282 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2025
    1. The British, facing Germany alone since the fall of France in 1940, sent aid to the Soviet Union in the form of weapons, food, and materials — much of it imported from the still neutral United States.

      How interesting that Britain (and the other Allies) supported the USSR during WWII. How soon after the end of the war did they stop supporting them (or... maybe they didn't)? What iis their relationship like today?

    2. the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact included a secret protocol made public after the Cold War that divided territories of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania into German and Soviet "spheres of influence."

      Explain this further. What does the term "sphere of influence" mean? What kinds of activities would have taken place as "influence?"

    3. Scott worked in Magnitogorsk in an iron and steel plant from 1932 to 1937. He chronicled his experiences in the Soviet Union in Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia’s City of Steel, published in 1940.

      Tell us more! Who was Scott? Why did he choose to work in Russia? When did he return to the US (or maybe he didn't?)?

    4. Walter Duranty, the then Moscow Bureau Chief of the New York Times, ignored and even denied the famine despite overwhelming eyewitness testimony. In August 1933, Duranty reported, “Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda,” instead saying that there was a “food shortage” in the famine regions that have “caused heavy loss of life.”

      Fascinating, tell us more. Who was Walter Duranty, and what all did he do during his career? Why was he promoting Stalinist propaganda?

    5. Nonetheless, Henry Ford began talks about licensing vehicle production in Soviet Russia, a deal that would result in the construction of a massive Ford assembly line plant in the central Russian city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) in 1929.

      Tell us more! Ar there still Ford manufacturing facilities in Russia? If so, what do they produce?

  2. Feb 2025
    1. Some notable African American personages who studied at the Communist University in the 1920s were Claude McKay, Harry Haywood, Lovett Fort-Whiteman, and George Padmore, among others.

      Fascinating! Please give us a biographical sketch of each of the African Americans named here. What did they do before and after after leaving the university?

    2. Fulfilling its promise to withdraw from World War I, Lenin’s Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, officially ending its participation in the war and thus its alliance with the United States and the Western allies. The treaty further alienated Lenin’s government from the West and its terms forced the Soviet republic to cede the Baltic states to Germany and other lands to the Ottoman Turks, as well as grant independence to Ukraine.

      Information only. Adds more context to why Russia distrusts(ed) the West.

  3. Jan 2025
    1. The Root Commission, led by former U.S. secretary of state and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elihu Root, arrived in revolutionary Russia to arrange cooperation with a “democratic” Russia and pressured the Provisional Government to remain in the war.

      Tell us more! Who was Elihu Root, what was the Root Commission, and were they successfull in their mission?

      Cite your source(s)!

  4. Dec 2024
    1. Grant told Tsar Alexander II, that “although the two governments are very opposite in their character, the great majority of the American people are in sympathy with Russia,” which good feeling he hoped would long continue. Grant retained fond memories of his trip to Russia in his retirement.

      For information only.

    2. Russia was among the first countries to present official condolences upon the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The message came in a letter on behalf of the Tsar from Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, Russia’s foreign minister from 1856–1882, who wrote, “it is easy for me to realize in advance the impression which the news of this odious crime will cause his Imperial Majesty to experience.”

      For information only.

  5. Nov 2024
    1. 100-mile zone of Russian control over water off the coast of its northwest American territories to protect its shores from Americans smuggling to natives

      Ok... so this is an extra credit question worth 50 points. How much do you know about international waterways and how they are regulated? Why do countries care about this? Explain the current agreement between the USA and Russia. Since 1821, how many times have the two countries had a disagreement related to this?

      Cite your sources!

    2. Shareholders of the Russian-American Company (RAC) ordered Ivan Kuskov, a RAC employee in Alaska, to establish a southern base at Fort Ross near Bodega Bay in California, which was at that time a territory of Spain, France’s ally against Russia in the Napoleonic wars. It was the furthest south Russia would move in North America.

      Information only.

  6. Oct 2024
    1. Laws vary from state to state, with some requiring merely a fee or a few thousand signatures, and others requiring tens of thousands of signatures gathered under tight deadline pressure, along with other administrative hurdles.

      What are Illinois laws on gaining access (being included) on a presidential ballot? Cite your source(s).

  7. Sep 2024
    1. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

      Meliora #29 -- how does the US measure up? Do we meet this standard? Explain why or why not.

    2. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

      Meliora #28 -- how would you define and measure tthis? Is the US meeeting this standard? Provide evidence, including sources.

    3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

      Meliora #25 -- where in the US constitution is this guaranteed?

    4. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

      Meliora #18 -- wha? What do you think this actually means? Find example(s) and cite them.

    5. no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

      Meliora #6 -- is this always respected? If not, find a specific example and cite the source.

  8. Oct 2023
    1. On this day the boy feels successful, but on the next, his teachers repeatedly beat him for infractions such as tardiness, talking, and poor handwriting. In the end, the boy’s father invites the headmaster to dinner and gives him gifts and money. Appeased (and bought off, although such payments may have been expected), the headmaster declares to the boy: “You have carried out well the school’s activities. You are a man of learning!”

      Bribery and payoffs existed even back then!

    2. Working harder could lead to a prosperous life composing legal documents—or even writing correspondence for a royal court. Those who persevered could become scholars with knowledge of mathematics, medicine, religious ritual, divination, laws, and mythology, or even authors of literature

      Who would you consider "scribes" in today's world, based on this description, #Meliora students? One example per student, no duplicates!

    3. This tablet reflects bureaucratic accounting, but similar lists were used in the following centuries by individuals to keep track of personal property and business agreements

      Today, what do we use to keep track of personal property and business agreements, #Meliora students? First come, first served, no duplicates!

    4. At about the same time, or a little later, the Egyptians were inventing their own form of hieroglyphic writing.

      Why do you think this happened, #Meliora students? Why did this technological advancement take place at the same time in multiple cultures? Cite the source(s) that you use.

  9. Apr 2023
    1. Art, like speech, is a means of communication, and therefore of progress, i.e. of the movement of humanity forward towards perfection.

      What do you think, Meliora students? Has art progressed toward "perfection?" Provide example(s).

    2. The third consequence of the perversion of art is the perplexity produced in the minds of children and of plain folk. Among people not perverted by the false theories of our society, among workers and children, there exists a very definite conception of what people may be respected 179and praised for. In the minds of peasants and children the ground for praise or eulogy can only be either physical strength: Hercules, the heroes and conquerors; or moral, spiritual, strength: Sakya Muni giving up a beautiful wife and a kingdom to save mankind, Christ going to the cross for the truth he professed, and all the martyrs and the saints. Both are understood by peasants and children. They understand that physical strength must be respected, for it compels respect; and the moral strength of goodness an unperverted man cannot fail to respect, because all his spiritual being draws him towards it. But these people, children and peasants, suddenly perceive that besides those praised, respected, and rewarded for physical or moral strength, there are others who are praised, extolled, and rewarded much more than the heroes of strength and virtue, merely because they sing well, compose verses, or dance. They see that singers, composers, painters, ballet-dancers, earn millions of roubles and receive more honour than the saints do: and peasants and children are perplexed.

      A fascinating observation and assertion, Meliora students. Do you agree with Tolstoy? Explain and provide example(s).

    3. The art of the future, therefore, will not be poorer, but infinitely richer in subject-matter. And the form of the art of the future will also not be inferior to the present forms of art, but infinitely superior to them. Superior, not in the sense of having a refined and complex technique, but in the sense of the capacity briefly, simply, and clearly to transmit, without any superfluities, the feeling which the artist has experienced and wishes to transmit.

      Tolstoy wrote this essay about 125 years ago. Do you believe his prediction to be true, Meliora students? Explain.

    4. True science investigates and brings to human perception such truths and such knowledge as the people of a given time and society consider most important. Art transmits these truths from the region of perception to the region of emotion.

      What do you think, Meliora students? Are science and art intertwined as Tolstoy describes here? Explain and provide an example(s).

    5. Therefore this third condition—sincerity—is the most important of the three. It is always complied with in peasant art, and this explains why such art always acts so 155powerfully; but it is a condition almost entirely absent from our upper-class art, which is continually produced by artists actuated by personal aims of covetousness or vanity.

      What do you think, Meliora students? Does an artist need to be "sincere" in order to create powerful art? Explain.

    6. If a man is infected by the author’s condition of soul, if he feels this emotion and this union with others, then the object which has effected this is art; but if there be no such infection, if there be not this union with the author and with others who are moved by the same work—then it is not art. And not only is infection a sure sign of art, but the degree of infectiousness is also the sole measure of excellence in art.

      So, Meliora students, if we take this to a certain level of abstraction, this statement implies that if we had enough art touting world peace that we would be "infected" to this condition as humankind. What do you think? Explain fully.

    7. We think the feelings experienced by people of our day and our class are very important and varied; but in reality almost all the feelings of people of our class amount to but three very insignificant and simple feelings—the feeling of pride, the feeling of sexual desire, and the feeling of weariness of life. These three feelings, with their outgrowths, form almost the only subject-matter of the art of the rich classes.

      What do you think, Meliora students? Are these the only feelings, or are there others? Explain fully and provide specific examples (works of art) of any other feelings that are expressed through art.

    8. what distinguishes a work of art from all other mental activity is just the fact that its language is understood by all, and that it infects all without distinction.

      So, Meliora students, what do you think of this claim? Explain fully.

    9. While art was as yet undivided, and only religious art was valued and rewarded while indiscriminate art was left unrewarded, there were no counterfeits of art, or, if any existed, being exposed to the criticism of the whole people, they quickly disappeared. But as soon as that division occurred, and the upper classes acclaimed every kind of art as good if only it afforded them pleasure, and began to reward such art more highly than any other social activity, immediately a large number of people devoted themselves to this activity, and art assumed quite a different character and became a profession.

      What do you think, Meliora students? Agree? Disagree? Explain fully.

    10. Wagner wishes that musical art should submit to dramatic art, and that both should appear in full strength. But this is impossible, for every work of art, if it be a true one, is an expression of intimate feelings of the artist, which are quite exceptional, and not like anything else.

      What do you think, Meliora students? Do you agree or disagree with Tolstoy? Explain (you may want to listen to some Wagner music as you do so :-)).

    11. If it is true that art is an activity by means of which one man having experienced a feeling intentionally transmits it to others, then we have inevitably to admit further, that of all that among us is termed the art of the upper classes—of all 144those novels, stories, dramas, comedies, pictures, sculptures, symphonies, operas, operettas, ballets, etc., which profess to be works of art—scarcely one in a hundred thousand proceeds from an emotion felt by its author, all the rest being but manufactured counterfeits of art in which borrowing, imitating, effects, and interestingness replace the contagion of feeling.

      I wonder how you feel about this assertion, Meliora students? Are the examples of art that borrow, imitate, etc. from others "counterfeit?" Why or why not? Provide specific example(s) of art pieces (any format -- visual art, book, music, etc.) to support your point of view.

    12. It is true that their foremost thinkers—Socrates, Plato, Aristotle—felt that goodness may happen not to coincide with beauty. Socrates expressly subordinated beauty to goodness; Plato, to unite the two conceptions, spoke of spiritual beauty; while Aristotle demanded from art that it should have a moral influence on people (κάθαρσις). 62But, notwithstanding all this, they could not quite dismiss the notion that beauty and goodness coincide.

      No question here, Meliora students, just highlighting this as a short synopsis of what these three philosophers thought about art and beauty, and their relationship.

    13. The artists of the Middle Ages, vitalised by the same source of feeling—religion—as the mass of the people, and transmitting, in architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry or drama, the feelings and states of mind they experienced, were true artists; and their activity, founded on the highest conceptions accessible to their age and 57common to the entire people, though, for our times a mean art, was, nevertheless a true one, shared by the whole community.

      What is your reaction to this, Meliora students? Was the artistic representation during the Middle Ages, as well as the reaction of the "entire people" universally shared?

      Identify one work of art (any form of art) that serves as an example of your point of view, and explain how that work was either generally admired by "everyone" or had different reactions from different people.

    14. all that is being lived through by his contemporaries is accessible to him, as well as the feelings experienced by men thousands of years ago, and he has also the possibility of transmitting his own feelings to others

      What do you think, Meliora students? Do you think the artist's feelings are transmitted accurately generation over generation? What factors may alter how one generation perceives coffee compared to an earlier or later generation?

    15. Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression.

      What do you think, Meliora students? Do you feel like you "enter into a certain kind of relationship" with whomever creates each work of art that you observe? Explain fully.

    16. And the reason of this is that the conception of art has been based on the conception of beauty.

      What is your reaction to this statement, Meliora students? How was your conception of art formed, and how is it related to your idea of beauty?

    17. According to Véron (1825-1889), art is the manifestation of emotion transmitted externally by a combination of lines, forms, colours, or by a succession of movements, sounds, or words subjected to certain rhythms.

      What say ye, Meliora students? Do you agree or disagree? Provide example(s) to support your point of view.

    18. “That which is beautiful is harmonious and proportionable, what is harmonious and proportionable is true, and what is at once both beautiful and true is of consequence agreeable and good.”[13] Beauty, he taught, is recognised by the mind only. God is fundamental beauty; beauty and goodness proceed from the same fount.

      "beauty and goodness proceed from the same fount." What do you think, Meliora students? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Provide examples (e.g. a piece of art that is "good" but not "beautiful," or vice-versa) to support your position.

    19. With reference to the manifestations of beauty, Baumgarten considers that the highest embodiment of beauty is seen by us in nature, and he therefore thinks that the highest aim of art is to copy nature. (This position also is directly contradicted by the conclusions of the latest æstheticians.)

      What do you think, Meliora students? Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain fully.

    20. In Russian, by the word krasota (beauty) we mean only that which pleases the sight. And though latterly people have begun to speak of “an ugly deed,” or of “beautiful music,” it is not good Russian. A Russian of the common folk, not knowing foreign languages, will not understand you if you tell him that a man who has given his last coat to another, or done anything similar, has acted “beautifully,” that a man who has cheated another has done an “ugly” action, or that a song is “beautiful.” In Russian a deed may be kind and good, or unkind and bad. Music may be pleasant and good, or unpleasant and bad; but there can be no such thing as “beautiful” or “ugly” music.

      What do you think about this, Meliora students? How much do you think language influences our perception of "beauty" or "art?" Which came first? Find an example of a linguist's interpretation and summarize it.

    21. But without even asking the ordinary man what differentiates the “good” ballet and the “graceful” operetta from their opposites (a question he would have much difficulty in answering), if you ask him whether the activity of costumiers and hairdressers, who ornament the figures and faces of the women for the ballet and the operetta, is art; or the activity of Worth, the dressmaker; of scent-makers and men-cooks, then he will, in most cases, deny that their activity belongs to the sphere of art.

      What do you think, Meliora students? In this scenario, which of the occupations and activities would you consider "art?" Why?

    22. the labourers produce food for themselves and also food that the cultured class accept and consume, but that the artists seem too often to produce their spiritual food for the cultured only—at any rate that a singularly small share seems to reach the country labourers who work to supply the bodily food! Even were the “division of labour” shown to be a fair one, the “division of products” seems remarkably one-sided.

      What do you think, Meliora students? What are your observations about "division of labor" in our society currently? What is being done, or could be done, to ensure all people, regardless of their "class" have access to art and culture?

    23. But my companion (who prided herself on being an artist) remarked with conscious superiority, that from an artist’s point of view the subject was of no consequence. The pictures being very well executed were artistic, and therefore worthy of attention and study. Morality had nothing to do with art.

      What do you think, Meliora students?

      1. Is all art "worthy of attention and study?" Why or why not?
      2. Where are the boundaries? (If there are any)
      3. Which western philosophers would agree with your viewpoint? How do you know?
  10. Feb 2023
    1. McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995) also ruled that individuals can publish anonymous criticisms of political issues,

      Today, countless people post (typically online) vicious criticisms on a wide range of topics. Should anonymity always be protected? Meliora students, what do you think would be different about our public discourse if we were required to identify ourselves each time we posted an opinion/criticism?

    2. In Near v. Minnesota (1931), the Supreme Court set a strong presumption against prior restraint of publication

      I urge Meliora students to read the linked article summarizing Near v. Minnesota. "Jay Near was the muckraking editor of The Saturday Press. In fall 1927, Near published a series of articles attacking several Minneapolis city officials for dereliction of duty." A very brief summary of the ruling is that the state could not shut down Near's publication just because they didn't like it. They could sue for libel, but had to allow the newspaper to print "whatever" in honor of freedom of the press.

      Meliora students, please find a freedom of the press case from the last decade, summarize it and provide a link. No duplicates!

    3. Yellow journalism usually refers to sensationalistic or biased stories that newspapers present as objective truth.

      This article refers to newspapers. Although much news is now consumed from social media platforms, this form of journalism persists. Meliora students, please find a recent (within the last two years) article/topic that is an example of "yellow journalism." What did the story claim, and what was falsified or exaggerated? Include a link to the story.

  11. Oct 2022
    1. they cannot conceive how God can have an attribute of justice, and show mercy to us because it pleased Him to make us black—which color, Mr. Jefferson calls unfortunate!!!!

      Meliora students, when (in what document(s)) did Thomas Jefferson name black skin color as "unfortunate?" What was the context of his statement? How does that square with "all men are created equal?" @Bella, what do you think? Was Jefferson a "racist?" Was he a visionary? Was he none of the above? He is a complex historical character; I look forward to your pondered answer and your cited sources.

    2. Document Excerpt

      Meliora students, why do you think the Constitution Center chose these particular excerpts from Walker's 76-page document? @Everyone, without reading it in detail, scan through the whole pamphlet and identify another segment you think should have been included.

    3. Remember, to let the aim of your labors among your brethren, and particularly the youths, be the dissemination of education and religion

      Meliora students, how has this played out since 1829? @Marilyn, who have been the touchstones across the past 200 years of people who have responded to this call? Cite your sources.