Finding a new artifact to add to one’s One-Place Study is something I think we can all agree is exciting! While some “One-Placers” may have an overabundance of civil records, church records, newspaper articles, letters, photographs, etc. at their disposal (depending on where and when they are located), others may have to dig a little deeper, look a little harder, to find even an ounce of information about their places. For those…
Italy
Italian Jews Who Survived the Shoah: A Critical Analysis Using Elements of Thought
Paul and Elder (2019) define eight elements of thoughts used in critical thinking: purpose, question at issue, information, interpretation and inference, concepts, assumptions, implications and consequences, and point of view. As these components are embedded in all reasoning, they are utilized here in deconstructing Picciotto’s 2016 “Italian Jews who survived the Shoah: Jewish self-help and Italian rescuers, 1943-1945.” This analysis begins with the matter of purpose – what was Picciotto trying to…
Events That Led to World War II
What events occurred in Europe in 1938-1939 that led to World War II? Following the circumstances of the Great War, several events occurred throughout Europe that precipitated the Second World War. The rise of fascism in Italy resulted as a response to the Versailles Treaty of 1919. Benito Mussolini created the Fasci Italiana di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squadron), which called for two things: 1) a totalitarian form of government 2) a heightened…
The Depression & the Rise of Extremist Groups (i.e. Fascists and Nazis)
The crash of the United States stock market on October 29, 1929 triggered a global depression in which extremist groups such as fascists and Nazis were allowed to thrive. Between the years of 1929 and 1933 prices would fall, output shrank, and unemployment soared as the world economy collapsed. The U.S. market lost two-thirds of its value, the British market one-fifth, and the German an astounding one-half. Unemployment in the U.S. had…
World War II
World War II was unquestionably the largest and most significant armed conflict in human history. While it may have officially begun when Adolf Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, roots of conflict stemmed from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and the resulting Treaty of Versailles. Placing the full blame for the First World War on Germany, the treaty demanded heavy war reparations from the country. Because of this, the…
Class Differences in Nineteenth Century Europe
What were the crucial class differences in how people lived in Europe?: The upper class (aristocrats), the middle class (industrialists, bankers, shopkeepers, professionals), and the lower class (peasants, laborers, workers). Why was it clear that socialism and revolutionary movements were popular among the lower classes? What differences were there in the various countries and why? Why did so many people immigrate from Europe to Australia, the U.S., Canada, Argentina, etc. in this…