(http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-F08)

World War II proved to be life-changing for American society. Not only was the United States personally attacked, inspiring people to defend their country, it also involved the U.S in one of the most tremendous wars. However, in 1945, as the war was coming to a close, the U.S found themselves more in power on a global scale more than ever. The above image was photographed on February 23^rd, 1945 by Joe Rosenthal on top of Mount. Suribachi and symbolized American strength and pride not only in the face of defeat and victory. Right before the first flag was raised, the U.S forces had successfully attained the mountaintop against the Japanese military. This particular image shows the second flag being raised, which occurred after one of the commanding officers found a much larger flag than the one already raised. Unfortunately, three of the men who raised the flag were killed in combat over the next few days. However, the other three soldiers, whom were members of the Navy and Marines, came home safely and soon become heroes once their identities were revealed. This photo ultimately became an inspiration to service members everywhere, due to its attempt to exemplify the sacrifice these soldiers had during this particular battle. In fact, it is one of very few photographs to receive a Pulitzer Prize Award in the same year it was published. This specific image was received from explorePAhistory.com in JPEG format at the size of 600 pixels by 483 pixels, which is about 30,015 bytes or 29.31 KB. Looking at the image, the only defects of the image, such as overexposure and light spots, is due to the camera that was used. Due to the lasting impact of the image, the picture still holds a modern context as a patriotic symbol, especially for me, due to having multiple family members in the military, including my father. This photograph reminds Americans everywhere of the sacrifice, hardships, and perseverance our country has flourished upon and inspires future generations to always strive for freedom.

1969: the year of sex, drugs, peace and music.  This was also the year of Woodstock, a 3 day music festival set to appreciate the world, other people, music, and overall life.  During this time period, the generation that mainly made up the “Hippie” movement fought social norms and standards on a daily basis.  One of the way they fought back was through their clothing and outfit choices.  Being raised in a society that was clean-cut and rather conservative.  The new generation believed in a more free society and they exemplified this by starting the trend of bell bottomed jeans, flowy or cut tops, or in some cases, just large t-shirts or no clothing at all.  They did this to stand for free will and individuality.  Flash forward to 2012-2015: Coachella.  While there are minor similarities between the two styles at these music festivals, teens and young adults in the current generation wear these outfits to fit in to the festival scene or to try and replicate the fashion.  But that is all this is: replication.  Coachella go-ers try to be cute and/or trendy, but the history behind that style came with sacrifice and passion.

For my essay, I wrote about how WWII ultimately led to the revival of baseball in the United States. Two days after it was due, my friends and I went to the last game of Padres-Giants series. It’s cool to be able to go to a game with a new insight on “America’s Favorite Pastime”.

This game of Hide and Seek is still ridiculous  

“If the New Deal could not end the Great Depression, a world war would.” (Schultz, Hist 383).  Coming from an economic downfall, war seemed to be the best option in order to bring back prosperity to the states.  Just as predicted, World War II helped increase productivity of industry, which meant more income to Americans, and at the end of the war, Americans found themselves with more money and more time.  These combined ultimately helped sports become “America’s Favorite Past Time”.  Sports, specifically on the West Coast, grew in importance in American society due to greater accessibility to a broader public, the stress relief it brought to people, and it’s new found affordability.   

These last couple weeks, we have been lectured about the Cold War, particularly the race for arms with the Atomic bomb.  When the Soviet Union announced they had an atomic bomb, the U.S government implemented plans for citizen’s survival if there were to be an atomic bomb launched on the United States.  These plans included fallout shelters and the “duck and cover” drill.

Just a couple years ago, Kim Jong Un, dictator of North Korea, threatened to launch a nuclear bomb on the U.S.  Instead of preparing for the slight chance it could happen, most went to the internet and made memes and jokes about it (such as the one below).

In my opinion, I find it interesting how at one point in our history, our society was frightened by an atomic bomb and prepared for it in every way possible, but nowadays, we laugh at the idea of a nuclear bomb.

The past few lectures, we have discussed light in it’s entirety, from the original “electric lamp” (as conned by Thomas Edison) to light pollution.  Another way we use light today is putting various chemicals into a stick in order to make it glow/light, which can be used to paint the night with light, as I have photographed here.

On February 2nd, Professor Blum lectured about the Progressive Age, a time of societal progression including the establishment of organizations and institutions in order to prepare for career fields such as law and medical.  Specifically, during this time period, the rise of colleges was imminent and in 1901, the College Examination Board was established.  This board would go to find the first standardized test, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in 1926.

About a week later, as I was sitting in Stats 119 A, the teaching assistant began to talk about the difference in score value from when the SAT was first administered to the value today (we later found the z-scores for two scores given and found that an the first SAT had more value for a certain score).  This got me thinking and since I had learned how the SAT was founded, I started wondering what the history of the evolution of the SAT was.

According to Petersons.com (2014), the SAT at first was a spin-off of the Army Alpha, which was the IQ test given to recruits to test their IQ.  Overall, the SAT has changed in the way it has been administered (time wise) and the way it is divided.  When first administered, the SAT was mainly a 315 question mathematical based standardized test with some language questions mixed in and had a 97 minute time limit.  Since then, the language questions have been growing to the point where to scoring scale was 1600 and then the essay was added in 2005 with a scoring scale of 2400.

As Professor Blum said himself: “We are haunted by history”.  There is a history to everything, even a pre-college aptitude test.