November 15

IB 30/35

After your current events quiz today we began our examination of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. We'll finish off this topic on Monday. Please make sure that you keep up with the topics that we're covering in Prescribed Subject 1. Make sure that you know that the areas on which the source-based questions in Paper 1 will focus on are:

• aims of the participants and peacemakers: Wilson and the Fourteen Points
• terms of the Paris Peace Treaties 1919-1920: Versailles, St. Germain, Trianon, Neuilly, S'evres/Lausanne 1923
• the geopolitical and economic impact of the treaties on Europe; the establishment of the mandate system
• enforcement of the provisions of the treaties: U.S. isolationism-the retreat from the Anglo-American Guarantee; disarmament-Washington, London, Geneva conferences
• the League of Nations: effects of the absence of major powers; the principles of collective security and early attempts at peacekeeping (1920-1925)
• the Ruhr Crisis (1923); Locarno and "the Locarno Spring" (1925)
• Depression and threats to international peace and collective security: Manchuria (1931-1933) and Abyssinia (1935-1936).

You'll be writing a Paper 1 during the week of November 25th. We'll have a definite date for you next week.

Social 20-1

We finished off our film study of "Shake Hands with the Devil" today. Your film study answers will be due on Monday. This would be a great weekend to get some work completed on your Unit 2 Research Project, which is due on November 25th. Your Chapter 7-8 Test is on November 28th, I will be posting the study guide on the blog next week.

Social 30-1

We finished watching "Good Night, and Good Luck" today. Your film study questions are due tomorrow. The film study for this is due on Monday, November 18th. "Good Night, and Good Luck" contains a few powerful scenes that I will post here on the blog. Please remember that you have your Chapter 7 Cold War Exam on Tuesday, November 19th. You can find the study guide here (scroll down to find it).



This film explores a lot of issues that are relevant to today. You also have to understand the political climate at the time in the United States to fully understand the movie. Many Americans were drawn to communism in the 1930s due to the effects of the Great Depression, especially academics and those in the labour fields. In the movie they made reference to friends and spouses that had attended meetings long ago. The "Red Scare" caused a huge backlash against those sympathetic to communism or the USSR. Remember, during WWII the Soviet Union was an ally, and many people may have attended meetings out of curiosity. The junior Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy in 1950 charged there were communist sympathizers in the U.S. State Department. Hearings were held, charges were discovered to be unfounded. McCarthy continued accusing communist infiltration in the Democratic Party. McCarthy became the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the investigation of un-American activity (HUAC). On December 2, 1954, McCarthy’s actions were called into question and his accusations were deemed unfounded. On Murrow's show "See it Now", he begins to publicly go after McCarthy. A very public feud develops when McCarthy responds by accusing Murrow of being a communist. Murrow is accused of having been a member of the leftist union Industrial Workers of the World, which Murrow claimed was false.
In this climate of fear and reprisal (which we now refer to as McCarthyism), the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity ultimately strikes a historic blow against McCarthy. Historical footage in the movie also shows the questioning of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party. In the first half of the film Murrow talks about how McCarthy didn't create the political climate and anti-Communist hysteria sweeping the country, but that he capitalized on it for political gain very effectively. As David Strathairn, playing Murrow in the film says, "We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate responsibility." The film is framed by the performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association in 1958, in which Murrow harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public. I found this short video on YouTube that spliced together Edward R. Murrow's speech that appears at the beginning of the film and continues at the end of the film. I find that this speech has relevance even today when you talk about the level of discourse in the media.