Chapter Projects.

This is simply for my use.

Chapter 1
Find a speech by a famous political leader (from any country) and summarize the theme of his/her speech. Include in your analysis:

•What was the political leader’s message?

•Under what circumstances did this leader give the speech (was it wartime, was it during a depression, was it in relation to human rights?).

•Please attach the copy of the speech you found.

Chapter 3
All world leaders have been through a journey to their political office.

•Research a world leader (past or present, but not fictional) and write a two page summary of this person’s journey through political life. When did they become interested in politics? What are their policies?

•Include a picture of this world leader in your paper.

Chapter 4
Almost all countries dedicate monuments to their heroes or leaders. All countries all have a national anthem (a song that unites the people of that country).

•Find 3 monuments and 3 national anthems from 3 different countries that exist in our world today.

•Place these pictures and a copy of the anthem on decorated poster board.

Chapter 5
Windmills are used to generate power for a farm or community.

•Find a picture of a windmill that currently exists.

•Research how a windmill operates and explain its operation in a one-page paper.

•Attach the paper to the picture of the windmill you found.

Chapter 7
Over the centuries, many people have gone on strike against companies and industries. These strikes (especially during the early 1900’s in America) were often brutal and long.

· Find pictures from a strike in the early 1900’s in America.
· Research why this strike started and how it was resolved. Did anyone die? Was anyone hurt?

Chapter 8
Liquor production is a large and profitable industry in the world, especially in Russia, America, and Germany.

•Find a picture of a still (used to manufacture whiskey).

•Explain how a still works and label the picture you found (its parts, its construction).

•Write a one page summary that explains the history of the still and its illegal uses in the 1920’s in America.

Pre-Animal Farm.

So I was feeling in quite the revolutionary mood, and after finding out that Animal Farm was not in fact simply a story about  barnyard animals(just kidding). I decided to research the russian revolution, and here is a chronological order of important events that occured during this revolution.

1905 Jan Bloody Sunday – Tsarist troops open fire on a peaceful demonstration of workers in St Petersburg.

1905 October General Strike sweeps Russia which ends when the Tsar promises a constitution.

1905 December In response to the suppression of the St Petersburg Soviet the Moscow Soviet organises a disastrous insurrection that the government suppresses after five days

1906 The promised parliament, the Duma, is dissolved when it produces an anti government majority even though elected on a narrow franchise.

1911-1914 A new wave of workers unrest ends with the outbreak of the First World War

1917 Feb After several days of demonstrations in Petrograd (formally St Petersburg) the government orders troops to open fire. The next day these troops mutiny. The Tsar abdicates when he hears that Moscow too has joined the Revolution. An agreement is reached between the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government headed by Lvov.

1917 March 12th Abolition of the death Penalty

1917 April 18th Milyukov note. Milyukov tells allies that war aims unchanged.

1917 April 20 – 21 The April Days. Opposition to the Foreign Minister Milyukov boils over due to his refusal to renounce annexations.

1917 May Milyukov resigns. Members of the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries join the government.

1917 June 3 First All-Russia Congress of Workers and Soldiers Soviets opens.

1917 June 18 Offensive launched by Russia against Austria Hungary.

1917 July The July Days. (3rd and 4th) Workers and soldiers in Petrograd demand the Soviet takes power. Sporadic fighting results and the Soviet restores order with troops brought back from the front. Trotsky arrested. Lenin goes into hiding. A new provisional government is set up with Kerensky at it’s head (8th).

1917 July 12th Death Penalty reintroduced for the front.

1917 Aug The Kornilov putsch. An attempt by General Kornilov to establish a right wing dictatorship is a disastrous flop. Chernov the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries resigns from the government denouncing Kerensky for complicity in the plot.

1917 Sept The Bolsheviks win control of the Petrograd Soviet.
In the countryside peasant seizure of land from the gentry continues and reaches the level of near insurrection in Tambov.

1917 Oct The Bolsheviks overthrow the Provisional government on the eve of the meeting of 2nd All-Russia Congress of Soviets.

1917 26/27 Oct Soviet proclamations on land and peace. Death Penalty abolished.

1917 30 Oct Kerensky repulsed outside Petrograd

1917 2 Nov Bolsheviks gain Moscow

1917 7th Nov Ukraine proclaimed independent by the Central Rada.

1917 Nov 12-14 Elections to the Constituent Assembly. Socialist Revolutionaries the largest party.

1917 12 Dec Left-SRs join Sovnarkom

1917 Dec (early) Congress of Socialist Revolutionaries results in victory for the left under Chernov. Likewise Menshevik Congress gives victory to Martov’s Menshevik internationalists.

1918 Jan 5th The Constituent Assembly in which the Bolsheviks are a minority meets for one day before being suppressed. Earlier that day a demonstration is fired on by Bolshevik units and several demonstrators are killed

1918 10-18 Jan 3rd Soviet Congress

1918 Jan 28th Trotsky denounces the German Peace Terms as unacceptable and walks out of the peace negotiations at Brest- Litovsk.

1918 Feb 1/14 Russia adopts Western (Gregorian) calendar.

1918 Feb 18th The Germans invade Russia which is all but defenceless as virtually the entire army has deserted.

1918 March The Bolsheviks accept the dictated peace of Brest-Litovsk. The Left SRs denounce the peace and leave the government.

1918 April 12th Moscow headquarters of the anarchists surrounded and attacked by Bolshevik troops

1918 May 9th Bolshevik troops open fire on workers protesting at food shortages in the town of Kolpino

1918 May (late) The Czechoslovak legion mutinies against the Bolshevik government. Using the railways they are able to sweep away Bolshevik control from vast areas of Russia. The Socialist Revolutionaries support the rising.

1918 July Fifth Soviet Congress. The left SRs assassinate the German ambassador and are in turn crushed by the Bolsheviks.

1918 16 July Gorky’s Novaia Zhizn , the last opposition paper, banned.

1918 23rd Aug 3 ministers of the Siberian Government are arrested by supporter of Mikhailov, the finance Minister, when they arrive in Omsk. They are told to resign their posts. Two agree. The third, Novoselov, refuses and is hacked to death.

1918 22nd Sept Siberian Oblast Duma dismisses Mikhailov and is itself dispersed by Mikhailov

1918 18th November Kolchak, stages a coup against the Directory, the multi party government in Siberia, and establishes a counterrevolutionary despotism.

1918 Dec Perm falls to Kolchak’s Whites

1919 Jan Mensheviks legalised and allowed to publish Vsegda Vpered in Moscow. Era of relative freedom begins in Bolshevik controlled Russia

1919 25 Feb The Cheka closes down Vsegda Vpered. This marks a return to despotic rule by Bolsheviks.

1919 White Armies attack the Bolsheviks from all directions but the Red Army is finally victorious.

1920 25 Apr Poland invades Russia.

1920 19th Aug Start of peasant insurrection in Tambov

1920 14 Nov. Last White army under Wrangel evacuates the Crimea

1921 Peasant unrest sweeps Russia. These risings are suppressed but the New Economic Policy is proclaimed that gives the peasants the right to sell their grain surpluses

1921 1-17 Mar The old Bolshevik stronghold of Kronstadt rises demanding free election to the Soviets but is suppressed.

1921 May Tambov insurrection suppressed

1924 Lenin dies. Trotsky is defeated by a triumvirate of Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev. Though Stalin stays in the background it is he who is the real power as the other two will shortly discover.

Late Modern Anglais.

For those who are really intrigued by the history of english literature, here is my part of the presentation we did on late modern english. Late modern english.

Charles Dickens.

This is a very long biography of Charles Dickens, take what you want from it. Charles Dickens 1812- 1870 “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.”- Charles John Huffman Dickens was born on February 7^th, 1812 in the coastal town of Portsmouth in southern England( which is now known as the Dickens birthplace museum). He was the second of eight children and the son of Elizabeth née Barrow (1789-1863) and John Dickens (c.1785-1851), a naval clerk- Charles’ family moved around a lot due to their economical standpoint and this eventually led to his father’s imprisonment in 1824. His father was imprisoned for three months for debt in the Marshalsea prison. In these times it was custom for the family to go to prison with the father but Charles stayed behind and worked to support his family. At the age of 12 he was working in a blacking warehouse pasting labels on boxes. Later on in that year, Charles began to attend Wellington House Academy where he would begin his education. His rough childhood days were really what marked him and this would have a big impact on his years to come. He was rudely introduced to the world of the working poor, where child labor was extensive and few if any adults spared a kind word for many abandoned or orphaned children. Many of his future characters like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Philip Pirrip would be based on his own experiences. The appalling working conditions, long hours and poor pay typical of the time were harsh. Some even  considered him  to be a spokesman of the time  for the poor. He definitely brought much awareness to their troubles, their oppression and their overall struggle.  - Later on in life, Charles would encounter many jobs such as : a clerk,  a parliamentary news reporter, editor, and a stenographer. This just many small factors and experiences that would mold him into the famous writer he was yet to become. - Dickens’ first book which was titled: Sketches by Boz (Boz being a pseudonym Dickens’ would write under) was published in 1836- which proved to be a very exciting year for Dickens. He married a women named Catherine Hogarth who he would go on to have ten children with, many of which died at birth or did not live to be very old.  - Over the next couple of decades Dickens would go on to write novels that would stun readers not only in Victorian times, but his novels are still around at this present day. Some of his popular novels include:- A Christmas Carol- A message from the sea- A tale of two cities- Oliver Twist- Nicolas Nickleby  - Hard Times- David Copperfield- The Pickwick PapersThese are just a few of his popular novels. He had over 50 works to his name that ranged from fiction, non-fiction and short stories.  - Charles Dickens was regarded as Victorian England’s most beloved and distinctive novelist. His popularity has diminished little since his death and he still  is one of the best known and most read of English authors. At least 180 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on his works help confirm his success. - Dickens novels were among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce spokesman of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Most of his novels revolved around images of poverty and crime and this was explored through his characters and scenes which would usually contrast with the social truths he would reveal. For example in Oliver Twist, Dickens paints the portrait of a young boy who is forced into poverty and he would conclude the novel by making it so that Oliver Twist ends up being the lost nephew of an upper class family. - Dickens’s writing style is regarded as being “florid” and “poetic” with strong comic touch. He would often use his rich imagination, sense of humor and detailed memories to enliven his fictional works. - Charles Dickens was a well known personality and his novels were vastly popular during his lifetime and even in ours. Dickens would always stride to write a great story and to do so he experimented with different themes, characterizations and genres. He was an author who was ahead of his time and his immense popularity due to his superb writing skills gained him an unthinkable amount of popularity. He wrote during the Victorian era yet his novels still remain popular today. Literary critics have their controversial views about Dickens’ work because they believe that his sentimentality blunts his social analysis. His novels would start off strong yet always end in a very heart warming manner which was contradicting what Dickens was in fact trying to show. - Charles Dickens past away in 1870 at the age of 58 in Gad’s Hill place. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

By the way.

This whole time, I have yet to mention anything about ms. Orr. Ms. Orr is Mr. Murrays T.A, and she seems like a pretty cool cat. She is currently teaching us about the history of english literature and I find it quite interesting. Hopefully she will keep bringing new ideas to the classroom in the same way she has been presenting them: in a very fun manner.

P.S. If you are reading all of my latest blogs Mr. Murray, all of the dates are wrong on them. They were posted a long time ago.

The rules of fight club.

I recently saw the movie fight club which was originaly a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk and I thought it would be appropriate to post the rules of fight club on my blog. Blogging is not only a sport, its a lifestyle.

#1 – The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.

#2 – The second rule of Fight Club is, you DO NOT talk about Fight Club.

#3 – If someone says stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.

#4 – Two guys to a fight.

#5 – One fight at a time.

#6 – No shirts, no shoes.

#7 – Fights will go on as long as they have to.

#8 – If this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.

Journal #2: Poem Analysis.

This is my analysis of Fauste by Goethe. This play ties hand in hand with Macbeth because of the very themes underlying them both, that is: Humans will always want more then they can grasp and for this we are all accursed. Faust vs. Macbeth

My verdict.

For the debates, I did not only partake in the debate, but  also judged. I was judging with Jen and Jess and we were judging the debate to prove wether or not Shakespeare did in fact write his own work.  The two teams were comprised of : Jon, David and Alex (affirmative- Shakespeare did write his own work) and Steph, Jessica and Anthony(Negative). When it came down to the bottom line, the negative side argued in a more enjoyable and opiniated way. This is my verdict on the whole debate: Shakespeare Debate.

The Witches set him up.

For my debate, I was with Brent and Sam. The topic at hand was whether or not the witches in Macbeth did in fact set him up. We were on the affirmative side of this topic, this meaning: the witches set Macbeth up. This is the reaserch I came up with for our debate.: Macbeth Debate

Regicide paper

This is my paper regarding regicide and its concequences. For this I had to research the Gunpowder plot and explain the relationship bewteen King Duncan and Macbeth and the overall impacts of regicide on Macbeth. Regicide Essay