The Great Debaters is a drama film/biography based on a true story of Melvin B. Tolson. The Great Debaters is a professor at Wiley College Texas inspiring to form the school’s first national debate team and then proceeding to challenge Harvard for the national championship. The Great Debaters has scenes that show what it’s like to be African - American in the 1930s. For example, on the bus Samantha the whites enjoy the front seat while the African - Americans are forced to sit in the back.This drama film/biography takes place in 1935 at a small historically black college in Marshall, Texas. The characters are Henry Lowe(Nate Parker), Samantha Booke(Jurnee Smollett - Bell), James Farmer(Denzel Whitaker), and Melvin B. Tolson(Denzel Washington).
he enduring debate is a book that was written by John J. Coleman. It outlines the issues and the existing readings in the history of American politics. The politics of America have been defined by a number of great articles from great philosophers. Some of the writers who wrote about the constitution in America include former presidents such as James Madison. Chapter 3 of the book talks about federalism. Federalism is a form of government that advocates for two or more units to contribute equally to the control of one geographical region. Federal government advocates for sharing of power between the central government and the other units of governance. The discussion below is the summary of the readings on federalism.
Gabriel Kolko is one of American historians and authors. He wrote a book named “The Triumph of Conservatism: A Re-interpretation of American History, 1900-1916”, and “Meat Inspection: Theory and Reality” is an article in that book. It introduced about Meat Inspection Act in Progressive Era: the main reasoned why it happened, how it affected on legislation, and how government- especially president Roosevelt- executed the new law. Through this article, Kolko also showed his opinion about supporting “free market” and condemning “political capitalism”.
John Karkauer novel, Into the Wild tells a true life story about a young man
In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind” the authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt express that college campuses in America are dealing with emotional discomfort every day. They point out whether we are too emotional on certain topics in our lives or we need to change something on college campuses to have students feel more comfortable. College student have experienced a lot in life so I think that campuses should help college students through traumatic experiences in their past instead of not acknowledging certain topics and banning them to discuss in class like rape and domestic violence which happens in our everyday life. Colleges need to step up and talk about these things so students can feel more comfortable.
At the beginnings of the 1900s, some leading magazines in the U.S have already started to exhibit choking reports about unjust monopolistic practices, rampant political corruption, and many other offenses; which helped their sales to soar. In this context, in 1904, The Appeal to Reason, a leading socialist weekly, offered Sinclair $500 to prepare an exposé on the meatpacking industry (Cherny). To accomplish his mission, Sinclair headed to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking industry, and started an investigation as he declared“ I spent seven weeks in Packingtown studying conditions there, and I verified every smallest detail, so that as a picture of social conditions the book is as exact as a government report” (Sinclair, The Industrial Republic 115-16). To get a direct knowledge of the work, he sneaked into the packing plants as a pretended worker. He toured the streets of Packingtown, the area near the stockyards where the workers live. He approached people, from different walks of life, who could provide useful information about conditions in Packingtown. At the end of seven weeks, he returned home to New Jersey, shut himself up in a small cabin, wrote for nine months, and produced The Jungle (Cherny).
Fussell believes that the soldier of world war two, "suffers so deeply from contempt and damage to his selfhood, from absurdity and boredom and chickenshit, that some anodyne is necessary", and that the anodyne of choice was alcohol. I would argue that Fussell is correct, especially regarding the connection between the absurdity of the war and the associated damage to soldiers image of themselves as good and patriotic, and the use of alcohol to block out the reality of the war. I think this connection is evident in the interviews presented in Terkel’s "The Good War", especially those of John Garcia and Eddie Costello.
The movie , “The Great Debaters”, was produced by Oprah Winfrey and directed by Denzel Washington, the movie was written based on a true story, the movie revolving around the efforts of a debate coach and his team to be recognized among white debating teams, such as Harvard University. In a time, when the Jim Crow laws were common in the South and lynching mobs were around, the debate team coach Melvin B. Tolson, helped raise his debate team of young black students to the top.
In “War and Massacre” by Thomas Nagel, Nagel argues that there are limits on what can be done to an enemy even its for the sake of overall good. He believes that such an idea is grounded on the principles of Absolutism, where morality is determined by the action itself (deontology). This is contrary to the view of Utilitarianism, which relies on the premise that Morality is determined by its consequences (Consequentialism). Although could one in fact generate such a moral structure around war? Do the ends justify the means in War? Through identifying with a real-life example, I will look to expand on Nagel’s account where an action taken by a country in war would be prohibited even if it were for the overall good.
During 1776, the United States was at war to gain its own independence from the hands of the tyrant King George III and his kingdom. As the fightt continued, the spirits of the U.S. soldiers began to die out as the nightmares of winter crawled across the land. Thomas Paine, a journalist, hoped to encourage the soldiers back into the fight through one of his sixteen pamphlets, “The American Crisis (No.1)”. In order to rebuild the hopes of the downhearted soldiers, Thomas Paine establishes himself as a reliable figure, enrages them with the crimes of the British crown, and, most importantly evokes a sense of culpability.
In “The Great Silence” Ted Chiang presents the reader with the idea that humans and other intelligent species do live on earth. Communication between different species on earth can be difficult because they can’t express their thoughts to one another. According to a possible solution to fermi’s paradox, intelligent life would rather hide than to present themselves to potential enemies. Humans have a hard time trying to find other species to communicate with because they only focus on extraterrestrial life. Humans created the Arecibo observatory to send out signals into space and pick up any signals that could be sent by extraterrestrial life. Although Humans cannot speak directly to other species we are able to communicate with our actions and vibes.
Thus, in a subsequent dialogue with Mr. Tolson he shared with me; that they had won ten debates in a row which proved them to be both emotionally and intellectually independent. Also, throughout their journey they had experienced racism at its worst; witnessing a Negro being burnt alive in the middle of the road on the way to one of their debate competition. I firmly believe that experiencing this helped to equip them with the emotional and life experience to draw from during their speech. Having experiencing this scared them for life. Nevertheless, it serves them as a grim reminder of the heights to which racism has climaxed to in this town of Marshall, Texas. This is something they have to live with and that is what makes them
During the Second Industrial Revolution two philosophies combated each other on a global scale. Laissez-Fair economics had ruled for the last few centuries and had created many prosperous nations but abuses of power by wealthy men had turned public opinion against it. Ever since its creation, Socialism begged to be placed head to head with Capitalism and it had finally gotten its chance. Laissez-Fair economics and Socialism both have their pros and cons when implemented in society. The battle between these two ideological works its way throughout society alternating between the protests and debates in the U.S. today to the great terror of the Cold War.
In Philip K. Dick’s science-fiction short story, "Fair Game”, Professor Anthony Douglas is suddenly pursued by aliens with unknown intentions until finally being captured and presumably eaten. Grappling with his pursuers attempts to lure him to his death, Douglas impulsively assumes his superior intellect is the target rather than his plump figure, demonstrating the distorting influence hubris has on perception. Professor Douglas’ glaring conceit contributes to the story’s ironic resolution through its distortion of Douglas’ assumption about his purpose, feelings towards his predicament and prediction about his life after his abduction.
This paper aims to investigate some aspects of postcolonialism, feminism, as well as symbolism, allegories and metaphors. For this purpose I have chosen the novel Disgrace (1999) by J.M Coetzee. The story takes place in Cape Town, in post-apartheid South Africa. David Lurie is a white man and works as a professor of English at a technical university. He is a ‘communication’ lecturer and he teaches ‘romantic literature’ too. Lurie is divorced two times already and one gets the impression that he is not really satisfied with his job. His "disgrace" comes when he makes attempts to seduce Melanie Isaacs, one of his students, against her will. This affair is then remitted to the school authorities and a special committee is convoked to judge his actions.
Before engaging in the debates with Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln was relatively unknown in the political world and was just beginning his career in politics. Abraham Lincoln’s reputation was just starting to grow, and his life was about to make a drastic change. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 were a turning point in Abraham Lincoln’s political career.