Temples of Paestum Italy

By Brian Freeman

Approximately fifty-five miles (ninety kilometers) south of Naples.

Legends tell of the city's founding by Jason and the Argonauts, but archaeologists attribute

Paestum's birth to Greeks from Sybaris 600BC.

Originally called Poseidonia in 273 BC the city became a Roman colony and renamed Paestum.

The people of Paestum never achieved renown in ancient times, its colonial farmers grew extremely rich. Their civic pride is reflected in the three standing temples which are the best

preserved in the entire Greek world.

Õ The temples were dedicated to Hera who was a goddess of fertility and creativity, and later Athena a goddess of art and spiritual wisdom.

Õ The two primary temples, the 550 BC Basilica (Temple of Hera 80 x 178 ft) and the 450 BC temple of Poseidon, were originally dedicated to the fertility goddess Hera.

Õ They were meant to serve as homes for the individual god or goddess who protected and sustained the community.

Õ The building material throughout is the local limestone, which was originally coated with white stucco to smooth over imperfections in the stone and to lend the appearance of marble to the temple.

Õ This Doric temple, a style preferred in the western Greek colonies, still has the colonnades of the peristyle and part of the central interior colonnade.

Õ This structure is the earliest temple at the site and exhibits a

n early form of the Doric order of architecture, employing the system of post and lintel with stone.

Ground Plan of Poseidon Temple

A monumental temple

(about 196 x 80 feet)

Me at Paestum

Map of Paestum

For Futher Reading:

Dinsmoor, William. The Architecture of Ancient Greece, 3^rd edition. New York: W W Norton & Company,1975.

Scranton, Robert. Greek Architecture, 3^rd edition. New York: George Braziller, Inc. 1967.

Spawforth, Tony. The Complete Greek Temples.New York: Thames & Hudson, 2006.

Quick summary of Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

By Brian Freeman

Olaudah Equiano story Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is a slave narrative in which the entire story consists of Equiano growing up in Africa, capture, and his enslavement. Equiano brings us to a time when slavery historical had not reached its full height but was social acceptable. The use of Africans for chattel slavery had created an entirely new kind of economy for the English and Africans themselves. In Chapter one we find that Equiano own people sold slaves to Oye-Eboe term given to them that signifies red men living at distance. Equiano defends this practice by his people by stating the slaves sold were prisoners of war, kidnappers, or adulteries. The reader can continue reading and find on page 196 that Equiano people even had there own slaves, but yet he still defends this practice by saying, “How different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies?”

One can even find Equiano challenging the thought process of Europeans. Ever sense the revolution of thought called the Enlightenment whites believed that black Africans were incapable of the highest forms of civilization and therefore fit only for enslavement by their supposed superiors. One can see on page 200 that Equiano directly challenges this idea. He states, “Let the polished and haughty European recollect that his ancestors were once, like the Africans, uncivilized, and even barbarous.” The reader can define this as the Europeans themselves once considered themselves much like the Africans uncivilized and why should they have the right to enslave Africans. The Europeans at one time were no different from the Africans.

The first thing the reader finds in Equiano’s story is how detailed he writes. In some cases Equiano gives mileage, names of cities, or direction he is heading in reference with the sun. His descriptions of growing up in Africa and the stunning moment of being taken away help paint amazing images to the reader. Equiano story has many themes, but there two themes that seem to stand out. The first theme of the story is to show Equiano amazing curiosity of the world. Even in the harshest of times we find Equiano is still amazed of the world that he is being forced to see. This curiosity for the world and western technology will be one the reason Equiano gains his own freedom. Second major theme is the comparison of his African tribe to Jews. He compares rituals and there like struggles.

Equiano, Olaudah. “Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry L. Gates, Jr., and Nellie Y. Mckay. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.190-213.

Quick history of Aztecs

By Brian Freeman

The area that is now Mexico City is home to many historical moments. One of the most famous and saddest historical moments comes from the period of 13^th and 16th century. During this time period lived an ancient Mesoamerica group called the Aztecs. This ancient group during its peak dominated much of Mesoamerica for centuries till the foreign Spanish invaders forced the downfall of there society. The Aztecs had made many scientific advances, especially in the areas of astronomy and medicine. The Aztecs were in many ways more advanced than the Europeans, but nonetheless they were conquered by the Spanish. The Aztec empire is important part of Mesoamerican history due to its foundation, technological achievements and destruction by outside invaders.

In 1810 Alexander von Humboldt originated the modern usage of "Aztec" as a collective term applied to all the people linked by trade, custom, religion, and language to the Mexica state and the Triple Alliance. The word Aztec is actually referring to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, who spoke the Nahuatl language. Middle in the 13^th century the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which has also become known as the "Aztec Empire". The forming of this alliance causes serious problems for the Aztec researchers. Much of the information known about the Aztecs is based archeology rather than historical books of the Aztecs. When alliance formed a new Emperor Tlacaelel completely reformed the Aztec state and religion. Tlacaelel ordered the burning of most of the extant Aztec books claiming that they contained lies. When he committed this act he rewrote the history of the Aztec people. The rewriting led directly to the belief that the Aztecs were always a powerful and mythic nation; forgetting forever a possible true history of modest origins.

The Aztecs made many scientific advances, mostly in the areas of astronomy and medicine. One of the most interesting and remarkable demonstration of the advances made by the Aztecs is Aztec Calendar. The current calendar our society uses today Gregorian calendar which was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII on 24 February 1582. The Aztec calendar has been dated around circa 1479 which is 103 years before the Gregorian calendar. It had 18 months, with each month containing 20 days. Thus, 360 days would constitute one year. The Aztecs, however, had determined that the year contained 365 days. Therefore, they added 5 days called the "Nemontemi", or sacrificial days. These days, when added to the already existing 360, raised the number of days in a year to the astronomically correct number of 365.

In 1519 King Charles of Spain sent Hernán Cortés to the new world. When Cortes arrived, the Aztec civilization was at its height. However, many subject Indian groups, rebellious against Aztec rule, were only too willing to join the Spanish. Initially, the invaders were aided by the fact that the Aztec believed them to be descendants of the god Quetzalcoatl. The story of Cortes recently is being heavily debated among scholars due to the inaccuracies in the written history. Eventually the Aztec revolted, Montezuma was killed, and Tenochtitlán was razed.

The story of the Aztec people is a very interesting and provocative. The Aztec empire is important part of Mesoamerican history due to its foundation, technological achievements and destruction by outside invaders.

Architecture of Magna Graecia

By Brian Freeman

Magna Graecia refers to a group of ancient Greek cities along the coast of southernItaly. The area was busy commercial centre as well as the seat of the Pythagorean and Eleatic systems of philosophy. After the 5th century BC, most of the cities declined in importance.

The ancient authors divided Greek architecture into two major principal orders, the Ionic and the Doric— Ionic the evolved in Asia Minor and the latter in the Peloponnese. The Doric order was the predominant type of temple on the (Magna Graecia) Greek Mainland and among the Western Greeks of Sicily and southern Italy.

In Doric Order of Architecture, the columns have no base, but just sit right on the floor. At the top of the columns, there’s capital made of a sort of small pillow in stone, and then a square block, under the architrave. On the architrave, there are triglyphs(g) and metopes (h). The architecture followed rules of harmony. Since the original design came from wooden temples and the triglyphs (g) were real heads of wooden beams.

The pediments (A) are the low triangular spaces which form the end gables of the temple and were normally decorated. The scenes were all taken straight out of mythology. The most important figures were in the centre which the secondary ones flanking them in order of importance.

The Temple of Athena (Paestum,Italy) is great a example of Doric order that was reconstructed ca. 510.

Temples were built in limestone with sandstone touches,cue to the fact that large pieces of marble were hard to come by in Paestum region.

The roof was originally made out of fairly light materials such as plaster-covered thatch on a framework of wooden poles and could therefore be quite steep.

The Temples usually featured novel decoration.The frieze (f)panels were decorated with paintings or relief sculpture, often depicting individual episodes from myths related to the god to whom the temple belonged or to the local hero.

Doric columns are very simple. They have a capital (the top, or crown) made of a circle topped by a square.

For Further Reading

Dinsmoor, William. The Architecture of Ancient Greece, 3rd edition. New York: W W Norton & Company,1975.

Scranton, Robert. Greek Architecture, 3rd edition. New York: George Braziller, Inc. 1967.

Spawforth, Tony. The Complete Greek Temples.New York: Thames & Hudson, 2006.

Book Review: Dower, John. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War

By: Brian Freeman

Dower, John. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.

Introduction

John Dower writer of War Without Mercy is a book that elaborates on the power and impact of racism in the Pacific theater of World War II. John Dower's War Without Mercy describes the ugly racial issues on both the Western Allies and Japanese sides of the conflict in the Pacific Theater as well as all of Asia before, during, and after World War II and the consequences of these issues on both militaries. Dower asserts that the war in the Pacific, on both the American and Japanese ends, was far more savage and violent than the European theater because racism in the American and Japanese culture left no room for mercy. Dower supports his thesis by effectively and exhaustively researching his topic. Dower creatively integrates and combines sources from almost every period of daily life and drawing on numerous unconventional sources like political cartoons, documentary propaganda films, manga animation, popular song lyrics and more. Dower, through his sources, convincingly demonstrates that both American and Japanese cultures were given false feelings of racial superiority. It is this racial superiority in the author's opinion that played a role in the development of atrocious behaviors seen in the Pacific of Theater.

John Dower who is a professor of Japanese Studies at the Michigan Institute of Technology and Pulitzer Prize winning author is considered an expert in the field of modern Japanese history and US-Japan relations. Dower’s book War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War has won a number of awards including the National Book Critics Award. In War without Mercy, Dower organizes the book into two main sections. The first section begins with the introduction to the materials and racial themes that will be used throughout the book and is by far the most interesting. The major theme is race and how it is a weapon of convenience for propagandists. Both sides for awhile claimed righteousness, but under close scrutiny both sides had serious social problems the other side could exploit. The United States during the 1940’s maintained a level of white supremacy evidenced in the way the Americans treated blacks and over a hundred thousand Asians who were placed in internment camps after Pearl Harbor. These facts assisted both the Germans and the Japanese in their respective propaganda campaigns. However, the Japanese had similar racist views portraying Europeans and Americans as decadent, impure, and downright demonic. They also viewed their Asian neighbors in much the same contemptuous way as did Western imperialists The Japanese were fanatically racist to other Asian race groups. The Japanese believed all other races to be inferior to the divinely descended Japanese race. This Japanese racism led to devastating exploitation of their Asian neighbors, who may have been racially related, but not divinely descended.

One of the most interesting finds that Dower discovers in his research is the influence of European, American, Japanese scientists who worked tirelessly to find significant advantages or disadvantages compared between races. The American research of races was the most influential of the studies which helped spark racist views. American scientist made the assumption due to Japanese head, ears, and eye development that the Japanese were an inferior race. Because of the scientific view the Japanese were perceived as a species apart referred to as apes. American media images would develop the Asian enemy as apes, primitives, or inhuman. However, it is interesting to find that the perception of the Japanese being an inferior race would soon disappear due to Japanese success in the battle. The Japanese ability to fight furiously gave them a perception of being superhuman. This gaining of American respect would be crucial in the peace process of the postwar.

The second section explores the transition from war to peace, and the ways in which images and symbols were transformed. The apes became pets while on the other side the western demons shared their secret knowledge. At the same time the negative racist images used during the war were transferred to the Soviet Union and Maoist China. Finally, Dower's book powerfully and persuasively describes how the racial stereotypes that fueled the Pacific conflict did not disappear but rather adapted to peacetime life. Victory confirmed the Allies' assumption of superiority but due the incredible fighting ability of the Japanese the Allies never gained racial superiority. This level of racial equality allowed for proper Japanese growth and peace postwar.

Criticism

The main criticism of War Without Mercy is that Dower overplays his hand and puts far too much emphasis on the role of racism portraying it as the primary cause of the war and of the evils that transpired during its execution. Ultimately, Dower must concede that race did not cause the war. One must consider the Japanese imperial rivalry over the Pacific, alliances in Europe, and Japanese aggression led to US combat in the Pacific. Unlike the war in Europe, however, the war between Japan and the USA was a ‘war without mercy’ because racial prejudice dehumanized both opponents.

Despite Dower’s main fault the War Without Mercy is an excellent book about the Pacific War in general or even about atrocities and war crimes themselves. The book focuses on racial aspects of the war between Japan and the United States. The book especially emphasizes the images each side used to describe the other and the war itself along with some study of how they evolved after the fighting stopped makes it a must read for anyone trying to understand the Pacific War of WWII.

Conclusion

Overall this book presents a side of the Second World War with which most Americans are unfamiliar and may find shocking. It does a valuable service in exposing many of the prejudices of the time and especially in showing how those prejudices were at least partly responsible for the string of debacles endured by U.S. and other allied forces in the war's opening stages. It also does a very good job of giving the reader a glimpse of the kind of thinking that was prevalent in Japanese society prior to and during the war. Dower broke new ground through his scholarly use of visual materials and other expressions of popular culture in reexamining Japanese and US-Asian history. “Despite such differences, however," notes Dower, "the end results of racial thinking on both sides were virtually identical being hierarchy, arrogance, viciousness, atrocity, and death." (180)

Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball

"Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball" was written and recorded in 1948 by Buddy Johnson, and released again in 1949 by the Count Basie orchestra.

This is the first of the Go Get Your Voice songs from and about the early civil rights movement. For the Dodgers to sign an African-American man to play on their major league team took courage and foresight. The color walls were slowly beginning to come down and the Dodgers, along with Jackie Robinson were pioneers in much the same was as other courageous individuals like Rosa Parks.

Lyrics

He stepped up to the plate
Some thought he tempted fate
Others saw the new day
History showed it mattered
The color line was shattered
But Jackie just came to play!

Star of David

By: Brian Freeman

There is no other symbol that best represents the suffering of Holocaust than the Star of David. The symbol during WWII became a sign of hate, anguish, and pain directed at the Jewish people who were forced to wear the symbol.

The pain the symbol causes can be seen in Elie Wiesel “Night”. In “Night” after the Germans moved and occupied the area where the Wiesel family lived, the Germans slowly began to enforce anti Jewish laws and rules. In order to differentiate Jews from other racial groups, the Star of David was forced upon them. Wiesel’s father, in response to the law says “The Yellow Star? Oh what of it? It’s not Lethal”(Night 11). Wiesel’s father never knew the little yellow star would lead to his death. He and millions of others would all suffer the same fate. Of all the symbols associated with the Holocaust, one symbol that is synonymous with the Holocaust and Judaism is the Star of David. Under Nazi rule the yellow star has become a symbol of persecution and suffering.

The Star of David in origin is very cloudy. One generally accepted theory according to the Jewish Virtual Library states that, “The Magen David or better known as the Star of David is supposed to represent the shape of Kings David’s shield (or perhaps the emblem on it).” The symbol is also seen in many other cultures. The author continues saying, “The symbol of intertwined equilateral triangles is common in the Middle of East and North Africa and is thought to bring luck.” In the 17^th century, it became popular practice to put the Star of David on the outside of synagogues. According to Jennifer Rosenberg, “The Star of David did not gain popularity as a symbol of Judaism when it was adopted as the emblem of the Zionist movement in 1897.” The Nazis were not the first to force Jews to distinguish themselves apart from the society. It is believed that the first time that the implementation of a Jewish badge was discussed among the Nazi leaders was right after Kristallnacht in 1938. At a meeting on November 12,1938, Reinhard Heydrich made the first suggestion about a badge. On November 23, 1939, Hans Frank, the chief officer of the Government General, declared that all Jews above ten years of age were to wear a white badge with a Star of David on their right arm. It was not until nearly two years later that a decree, issued on September 1, 1941, issued badges to Jews within Germany and Poland. This badge was the yellow Star of David with the word "Jude" ("Jew") sewn onto it and worn on the left side of one's chest.

Jennifer Rosenberg, “The Yellow Star,” 1-3. [October 15, 2007] http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/yellowstar.htm\

Jewish Virtual Library, “The Star of David,” [October 14, 2007] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/star.html

Richard L. Rubenstein and John K. Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, Revised ed., (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press), 25-47.

United States Holocaust Museum, [October 12, 2007] http://www.ushmm.org/photos

Battle of Corinth MS

By: Brian Freeman

The Battle of Corinth occurred on October 3-4 of 1862. This battle was actually the second battle to occur at the very important Confederate and Union strategic point of Corinth, Mississippi. The Battle of Corinth is often referred to as the Second Battle of Corinth. However, the battle that occurred earlier in April and June of 1862 is known as the Siege of Corinth. Aside from the fact that two battles were fought there, the strategic importance of Corinth in the Civil War cannot be stressed enough for both the Confederate and Federal armies. During the Civil War, the town of Corinth, Mississippi was part of the major Southern rail line junction which joined the Mobile, Ohio, Memphis, and Charleston railroads. For the Confederate army, Corinth was not only the major supply line, but also a strategic lifeline if the Confederate army wished to win the war. The historian James McPherson emphasizes the importance of Corinth to the Confederates in his book Battle Cry of Freedom, “Confederate leaders also considered Corinth a crucial strategic point. ‘If defeated here,’ wrote Beauregard two weeks after Shiloh, ‘we lose the whole Mississippi Valley and probably our cause.’”[1]If the Union were allowed to take control of Corinth they would be able to carry out General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda plan and squeeze the South out of the war. On the other hand, as long as the Confederates could continue to keep control of the area, they would be able to build defensive lines and supply their forces.

Prior to the major Battle of Corinth, two major battles had occurred for the area of Corinth. The first battle was the Battle of Shiloh, which was the Confederate attempt to keep the Union forces from entering Corinth, Mississippi and its important railroad junction. The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6 and 7 of 1862, in Southwestern Tennessee. Confederate forces, under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, launched a surprise attack against the Union Army of Major General Ulysses S. Grant and came very close to defeating his army. However, Grant was saved by the arrival of Don Carlos Buell and his Army of the Ohio, who aided him in launching a massive counter attack against the Confederate forces. By the end of April 7, 1862 it was clear the Confederates could not hold their position and were forced to retreat back to Corinth. After two days of battle it was clear this would be one of bloodiest battle in Civil War history. James McPherson points out the massive amount of lives lost, “The 20,000 killed and wounded at Shiloh (about equally distributed between the two sides) were nearly double the 12,000 battle casualties at Manassas, Wilson’s Creek, Fort Donelson, and Pea Ridge combined.”[2]

The second battle was the Siege of Corinth, fought from April 29 to June 10, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. In the Siege of Corinth the Union forces invaded and captured Corinth from Confederate forces. Lincoln, angry with Ulysses S. Grant after the heavy Union losses following the Battle of Shiloh, replaced him with General Henry W. Halleck. Halleck, cautious from the staggering losses at Shiloh, embarked on a tedious campaign of offensive entrenchment, fortifying after each advance. In the words of the historian James McPherson, “If Halleck’s precautions made sure that Beauregard could not attack him, they made equally sure that he could not effectively attack Beauregard.”[3] Halleck’s turtle-like siege was the largest in North American history. As a matter of fact, it was the largest in all of the Americas. The siege consisted of 120,000 Union soldiers and 70,000 Confederate soldiers. Confederate forces, in order to defend Corinth, dug many earth fortifications. Ironically, these fortifications would later prove more useful for the Union army in the Battle of Corinth. Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard understood he could not hold Corinth and decided to keep his army intact rather than keep the important railroad junction. Thus, Beauregard staged an ingenious retreat from Corinth. The Civil war Battlefield guide depicts the event: “Throughout the night of May 29-30 Beauregard orchestrated a perfect deception by running a succession of empty trains back and forth through the town while whistles blew and troops cheered as if massive reinforcements were arriving.”[4] Once he arrived “fifty miles to the south at his new base, Tupelo, Mississippi, Beauregard pronounced the evacuation of Corinth ‘equivalent to a great victory,’” believing the retreat was as successful as winning the battle.[5] One success of the battle was the low number of casualties. The casualties during the Siege of Corinth numbered 1000 for each side. This was low considering about 200,000 troops occupied the area.

After two major battles at Corinth, with both battles resulting in Union victory and control of the strategic railroad junction, it came time for the Confederacy to strike back and attempt to the area back. That time came October 3-4, 1862 in the Battle of Corinth when the Confederates posed a strike at the heavily fortified Union defensive at Corinth. At this point in time the Confederate army was under the command of Braxton Bragg. The Civil War Battlefield Guide explains, “CS General P.G.T. Beauregard went on sick leave in mid-June, and President Jefferson Davis took advantage of the opportunity to replace him with CS General Braxton Bragg.”[6] Bragg was anxious to fight the Union forces. He moved the Army of the Mississippi by rail to Chattanooga. Upon reaching Chattanooga, Bragg moved aggressively and continued deep into Kentucky. Before leaving Mississippi, Bragg left 32,000 soldiers under the command of Major General Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn with the expectation that they would move into Tennessee. However, Earl Van Dorn, the senior of the two generals, used his seniority status and decided to attack Corinth before advancing to Tennessee. Earl Van Dorn was a career United States Army officer who made himself a reputation when he fought in the Mexican-American War and against the Indians in the West. James McPherson describes Earl Van Dorn as a, “diminutive but hard-bitten Mississippian who had been wounded five times in the Mexican War and in frontier Indian fighting.”[7] Yet, in spite of his previous successes, Van Dorn’s distinction during the Civil War would not match the reputation he earned during the Mexican War. On March 6-8, 1862, Van Dorn was in command of Confederate forces during Pea Ridge. During the Battle of Pea Ridge, Van Dorn made many critical mistakes, which lead to a major decisive and strategic Union victory. In the Battle of Corinth, Van Dorn continued his trends of mistake, which again lead to a Union victory.

On the morning of October 3^rd Van Dorn marched to Corinth with 23,000 men eager to retake the area. To Van Dorn’s surprise, the numerically equal Union forces led by William Rosecrans were well prepared for the battle. Rosecrans had ordered his troops to heavily fortify lines and connect them to a series of batteries. The batteries, consisting of Robinett, Williams, Phillips, Tannrath, and Lothrop in the area of College Hill, proved to be valuable to the Union cause. The defensive capabilities of the fortified batteries allowed Rosecrans to stop the Confederate advances. The Civil War Battlefield Guide points out, “This defensive enabled him to sap the Confederates’ strength as they advanced and to defend the supply depots in downtown Corinth and at the railroad intersection.”[8] Furthermore, Rosecrans took full advantage of the old Confederate trench line which had been built by the Confederate troops during the Siege of Corinth. It was at these old lines where Rosecrans’ and Van Dorn’s men first met. The morning of October 3 the troops clashed and by that night the Confederate troops had pushed Union forces nearly three miles into the interior defenses before exhaustion halted their advance. Intense heat of the October day punished both sides. The Confederates troops, under the command of Earl Van Don, suffered greatly due to lack of water and food, as he was notoriously known for having poor provisions. The next day Van Dorn made the critical mistake of attacking the daunting Union fortifications Battery Robinett and Battery Powell. As a result, the most intense and savage fighting during the Battle of Corinth took place. Wave after wave of Confederates troops charged the forts as massive 20-pound cannons continuously fired at them. Peter Cozzens describes how the “grape shot and canister tore terrible lanes through the Confederate ranks, but the determined men of Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi never faltered.”[9] Cozzens goes on to state, “Van Dorn's grand flanking movement had played itself out in a series of fierce but poorly coordinated charges against a foe numerically equal and supported by seven batteries of artillery.”[10] When the smoke cleared there was a mass of struggling Confederates bodies. The fortifications proved to be too overwhelming, and the “Union counter attacks soon drove the Confederates from Battery Powell and from the town.”[11] The Confederates withdrew from the heavy fighting with the burden of 4,800 casualties out of their 22,000 men. Rosecrans attempted to pursue and destroy Van Dorn’s army, but with his 2,350 causalities out of his 23,000 troops and exhaustion setting in from holding the city, was unable to mount an effective pursuit. Rosecrans would later receive a promotion for his command; whereas, Van Dorn was demoted. Van Dorn eventually “was assassinated in his headquarters at Spring Hill, Tennessee, May 7, 1863 by a Dr. Peters, who alleged as a justification for his act that Van Dorn had ‘violated the sanctity of his home.”[12]

In the aftermath of the Battle of Corinth, Grant was able to launch an invasion southward along the Mississippi Central Railroad to capture Vicksburg and the Mississippi Valley. The Battle of Corinth was the last Confederate offensive movement in the Mississippi theater. The Union forces continued to hold Corinth until they abandoned it in the winter of 1863-1864, for it had no strategic significance anymore. Nevertheless, the strategic railroad junction was as important for the Reconstruction as it was during the war. The area of Corinth was also crucially important to the education of freed slaves. Overall the Battle of Corinth was the turning point in the war. It was the key ignition for executing the Union Anaconda plan to squeeze the Confederacy out of the war. The Union control of Corinth allowed them to cut off much needed Confederate supplies and eventually capture the entire Mississippi Valley. If Confederates forces would have been allowed to keep or retake Corinth, their chances for winning a defensive war would have greatly improved. Even though we will never know what would have happen if the Confederate troops were allowed to retake Corinth, it cannot be denied that Corinth, Mississippi was vitally important during the war.

---

[1] James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom. (New York: Oxford University Press,1988), 416

[2] James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 413

[3] Ibid 416

[4] Kennedy,Frances H., The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2^nd Edition, Iuka and Corinth, Mississippi, Campaign: September-October 1862. (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998), 53

[5] James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom , 417.

[6] Kennedy,Frances H. The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 129.

[7] James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom. (New York: Oxford University Press,1988), 404

[8] Kennedy,Frances H. The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 131.

[9] Peter Cozzens. Moving into dead men's shoes, Civil War Times Illustrated; May97, Vol. 36 Issue 2.

[10] Ibid, 1.

[11] Kennedy,Frances H. The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 131.

[12]Ezra J. Warner, Generals In Gray. (New Orleans: Louisiana State University Press, 1959), 315.

Book Review: Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz

By: Brian Freeman

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 1995. p.192

In the History of the world there have been few incidences of atrocities that equal to the treatment of the Jews in Europe during World War II. The Holocaust is one of the most important and horrific incidences in the history of mankind. Sixty years later we still ask how and why? We try to find some understanding but it is difficult for us to accept the levels of systematic cruelty and terror experienced by Jews during this period. There are many great authors of Holocaust Literature that give understanding or a glimpse into that world. We have been blessed with great works of literature by Elie Wiesel with his trilogy of books Night, Dawn, and Day. The Diary of Anne Frank and the poetry of Nelly Sachs help paint pictures of understanding. All these authors and their works are great in their own ways. However, there is one author who stands out. Primo Levi and his memoir, Survival in Auschwitz, is a true masterpiece of Holocaust literature. It is not simply a recounting of personal tragedies and historical atrocities, but a clear-eyed and highly detailed story of the fragile nature of human personality.

Primo Levi’s story begins July 31, 1919 when he was born to a Jewish middle class family in Turin, Italy. His family had long been assimilated into Italian life. Levy never discovered his Jewish ness until he came up against the racial laws enacted in 1938 by Mussolini Fascist Regime. Levi continued with life and graduated first in his class as a chemist from the University of Turin in 1941. Active in the resistance against the Fascist cause, Levi was captured in northern Italy. He was imprisoned in an Italian transit camp, from which he transferred to Auschwitz. One of the most compelling chapters in Survival in Auschwitz is The Journey. The Journey describes his arrest, transportation, and arrival to Auschwitz. Primo with 650 others was loaded into a freight train for a four day journey without food or water. Primo says,” In less than ten minutes all the fit men had been collected together in a group. What happened to the others, to the women, to the children, to the old men, we could establish neither then nor later: the night swallowed them up, purely and simply.” The German SS Soldiers separated those they deemed capable of work from those they deemed incapable, such as women, children and elderly. Only 135 of the 650 from Levi’s train were admitted into Auschwitz, the other 515 went immediately to the gas chambers.

He was herded with the others into the camp and after being stripped naked and having his head shaved. He was given an old striped uniform and the identification numbers 174517 were tattooed on his arm. Levi describes his experience as “Becoming a mindless slave one would soon forget the point of life itself almost not caring whether you live or whether you die is the most inhuman trait imaginable.” Levi uses this kind of depiction as a prisoner with almost unemotional tone that often disguises the horror of what he is describing. As a prisoner of Auschwitz he was forced to work seven days a week with two Sundays off a month which were filled with tedious, exhausting tasks and were often the only opportunity available to attend to personal hygiene needs. The bulk of their time was spent working sixteen hour days in factories and around the camp and making supplies for the war and other items for the Germans. With little food and inadequate clothing, it was easy to fall ill or die from exhaustion while working in the snow and rain. Levi was lucky enough to be sent to the Ka-be or the infirmary to recover from an injury to his Achilles tendon. The Ka-be was overcrowded, and it was populated by individuals with deadly, communicable diseases such as typhus and dysentery. There were no medicines available to relieve the symptoms or the pain and suffering was widespread. Despite the pain and suffering, he was able to rest and build up some strength before returning back to work. Much of the work assigned to them was needless. If not for his degree in chemistry, which earned him a place in the Chemistry Command working indoors during the last winter, Primo would have probably suffered the same fate as about eleven million other people did. Of the eleven million, six million of them were Jews who died during the war.

Primo Levi’s life and writings are marked by his wartime experience and by the guilt of having survived when so many others perished in the German Concentration Camps. In 1987 Primo could no longer withstand the guilt and committed suicide. Levi's haunting memoir about his ten months in the German death camp Auschwitz is an unforgettable chronicle of systematic cruelty and miraculous survival. When reading Levi’s tale of survival and lengthy repatriation, we come to understand the need for telling this extraordinary experience.

Jeannette BaxterAuthor’s, “Primo Levi (1919-1987)” October 12,2007.http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2709.

David Damrosch and David L. Pike, The Longman Anthology World Literature Compact, Compact ed.,(Pearson Education, Inc., 2008), 2680-2691.

Book Review: Elie Wiesel Night

By: Brian Freeman

The Holocaust is one of the most important and horrific times in the history of mankind. Never has the world seen a group of people singled out from society and executed with mass precision as seen during the Holocaust. The shock and terror which the Jewish people faced under Nazi rule can never truly be understood. The survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust have made countless efforts to try to give the world some kind of description of what they experienced. Millions of testimonies and literary works have emerged trying to describe the Holocaust to mankind. One piece of literature that stands out as one of the bedrocks of Holocaust literature is Elie Wiesel’s Night. The story ranks alongside Primo Levi’s If This is a Man and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl as one of the best in Holocaust literature. The one hundred nine page story is a simple but devastating account based on Wiesel’s personal Holocaust experience.

Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, a village in the Carpathian Mountains in northern Transylvania. Elie Wiesel is the author of more than forty celebrated works of fiction and nonfiction. He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America Congressional Gold Medal, the French Legion of Honor, and in 1986 was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Night is the first book in the trilogy Night, Dawn, and Day. The books reflect Wiesel’s state of mind during and after the Holocausts. Wiesel was only fifteen when the tragic story of Night unfolded. In order to describe this journey, Wiesel uses a sparse and fragmented narrative style with frequent shifts in point of view. This style of writing really allows the reader to almost feel the emotional and physical pain Wiesel describes.

Northern Transylvania, where Wiesel had been born and raised, was annexed by Hungary in 1940. Wiesel lived there with his Father Shlomo, his mother Sarah, and his three sisters Hilda, Beatrice, and seven year old Tzipora. He was raised in a close knit community of 10,000 to 20,000 mostly Orthodox Jews. Wiesel was a deeply observant, studied Talmud and yearned to learn all the religious Jewish books. Moshe the Beadle is one of the major characters in Night and sets up two major recurring themes. Moshe is the caretaker in the synagogue and teaches the Kabbalah and the mysteries of the universe in secret to Elie. The first theme Moshe introduces in Night is that spiritual faith is sustained not by answers, but by questions. One day all the foreign Jews are gathered and deported, and Moshe is sent away. Time passes and Moshe returns no longer the same. He runs from Jewish household to household begging for them to listen. Moshe tells them how Gestapo made them dig their own graves and murdered all the Jewish men, women, and children. Time passes on and Moshe’s words are forgotten, which leads to the second theme Moshe introduces. The second them introduced is that the Jews of Sighet and Eliezer were given many warnings and many opportunities to escape the hell.

Even when Germany invaded Hungary at midnight on March 18, 1944, few believed they were in danger. At first the Germans seemed polite and hospitable. On the seventh day of Passover the curtain of hatred was lifted and restrictions on Jews gradually increased. Gold, sliver, and valuables were no longer allowed to be kept by Jews. They were not allowed to visit restaurants, attend the synagogue, or leave home after six in the evening. Eventually they would be forced to distinguish themselves from society by wearing the yellow star of David at all times. Elie’s father makes light of this when he states, “The yellow star? Oh what of it? You don’t die of it…(Poor Father! Of what then did you die?)” (11).

The wearing of the star was just the beginning of the cruel injustices placed on the Jews during the Holocaust. Night goes on to tell how Elie, his family, and the rest of the town were placed in one of the two ghettos created in Sighet. “The people thought this was a good thing. That they would no longer have to look at all those hostile faces, endure those hate-filled stares. No more fear. No more anguish. We would live among Jews among brothers…” (12). Two weeks later the German secret could no longer be kept. All the Jews in the Sighet would be deported. The forced Jews marched to a train station where a convoy of cattle cars awaited them. With eighty people to a car, little bread, and a few pales of water, the journey to hell began.

Elie arrives with his parents and sisters in Poland at Auschwitz Birkenau, known as Auschwitz II. Men and women are separated on arrival -- Elie and his father to the left; his mother and sisters to the right. Elie would learn that his mother and Tzipora had been sent straight to the gas chamber. The remainder of Night describes Wiesel’s desperate efforts not to be parted from his father and to survive. Wiesel’s attempt to stay close to his father causes him grief and shame at witnessing his father’s slow decline into helplessness. He becomes his father’s caregiver, but his father’s existence threatens his own existence. It is through this struggle that Elie loses his innocence and faith in God.

He managed to remain with his father as they were forced to work under appalling conditions and shuffled between concentration camps in the closing days of the war. Just a few weeks after the two marched to Buchenwald and before the camp was liberated by Allied forces, Wiesel’s father suffered from dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion. The last word his father spoke was “Eliezer” (111). His father was taken away to the crematory in the middle night of the without him even knowing.

Wiesel’s story of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp paints a picture of such horror that at the end the reader asks, “Why?” Elie Wiesel wanted the world to know what he saw and experienced as a young boy and how it colored his world forever. He lost his entire family to the Nazis and came away from the concentration camps a survivor but a bitter and disenchanted one. Throughout the book, there is a dark feeling of hopelessness and unreality. It seems difficult to believe that anyone could be so vile and utterly devoid of conscience to send millions of Jews to their deaths. The Holocaust tested those who survived and left them with questions that cannot be answered. Elie Wiesel does not give us the answers, but gives a story of one man’s witness to the death of God, children, innocence, and self.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 1958.