1.
New York (magazine)
–
New York is a bi-weekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite, and established itself as a cradle of New Journalism. Since its redesign and relaunch in 2004, the magazine has won more National Magazine Awards than any other publication and it was one of the first dual-audience lifestyle magazines, and its format and style have been emulated by some other American regional city publications. In 2009, its paid and verified circulation was 408,622 and its websites—NYmag. com, Vulture. com, The Cut, and Grub Street—receive visits from more than 14 million users per month. New York began life in 1963 as the Sunday-magazine supplement of the New York Herald Tribune newspaper, edited first by Sheldon Zalaznick and then by Clay Felker, the magazine showcased the work of several talented Tribune contributors, including Tom Wolfe, Barbara Goldsmith, and Jimmy Breslin. Soon after the Tribune went out of business in 1966–67, Felker and his partner, Milton Glaser, gerald Goldsmith, and reincarnated the magazine as a stand-alone glossy. Joining them was managing editor Jack Nessel, Felkers number-two at the Herald Tribune, New Yorks first issue was dated April 8,1968. Among the by-lines were many names from the magazines earlier incarnation, including Breslin, Wolfe, and George Goodman. Within a year, Felker had assembled a team of contributors who would come to define the magazines voice, Breslin became a regular, as did Gloria Steinem, who wrote the city-politics column, and Gail Sheehy. Harold Clurman was hired as the theater critic, Alan Rich covered the classical-music scene. Gael Greene, writing under the rubric The Insatiable Critic, reviewed restaurants, Woody Allen contributed a few stories for the magazine in its early years. The magazines regional focus and innovative illustrations inspired numerous imitators across the country, the office for the magazine was on the top floor of the old Tammany Hall clubhouse at 207 East 32nd Street, which Glaser owned. Wolfe, a contributor to the magazine, wrote a story in 1970 that captured the spirit of the magazine, Radical Chic. The article described a benefit party for the Black Panthers, held in Leonard Bernsteins apartment, in a collision of high culture, in 1972, New York also launched Ms. magazine, which began as a special issue. New West, a magazine on New Yorks model that covered California life, was also published for a few years in the 1970s. As the 1970s progressed, Felker continued to broaden the magazines editorial vision beyond Manhattan, covering Richard Nixon, twenty years later, Cohn admitted that hed done no more than drive by Odysseys door, and that hed made the rest up. It was a problem of what Wolfe, in 1972, had labeled The New Journalism. In 1976, the Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch bought the magazine in a hostile takeover, a succession of editors followed, including Joe Armstrong and John Berendt
2.
Tom Wolfe
–
His first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, was met with critical acclaim, became a commercial success, and was adapted as a major motion picture. Wolfe was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Louise, a landscape designer, Wolfe grew up on Gloucester Road in the historic Richmond North Side neighborhood of Sherwood Park. He recounts some of his memories of growing up there in a foreword to a book about the nearby historic Ginter Park neighborhood. Wolfe was student council president, editor of the newspaper and a star baseball player at St. Christophers School. Wolfe majored in English and practiced his writing outside the classroom as well and he was the sports editor of the college newspaper and helped found a literary magazine, Shenandoah. Of particular influence was his professor Marshall Fishwick, a teacher of American studies educated at Yale, more in the tradition of anthropology than literary scholarship, Fishwick taught his classes to look at the whole of a culture, including those elements considered profane. The very title of Wolfes undergraduate thesis, A Zoo Full of Zebras, Anti-Intellectualism in America, evinced his fondness for words, Wolfe graduated cum laude in 1951. Wolfe had continued playing baseball as a pitcher and had begun to play semi-professionally while still in college, in 1952 he earned a tryout with the New York Giants but was cut after three days, which Wolfe blamed on his inability to throw good fastballs. Wolfe abandoned baseball and instead followed his professor Fishwicks example, enrolling in Yale Universitys American studies doctoral program and his PhD thesis was titled The League of American Writers, Communist Organizational Activity Among American Writers, 1929–1942. In the course of his research, Wolfe interviewed many writers, including Malcolm Cowley, Archibald MacLeish, and James T. Farrell. A biographer remarked on the thesis, Reading it, one sees what has been the most baleful influence of education on many who have suffered through it, it deadens all sense of style. His thesis was rejected but it was finally accepted after he rewrote it in an objective rather than a subjective style. Upon leaving Yale he wrote a friend explaining through expletives his personal opinions about his thesis, though Wolfe was offered teaching jobs in academia, he opted to work as a reporter. In 1956, while preparing his thesis, Wolfe became a reporter for the Springfield Union in Springfield. Wolfe finished his thesis in 1957 and in 1959 was hired by The Washington Post, Wolfe has said that part of the reason he was hired by the Post was his lack of interest in politics. The Posts city editor was amazed that Wolfe preferred cityside to Capitol Hill and he won an award from The Newspaper Guild for foreign reporting in Cuba in 1961 and also won the Guilds award for humor. While there, he experimented with fiction-writing techniques in feature stories, in 1962, Wolfe left Washington for New York City, taking a position with the New York Herald Tribune as a general assignment reporter and feature writer. The editors of the Herald Tribune, including Clay Felker of the Sunday section supplement New York magazine, during the 1962 New York City newspaper strike, Wolfe approached Esquire magazine about an article on the hot rod and custom car culture of Southern California
3.
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine
–
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine is a 1976 book by Tom Wolfe, consisting of eleven essays and one short story that Wolfe wrote between 1967 and 1976. It includes the essay in which he coined the term the Me Decade to refer to the 1970s, in addition to the stories, Wolfe also illustrated the book. Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine was Wolfes third collection of essays and short stories, following The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby in 1965, Wolfes 1970 book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers contained two lengthy essays and is not generally considered a collection. Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine was published in 1976 by Wolfes regular publisher Farrar, the subjects of Wolfes essays were considered less original than his previous efforts. When Wolfe wrote about the culture of surf gangs in The Pump House Gang or about stock car racing in The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby it was untrod ground, the primary theme of Wolfes essays is the struggle for social status. Wolfe is particularly critical of the intelligentsia and the liberal elite and his contempt of distinguished writers was evident in an essay about an established West Side author discussing his cash flow at length. Wolfe continued to denounce what he saw as faux-sympathy for poor people coming from a liberal elite. Wolfe terms the status-driven era he chronicled the Me Decade, the longest essay, however, is The Truest Sport, Jousting with Sam and Charlie, about life aboard an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1967. Wolfe writes about the personnel of the aircraft in heroic terms, according to The New York Review of Books, another common theme throughout all the books is the effect the Vietnam War had on American society. The lone short story in the book, The Commercial is an essay of a baseball player who is given an advertising deal. Often referred to as New Journalism, Wolfes characteristic writing style, characterized by florid prose, Wolfe compared himself to British author Evelyn Waugh, who was known for his dark comedy
4.
Jimmy Carter
–
James Earl Jimmy Carter Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center, Carter was a Democrat who was raised in rural Georgia. He was a farmer who served two terms as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967, and one as the Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He was elected President in 1976, defeating incumbent President Gerald Ford in a close election. On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all evaders of the Vietnam War drafts, during Carters term as President, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, were established. He established an energy policy that included conservation, price control. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. On the economic front he confronted persistent stagflation, a combination of inflation, high unemployment. The end of his tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. In response to the Soviet move he ended détente, escalated the Cold War, Carter won the 1980 primary with 51. 13% of the vote but lost the general election in an electoral landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan, who won 44 of 50 states. His presidency has drawn medium-low responses from historians, with many considering him to have accomplished more with his post-presidency work and he set up the Carter Center in 1982 as his base for advancing human rights. He has also traveled extensively to conduct negotiations, observe elections. Additionally, Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project, since surpassing Herbert Hoover in September 2012, he has been the longest-retired president in American history. He is also the first president to mark the 40th anniversary of his election and inauguration, in reference to current political views, he has criticized some of Israels actions and policies in regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has advocated for a two-state solution. James Earl Carter, Jr. was born on October 1,1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains and he is a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in Virginia in 1635. Numerous generations of Carters lived as farmers in Georgia. Carter is also a descendant of Thomas Cornell, an ancestor of Cornell Universitys founder and of Richard Nixon, Plains was a boomtown of 600 people at the time of Carters birth. His father, James Earl Carter, Sr. was a local businessman who ran a general store and had begun to invest in farmland
5.
Yamaha Corporation
–
It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the worlds largest piano manufacturing company. Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha as Nippon Gakki Company, Limited in Hamamatsu, the companys origins as a musical instrument manufacturer are still reflected today in the groups logo—a trio of interlocking tuning forks. The YA-1, of which 125 were built in the first year of production, was named in honour of the founder and it was a 125cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, street bike patterned after the German DKW RT125. In 1955, the success of the YA-1 resulted in the founding of Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd, in 1989, Yamaha shipped the worlds first CD recorder. Yamaha purchased Sequential Circuits in 1988 and it bought a majority stake of competitor Korg in 1987, which was bought out by Korg in 1993. In the late 1990s, Yamaha released a series a portable battery operated keyboards under the PSS, in 2002, Yamaha closed down its archery product business that was started in 1959. Six archers in five different Olympic Games won gold medals using their products and it acquired German audio software manufacturers Steinberg in January 2005, from Pinnacle Systems. K. Ltd, the UK piano sales & manufacturing arm was unaffected, on December 20,2007, Yamaha made an agreement with the Austrian Bank BAWAG P. S. K. Group BAWAG to purchase all the shares of Bösendorfer, intended to place in early 2008. Yamaha intends to continue manufacturing at the Bösendorfer facilities in Austria, the acquisition of Bösendorfer was announced after the NAMM Show in Los Angeles, on January 28,2008. As of February 1,2008, Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH operates as a subsidiary of Yamaha Corp, Yamaha Corporation is also widely known for their music teaching programme that began in the 1950s. Yamaha electronic have proven to be successful, popular, and respected products, for example, the Yamaha YPG-625 was given the award Keyboard of the Year and Product of the Year in 2007 from The Music and Sound Retailer magazine. Other noteworthy Yamaha electronics include the SHS-10 Keytar, a keytar which offered MIDI output features normally found on much more expensive keyboards. Other companies in the Yamaha group include, Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH, Vienna, Yamaha Motor Company Yamaha Fine Technologies Co. Ltd. Yamaha Golf Cart Company Yamaha Livingtec Corporation Yamaha Metanix Corporation Yamaha Music Communications Co. Ltd, Yamaha Pro Audio Kandō is a Japanese word used by Yamaha to describe their corporate mission. Kandō in translation describes the sensation of profound excitement and gratification derived from experiencing supreme quality, some reasonable English synonyms are emotionally touching or emotionally moving. The Yamaha Music Foundation is an established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamaha Corporation in 1954, Yamaha expanded into many diverse businesses and product groups
6.
Southern Baptist Convention
–
The Southern Baptist Convention is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the worlds largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States and this also makes it the second-largest Christian body in the United States, after the Catholic Church. Members at a convention held in Augusta, Georgia, created the SBC in 1845. After the American Civil War, another split occurred when most freedmen set up independent congregations, others joined new African-American denominations, chiefly the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Since the 1940s, the SBC has moved away from some of its regional and historical identification, especially since the late twentieth century, the SBC has sought new members among minority groups and become much more diverse. In addition, while still heavily concentrated in the Southern US and it should be noted that some State convention comprise more than one State - for example the New England Baptist Convention is comprise of the six New England states. North and South Dakota comprise the Dakota Baptist Convention, in addition - Northern New Jersey is part of the Baptist Convention of New York and Southern New Jersey is part of the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania. At its annual convention in 2012, the SBC elected as president Fred Luter Jr. the first African American to hold the position, an SBC presidential term is for one year, with a term limit of two terms. Each president is elected by Messengers sent by local church at the SBC annual meeting. Since Luter ran unopposed, per the by-laws of the convention, because of the historic nature of the vote, the assembly was asked to rise in support of the vote, which the messengers did enthusiastically. Luter was re-elected president for a term at the 2013 meeting. The current president in 2016 is Steve Gaines, Southern Baptists emphasize the significance of the individual conversion experience which is affirmed by the person having complete immersion in water for a believers baptism. As a result, they reject the practice of infant baptism, SBC churches are evangelical in doctrine and practice. Specific beliefs based on biblical interpretation can vary due to their congregational polity which allows autonomy to each individual local church. Most early Baptists in the British colonies came from England in the 17th century, the oldest Baptist church in the South, First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina, was organized in 1682 under the leadership of William Screven. A Baptist church was formed in Virginia in 1715 through the preaching of Robert Norden, the Baptists operated independently of the state-established Anglican churches in the South, at a time when non-Anglicans were prohibited from holding political office. By 1740, there were about eight Baptist churches in the colonies of Virginia, North Carolina, as a result, black congregations and churches were founded in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia before the American Revolution. Some black congregations kept their independence even after whites tried to exercise more authority after the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831
7.
Alchemy
–
Alchemy is a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practiced throughout Europe, Egypt and Asia. It aimed to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects, the perfection of the human body and soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical magnum opus and, in the Hellenistic and western tradition, the achievement of gnosis. In Europe, the creation of a stone was variously connected with all of these projects. In English, the term is limited to descriptions of European alchemy, but similar practices existed in the Far East, the Indian subcontinent. In Europe, following the 12th-century Renaissance produced by the translation of Islamic works on science, Islamic and European alchemists developed a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory, terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use today. However, they continued antiquitys belief in four elements and guarded their work in secrecy including cyphers and their work was guided by Hermetic principles related to magic, mythology, and religion. The latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists, and some philosophers, the subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts. The word alchemy was borrowed from Old French alquemie, alkimie, taken from Medieval Latin alchymia, the Arabic word is borrowed from Late Greek chēmeía, chēmía, with the agglutination of the Arabic definite article al-. This ancient Greek word was derived from the early Greek name for Egypt, Chēmia, based on the Egyptian name for Egypt, the Medieval Latin form was influenced by Greek chymeia meaning ‘mixture’ and referring to pharmaceutical chemistry. Alchemy covers several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents and these traditions general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and genetic relationships. It is still a question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other. Here, elements of technology, religion, mythology, and Hellenistic philosophy, each with their own much longer histories, Zosimos of Panopolis wrote the oldest known books on alchemy, while Mary the Jewess is credited as being the first non-fictitious Western alchemist. They wrote in Greek and lived in Egypt under Roman rule, mythology – Zosimos of Panopolis asserted that alchemy dated back to Pharaonic Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class, though there is little to no evidence for his assertion. Alchemical writers used Classical figures from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology to illuminate their works and these included the pantheon of gods related to the Classical planets, Isis, Osiris, Jason, and many others. The central figure in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus and his name is derived from the god Thoth and his Greek counterpart Hermes. Hermes and his caduceus or serpent-staff, were among alchemys principal symbols, according to Clement of Alexandria, he wrote what were called the forty-two books of Hermes, covering all fields of knowledge. The Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice and these writings were collected in the first centuries of the common era. Technology – The dawn of Western alchemy is sometimes associated with that of metallurgy, Many writings were lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria
8.
The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening
–
The essay was first published as the cover story in the August 23,1976 issue of New York magazine and later appeared in his collection Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine. Wolfe asserts the disappearance of the class he calls the proletariat. He cites the economic boom of postwar America as affording the average American a new sense of self-determination and individuation associated with the economic prosperity. Wolfe describes the resulting abandoning of communal, progressive, and New Deal-style politics as taking the money and he traces the preoccupation with self and self-development back to the aristocratic European gentry. Wolfe states that the tradition and the philosophy behind the finishing school are inherently dedicated to the building and forming of personal character. He describes the experience of hallucinogens as similar to, even competitive with, religious ecstasy. Wolfe chronicles the American periods of Christian revival known as the First and Second Great Awakenings, to which he analogizes the 1970s and he argues that the Me Decade of the 1970s is a Third Great Awakening. Instead they lived as if they were living their ancestors and their offsprings lives, Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine Counterculture of the 1960s Self-help Great Awakening
9.
Individualism
–
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. Individualism is often defined in contrast to totalitarianism, collectivism, authoritarianism, communitarianism, Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation. Classical liberalism, existentialism, and anarchism are examples of movements that take the individual as a central unit of analysis. Individualism thus involves the right of the individual to freedom and self-realization and it has also been used as a term denoting The quality of being an individual, individuality related to possessing An individual characteristic, a quirk. A more positive use of the term in Britain came to be used with the writings of James Elishama Smith, who was a millenarian and a Christian Israelite. Although an early Owenite socialist, he rejected its collective idea of property. Without individualism, Smith argued, individuals cannot amass property to increase ones happiness, an individual is a person or any specific object in a collection. From the 17th century on, individual indicates separateness, as in individualism, individuality is the state or quality of being an individual, a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires. The individualist does not follow one particular philosophy, rather creates an amalgamation of elements of many, on a societal level, the individualist participates on a personally structured political and moral ground. Independent thinking and opinion is a trait of an individualist. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, claims that his concept of general will in the contract is not the simple collection of individual wills. Societies and groups can differ in the extent to which they are based upon predominantly self-regarding behaviors, the principle of individuation, or principium individuationis, describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinguished from other things. For Carl Jung, individuation is a process of transformation, whereby the personal and it is a completely natural process necessary for the integration of the psyche to take place. Jung considered individuation to be the process of human development. Thus, the atom is replaced by a never-ending ontological process of individuation. Individuation is an incomplete process, always leaving a pre-individual left-over. The philosophy of Bernard Stiegler draws upon and modifies the work of Gilbert Simondon on individuation and also upon similar ideas in Friedrich Nietzsche, for Stiegler the I, as a psychic individual, can only be thought in relationship to we, which is a collective individual. The I is constituted in adopting a collective tradition, which it inherits, methodological individualism is the view that phenomena can only be understood by examining how they result from the motivations and actions of individual agents
10.
Communitarianism
–
Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. However, it was not until the 1980s that the term gained currency through association with the work of a small group of political philosophers. The term is used in two senses, Philosophical communitarianism considers classical liberalism to be ontologically and epistemologically incoherent, and opposes it on those grounds. Communitarians believe that the value of community is not sufficiently recognized in liberal theories of justice, ideological communitarianism is characterized as a radical centrist ideology that is sometimes marked by leftism on economic issues and centrism on social issues. When the term is capitalized, it refers to the Responsive Communitarian movement of Amitai Etzioni. While the term communitarian was coined only in the mid-nineteenth century and they are found in some classical socialist doctrine, and further back in the New Testament. Communitarianism has been traced back to early monasticism, but in the century began to be formulated as a philosophy by Dorothy Day. In an early article the Catholic Worker clarified the dogma of the Mystical Body of Christ as the basis for the movements communitarianism, Communitarianism is also related to the personalist philosophy of Emmanuel Mounier. Both authors warned of the dangers of anomie and alienation in modern societies composed of atomized individuals who had gained their liberty but lost their social moorings. Modern sociologists saw the rise of a society and the decline of communal bonds and respect for traditional values. Among those who raised these issues were Robert Nisbet, Robert Bellah, further, author David E. Pearson argued that o earn the appellation community, it seems to me, groups must be able to exert moral suasion and extract a measure of compliance from their members. What is specifically meant by community in the context of communitarianism can vary greatly between authors and time periods, historically, communities have been small and localized. This has led to the quest for more-encompassing communities, such as the European Union, whether truly supra-national communities can be developed is far from clear. More modern communities can take different forms, but are often limited in scope. For example, members of one residential community are also members of other communities – such as work, ethnic. In moral and political philosophy, communitarians are best known for their critiques of John Rawls political liberalism, communitarians uphold the importance of the social realm, and communities in particular, though they differ in the extent to which their conceptions are attentive to liberty and individual rights. Even with these general similarities, communitarians, like members of other schools of thought. There are several schools of communitarian thought
11.
Proletariat
–
The proletariat is a term for the class of wage-earners, in a capitalist society, whose only possession of significant material value is their labor-power, a member of such a class is a proletarian. The proletarii constituted a class of Roman citizens owning little or no property. This assembly, which met on the Campus Martius to discuss public policy issues, was also used as a means of designating military duties demanded of Roman citizens. The top infantry class assembled with full arms and armor, the two classes brought arms and armor, but less and lesser, the fourth class only spears. In voting, the cavalry and top class were enough to decide an issue, as voting started at the top. As a result of the Marian reforms initiated in 107 B. C. by the Roman general Gaius Marius, proletarians are wage-workers, while some refer to those who receive salaries as the salariat. For Marx, however, wage labor may involve getting a salary rather than a wage per se, intermediate positions are possible, where some wage-labor for an employer combines with self-employment. Socialist parties have often struggled over the question of whether they should seek to organize and represent all the lower classes, according to Marxism, capitalism is a system based on the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. Instead of hiring those means of production, they themselves get hired by capitalists and work for them and these goods or services become the property of the capitalist, who sells them at the market. Surplus value is the difference between the wealth that the proletariat produces through its work, and the wealth it consumes to survive and to provide labor to the capitalist companies. A part of the value is used to renew or increase the means of production, either in quantity or quality. What remains is consumed by the capitalist class, the commodities that proletarians produce and capitalists sell are valued for the amount of labor embodied in them. The same goes for the labor power itself, it is valued, not for the amount of wealth it produces. Marxists argue that new wealth is created through labor applied to natural resources, prole drift, short for proletarian drift, is a term that suggests the tendency in advanced industrialized societies for everything inexorably to become proletarianized, or to become commonplace. This trend is attributed to mass production, mass selling, mass communication, examples include best-seller lists, films and music that must appeal to the masses and shopping malls. Why workers can change the world, hal Draper, Karl Marxs Theory of Revolution, Vol.2, The Politics of Social Classes
12.
American middle class
–
The American middle class is a social class in the United States. Depending on the model used, the middle class constitutes anywhere from 25% to 66% of households. One of the first major studies of the class in America was White Collar, The American Middle Classes. Later sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College commonly divide the class into two sub-groups. Constituting roughly 15% to 20% of households is the upper or professional middle class consisting of highly educated, salaried professionals, constituting roughly one third of households is the lower middle class consisting mostly of semi-professionals, skilled craftsmen and lower-level management. Middle-class persons commonly have a standard of living, significant economic security, considerable work autonomy. Members of the middle class belong to groups which overlap with each other. Overall, middle-class persons, especially upper-middle-class individuals, are characterized by conceptualizing, creating and consulting, thus, college education is one of the main indicators of middle-class status. Largely attributed to the nature of middle-class occupations, middle class tend to emphasize independence, adherence to intrinsic standards, valuing innovation. Politically more active than other demographics, college educated middle class professionals are split between the two major parties, Income varies considerably from near the national median to well in excess of US$100,000. Household income figures, however, do not always reflect class status and standard of living, as they are influenced by the number of income earners. It is therefore possible for a large, dual-earner, lower middle class household to out-earn a small, the middle classes are very influential, as they encompass the majority of voters, writers, teachers, journalists, and editors. Most societal trends in the US originate within the middle classes, scholars have a variety of technical measures of who is middle-class. By contrast public opinion has a variety of implicit measures, the definitions seem to stretch quite a great deal depending on the political cause that is being invoked or defended, as one commentator noted, Well, it depends on whom you ask. Everyone wants to believe they are middle class, for people on the bottom and the top of the wage scale the phrase connotes a certain Regular Joe cachet. But this eagerness to be part of the group has led the definition to be stretched like a bungee cord - used to everything from the Earned Income Tax Credit to the estate tax. While the groups overlap, differences between those at the center of both groups are considerable, the lower middle class has lower educational attainment, considerably less workplace autonomy, and lower incomes than the upper middle class. With the emergence of a labor market, the economic benefits
13.
Progressive Era
–
The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s. The main objectives of the Progressive movement were eliminating problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, the movement primarily targeted political machines and their bosses. By taking down these corrupt representatives in office a further means of democracy would be established. They also sought regulation of monopolies and corporations through antitrust laws and these antitrust laws were seen as a way to promote equal competition for the advantage of legitimate competitors. Many progressives supported prohibition in the United States, ostensibly to destroy the power of local bosses based in saloons. At the same time, womens suffrage was promoted to bring a purer female vote into the arena, many activists joined efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. Progressives transformed, professionalized and made scientific the social sciences, especially history, economics, in academic fields the day of the amateur author gave way to the research professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. The national political leaders included Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M, La Follette, Sr. and Charles Evans Hughes on the Republican side, and William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and Al Smith on the Democratic side. Yet, leaders of the movement also existed far from presidential politics, jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge were among the most influential Progressive Era reformers. Initially the movement operated chiefly at local levels, later, it expanded to state, Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers and business people. Some Progressives strongly supported scientific methods as applied to economics, government, industry, finance, medicine, schooling, theology, education, reformers felt that old-fashioned ways meant waste and inefficiency, and eagerly sought out the one best system. S. Magazines were not a new medium but they became more popular around 1900. It was an age of Mass media, thanks to the rapid expansion of national advertising, the cover price fell sharply to about 10 cents. One cause was the coverage of corruption in politics, local government and big business. They were journalists who wrote for magazines to expose social and political sins. They relied on their own investigative journalism reporting, muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate, the journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like Ray Stannard Baker, George Creel, and Brand Whitlock. Other like Lincoln Steffens exposed political corruption in many large cities, Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained they were not being helpful by raking up all the muck. The Progressives were avid modernizers, with a belief in science and they looked to education as the key
14.
Modern liberalism in the United States
–
Modern American liberalism is the dominant version of liberalism in the United States. It is characterized by social liberalism, and combines ideas of liberty and equality with support for social justice. The term modern liberalism in this article refers only to the United States, in a global context, this philosophy is usually referred to as social liberalism. The American modern liberal philosophy strongly endorses public spending on such as education, health care. Important social issues today include addressing inequality, voting rights for minorities, affirmative action, reproductive and other rights, support for LGBT rights. American liberals oppose conservatives on most issues, but not all, Modern liberalism is historically related to social liberalism and progressivism, though the current relationship between liberal and progressive viewpoints is debated. John F. Kennedy defined a liberal as follows, keynesian economic theory has played an important role in the economic philosophy of modern American liberals. Modern American liberals generally believe that national prosperity requires government management of the macroeconomy, in order to keep unemployment low, inflation in check and they also value institutions that defend against economic inequality. In The Conscience of a Liberal Paul Krugman writes, I believe in an equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law and that makes me a liberal, and Im proud of it. Liberals often point to the prosperity enjoyed under a mixed economy in the years since World War II. They believe liberty exists when access to necessities like health care and economic opportunity are available to all, Modern American liberalism is typically associated with the Democratic Party, as modern American conservatism is typically associated with the Republican Party. Today the word liberalism is used differently in different countries, one of the greatest contrasts is between the usage in the United States and usage in Europe. According to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Liberalism in the American usage has little in common with the word as used in the politics of any European country, save possibly Britain. In Europe, liberalism, usually means what is called classical liberalism, a commitment to limited government, laissez-faire economics. This classical liberalism sometimes more closely corresponds to the American definition of libertarianism, in the United States, the general term liberalism will almost always refer to modern liberalism, a more social variant of classical liberalism. A2015 Gallup poll found that liberal views have consistently been on the rise in America since 1999. As of 2015, there is an equal number of socially liberal Americans and socially conservative Americans
15.
Aristocracy
–
Aristocracy is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning rule of the best, at the time of the words origins in Ancient Greece, the Greeks conceived it as rule by the best qualified citizens—and often contrasted it favourably with monarchy, rule by an individual. In later times, aristocracy was usually seen as rule by a group, the aristocratic class. The Greeks did not like the concept of monarchy, and as their democratic system fell, in Ancient Rome, the Republic consisted of an aristocracy—as well as consuls, a senate, and a tribal assembly. In the Middle Ages and early modern era, aristocracies primarily consisted of an aristocratic class, privileged by birth. Since the French Revolution, aristocracy has generally been contrasted with democracy, however, this distinction is often oversimplified. In exchange feudal aid is received from tenants or vassals, oaths of military allegiance, however an oligarchy, nobility or royalty had the right to set taxes, assemble or raise armies and command loyalty by virtue of traditional authority. In the 1651 book Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes describes an aristocracy as a commonwealth in which the representative of the citizens is an assembly by part and it is a system in which only a small part of the population represents the government. Modern depictions of aristocracy tend to regard it not as the ancient Greek concept of rule by the best, history, John Cannon, Oxford University Press,1997, ISBN 978-0-19-866176-4 Aristocracy in the Modern World, Ellis Wasson, Palgrave Macmillan,2006
16.
Gentry
–
Gentry are well-born, genteel and well-bred people of high social class, especially in the past. In the United Kingdom, the term refers to the social class of the landed aristocracy or to the minor aristocracy whose income derives from their large landholdings. The idea of gentry in the sense of noblesse is extinct in common parlance in modern day Britain. Though the untitled nobility in modern day Britain are normally termed gentry, the older sense of nobility is that of a quality identical to gentry. The fundamental social division in most parts of Europe in the Middle Ages was between the nobiles, i. e. the tenants in chivalry, and the ignobles, i. e. the villeins, citizens and burgesses. The division into nobles and ignobles in smaller regions of Europe in the Middle Ages was less due to a more rudimentary feudal order. After the Reformation, intermingling between the class and the often hereditary clerical upper class became a distinctive feature in several Nordic countries. Besides the gentry there have been other analogous traditional elites, the Indo-Europeans who settled Europe, Western Asia and the Indian subcontinent conceived their societies to be ordered in a tripartite fashion, the three parts being castes. Castes came to be divided, perhaps as a result of greater specialisation. The classic formulation of the system as largely described by Georges Dumézil was that of a priestly or religiously occupied caste, a warrior caste. Dumézil divided the Proto-Indo-Europeans into three categories, sovereignty, military, and productivity and he further subdivided sovereignty into two distinct and complementary sub-parts. One part was formal, juridical, and priestly, but rooted in this world, the other was powerful, unpredictable, and also priestly, but rooted in the other, the supernatural and spiritual world. The second main division was connected with the use of force, the military, finally, there was a third group, ruled by the other two, whose role was productivity, herding, farming, and crafts. This system of roles can be seen in the castes which flourished on the Indian subcontinent. Emperor Constantine convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325 whose Nicene Creed included belief in one holy catholic and apostolic Church, emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380. In this power vacuum, the Church rose to become the dominant power in the West, the classical heritage flourished throughout the Middle Ages in both the Byzantine Greek East and Latin West. During the Middle Ages it was customary to classify the population of Christendom into laboratores, bellatores, the last group, though small in number, monopolized the instruments and opportunities of culture, and ruled with almost unlimited sway half of the most powerful continent on the globe. The clergy, like Platos guardians, were placed in authority, in the latter half of the period in which they ruled, the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire
17.
Chivalry
–
Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is a code of conduct associated with the medieval institution of knighthood which developed between 1170 and 1220. The code of chivalry that developed in medieval Europe had its roots in earlier centuries, the term chivalry derives from the Old French term chevalerie, which can be translated to horse soldiery. Gautier states that emerged from the Moors as well as the Teutonic forests and was nurtured into civilization. Over time, its meaning in Europe has been refined to emphasise social and moral virtues more generally, in origin, the term chivalry means horsemanship, formed in Old French, in the 11th century, from chevalier, from Medieval Latin caballārius. In English, the term appears from 1292, thus, chivalry has hierarchical meanings from simply a heavily armed horseman to a code of conduct. Based on the three treatises, initially chivalry was defined as a way of life in which three essential aspects fused together, the military, the nobility, the religion. Gautiers Ten Commandments of chivalry are, Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them. Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born, Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy. Thou shalt make war against the infidel without cessation and without mercy, Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God. Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word, Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right, though these ten commandments are often accepted to be what knights would use, these would not necessarily be what a knight actually followed in the medieval era. This code was created by Leon Gautier in 1883, long after the knight had ceased to exist in its traditional form. Chivalry in a sense was more of a subjective term. It is a version of the myth of the Golden Age, from Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, We must not confound chivalry with the feudal system. The feudal system may be called the life of the period of which we are treating, possessing its advantages and inconveniences, its virtues. Chivalry, on the contrary, is the world, such as it existed in the imaginations of the Romance writers. Its essential character is devotion to woman and to honour, Sismondi alludes to the fictitious Arthurian romances about the imaginary Court of King Arthur, which were usually taken as factual presentations of a historical age of chivalry. He continues, The more closely we look into history, the more clearly shall we perceive that the system of chivalry is an invention almost entirely poetical and it is impossible to distinguish the countries in which it is said to have prevailed
