U.S. History

Here are some background links if you want to learn more...

You can start with a Timeline from The Washington Post

Here's a PBS show titled A Third Rate Burglary

Here is a blurb about the hearings in the Senate to investigate the break-in and cover-up, from an article in Wikipedia.

The hearings held by the Senate Committee, in which Dean was the star witness and in which many other former key administration officials gave dramatic testimony, were broadcast from May 17, 1974 to August 7, 1974, causing devastating political damage to Nixon. Each network maintained coverage of the hearings every third day, starting with ABC on May 17 and ending with NBC on August 7. An estimated 85 percent of Americans with television sets tuned in to at least one portion of the hearings.^[1]

Perhaps the most memorable question of the hearings came when Republican Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee asked "What did the President know, and when did he know it?", which focused attention for the first time on Nixon's personal role in the scandal.

On July 13, 1974, Donald Sanders, the Assistant Minority Counsel, asked Alexander Butterfield if there were any type of recording systems in the White House. Butterfield answered that, though he was reluctant to say so, there was a system in the White House that automatically recorded everything in the Oval Office. The shocking revelation radically transformed the Watergate investigation. The tapes were soon subpoenaed by first special prosecutor Archibald Cox and then the Senate, as they might prove whether Nixon or Dean was telling the truth about key meetings. Nixon refused, citing the principle of executive privilege, and ordered Cox, via Attorney General Richardson, to drop his subpoena.

This is that PBS Jazz site I mentioned in class.

Rita found this great clip of people dancing the Charleston.

Here's some background about the dance's history, from Wikipedia:

The Charleston is a dance named for the city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm is a traditional one from West Africa, popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States of America by a 1923 tune called The Charleston by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade.

While it developed in African-American communities in the USA, the Charleston became a popular dance craze in the wider international community in the 1920s. Despite its black history, Charleston is most frequently associated with white flappers and the speakeasy. Here, these young women would dance alone or together as a way of mocking the "drys," or citizens who supported the Prohibition amendment, as Charleston was then considered quite immoral and provocative.

Charleston was one of the dances from which Lindy Hop developed in the 1930s, though the Breakaway (dance) is popularly considered an intermediary dance form. A slightly different form of Charleston became popular in the 1930s and 40s, and is associated with Lindy Hop. In this later Charleston form, the hot jazz timing of the 1920s Charleston was adapted to suit the swing jazz music of the 30s and 40s. This style of Charleston has many common names, though the most common are 'Lindy Charleston', 'Savoy Charleston', '30s or 40s Charleston' and 'Swing(ing) Charleston'. In both '20s Charleston' and 'Swinging Charleston' the basic step takes 8 counts and was danced either alone or with a partner.

And linking with the present... here's an intersting story about members of U2 helping people in New Orleans who lost their instruments, from the BBC.

Here's a good PBS resource, with some animations that set the scene.

Here's a better map.

Here are the alliances in more detail.

This is a good explanation/diagram of the Schlieffen Plan.

The moral: Try not to fight a two-front war

Here are more resources from Wikipedia.

Casualties from World War I

The influenza virus of 1918 in the United States (see the map)

Worldwide, the flu probably killed 20-40 million people.

When we get to the Great Depression, please listen to at least three interviews, available at this site maintained by Studs Terkel.