for them to be who they are so that they feel and realize that they can grow within the company. Provide opportunities for them to be what they are. Allow them their space and safety. Give them inspiration. Employees must feel like they belong to the team.Employees really want to be valued for a job. It means even so much better done by those in which they look up to. Motivation begins in stages. Motivation begins first as a physiological form. This is when benefits are greatly analyzed and appreciated such as retirement plans, health benefits, job security, paid leave, vacation, vending and break areas, parking garages and even clean restrooms and to know â€Å"I could go on and on with this stage but I am sure that you get the idea. † The next stage is safety in wh ich is the protection from harm stage. This stage is assessing the companies’ security.This includes security guards, on site parking, evacuation plans, employee security badges, maintenance, policies, health benefits etc. Following is the social aspect which is acceptance and friendship. This stage is includes the surrounding of co workers. Day care options, being involved in team decision making and opportunities to learn new skills for advancement are all examples of this stage. Self esteem which is also known as the self respect. Offering the employees knowledgeable and experience training and growth opportunities are a part of this stage. Rewards are great for this as they are great self esteem booster for employees.Rewards such as bonuses or employee appreciation weeks can really make a difference within a company. Self actualization is the stage which is the goal stage which is doing the things in order to achieve your goals. The benefit of this stage is growth and adv ancement. This could begin as a trainee or a coach for the company or department. Training or career planning can also help reach these goals. Recognizing your employees is essential! As the leader you have a lot of responsibility to stay on top of to begin and maintain a motivated atmosphere for you and your employees.Lift your employee’s spirits thru kindness, compassion and caring. Create individual goal plan and continue to evaluate plans for continuous progress. Friendly competition leads the success. Emphasize success rather than failures. If failures must be addressed then use praise, constructive criticism and the praise again. Recognize and reward selected employees in an open and publicized way. Be sure to address this in honest and personal manner. Continuously say thanks and good job in anyway you find possible. Praise helps develop the behavior expected from employees.Your team must be there for one another in order to make great team players. Make a positive dif ference by being fully present. Praise and recognition, study after study show that employees perform their best at higher levels of praise and recognition. Recognize, reward and promote your selected employees based on their performance. The marginal performers will a choice to either improve or leave. Obtaining attainable goals is very important for any reward program. All rewards must be clear and well communicated. The most meaningful and memorable rewards are the best.Timing is crucial for recognizing your employees. Always celebrate success for employees as well as the company for reaching goals. Allow your employees to see their contributions to the end goal or product. Many leaders get nervous when change is happening within the company. It is important to be positive, honest and give information to the employees as soon as possible. Silence can backfire. Sharing information with employees is more important during a change even more than when everything is stable. Keeping co mmunication is a must. When information is given early and honestly the employees feel more valued.The productivity will remain high. Share your thoughts, ideas and even excitement with all staff not just the superiors. Allow employee involvement in decision making especially when it affects their work. Whether it is bad or good new, remain honest. Encourage initiative and creativity thru out the employees. After giving news about a change you must allow the employees to have some time to think and plan. Encourage questions and encourage those who take risks to do so. Learning different personality styles and using these by applying what you have learned is very powerful.I encourage you to learn more about them for maximum results in motivating others. Motivating employees is a Hard Task but some TIPs can solve the issue†¦ Motivating employees is just about as difficult as retaining them, so how do you go about motivating them without using financial incentives , rises, bonuses and so on. Here are a few tips, ways and ideas which might help you just get the best out of your employees. Give more breaks. Motivate your employees by giving them more time off throughout their working day. More short breaks should help motivate your employees, give them a quick boost and get them back on track.Organize and Hold competitions, awards and so on. Give your employees something to aim towards, for example employee of the month. Motivate those using competitions. Everyone loves a competition and everyone loves to win. Hold and organize team days, teamwork during days and training sessions. Get all your employees together on training days, events or similar and get them motivating and inspiring each other. Create a nice place to work in. Help motivate your staff by creating a clean, friends, and workable workplace. If staff dread coming into work then they wont do there best for you.If they enjoy coming into work or into the office then you will see there natural motiv ation come out. Don't push your employees too hard. You don't want them to shut down and not work, so don't pile on all the pressure if you want to see positive results. Give them something to work towards. By this I mean, set staff tasks, aims, goals and targets, get staff and employees to work together to help and motivate each other and themselves. Recognize and reward. Start recognizing and rewarding good employees, hardworking and motivated employees and soon others will not want to be left out and will follow suite.Reward with a longer lunch break or similar. Tell your employees they are valued. Just like you treat your customers as king you must also treat your employees as kings and queens as without them your business probably wouldn't exist. Employees need to know they are valued and appreciated; it boosts self esteem, self worth and morale which in the end result in you’re getting more hardworking and motivated employees. The main Tip Remember to treat employees as you would like to be treated yourself and you should see positive results. Motivate Your Employees with These Four Ideas†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Business owners know how difficult it can be to motivate employees both male and female. No matter how great a potential employee may seem in a job interview, many end up â€Å"working for a paycheck† instead of truly caring about the company and the products or services it produces. However, if you're a business owner, you don't have to resign yourself to employees that simply punch a time clock and sleepwalk through the day. Instead, try motivating your staff with a few of these ideas: Offer performance rewards: Use your imagination to figure out which performance reward best suits your business and employees.You could also base performance rewards on the number of new customers that sign up for your newsletter or mailing list, or the total amount of sales or targets the employee rings up for the week. If, for example, you run a music store, offer a cash bonus for every 100 CDs an employee sells. So if the employee receives an additional $25 per 100 CDs sold, they'll earn an extra $50 if they sell 200 CDs and $75 if they sell 300 CDs. Offer profit-sharing: Profit-sharing allows employees to feel as if they have a vested interest in generating as much profit as possible.Not only does this encourage them to manufacture or sell more products, it also encourages them to recruit new customers and limit loss. Many different companies offer profit-sharing, so model yours after a tried-and-true method. Let your employees know that profit-sharing is part of the package when they start working for you, and they'll be motivated to succeed at the very beginning! Offer commission: If your business involves the target, plan or sale of a product or service, you may want to offer your employees a commission based salary.Although not everyone prefers this type of pay method, it does serve as an incentive for your people to generate inc reased end result. Alternatively, you could offer commission only on certain products or only for certain departments in your business. Choose the best method for your company and your employees. Offer a friendly competition: If you don't have the high budget or flexible finances required for the other employee motivators, you may still be able to motivate your employees inexpensively if you make it a competition. Have your employees compete to see who can sell the greatest number of widgets per week, for example.Or have them compete to see who can get the most customers to sign the mailing list. Your prize to the winner can be anything from a gift certificate to the local movie theater to a cash bonus. To truly motivate your employees, you need to cultivate employee loyalty by being an honest and fair employer. But a little extra incentive in the form of a prize or cash can help win and give your employees a reason to increase profits. For Employer Tips for Motivating Employeesâ₠¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Being in a management position is not easy, and not always fun. The position comes with much responsibility and can prove very stressful.Holding a management position often means you are put in charge of large numbers of people, all with different attitudes, moods and dispositions; whose performance you are held accountable for. That is the bad news. The good news is even if things are not optimal; you can do something about it. Learn to motivate your employee's and you can turn things around for everyone. You may be thinking that the change needs to come from the individuals when really the change begins with you. Being in a management position by default makes you a leader. Others are looking to you for guidance and support.You must rise to the occasion. Your management style can greatly improve the general attitude in the workplace. Positive messages coming from you as a manager will go a long way towards improving your productivity and the work performance of your emp loyees. As a manager the small ways you interact with the workforce everyday greatly impacts how they carry out their duties as individuals. So may be you have not been so positive in the past, it's never too late to change. Start anew. Start with you. You will be amazed with the overall outcome. Smile – A lot. It is a simple thing but contagious.Even if you think people will not smile in return. Do it every day. Just give it a try and see what happens. Praise – Try to accentuate the positive no matter how small. If someone cleans up a spill or picks up something off of the floor, it may be their job to do so but, you can still use that as an opportunity to praise them. Say â€Å"Thank you for taking care of that, someone could have gotten hurt† just this simple action will create a positive feeling in the person and make them want to do better every day. People want validation that they are contributing in positive ways and that their efforts are not going un-n oticed.First Names – Make a concentrated effort to learn everyone's first name. Even if the name is hard to pronounce, ask and repeat until you get it right. You interact with these people frequently and knowing their names conveys that you are interested in them personally and, care about them as individuals. Be willing to pitch in – People will work harder for someone if they know that when the chips are down, you will jump in the trenches with them. If they are really struggling and you pitch in and help them get to the finish line – you earn their respect.If you stress out or panic instead of taking a hands on approach that permeates the crew and the task will suffer. Share the goal – If there is a daily, weekly or monthly goal, let your employees know what that goal is. If they have something to work towards they will work harder to get the job done. It creates a sense of purpose. You could even make a game or a competition out of it for meeting or e xceeding the goal which adds a fun feel to the challenge. You can build on that concept when the goal is met or exceeded by saying â€Å"We did such a great job this month, I can't wait to see what we do next month†Good managers know that the best way to get your employees to perform well is by motivating them. The following are a few tips on how you can motivate your employees to ensure a happier, and therefore more productive work place. Stay Positive, Enthusiastic and Excited Yourself. As a company owner, manager, or boss, your employees will be taking their cue from you. If they find you frustrated, angry, worried or depressed, they are going to follow suit be it consciously or unconsciously. It is important to get people excited about success, just as it is important that they know you have faith and believe in them and the company.Find out what motivates each employee. A common mistake made by many managers is the automatic assumption that all that is needed to motivate employees is money. While this may true in many cases, it certainly isn't true for all. Some employees might simply need more personal recognition or to feel as if they are making a valuable contribution. Others might be interested in having their opinion heard, may want to have more input in the way things are being done, or might be motivated by getting a promotion.While others still might simply be motivated by the promise of more time off to spend with their families. If your goal is to motivate certain employees it is important to know exactly what their priorities are and what they would be willing to worker harder for. Ask for their ideas. Another common mistake made by many bosses and managers is the belief that the way things are currently being done is the only way. It can be very frustrating to an employee if they know of a quicker or more efficient way of doing their job, but simply aren't allowed to because of current restrictions.Check in with your employees once in a while and ask for their input. It can be in a one-on-one meeting, a group lunch or even by a general questionnaire asking for their opinion on any improvements they believe can be made. Most employees will feel more motivated simply by knowing that their opinion counts and that they are having some kind of input. While all their ideas might not be feasible, you might be surprised at how many could actually save the company time and money as well as naturally motivate the employee to do whatever they can to make the new plan work.Give Recognition When and Where It Is Due In many instances recognition is just as important as financial rewards to an employee who probably spends more hours of their life at their job than in their own home. It can be something as simple as mentioning to the employee how much you appreciated a job well done, an announcement in the company newsletter praising an employee or department, a special lunch out or celebration for the group that accomplished a pa rticular goal, or even a letter of commendation in an employee's work file.Sometimes a little praise and recognition is all an employee will need to want to do an even better job in the future. Cash Bonus or Extra Time Off Contests and competitions can also help to motivate your employees. Depending on the nature of your business see if you can start monthly competitions, For example, whoever answers the most phone calls or brings in the most new clients will receive an extra few hundred dollars in their paycheck or a free week’s vacation.As long as it doesn't cause any problems by getting cut throat, this can be another fun way to get your employees excited about producing again. [pic] References to the compiled Data†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1. The Research Institute of Labor and Social Affairs carried out an analysis on motivations for good work performance under a project entitled ‘Measuring the Quality of Working Life’ (CZ0502SR 01). 2. Sponsored Links Cultural Intelligence—CQ 3. Trainers and Coaches Needed! 2012 Programs – 2013 Global Summit 4. CulturalQ. om -Marti Barletta wrote the book on marketing to women. 5. www. TrendSight. com 6. CLY communication -Berlin creative & professional lifestyle incentives 7. www. cl-y. com 8. wamda. com 9. â€Å"Incentive Magazine†; Top 10 Ways to Motivate Women in Your Workforce; Roy Saunderson; May 2011 10. Bankrate. com; Motivating Employees in Tough Times; Karen Haywood Queen; March 2009 11. University of Phoenix School of Business; Are Employees Motivated by Money? ; May 2011 12. Cultural Intelligence- creative & professional lifestyle incentives ———————– 1

Lee Harvey Oswald Was Not the Lone Assassin

On November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy (JFK) was shot and killed in a motorcade running through Dealy Plaza, in Dallas, Texas. Shortly after, a man by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with the murder of President Kennedy. Over the years there has been much controversy over if Lee Harvey Oswald was in fact, the only man involved in the assassination of JFK. The assassination is still a topic of debate to this day and has spawned many conspiracy theories. At the time, there was little persuasive evidence to prove that Oswald was involved in any sort of conspiracy to assassinate the president, but as time went on people began to grow suspicious of certain things. In 1966, Mark Lane was one of the first to introduce the idea that Oswald did not act alone with the publication of his book Rush to Judgment. Now today, 75% of people believe Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone[1], 70% of respondents believed that the assassination involved more than one person[2]. Also 66% of Americans believe that there was a conspiracy, while 74% believed that there was a cover up[3]. It is inevitable that there is much confusion as to who was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, but I firmly believe that there is indisputable evidence that shows that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in the assassination. To start off, after the assassination took place and Oswald was captured, authorities changed the identity of the murder weapon many times. For instance, Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone and Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman both initially identified the murder weapon as a 6. 5 mm Carcano rifle, but the following day Weitzman signed affidavit describing the weapon as a 7. 5mm Mauser bolt action rifle, equipped with a 4/18 scope. Later on, investigators identified the rifle as a 6. 5mm Carcano, proving that Weitzman lied about the murder weapon. In his book, Mark Lane exploits this as the strongest reason why there was a cover up. He says â€Å"The strongest element in the case against Lee Harvey Oswald was the Warren Commission's conclusion that his rifle had been found on the 6th floor of the Book Depository building. Yet Oswald never owned a 7. 65 Mauser. When the FBI later reported that Oswald had purchased only a 6. 5 Italian Mannlicher-Carcano, the weapon t police headquarters in Dallas miraculously changed its size, its make and its nationality. The Warren Commission concluded that a 6. 5 Mannlicher-Carcano, not a 7. 65 German Mauser, had been discovered by the Dallas deputies. † Also many witnesses to the assassination were aggressively confronted and were told to keep quiet about what they saw. Acquilla Clemmons, who claimed she saw two men, not only Oswald, at the scene of Officer J. D. Tippet’s[4] murder, says a man armed with a gun confronted her at her house and told her not to speak of what she saw. Leading off of this, in the next three years following the assassination, 18 witnesses were mysteriously killed along with many people dealing with the investigation process. This is significant because it shows that it was not just a coincidence that out of the small number of people that were testifying as witnesses already, many were being killed off. Somebody wanted these witnesses quiet. These deaths seemed to follow a pattern. Whenever various government agencies started a new investigation to look further into the assassination, key people within the agency would be killed, and the investigations halted. Key people were murdered when the New Orleans District Attorney, Senate Intelligence Committee, and House Select Committee on Assassinations started to conduct efficient investigations. Another claim by the Warren commission is that a single bullet killed the president and wounded the governor. There are many flaws with this theory, most prominent being that if there was in fact only one bullet shot, it must have traveled through 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, approximately 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone. Apart from this being very unlikely, the Zapruder film[5] shows President Kennedy being wounded in between frames 225 and 226, while Governor Connelly appears to have been wounded in frame 240. Pro conspiracy theorists believe that this is indisputable evidence that there were two shooters, because it is impossible to fire two shots from a Carcano rifle in less than 2. 3 seconds (43 frames in the film), meanwhile for anti conspiracy theorists it proves the single bullet theory correct. The evidence tips in favor of the pro conspiracy theorists because this shot is irtually impossible to successfully make. With the angle the bullet entered and the fact that there was so much to go through and the bullet came out in near perfect condition, with some bend in the back of the bullet, it is more likely that there were in fact two shots fired. Judging by the fact that it is impossible to fire two shots from a Carcano rifle in less than 2. 3 seconds, and the president and the governor were h it within 15 frames of each other on the Zapruder film, it only makes sense that there were two separate gunmen. Another reason why Lee Harvey Oswald was not the lone assassin is that he himself was assassinated two days after capture. While Oswald was being transported to the county jail, he was shot point blank on live television by a man named Jack Ruby. Ruby claimed to authorities to have murdered him to avenge the death of President Kennedy. He wanted to avenge Kennedy for patriotism and out of pity for the widow. Ruby owned a nightclub in Dallas at the time, and was also a known gangster and women and drug trafficker. Although Ruby claims to have murdered Oswald as revenge for killing President Kennedy, most people believe it was part of a cover up for a much larger conspiracy. After Ruby’s arrest, he was sentenced to death, only to have his trials postponed and die of lung cancer shortly after postponing the trial. While Oswald was in interrogation, he changed his story many times when asked routine questions such as â€Å"where were you at the time of the shooting†, or â€Å"explain to us what you did the day of the assassination†. He also denied any involvement in the incident even though there was evidence against him. Oswald was bound to face further, more intense interrogation in the future, and this is the reason most people believe that assassination of Oswald was to prevent him from talking about what actually happened in the Kennedy assassination. There were also many strange reports of President Kennedy’s brain being switched from when it was seen in evidence, to when the autopsy was performed. There were pictures of Kennedy’s brain for evidence showing immense damage to the rear, consistent with an exit wound and therefore evidence of a shot from the front. Meanwhile, the autopsy brain did not nearly show the same amount of damage in the back of the brain, and an exit wound in the front. Douglas Horne, the Record Review Board's chief analyst for military records said that he was â€Å"90-95%† certain that these brains were not the same. The idea of a brain switch is highly likely according to many investigators on the subject. This is evidence of a cover up because the way the bullet entered the brain could have shown numerous things to investigators. For one thing, it could have shown the angle and direction in which the bullet entered, proving that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have shot Kennedy from the 6th story of the Texas Book Depository because of the difference in the angles. It could have also shown multiple bullet wounds, disproving the single bullet theory, and ruling out Oswald as the lone assassin. In all, having investigators obtain Kennedy’s real brain would have been catastrophic to any conspiracy, for it would have proved that the conspiracy’s scapegoat Lee Harvey Oswald was not the lone assassin. The situation in which Oswald had supposedly shot Kennedy continues to seem less and less likely to be possible. Both Craig Roberts[6] and Carlos Hathcock[7] said that this assassination could not have been done how the Warren Commission says it was. â€Å"Let me tell you what we did at Quantico, we reconstructed the whole thing: the angle, the range, the moving target, the time limit, the obstacles, everything. I don’t know how many times we tried it, but we couldn’t duplicate what the Warren Commission said Oswald did. Now if I can’t do it, how in the world could a guy who was a non-qual on the rifle range and later only qualified ‘marksman' do it? â€Å"[8] This quote vividly disproves the idea that Oswald was the lone gunman. Two highly qualified snipers completely recreated the scene of the assassination, and could not make the shot in a copious amount of attempts, but a mere marksman Oswald could make the shots perfectly in one? These odds are extremely unlikely, and to think that it is even possible that Oswald could make a shot of this caliber is absurd. There are countless reasons why Lee Harvey Oswald was not the lone gunman in the Kennedy assassination. The final verdict on the assassination of President Kennedy, is that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from a 6. 5 mm Carcano rifle out of the 6th floor window in the Texas Depository building, with one bullet missing the motorcade entirely, one bullet going through Kennedy’s back, and one bullet puncturing the back of Kennedy’s head, straight through to Governor Connelly, wounding him severely. An abundance of witness accounts clearly state that they heard shots elsewhere, and were told to be quiet about this, the shot Oswald would have had to make was impossible, Oswald was murdered two days after his arrest, the Zapruder film disproves the idea of the lone gunman, and there were many falsifications in the stories of Oswald and investigators about what happened that day, what weapon was used in the murder, the brain description, and what happened in interrogation. The lack of paperwork itself should have been enough to sway the opinions of a higher authority that there was something wrong with the investigation. Even when researching this topic, it is still not even clear what did happen on that horrible day. The Warren Commission, along with the Dallas Police, the FBI, and many other organizations, did an atrocious job of properly investigating and documenting the investigation of this assassination. If that is not sufficient, there is the fact that the way the final report claims this assassination happened is not humanly possible. This has been proven by highly trained snipers and well informed authority. Lee Harvey Oswald was not a sniping guru, nor was he the man who by himself killed President John F. Kennedy.

Assisted Suicide

Assisted Suicide Essay In thousands of homes across the nation victims of terminal illnessessit in pain due to their sicknesses. Should these people have to go through allof that pain and suffering just for the end result of death? Should thesepeople have the right to assisted death, to rid themselves of unbearable pain?This topic has been one of the great controversies over the last several years. Not too long ago if someone was found assisting in suicide, it was seenas a felony crime. But recently there have been court cases taken up in twofederal appellate courts that ruled terminally ill patients have the right toseek doctor assisted suicide (Carter 1). These cases took place in New York andWashington. This added two more to the list of states that legalized this meansof ending life. However, doctor assisted is still seen as a criminal act inthirty four states(Rosen 1). In my opinion, doctor assisted suicide should bemade legal throughout the nation. If a terminally ill patient wants to take hisor her life due to excruciating pain, he or she should have the ability toutilize euthanasia. Ultimately, the decision should be that of the terminallyill individual. The main controversy over this issue, is the question of morality. Isit morally right for a doctor to assist in suicide? Many individuals feel thatit is not. It is thought if assisted suicide is legalized throughout th e states,it will encourage families with terminally ill relatives to push themprematurely to their demise(Carter 2). This is an outlandish assumption. Afamily that truly loves one another would not urge a family member to rush anydecision as momentous as ending ones life. If there is caring among the family,the suicide would not take place until is was utterly necessary. Two other important moral questions also arise from this issue. First,do our mortal lives belong to us alone, are we sovereign over our bodies, or dothey belong to the communities of families in which we are embedded? Second,will this right give the terminally ill a greater sense of control over theircircumstances, or will it weaken respect for life?(Carter 2)The first question is ridiculous. It seems as though Carter is tryingto say we will no longer be in charge of ourselves, and we will be living in asocialistic society. There is no reason why we should not be able to controlthe destiny of our lives. We, as human beings, are solely sovereign over ourown bodies. Therefore, it is the terminally ill patient who should have theability to choose death over life. It is this person who is experiencing thepain and suffering of their disease, not a relative or close friend, much lessthe government. The legalization of doctor assisted suicide is no reason tochange anything with people who a re not terminally ill. The second question, on the other hand, has some validity and logic toit. Doctor assisted suicide would give the dying a certain sense of control. It would enable the patient to have a certain feeling of power, knowing that heor she has the ability to complete his or her life upon request. This may soundsomewhat awkward; however, it is quite possible that it would give the patientsa sense of well being. Furthermore, it gives them a chance to end their lives ontheir terms, instead of letting a disease determine their course in life. Asfor the second half of this question, it should in no way weaken the respect forlife. Losing respect for life is for the weak minded. If anything itstrengthens the patients respect; a person in the last stages of a terminalillness has endured some of the worst life has to offer. It takes away many ofhis capabilities to perform what would normally be commonplace activities; inshort it has overtaken his life and dignity. The ability to perform legalassisted suicide would help to replace some of the dignity which the illness hasextracted from a persons life. It would give the person the capability to endmatters on his own terms. READ: Memorandum EssayJohn Stuart Mill, one of the great philosophers of the nineteenthcentury, derived a theory which is an excellent example as an argument for thelegalization of doctor assisted suicide, or all moral crimes for that matter. This theory was deemed the Harm Principle: a person is wholly sovereign overhis body. It is

Impact of Reservoirs in the UK on the Surrounding Community Dissertation

Impact of Reservoirs in the UK on the Surrounding Community - Dissertation Example Center of discussion in this paper are reservoirs, man-made bodies of open water serving as public water supply sources, as winter storage for crop irrigation or as flood storage facilities in association with river corridors. FWR describes two types of reservoirs – upland reservoirs and lowland reservoirs. Upland reservoirs are built across river valleys and so they are described as upland reservoirs. Reservoirs such as those to which water is pumped from a nearby river source rather than filling naturally as with impounding reservoirs are known as lowland reservoirs. According to FWR much of the water supply infrastructure in the UK was developed at the end of the 19th century when impounding reservoirs were constructed in upland locations in order to provide water supply to conurbans which were often many miles away. Reservoirs were often located in areas where the catchment encountered little or no disturbance and so the quality of water supplied was in most cases fully ac ceptable without any need for either filtration or disinfection. However, as the standards relating to public hygiene evolved, many of these supplies were improved with the provision of chlorination systems. The regulation in relation to water quality ensures that all supplies are now provided with full treatment, including coagulation and filtration. FWR points out that in England and Wales two-thirds of drinking water comes from surface water, including reservoirs, lakes and rivers, and the rest from ground waters. There are also areas that receive water from mixed sources. Water is treated and tested along the way to ensure the highest quality. As it is with lakes reservoirs support rich and diverse flora and fauna and some rely on these habitats for their entire lifecycle. The classification is based on their nutrient status. Eutrophic standing waters are usually highly productive as they consist of lot plant nutrients. Legislation relating to Dam Safety Reservoir safety is crit ical to the British Dam Society which they indicate as the driving force behind many of the meetings, events and research work that they undertake (British Dam Society 2011). The Reservoir Act 1975 provides the legal framework to ensure the safety of dams with capacity of 25,000 cubic metres of water above natural ground level. Safety legislation in the UK was first introduced in 1930 after several reservoir disasters which resulted in loss of life. This was later superseded by the Reservoir Act 1975 (Environment Agency 2011). The Act indicates that reservoir owners have ultimate responsibility for the safety of reservoirs. They are also required to appoint a Panel Engineer – a specialist civil engineer who has qualifications and experience in reservoir safety to continuously supervise reservoirs and carry out periodic inspections. Supervision and inspection will be provided by qualified persons performing in the capacity of supervising and inspecting engineers respectively. Those reservoirs that are below the 25,000 cubic metres capacity are managed by the Health and Safety Executive and the Local Authorities under the Health and safety at Work, etc Act 1974 and the Building Act 1984 respectively. The Flood and Management Bill was given Royal Assent in April 2010, thus making it possible to bring aging reservoir safety legislation up to date by providing clarity on roles and responsibilities of those persons who manage flood and coastal risks in England and Wales (Environment Agen

Egyptian and Greek Art History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Egyptian and Greek Art History - Essay Example The earliest forms of art in Greece are found in the archaic era.   The different forms of art were pottery, sculpture, architecture, and painting.   In comparison to Egyptian art, the Greek art was underdeveloped. The Egyptians had already made breakthroughs in the construction of the pyramids by the time the Greeks started acknowledging architecture. The painting in Egypt is governed by the use of specific colours that have specific meanings. Egyptian art was limited to the use of six colours. This was not the case of early painting in Greek, which focused on pottery. Artists were allowed to express themselves freely.   Greek artists were allowed to be creative and pass a message using art. This was not the case in Egypt where artists were hired to work as a part of a team. The lead artists did not receive any credit for the work. All the credit went to the person who had commissioned the painting.   It also explains why most Egyptian paintings contained particular messages as opposed to Greek art, which was a free expression of the human form as the artist wanted it.   Civilization in Egypt was deeply rooted in religion, which explains why most works of art were inspired by religion.   Many artworks all through the history of Egypt represented gods and goddesses in Egyptian culture.   This led to the development of strict rules on how humans and gods can be represented in painting. Greek’s art was inspired by creativity, which is evidenced by the expressions seen in their sculptures.

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 69

Assignment Example Fed can purchase government either securities or lowers current reserve rations. In doing so, interest rates will fall and hence bringing the economy back to full employment. Suppose on observing that there is excess money supply in the economy, Fed will use open market operations to try to reduce the excess supply. Sales of government securities contract the assets accessible to lend and tend to increase the federal funds rate. Policymakers call this contractionary monetary policy or tightening. The Fed is targeting an interest rate level that would enable it achieves and controls its goal for employment. Economic growth, interest rate stability, and inflation can hit this rate target by choosing an appropriate value of money supply that will equate to money for equilibrium conditions in the capital market. The sale of government securities leads to a decrease in money supply from MS1 to MS2 in the economy. As a result, the current reserve ratio increase and hence putting an upward pressure on the Fed interest rate (Setterfield 105-116). Therefore, contracting policy results in the increase in interest rates from R1 to R2 and hence the cost of borrowing from commercial banks increases discouraging borrowing. When Fed sells government securities, it reduces money supply in the economy. The fall in money supply results in an increase in interest rates to R2. The increase in the interest rates reduces the level of aggregate demand and investment to I2 and hence a reduction in real GDP. As soon as the economy is in the recessionary gap, the Fed will implement an expansionary monetary policy to upsurge money supply in the market through three monetary policy instruments. By buying government securities and bonds, the Fed target will be to reduce the interest rate level. Moreover, it can lower the reserve rate or lessen the discount rate. The move will lead to a reduction in lending rates; hence, commercial banks will be encouraged borrowing

Torture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Torture - Essay Example But after a while we start to wonder what security can possibly mean, when so much of what people have struggled to secure in this country—the Constitution, basic human rights, and the rule of law—seems to be going out the window. Convention Against Torture (http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html) Article 3 1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. 2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. Article 4 1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture. 2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature. Christopher Hitchens (http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808?currentPage=2) Torture advocates hide behind the argument that an open discussion about specific American interrogation techniques will aid the enemy. Yet, convicted Al Qaeda members and innocent captives who were released to their host nations have already debriefed the world through hundreds of interviews, movies and documentaries on exactly what methods they were subjected to and how they endured. Our own missteps have created a cadre of highly experienced lecturers for Al Qaeda’s own virtual  sere  school for terrorists. Which returns us to my starting point, about the distinction between training  for something and training to resist it. One used to be told—and surely with truth—that the lethal fanatics of al-Qaeda were schooled to lie, and instructed to claim that they had been tortured and maltreated whether they had been tortured and maltreated or not. Did we notice what a frontier we had crossed when we admitted and even proclaimed that their stories might in fact be true? I had only a very slight encounter on that frontier, but I still wish that my experience were the only way in which the words â€Å"waterboard† and â€Å"American† could be mentioned in the same (gasping and sobbing) breath. Michael Levin (http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/torture.html) There are situations in which torture is not merely permissible but morally mandatory. Moreover, these situations are moving from the realm of imagination to fact. Suppose a terrorist has hidden an atomic bomb on Manhattan Island which will detonate at noon on July 4 unless ... here follow the usual demands for money and release of his friends from jail. Suppose, further, that he is caught at 10 a.m on the fateful day, but preferring death to failure, won't disclose where the bomb is. What do we do? If we follow due process, wait for his lawyer, arraign him, millions of people will die. If the only way to save those lives is to subject the terrorist to the most excruciating possible pain, what grounds can there be for not doing so? I suggest there are none. In any case, I ask

Gender and Sex roles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gender and Sex roles - Essay Example Eunuchs have had a hugely varied life with some of them being constrained to lead a life of hugely ridiculed servants while some others having the good luck of rising to the pinnacle of society in the form of military generals and highly respected court eunuchs. The book by Kathryn Ringrose presents an in-depth study of eunuchs as they were perceived in Byzantine culture that held sway for nearly a thousand years ‘†¦the founding of Constantinople in 324 to its capture by the Turks in 1453’ (p. 3). Most refreshingly, the author has not followed the standard historical procedure of adopting a chronological approach. Rather she has traced the condition of eunuchs through the entire period with special reference to all those that could achieve social status and glory. Another interesting feature of this book is that the author also clearly describes how the medical definitions and legal perspectives about eunuchs kept varying from one century to the other during the ent ire period of Byzantine civilization. The theoretical issues on gender construction in Byzantine Empire through the entire one thousand years have been discussed in great detail. These issues and discussions found their way into medical treatises, ecclesiastical tomes and hagiographies penned during that period. While clarifying that castration was never removal of penis but surgical removal of testicles, the author concludes that castration never robbed a man of his outward symbol of masculinity but prevented a man from procreation. Hence, the term eunuch often referred to a man who has never procreated (p. 14f). The church, therefore, often referred to a celibate monk as a eunuch, one who has not undergone surgical castration but spiritual castration in the sense that he has become devoid of any desire to procreate as his entire attention has been focused on Jesus Christ and God. In a sense such an explanation or understanding of the term eunuch possibly clarified to many the real meaning of what Jesus had hinted at when he said that some people convert themselves into eunuchs for greater glory of the kingdom of Heaven. However, there was a strict separation between those who could not procreate as they were biologically incapable to do so and those that opted not to procreate as a matter of choice. However, around eighth century, eunuchs began to be more readily accepted in higher echelons of society and this spilled over into religious domain too when churches began to allow eunuchs to occupy ‘†¦prominent religious positions’ (p. 118) with Germanos being one of the most famous eunuchs that went on to occupy very high position in the theological hierarchy. While the first part of the book deals with theoretical and conceptual issues of gender construction in Byzantine society the second deals with historical details of eunuchs who rose to occupy prominent social positions either as ministers or military generals. Ringrose has been very cle ar on two points: first is eunuchs within Byzantine kingdom formed a distinct ‘†¦third gender’ (p. 4), and, second is there is an inherent difficulty in accurately describing the lives of eunuchs as most of these accounts have been written by eunuchs themselves. 2. Sturges, Robert S. 2000. Chaucer's Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of Discourse. NewYork: St. Martin's. $45.00 hc.

Philanthropy of henry ford Annotated Bibliography

Philanthropy of henry ford - Annotated Bibliography Example Ford brought about many changes in the automobile industry. His vision was to provide the Americans with a car that each of them could afford. The first car built by Ford called Model T changed the way millions of people lived in United States allowing them to travel faster as well as work farther away from home. Ford’s changes to the automobile industry left a lasting mark on the United States. As a result, this vision helped create the middle class in United States marked by urbanization, rising wages, creation of national highway systems, growth of suburbia as people could travel anywhere anytime. As the population of the Model T grew, he aimed towards global expansion of his company. Consumerism was his global vision as key to peace. He thought that international trade and cooperation can lead to international peace and he demonstrated this by using the assembly line and production of Model T. He also believed on the economic independence for United States. Soon Ford Company became the largest industrial complex that had its own vertical integration and could even produce its own steel. Henry Ford can be considered as a philanthropist because of this contribution to the people of United States and the world. Gregory Stobbs uses the Ford and his assembly line to explain about the patents methods in business. He explains how Ford developed the assembly line and what were the economic repercussions of his invention. For example, Russ mentions that the automobile assembly line was built keeping the division of labor in mind. Previously, skilled craftsmen manufactured a whole car from ground using tools and materials from the tool room as per their needs. Ford wanted that each worker whether skilled or un-skilled work on one part of the car and add their part when the vehicle would roll down the assembly line. Each person would be doing a repetitive job without ever having to worry about other parts of the

Romanticism and Classicism Essay Example for Free

Romanticism and Classicism Essay Both Romanticism and Classicism deal with a certain psychological truth – however, they use different techniques to show this truth, and, consequently, show different sides of a persons psychology. The Romanticists take a lyrical stance – they explore a persons emotions and subjectivity. Mostly, this is done in poetry, because poetry generally provides more creative leeway and is more metaphorical. Like any short form, it needs less consistency, but is allowed to focus more on emotion and whatnot. A poem can be created only to portray a feeling or a group of feelings. For instance, Yeats poem â€Å"The Second Coming†, even though its first-person perspective is only seen directly in two lines, the feeling of apocalyptic dread is spread throughout the whole poem, from the first lines ( Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; /Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, ) to the last ( And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ). This poem is completely dedicated to showing a single aspect of emotion. It does not require development, but rather elaboration and metaphor, both of which Yeats provides plenty. Moreover, the rhythm and sound of the rhymed word itself is used often to convey an emotion. (Incidentally, Romanticist prose, which is not covered here, also uses these techniques much more than Classicist prose). See Yeats again: â€Å"Turning and turning in the widening gyre† already creates a spinning sensation of something huge, the repetition of the us and is makes the line sound as if it were turning itself. The sounds and rhythm strengthen the feelings the words already evoke, in this case – that of the world turning in on itself – and when in the next line, â€Å"The falcon cannot hear the falconer;† we are faced with a relatively small bird, the illusion of a transition from microcosm to macrocosm is evoked. Portraying subjectivity is easiest to do from a first-person position, because it allows the poet and the reader both to get into the head and soul of the character. This is shown well in most Romantic poetry. For instance, Owens in his descriptions of war depicts the horrors from his own, first-person view, and attempts to make the reader sympathize by creating images that invite a certain empathy, in this case – a feeling of horror at things two people in dialog fear together. An especially powerful example is present in Dulce et Decorum Est (If in some smothering dreams you too could pace /Behind the wagon that we flung him in, /And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, /His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin;). It can be done from the third-person, however. This is generally done from selective omniscient, by showing things from a chosen characters viewpoint. Emotion can also be shown just by writing about the actions of the person, but this is generally used in the dramatical poetry, which is more common in the Classicists. Mostly, narrative is used for the Romantics when there is an actual need to show not just a feeling, but a transition from one emotion to the next. A real master of this is Joyce, who, while not precisely a Romanticist, knows the Romanticist technique well, and utilizes it to his own means. Joyce shows us a change in Gabriels behaviour. Specifically, he utilizes a very interesting technique: in the beginning, he does not give us any insight into Gabriels thought: when we first see Gabriel, he is just one of the characters. There are many others, who may be just as important – although the fact that everyone is waiting for Gabriel and his wife is a certain foreshadowing of the fact that ultimately he will be the main character, it is still far from certain at this point. (â€Å"O, Mr Conroy, said Lily to Gabriel when she opened the door for him, Miss Kate and Miss Julia thought you were never coming. †). As the story progresses, however, we gain gradual insight into Gabriels thoughts as they become more and more mixed in with his deeds, and by the end of it, we are completely in Gabriels mind (â€Å" It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. †) Any outside factor is a symbol for the Romanticists, a tool for self-identification. The difference between them and the Classicists in this case is that for any Classicist the outside world with its obstacles is objective – even when a hero acts or reacts, they are working in an environment. For a Romanticist, environment is optional. In fact, most of them prefer to relate directly to matters such as life and death, to notions which would be deemed abstract, and many avoid the situations in which we face these notions in life. This is well-seen in Tennysons â€Å"In Memoriam†: â€Å"I held it truth, with him who sings /To one clear harp in divers tones, /That men may rise on stepping-stones /Of their dead selves to higher things. † How precisely this stepping is done, Tennyson does not show. But it is these symbolic transitions, the way a human being relates with eternity, that make up the real life of a human being. The situations one faces in life are mere shadows of this real, symbolic life. This is why when the Romanticists use colorful metaphors, and another great lot of textual technique in an attempt to transfer to the reader what can only be felt, to incite an emotional state, this is not only to evoke a feeling – feelings are the meat and drink of life, like actions are to the Classicist. It is this sensual experience that is real, and a transition in feeling, its ennoblement is seen as a more valuable – a more ontologically real, if you will – change than any actions that change ones material status. For an example, let us turn to Yeats once more, and how he describes this spiritual transmutation upon his death, in â€Å"Sailing to Bysantium†: â€Å"Once out of nature I shall never take/My bodily form from any natural thing,/But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make/Of hammered gold and gold enamelling†. In essence, Romanticism submerges us in the characters subjective viewpoint, and attempts to make us believe the characters actions by placing us in the characters place. They externalize the characters feelings by projecting them unto our own. For instance, Coleridge in his â€Å"Kubla Khan†, gives an image and a feeling which it evokes in his lyrical hero, and attempts to reproduce that same relationship within the readers own soul: â€Å"A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw :/It was an Abyssinian maid,/And on her dulcimer she played,/Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me/Her symphony and song,/To such a deep delight twould win me,† The Classicists attempt to portray objective reality as far as they are able – be it by directly addressing real-world issues, or by exploring them through story-telling. A direct discussion on a real problem is shown in Mills essay, where the narrator steps as much away from any personal arguments as possible, and attempts to appeal only to objective facts, and even if his own experience is used, it it always as de-personalized as possible. Nearly any quote from his essay is demonstrative. â€Å"The generality of a practice is in some cases a strong presumption that it is, or at all events once was, conducive to laudable ends. This is the case, when the practice was first adopted, or afterwards kept up, as a means to such ends, and was grounded on experience of the mode in which they could be most effectually attained. † As we can see, he speaks in the third person as much as humanly possible, making general observations about the nature of humanity and society. The Classicists who work in fiction generally work in the narrative, because it is easier to portray outside factors from the neutral point of view of a narrator, rather than from the subjectivity of one character. The preferred mode is pure omniscient. We can see this if we return to Joyce, who in the beginning uses a fully omniscient mode , to show us a multitude of people and detail, to give us a panoramic view and a feeling of objectivity before he begins to focus on the internal evolution of Gabriel. â€Å"Lily, the caretakers daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat, than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest. †) Joyce uses this technique to set the stage, to give the mood in which the transformation happens. I believe (though I am not sure whether this is the view your professor has on the subject) that the difference between Joyces story and the â€Å"classic† Classicists is that for him the objective world is neither a place to act in nor a tool of transformation: it is just a backdrop, a setting in which interaction occurs. However, selective omniscient can be used, as well – as long as one gives enough detail that the character notices, but does not classify as important, while, in truth, they play out their part, and a reader – always from his birds eye view – can notice this. A good example is Mansfields â€Å"The Garden†, which utilizes a selective omniscient point of view. Mansfield uses both details that are general, that create the mood both for the character and the reader, (â€Å" That really was extravagant, for the little cottages were in a lane to themselves at the very bottom of a steep rise that led up to the house. A broad road ran between. True, they were far too near. They were the greatest possible eyesore, and they had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all. †), and those that are exlusively thoughts of Laura (â€Å"Is mother right? he thought. And now she hoped her mother was right. Am I being extravagant? †) Some of Mansfields most interesting technique is how she shows the transition of moods through the difference in details Laura notices. Compare the beginning of the story (â€Å"Then the karaka-trees would be hidden. And they were so lovely, with their broad, gleaming leaves, and their clusters of yellow fruit. They were like trees you imagined growing on a desert island, proud, solitary, lifting their leaves and fruits to the sun in a kind of silent splendour. ) and near the end of the story, when she learns about the death (â€Å"Now the broad road was crossed. The lane began, smoky and dark. Women in shawls and mens tweed caps hurried by. Men hung over the palings; the children played in the doorways. A low hum came from the mean little cottages. †) It is still a beautiful sunny day, however, Laura is in no shape to notice it. This is the kind of subjectivity that is allowed in Classicist literature: a subjectivity that is a reaction to the objective world. Classicism is versatile enough to allow it, but it never allows this subjectivity to take completely first place. At best, like in Mansfields works, it has an almost equal role to objective actions. Classicism can even work from completely a first-persons view, as Virginia Woolf shows. But here it is emphasized that the author is subjective but trying to transcend this subjectivity: even in the first person, she attempts to step out of conventional social roles – even those she takes on herself and look at things rationally and reasonably, and, possibly, with irony. It is a curious fact that novelists have a way of making us believe that luncheon parties are invariably memorable for something very witty that was said, or for something very wise that was done. But they seldom spare a word for what was eaten. † Woolf takes many liberties with her texts, and experiments often with styles and conventions – such as the listing of various foods, or the ironic descriptions of conversations, or unconventional views on known topics. Like a philosopher, she brings to attention things that are rarely noticed (â€Å"Have you any notion of how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe? †). But all of these are things that exist in the real world. You will find few abstractions in her works, and even those have a grounding in some sensual experience that she has. She is very skeptical indeed of any matter of pure spirit, indeed, she does not believe in them in the common sense of the word. (â€Å"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. The lamp in the spine does not light on beef and prunes. We are all probably  going to heaven, and Vandyck is, we hope, to meet us round the next corner—that is the dubious and qualifying state of mind that beef and prunes at the end of the day’s work breed between them†) This is what attempted objectivity from the first person looks like. Mixed modes work well, too. Conrads â€Å"Heart of Darkness† is a great example of this: he often gives descriptions which could be both from the third person and the first person (â€Å"The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails ), and even those he gives explicitly from the first person are always shown as attempting to step away from direct emotional perception, such as in the scene where the hero thinks about the reason why the savages are cannibals. (â€Å"I would no doubt have been properly horrified, had it not occurred to me that he and his chaps must be very hungry: that they must have been growing increasingly hungry for at lea st this month past. †) This is very typical of Classicism, to look for outside solutions to ones feelings, and, instead of feeling something directly, to attempt to reach feeling throughout experience and logical thought. A Classicist cannot emphasize directly; Conrad could not have written something like, â€Å"I saw the hunger in his eyes and realized with a sharp jab of the conscience that, had I been so hungry, I would have been no different. † A Classicist will only portray the internal logic of his heroes, he cannot attempt to have them experience something they did not, even in the imagination. They remain captured by their own lives. What is important about Classicism is that it is almost always in prose. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, such as Browning, but they are few and far between. Poetry adds an extra, undesirable dimension to a text. It is the dimension of subconscious influence – by the sound of the words, by the rhythm. Classicism, of course, cannot step completely away from using techniques that influence not so much by meaning, as by style – so long as the work is a work of literature – but they do their best not to emphasize on the technical style of things. Even if they use technique, it is as simple as possible. The Classicists wish the text to be transparent, as opposed to the many colors of Romanticism. Conrad is, once again, a good example here: his descriptions are dynamic, yet very simple: â€Å"One evening as I was lying flat on the deck of my steamboat, I heard voices approachingand there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. † Complete contrast to the falling and raising of the Romantic worlds, Classicism uses Occams Razor as much as possible. Classicism likes to use a dramatic stance: it generally does not tell us about what the person is feeling, but rather attempts to allow us to see for ourselves from the persons actions. For instance, Browning in his poetry – a rare example of a dramatic approach in it – does not give us feelings directly. Instead, he gives us actions and thoughts related to those actions, not self-reflection: like when he writes about the painter Fra Filippo Lippi (Or Lippo Lippi, as he calls his hero))(â€Å"/Zooks, whats to blame? you think you see a monk! What, tis past midnight, and you go the rounds,/And here you catch me at an alleys end/Where sportive ladies leave their doors ajar? †) This says more about the character of the frater than any self-reflection upon the nature of necessity to go out at night would have. For the Classicists, it is an emphasis on that only the deeds of a person are actually real, and the thoughts essentially matter only as stimuli towards action . This is an externalization of the characters psychology by projecting it upon the world.

Best War Ever America And World War Ii History Essay

Best War Ever America And World War Ii History Essay The objective of this book is to subject the chief features of the Good War myth to bright analysis in the hope of present an additional realistic picture, one that does not demean the achievement of the United States and of liberal democracy but that at the same time does not diminish the stress, suffering, problems, and failures inevitably faced by a society at war. The war was good for the economy. It was liberating for women. It was a war of tanks and airplanes a cleaner war than World War I. Americans were united. Soldiers were proud. It was a time of prosperity, sound morality, and power. But according to historian Michael Adams, our memory is distorted, and it has left us with a misleading even dangerous legacy. Challenging many of our common assumptions about the period, Adams argues that our experience of World War II was positive but also disturbing, creating problems that continue to plague us today. Michael C Adams has contributed to The Best War Ever: America and World War II as an author. Michael C. C. Adams, a professor of history at Northern Kentucky University, is the author of The Great Adventure: Male Desire and the Coming of World War I (1990).   Much of the events of WWII has been mythologized not only by Hollywood and government propaganda, and over the years this mythology has been perpetuated by those who lived through the war themselves. Michael C. C. Adams has sought to expose these stories for what they are, fabrication and oversimplifications, and provide the basic facts that facilitate a truer understanding of WWII and the world wide cultural changes surrounding it, both before and after the war itself. In chapter one, Mythmaking and the War, Adams sets out the myth itself, as defined by Hollywood dramatization, government propaganda, advertisement agencies, and the revised memories of those who stayed home, as well as those who fought in the war itself. The war became Americas golden age, a peak in the life of society when everything worked out and the good guys definitely got a happy ending. (Adams, 2) The WWII era came to serve a purpose; to be the bygone age which America once was, and if worked hard enough for, could be again. It was, in a sense, Americas Garden of Eden, the time and place where all things were right. Of course, this was a manufactured ideal, what Adams calls a usable past. In creating a usable past, we seek formulas to apply in solving todays problems. Americans believe that WWII proved one rule above all othersit is usually better to fight than to talk. (Adams, 4) To make WWII into the best war ever, we must leave out the area bombings and other questionable aspects while exaggerating the good things. The war myth is distorted not so much in what it says as in what it doesnt say. (Adams, 7) This applies not only to the war itself, but also to the home front. Chapter two, No Easy Answers, begins the process of deconstructing the myth, and demonstrating that the events leading up to WWII began long before the Treaty of Versailles, and the ramifications of WWII will last much longer than the generation that fought it. Adams lays out the frame of the complex political, cultural and economic histories of each of nations which would become involved in WWII, and shows that there was no obvious point at which one decision would have prevented the war from happening. Taken in context, the actions each nation took leading up to WWII make sense. Adams asks, what could have been done differently? Apparently, not much; appeasement didnt work in Europe, and determent didnt work in Asia. There really were no easy answers. Chapter three, The Patterns of War, 1939-1945 lays out the way in which each nation fought the war, with a new speed and brutality made possible by technology and the remoteness of the enemy. Chapter four, The American War Machine, demonstrates how the tools were created and sent into battle, and how the soldiers and organization of each army differed, for better or worse. Chapter five, Overseas, outlines the realities of life for the American soldier both in the European and Pacific theatres, while chapter six, Home front Changes, does the same for those who stayed home. These chapters have one unifying purpose; to define the reality of the WWII era, expose the complex history and actors, and above all, disabuse us of the reigning WWII mythos. Chapter seven, A New World, takes us one step further and debunks the myth that returning GIs readjusted quickly without lasting physical ailments and emotional traumas and into a society awaiting them with open arms, friendly smiles and lovin g families. Above all else, Adams has provided an interesting and easily accessible framework with which one can examine WWII and appreciate the complexities and realities of the era. While his history is intentionally brief and uncomplicated by example and detail, it does achieve its purpose. By identifying the mythos and realities of WWII, the Good War can be appreciated for what it actually was; an ugly, brutal and ultimately necessary war. Adams says that the existence of the WWII distortions is not entirely the fault of the American public. It is also the fault of the Federal Government and the media. The government censored controversial material during the war and only delivered to the public details that were uplifting and beneficial to the cause. The media also used the war to its advantage, promoting products using references to the war.   Adams also goes into detail the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome the soldiers endured during the war.   The book does go into some historical accounts of WWII. Most of Adams references though were secondary sources. I would have liked to see him use more primary sources which would have provided more authenticity and credibility to the book. I do recommend the book if you are looking for a quick read about WWII, but if you are looking for a military history about WWII, this is not the book for you. 3-John F. Kasson, AMUSING THE MILLION: CONEY ISLAND AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY Amusing the Million examines the historical context in which Coney Island made its reputation as an amusement park and shows how Americas changing social and economic conditions formed the basis of a new mass culture. Exploring it afresh in this way, John Kasson shows Coney Island no longer as the object of nostalgia but as a harbinger of modernityand the many photographs, lithographs, engravings, and other reproductions with which he amplifies his text support this lively thesis. After studying the whole book my point of analysis on this book is that In these times, when entertainers bare body parts normally kept strictly covered, it is hard to believe the cover photo of this book was considered rather racy a century ago. It shows a line of girls on the beach at Coney Island where the skirts on their swimsuits have been raised to reveal the shorts underneath. Considering that they also appear to have full-length tights on underneath the shorts, to modern eyes, they look overdressed. There were many social commentators at the end of the nineteenth century that argued that the egalitarian social structure of Coney Island was debasing the social fabric of the nation. As Coney Island was the most conspicuous example of the dramatic social changes taking place in the United States. By the turn of the century, the people were generally no longer rural tillers of the soil, having been transformed into urban tillers of the machines. Furthermore, by this time, the social distinctions between the upper and other classes were being blurred. As the author points out, at Coney Island, many of the stiff social restrictions came down. People who otherwise would not speak to each other became friendly and shared rides, beach water and other amusements.   The members of the compressed urban society craved simple and inexpensive recreation and Coney Island provided it. Therefore, as Kasson points out so well, it was a phenomenon that grew out of a social need and in many ways served as a social release. People could, for a very small fee, leave their crowded dwellings and engage in a day of escape. Everyone was equal on the rides and the beaches, so at least at that location, social distinctions disappeared.   Until I read this book, I had never considered the amusement park as a barometer for social change. However, it is now clear that Coney Island was a metaphor for a dramatic change in the social fabric of the nation and from this book, you can learn many of the details. These were all much the same in nature, differing mainly in size and duration. Their reason for being and the reason or them becoming a thing of the past is all the same.   The book suggests that they started in the mid-1800s is stretching the point somewhat as Fairs of all types were around for many centuries and only differed in how big they were, how far people travelled to them ,how much new inventions became incorporated and how long they lasted.   It seems that throughout history people loved to gather for just about any reason, but generally some sort of amusement along with the hope of seeing something new. Thus there were Races, Exhibitions of animals, crafts, products for prizes or sale, Auctions, Magic shows, Plays, Sporting events; and on and on ad infantilism.   This happened at Stonehenge and before, at the Roman Collisium, and Religious Celebrations. It didnt take much to create an event; heck, even a Hanging was enough to get a huge crowd out.  The same sort of thing continues today. So instead of taking the Subway to Coney Island or some other Amusement park; we go to the great Theme Parks, National Parks, Sporting Events, Concerts, Casinos, Vegas, Nashville, Ski Hills, Cruises, or even events and locations around the world, such as World Fairs or the Olympics.   The old adage The more things change, the more they become the same applies to Amusement Parks, just as it does to everything else.   The greatest change is in the ease of travel, the amount of disposable income available, and the introduction of TV where everything can be brought right into the living room. That doesnt leave much but the Thrill Rides, the Smells and Sounds, the Crowds and the Outdoors; but thats coming too.  The Canadian National Exhibition continues to run for 3 weeks in August: however it gets poorer and tackier every year and who knows how much longer it will continue. Amusement parks that began to exist during the turn of the century served as venues for fun and excitement as well as helped to release the repressed from the gentility of the Victorian Age of the nineteenth century. John Kasson examines the social and cultural ramifications that occurred in American society in his book, AMUSING THE MILLIONS: CONEY ISLAND AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY. In his study, Kasson shows how the American landscape became playgrounds, especially in New York, which extended the use of recreational space, New Yorks Central Park, and expositions that commemorated and celebrated the American historical past, Chicagos Columbian Exposition of 1893. They magnified the cornerstones and building blocks of the city, and the behavior that was exhibited with the rising middle class, which attracted a mass audience. The city became cosmopolitan and modern where many engaged and frolicked, and helped to unlatch social, racial, and economic boundaries that were bestowed upon ma ny individuals; they also helped to rejuvenate cities through urban planning.   Indeed, Kasson explores the world of imagination. The amusements ran the gamut from a Barnum and Bailey atmosphere to reveling along the boardwalk amongst exotic and unusual exhibits that coveted Coney Islands Luna Park and Dreamland Park. And within the text Kasson highlights those who helped architect this unrestrained environment of excess, such as Frederick Law Olmstead, Daniel H. Burnham, George C. Tilyou, Frederic Thompson, James Gibbons Huneker, and Maxim Gorky. Undoubtedly these were elaborate and spacious constructed palatial playgrounds of pleasure full of materialism and consumption where many gathered for pure utopian enjoyment. According to Kasson, these amusements also served as an outlet for artists and painters whose works did not particularly belong in museums. However, they reflected the modernist and realist genres of the art world before they came into vogue, and they depicted technological, urban, populous, egalitarian, erotic, hedonist, dynamic, and culturally d iverse images that the public were not accustomed to (88).   Overall, this is an interesting trip down nostalgic memory lane. Through the revealing pictures and detailed narrative, Kasson shows readers how Coney Island at the turn became a form of liberation for an array of classes. In essence, this is a good source to refer to when studying or reading about the American Dream as it relates to amusement parks that transcended social and cultural change in American society.   4-John Kenneth Galbraith, THE GREAT CRASH, 1929 The Great Crash, 1929  is a book written by  John Kenneth Galbraith  and published in 1954; it is an economic history of the lead-up to the  Wall Street Crash of 1929. The book argues that the 1929 stock market crash was precipitated by rampant speculation in the stock market, that the common denominator of all speculative episodes is the belief of participants that they can become rich without work and that the tendency towards recurrent speculative orgy serves no useful purpose, but rather is deeply damaging to an economy.  It was Galbraiths belief that a good knowledge of what happened in 1929 was the best safeguard against its recurrence. Galbraith wrote the book during a break from working on the manuscript of what would become  The Affluent Society. Galbraith was asked by  Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.  if he would write the definitive work on the  Great Depression  that he would then use as a reference source for his own intended work on Roosevelt. Galbraith chose to concentrate on the days that ushered in the depression. I never enjoyed writing a book more; indeed, it is the only one I remember in no sense as a labor but as a joy.  Galbraith received much praise for his work, including his humorous observations of human behavior during the speculative stock market bubble and subsequent crash. The publication of the book, which was one of Galbraiths first bestsellers, coincided with the 25th anniversary of the crash, at a time when it and the  Great Depression  that followed were still raw memories and stock price levels were only then recovering to pre-crash levels. Galbraith considered it the useful task of the historian to keep fresh the memory of such crashes, the fading of which he correlates with their re-occurrence. For the purpose of the summary and analysis phase of this book I thought that the Republican Great Depression of 1929-1939 has been an unending source of mystery, fascination, and disinformation for the past four generations. As youre reading these words, theres a huge push on by conservative think-tanks and wealthy political activists to reinvent the history, suggesting that Roosevelt prolonged the Depression or that New Deal programs were ineffective. At the same time, folks like David Sirota are valiantly pushing back with actual facts and statistics, showing that Roosevelts New Deal was startlingly effective, particularly when compared with the Republican policies of 1920-1929 that formed the bubble that crashed in 1929, and the Republican failures to deal with its consequences during the last three years of the Herbert Hoover administration (1929-1933). To really understand what brought about the great crash, however, its most useful to read an historical narrative written by one of the worlds preeminent economists when that world-changing event was still fresh in his and his readers minds.  The Great Crash  is that book, first written by Galbraith in 1953-54 (and published in 1955) and updated for modern readers in 1997. From this book I like to discuss some points in its summary phase. From the Introduction The people who remained sane and quiet Extracts from  The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith, First Published 1955, Page 27 Even in such a time of madness as the late twenties, a great many man in Wall Street remained quite sane. But they also remained very quiet. The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil. Perhaps this is inherent. In a community where the primary concern is making money, one of the necessary rules is to live and let live. To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So the wise in Wall Street are nearly always silent. The foolish thus have the field to themselves. None rebukes them. From Chapter 1: A Year to Remember Opportunities for the social historian Extracts from  The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith, First Published 1955, Page 26 In the autumn of 1929 the mightiest of Americans were, for a brief time, revealed as human beings. Like most humans, most of the time, they did some very foolish things. On the while, the greater the earlier reputation for omniscience, the more serene the previous idiocy, the greater the foolishness now exposed. Things that in other times were concealed in a heavy facade of dignity now stood exposed, for the panic suddenly, almost obscenely, snatched this facade away. We are seldom vouchsafed a glance behind this barrier; in our society the counterpart of the Kremlin walls is the thickly stuffed shirt. The social historian must always be alert to his opportunities, and there have been few like 1929. From Chapter 7: Things Become More Serious Things keep getting worse Extracts from  The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith, First Published 1955, Page 130 In the autumn of 1929 the New York Stock Exchange, under roughly its present constitution, was 112 years old. During this lifetime it had seen some difficult days. On 18 September 1873, the firm of Jay Cooke and Company failed, and, as a more or less direct result, so did fifty-seven other Stock Exchange firms in the next few weeks. On 23 October 1907, call money rates reached one hundred and twenty-five per cent in the panic of that year. On 16 September 1922 the autumn months are the off-season in Wall Street a bomb exploded in front of Morgans next door, killing thirty people and injuring a hundred more. A common feature of all these earlier troubles was that, having happened, they were over. The worst was reasonably recognizable as such. The singular feature of the great crash of 1929 was that the worst continued to worsen. What looked one day like the end proved on the next day to have been only the beginning. Nothing could have been more ingeniously designed to maximize the suffering, and also to ensure that as few as possible escaped the common misfortune. The fortunate speculator who had funds to answer the first margin call presently got another and equally urgent one, and if he met that there would still be another. In the end all the money he had was extracted from him and lost. The man with the smart money, who was safely out of the market when the first crash came, naturally went back in to pick up bargains. The bargains then suffered a ruins fall. Even the man who waited out all of October and all of November, who saw the volume of trading return to normal and saw Wall Str eet become as placid as a produce market, and who then bought common stocks would see their value drop to a third or a fourth of the purchase price in the next twenty-four months. The Coolidge bull market was a remarkable phenomenon. The ruthlessness of its liquidation was, in its own way, equally remarkable. 5-Ronald G. Walters, AMERICAN REFORMERS, 1815-1860 With American Reformers, Walters has composed a fine synthesis of secondary literature on the varied antebellum reform movements. In doing so, he argues that the reform impulse emerges out of evangelical Protestantism but by the Civil War takes a more secular turn more involved in legislating social controls than converting the hearts of individuals. As he develops this argument he addresses the different forms that this reform impulse took and organizes the book thematically. He discusses in successive chapters utopian movements and secular communitarians, abolition, the womens movement and the peace movement, temperance, health reform and spiritualism, working mans reform, and institutional reform, into which he groups mental hospitals, prisons and schools. Walters demonstrates the secularization of reform in the realm of communitarian societies. Thus, the early nineteenth century utopian settlements that often emerged out of pietistic impulses gave way to more secular experiments in social engineering such as Owenism, or as in the case of Oneida, how a once religious community endured only as a commercial venture. Similarly he shows institutions such as asylums wove their religious inspiration with the science of the times but like prisons and almshouses became holding pens for outcasts rather than places for healing and reform. Walters also situates the emergence of reform in the particular circumstances of antebellum America. He argues that the emergence of the middle class created made it possible for people to devote time to reform, and those technological advances in printing made it possible for people to actually make a living as an agitator. He also argues that reform helped shape the identity of the emerging middle class. This point comes through particularly clearly in his chapter on working mans reform. Walters synthesis suffers from its grand scope and short length. In it he sacrifices a certain amount of detail and analysis for space and clarity. The section on utopian movements, for example, traces the personalities of the major reformers and a brief outline of the community that followed without in-depth analysis. Throughout the book quotations from primary sources would have been helpful in giving a feel for the particular movement under discussion. The lack of primary source material allows Walters to sacrifice documentation, and the reader sometimes wishes for some assistance in discerning the origin or fuller development of a particular point. To his credit, Walters provides a good bibliographical essay at the end, but the lack of documentation sometimes proves frustrating and thus interrupts the otherwise smooth flow in the text. Nonetheless, American Reformers is a very readable and useful synthesis of the secondary sources on antebellum reform. As such, it is a helpful an d welcome addition to the field. In my mind, this is an introductory text, albeit a fine one. Walters is very accessable, he tries to include necessary historical perspective and whatever cultural information he deems to be valuable to the story hes telling in each chapter. And while each chapter is a story of a different movement or people, he also demonstrates those things these groups have in common. I wont spoil it for you, but at the least of it, they were all idealists who thought to affect the world around them. Material and political changes transformed America at a dizzying pace in the 1820s and 1830s. The expansion of industrialization, the creation of roads and canals to connect manufacturers to new markets, westward migration, a prolonged period of economic depression following the panic of 1837, and the broadening of voting rights triggered vast social upheavals. Reform movements were often attempts to cope with the consequences of these changes. Some movements wanted reform of institutions like prisons, schools, and asylums. Others looked to individual regeneration to transform the whole society. Some reformers drew attention to a particular groups suffering: Richard Henry Danas  Two Years before the Mast  (1840), for example, pressed for expanded legal rights for sailors. Others, like the founders of Brook Farm, sought radical and universal reform. A powerful source of reform emerged from the Second Great Awakening, the religious revivals sweeping the nation from the 1790s through the 1820s. Like the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, this series of revivals emphasized individual, often emotional religious experiences. Yet unlike the first period of revival, the Second Great Awakening had an even broader impact. The disestablishment of religion in the early national period and the deism associated with Americas founding fathers (that is, their belief in the power of reason and the existence of a Supreme Creator and their skepticism about supernatural religious explanations) seemed to threaten the nations Protestant moral foundation. Moreover, many Christians attributed certain social ills (drinking, dueling, disregard for the Sabbath, and the like) to Chris-tianitys decline. Ministers such as Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) and Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) responded with messages about wickedness, conversion, and the imm inent return of Christ. Moving away from the Calvinist doctrines (such as predestination) associated with the initial Great Awakening, they preached individual moral agency and personal salvation, moral improvement and perfection, and a responsibility to hasten the coming of Gods Kingdom. These religious ideas contributed to the desire for reform and creation of voluntary benevolent societies such as the American Education Society (1815), American Bible Society (1816), and American Tract Society (1825). These organizations distributed religious literatures, but their members also led efforts to stem Sabbath-breaking, drinking, and other forms of vice. Various female moral reform societies focused on ending prostitution, sexual exploitation, and the sexual double standard. The ostensibly moral concern with sexual vice also helped justify the not-so-pious demand for reform literature featuring fallen and wronged women in texts like Maria Monks  Awful Disclosures  (1836) and George Fosters  New York by Gas-Light  (1850). Evangelical reformers also played important roles in other reform movements. Theodore Dwight Weld (1803-1895), a disciple of Finney, began his career distributing tracts and preaching against strong drink. In 1829 Weld shifted his efforts to the campaign against slavery and authored two antislavery classics,  The Bible against Slavery  (1837), which dismantled biblical pro-slavery arguments, and  American Slavery As It Is  (1839), the text that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) to write  Uncle Toms Cabin  (1851-1852). Evangelical reform spread popular literature as tracts, sermons, Sunday school books, and temperance testimonies. The revivals also had an important influence on developments in literary style. Religious writings became more emotional and imaginative, formally less rigid, and theologically less rigorous. Antebellum religious texts began to rely on vivid narratives to illustrate, edify, and entertain. This new religious style, as David S. Reynolds calls it in his study  Beneath the American Renaissance  (p. 15), reshaped not only evangelical writing but also the style of liberal reformers, popular writers, and transcendentalists. 6-James M McPherson, ABRAHAM LINCOLN In honor of the bicentennial of Lincolns birth, renowned Civil War scholar James M. McPherson has written a wonderful brief biography of our 16th President. This book will be a wonderful source for beginners to study Lincoln and will serve as a good framework for larger works, like David Herbert Donalds  Lincoln. This book covered the important aspects of Lincolns life from his birth and childhood in Kentucky and Indiana to his coming to Illinois, to his administration and death. McPherson discussed Lincolns tarnished relationship with his father and his wonderful relationship with his step-mother, which presented a more personal side of the man. Though short, this book does a great job of discussing Lincolns life in the larger context of American history. McPherson summarized the important moments and events during his life and provided a wonderful look at the war and its effect on him. True to his scholarly reputation, McPherson used great sources for this little biography, including the  Collected Works of Lincoln  and  Lincoln at Cooper Union  to name a couple. In addition to using great primary and secondary sources, McPherson provided a bibliographic essay that provided a great synthesis of the historiography of Lincoln and where it may be heading in the coming year. There are many things to like about this book. It is a well-researched, but brief biography that will reach a wide audience. The reputation of James McPherson as a scholar lends great weight to the legitimacy of this biography.  Abraham Lincoln  is a wonderful beginning to the scholarly celebration of the Lincoln bicentennial. - James McPherson has emerged as one of Americas finest historians.  Battle Cry of Freedom  , his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in  The New York Times Book Review  , called history writing of the highest order. In that volume, McPherson gathered in the broad sweep of events, the political, social, and cultural forces at work during the Civil War era. Now, in  Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution  , he offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on aspects of Lincoln and the war that have rarely been discussed in depth. McPherson again displays his keen insight and sterling prose as he examines several critical themes in American history. He looks closely at the Presidents role as Commander-in-Chief of the Union forces, showing how Lincoln forged a national military strategy for victory. He explores the importance of Lincolns great rhetorical skills, uncovering howthrough parables and figurative languagehe was uniquely able to communicate both the purpose of the war and a new meaning of liberty to the people of the North. In another section, McPherson examines the Civil War as a Second American Revolution, describing how the Republican Congress elected in 1860 passed an astonishing blitz of new laws (rivaling the first hundred days of the New Deal), and how the war not only destroyed the social structure of the old South, but radically altered the balance of power in America, ending 70 years of Southern power in the national government. The Civil War was the single most transforming and defining experience in American history, and Abraham Lincoln remains the most important figure in the pantheon of our mythology. These graceful essays, written by one of America are leading historians, offer fresh and unusual perspectives on both. From my analysis point of view the book itself in hardcover is a joy to hold with its compact size, readable typeface and bound-in ribbon bookmark. Whoever worked on this project obviously did it as a labor of love. They worked the details on this one.  You cant honestly compare this work to others like Carl Sandbergs Lincoln or With Malice towards None or even my nice coffee table book of photographs taken of Lincoln. This work COMPLEMENTS those more comprehensive volumes. That said, it is not incomplete. It does an excellent job of hitting the hundreds of high and low points in Lincolns too brief life. The pace moves quickly and precisely along so that you never have the feeling that youre being written down to if thats the phrase Im looking for. This one has NOT been dumbed down for the reader.   Personally I see this smaller volume as an annual read to remind me of just how special Lincoln was as a man and as our nations leader. He was willing, even at great personal cost, to do the right thing on the toughest, most entrenched issues in our nations hist