We Didn’t Start the Fire

ProjectBy: Christian Mahoney and DJ Goodall

Ch.1

Political

Political-England got a new Queen, Queen Elizabeth, since 1952 has spanned a period of

rapid and occasionally turbulent change. Britain’s position in the world, her economy, and the

very shape and structures of society have all been transformed and many traditional

institutions have suffered in the process. Through all this, the path of the Crown has been

marked out by The Queen herself, in a prolonged display of unwavering devotion to Duty and

quiet pragmatism which has met a nationally-felt need, and has won her the respect and

affection of her peoples. As hereditary head of State for Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

and Head of the Commonwealth, she has symbolic and formal functions and duties but no

direct powers.

Ch.2

Internal Relations

International relationships- the uneasy wartime alliance between the United States and

Great Britain on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other began to unravel. By 1948

the Soviets had installed left-wing governments in the countries of Eastern Europe that had

been liberated by the Red Army. The Americans and the British feared the permanent Soviet

domination of Eastern Europe and the threat of Soviet-influenced communist parties coming

to power in the democracies of Western Europe.

Ch.3

military events

Military event-hydrogen bomb or H-bomb, weapon deriving a large portion of its energy

from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes. In an atomic bomb, uranium or plutonium is

split into lighter elements that together weigh less than the original atoms, the remainder of

the mass appearing as energy

Ch.4

Economic

In the uncertain years immediately after the Second World War, U.S. political

leaders erected a credit-financed, consumption-led economic framework. It was

designed in large part to support job creation and the economic growth of its Cold

War allies. The strategy succeeded. The United States and its allies won the Cold

War. But the strategy put in place a set of conditions that are now the central

challenge of the next U.S. presidency.

The United States became the global consumer of last resort for the export goods

of first Germany and Japan — and later all the countries surrounding the USSR

and China. The goal of the United States was admirable — to help redevelop the

economies destroyed by the war and to keep workers in those countries from

being attracted to the promises of communism.

Ch.5

Scientific

During World War II, the United States poured more than $2 billion dollars into the Manhattan Project, a crash program to build the world's first atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could acquire the deadly weapon. (Ironically the Germans abandoned their atomic project soon after the Americans began theirs, and the Americans' bomb was not ready for use until after Germany had surrendered. A weapon built to subdue Hitler would end up being dropped on Japan instead.) While the Manhattan Project employed more than 100,000 workers, the secret nature of the atomic program remained a tightly-guarded secret; many Manhattan Project employees did not even know the true purpose of their work. Knowledge of the program was restricted only to the atomic scientists themselves and to a handful of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's most trusted political allies. Even Vice President Harry Truman was kept in the dark. Roosevelt did share information about the atomic program with his close friend and ally, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; in their correspondence the two leaders discussed the bomb under the codename, "Tube Alloys." As for the third of the "Big Three" Allied leaders, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin? Roosevelt and Churchill never told him about the bomb.

Ch.6

Technological

The Cold War touched many aspects of American social and cultural life, from the civil rights movement to survivalism, from Hollywood to the universities. The nuclear threat—and the Communist menace lurking behind it—brought the National Defense Education Act, the interstate highway system, and growing mistrust of government by both liberals and conservatives. In ways sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle, the Cold War left its mark on activities ranging from art and poetry to movies and comic books. Sports events became particularly prominent venues for rivalry, beginning with the London Olympics in 1948 and peaking every fourth year thereafter. Visiting artists, traveling exhibitions, and other cultural exchanges, both formal and informal, sometimes helped ease Cold War tensions.

Ch.7

Social

The Cold War touched many aspects of American social and cultural life,

from the civil rights movement to survivalism, from Hollywood to the

universities. The nuclear threat—and the Communist menace lurking

behind it—brought the National Defense Education Act, the interstate

highway system, and growing mistrust of government by both liberals and

conservatives. In ways sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle, the Cold War

left its mark on activities ranging from art and poetry to movies and comic

books. Sports events became particularly prominent venues for rivalry,

beginning with the London Olympics in 1948 and peaking every fourth year

thereafter. Visiting artists, traveling exhibitions, and other cultural

exchanges, both formal and informal, sometimes helped ease Cold War

tensions.

Ch.8

cultural

In terms of American culture, as a matter of policy the United States sought to promote its high culture in Europe, believing that Europeans would share the tastes of American elites more than they would respond to popular culture, which politicians viewed as belonging to the lower classes. Thus the American government sponsored highbrow cultural exports such the American opera Porgy and Bess, which toured through Western Europe in 1955. The newly created Information Services Branch of the government served to promote American culture and anticommunist sentiments in Europe. In the late 1940s, it created US Information Centers, called "America Houses," which had free lending libraries of American literary classics. However, the most frequently checked out books proved to be not great works of literature but rather contemporary potboilers. Europeans flocked not to the American philharmonic concerts but to record stores where they could buy American rock and roll albums.

Sources

Billy Joel

William Martin "Billy" Joel[4] (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and a composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States.[5] His compilation album Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2 is one of the best-selling albums in the US.[6]

Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the US, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner who has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards. He has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time.[7]

Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006). In 2001, Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest honor for influencing American culture through the arts. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah", Joel stopped writing and releasing pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams. However, he continues to tour, and he plays songs from all eras of his solo career.

Harry Truman

Harry S. Truman[b] (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd

President of the United States (1945–53), an American politician of the

Democratic Party. He served as a United States Senator from Missouri (1935–

45) and briefly as Vice President (1945) before he succeeded to the

presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He

was president during the final months of World War II, making the decision

to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected

in his own right in 1948. He presided over an uncertain domestic scene as

America sought its path after the war and tensions with the Soviet Union

increased, marking the start of the Cold War.

Richard Nixon

Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. After completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government. He subsequently served on active duty in the U.S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968 he ran again for the presidency and was elected when he defeated Hubert Humphrey.

Fun Fact

According to data from the 1989 Soviet census, the population of the

Soviet Union was 70% East Slavs, 12% Turkic peoples, and all other ethnic

groups below 10%. Alongside the atheist majority of 60% there were sizable

minorities of Russian Orthodox followers (approx. 20%) and Muslims (approx.

15%).