HIST300A: Protecting Elephants in the Age of Eco-Tourism

So, I guess I will jump off the subtitle of the article: Did American conservationists in Africa go too far? Thoughts on this question or any other issues this article raises?

While on the topic of humans, who feel personal connections with wildlife, an email that was circulated to me a few years back should help lighten the mood on this topic. The email was entitled, "An Incredible Story":

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Illinois Wesleyan University.

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air.  The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.

 He got down on one knee, inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.  As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.  The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.  Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.  Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.  Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

 Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son.  As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing.  The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant.  Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure.  He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.  The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

 Probably wasn't the same elephant.

HIST300F: In the Nam

Does the American war in Vietnam offer us historical continuity when we think about the other imperialisms we've considered (i.e. what patterns appear similar)? Or is it a moment of rupture in American imperial history?

HIST300A: Making a War on Nature

After reading the various articles, what might be behind this "war on nature"? What social and cultural transformations in the postwar period enable this seemingly reckless use of pesticides and defoliants? Frankly speaking, why are 1950s Americans obsessed with pest control?

HIST300F: Visualizing American Power in the Pacific

By 1943, the U.S. military went on the offensive against Japanese forces in the Pacific and in doing so, began the process of amassing the most powerful military force in human history. Never before in history had a single nation been able to project so much combined sea, air, and land power. 

Beginning in 1944 and through 1945, the American Museum of Modern Art in New York City hosted a photographic exhibition entitled,  “Power in the Pacific.” 

Image 1. Opening of the "Power in the Pacific" Exhibition at MOMA, 1944.

Edward Steichen, a renowned American modernist photographer, had been placed in command of all naval combat photography--called the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit-- during the Pacific War, the result being this very popular exhibition. Steichen was in command of dozens of photographers who were stationed on board naval vessels, with naval aviators, and with Marines engaging in amphibious warfare. The photographs, some as large as six feet tall,  were brought together to demonstrate how American technology empowered ideology, the conviction of U.S. power and victory, the grit and determination of the individual, and the male body at war on the ocean.

Image 2. Steichen at work, on board the U.S.S. Lexington, 1943.

The introduction to the exhibition read as follows:

            “Here is the war in the western seas, and here are the men who fight it…Yesterday these men were boys; today they are seasoned warriors. Yesterday the airplanes were but lines on a thousand blueprints, today they sting the air with death, and shake the earth with blastings. Yesterday the ships lay stacked in piles of shapeless metal; today they cleave the trackless sea, belching steel and brimstone against the slimy swamps, the mountain caves, the jungle.”  

Below are select photographs that resulted from this project. 

I. Power.

From the images below, how might technology empower ideology? To what extent can we locate a technological fanaticism through wartime images such as these? (Along the lines of Adas' formulations) 

Image 3. Amassing the Fleet at Ulithi Atoll, 1945.

Image 4. Aircraft operations on board the U.S.S. Lexington, 1943.

Image 5. Divebombers circling over the U.S.S. Hornet, 1945.

Image 6. Nighttime action, date unknown.

II. Heterosocial behavior and the visualization of the male body at war. 

How might these images showcase "proper" masculinity in the context of 1940s wartime?

Image 7. Exercise on board an aircraft carrier, date unknown.

Image 8. Servicemen Gerald Ford playing basketball on board the U.S.S. Monterey, 1944.

Image 9. Sailors enjoy downtime, date unknown.

Image 10. Celebrating after successful mission, date unknown.

III. Agony. 

Why did Steichen's unit also amass and display images that revealed the unsavory aspects of combat, such as the violence, the pain, the isolation, and the potential loss of hope?

Image 11. Crewmen lift wounded aviator, 1943.

Image 12. Crewmen tend to wounded comrade, date unknown.

Image 13. Coffee break for Eniwetok Marine survivors, 1944.

Image 14. Marines post sign after capturing Tarawa, 1943.