A short film distributed by the U.S. government during World War Two to explain why Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals living on the West Coast were relocated to internment camps away from the coast.
Interesting propaganda film. See any parallels today?
And BTW, another name for “Internment Camp” is “Concentration Camp”.
A segment from the 1942 U.S. government film “The World at War.”
Kambiz Kamrani provides interesting insight into a particular article published in Scientific American.
The article calls them all Arabs, but at least one of them (and maybe two of them) are Persians, and not Arabs.
Here’s a quote…
You’ve heard of Louis Pasteur and George Washington Carver, no doubt. And probably Joseph Priestley, one of the founders of modern chemistry. Names like Antoine Lavoisier, John Dalton, and Amadeo Avogadro may even bring a twinkle of recognition to the eye for their famous roles in establishing chemistry as a modern science. But what about Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (“Rhazes”)? Or Jabir ibn Hayyan (“Geber”)? Or Abu Jusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi. Huh?
Wir stehen nicht allein: “We do not stand alone”. Nazi propaganda poster from 1936. The woman is holding a baby and the man is holding a shield inscribed with the title of Nazi Germany’s 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring (their compulsory sterilization law). The couple is in front of a map of Germany, surrounded by the flags of nations which had enacted (to the left) or were considering (bottom and to the right) similar legislation.
The countries which had enacted compulsory sterilization laws (and the date shown) were:
The countries where they were considering compulsory sterilization laws were:
Scan taken from Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), page 96. Originally from Neues Volk, March 1, 1936, p.37.
A poster from a 1921 eugenics conference displays which U.S. states had by then implemented sterilization legislation.
Scan taken from:
Harry H. Laughlin, The Second International Exhibition of Eugenics held September 22 to October 22, 1921, in connection with the Second International Congress of Eugenics in the American Museum of Natural History, New York (Baltimore: William & Wilkins Co., 1923).
The controlled use of fire was a breakthrough adaptation in human evolution. It first provided heat and light and later allowed the physical properties of materials to be manipulated for the production of ceramics and metals. The analysis of tools at multiple sites shows that the source stone materials were systematically manipulated with fire to improve their flaking properties. Heat treatment predominates among silcrete tools at ~72 thousand years ago (ka) and appears as early as 164 ka at Pinnacle Point, on the south coast of South Africa. Heat treatment demands a sophisticated knowledge of fire and an elevated cognitive ability and appears at roughly the same time as widespread evidence for symbolic behavior.
Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes
Elaine Morgan also talks about Scientists being a Priestly Caste.
Boing Boing links to the American eugenics movement archives website, as well as gives a quick overview of it. From the article…
Should you ever care to delve into America’s history with eugenics, the Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement is a handy thing indeed. It’s hard to believe eugenics was as popular here as it in fact was without seeing the visual evidence. The images here include Fitter Family contests, where white Americans competed at state fairs—much like cattle—to determine who had the best breeding. (Make sure to check out this traveling exhibit.) Also, lots of documents and flyers linking criminality to immigrants and heredity. (Oh, the irony of using the swastika to indicate the racial inferiority of Germans!) The interface is pretty clunky but it’s worth pecking around.
For background on the early 20th century American eugenics movement, you could do worse than my interview with historian Daniel Kelves.
While reading the book, “The Economic Laws of Scientific Research” by Terence Kealey, I came across a couple paragraph about a Persian named Rashid al-Din (1247-1318). In Kealey’s book, Rashid al-Din is noted for having come up with very similar ideas as those of Francis Bacon, although Rashid al-Din came up with them about 300 years before Francis Bacon. Terence Kealey had this to say….
[Francis Bacon] was anticipated by the extraordinary Rashid al-Din (1247-1318). Rashid, in a remarkable career that paralleled Bacon’s in many ways, rose to become Vizier, or chief minister, to the Persian Empire. A scholarly man, he collected all the knowledge open to him in his vast Jami al-Tawarikeh (1302).
…
Unlike Bacon, however, Rashid left little lasting influence. He was executed for blasphemy…
…
His murderers then destroyed all the copies of this book they could find, and although some survived in the libraries of neighboring Muslim states, his work influenced neither them, nor Europe.
…
Although circumstances ensured that he would never assume Bacon’s importance, he retains one advantage; unlike Bacon, he was a decent man.
…
[Rashid al-Din] was a good, as well as a great, man.
Consulting Wikipedia… yeah, yeah, I know (Wikipedia isn’t the best place to consult, but anyways)… the name of Rashid al-Din’s “Jami al-Tawarikh” translates as “Compendium of Chronicles” or “Universal History”. And is said to be “the single most important historical source for the Il Khanate period” of Iran/Persia. (The Il Khanate period of Iran/Persia is from about 1256 to 1335 when Iran/Persia was ruled by a Mongol Empire.)
According to Wikipedia, Rashid al-Din’s “Jami al-Tawarikh” is said to be made up of 4 sections…
1. The Ta’rikh-i Ghazani, the most extensive part, which includes:
- The Mongol and Turkish tribes: their history, genealogies and legends
- The history of the Mongols from Genghis Khan up to the death of Mahmud Ghazan
2. The second part includes :
- The history of the reign of Oljeitu up to 1310 (no known copy)
- The history of the non-Mongol peoples of Eurasia:
- Adam [as in the Adam from “Adam and Eve”] and the patriarchs
- the kings of pre-Islamic Persia
- Muhammad and the Caliphs
- the Islamic dynasties of Persia (Ghaznavids, shahs of Khwarezm, Ismailis)
- the Turks,
- the Chinese,
- the Jews,
- the Franks,
- the Indians.
3. The Shu’ab-i panjganah (“5 genealogies, of the Arabs, Jews, Mongols, Franks, and Chinese”). This text exists in a manuscript in the library of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul (ms 2937), but has only been published on microfilm.
4. The Suwar al-akalim, a geographical compendium. Unfortunately, it has not survived in any known manuscript.
Certainly an interesting read for any history fans out there.
I’m on the look out for an English translation of the parts of Rashid al-Din’s “Jami al-Tawarikeh” that survived.
