J.L. Gaddis, The Cold War

Got Love? Strangelove?

Hello, Dimitri?

John Lewis Gaddis' The Cold War: A New History is a nice thematic introduction to the subject. If one is hung-up on chronology, this is not your book. But if you enjoy an author taking themes and weaving them in and out, then Gaddis is for you.

Video and Music Ideas for Teaching the Cold War 

I previously mentioned a couple of Twilight Zone episodes that would be suitable for this era. I didn't mention two real obvious additional choices: "The Shelter" deals with how neighbors and friends treat each other when shelter grows scarce once the Russians launch an attack on the U.S. More about the nature of the human heart and how people deal with crises and our human limits, but the bomb shelter is a nice background.  "Time Enough at Last" is really not about the Cold War or a nuclear holocaust at all but about what makes life ultimately worth living. Fans of J.P. Sartre may be saddened to see his "hell is other people" remark get turned on its head, but others may love the poetic justice. Man does not live by bread (or books) alone.

Video Clips (tbd)

Here's one I haven't found on YouTube: From Whit Stillman's Barcelona: The scene where Lt.(jg) Fred Boynton discovers that there is anti-NATO sentiment in Spain and asks, What are they for? Soviet troops racing across Europe, eating the croissants?  Pure genius!

Music 

Coming in at just over 8 minutes The Waterboys' "Red Army Blues" is a heart-breaking but eye-opening narrative about a Russian lad who enlists to fight the Huns and is eventually shipped to Siberia and work and rot -- "all because Comrade Stalin says we've become too 'Westernized'"

I would be remiss in not including the Sex Pistols' "Holidays in the Sun" which though convoluted is interesting with its references to going over the Berlin Wall. Then there's The Call's "War Weary World" which is much deeper than the peppy music would imply.  Or one that the "rads" in erstwhile West Germany seemed to love: Nena's "99 Luftballons" (which loses some but not much of its pathos the English version). 

For lovers of the surreal: Camper Van Beethoven, "Sweethearts".  Who can resist a song that mentions Dixon (CA)? And finally, U2's "Seconds." 

Questionable Music: an Alternative to Despair

What happens when students have had three weeks of random substitute teachers?

A flippant response would be, "Nothing good!" That is close to the money, but I had a chance to sub this week for a week's worth of lessons. It's an unfortunate situation when a teacher has an unforeseen situation and it doesn't quite merit a long-term sub. The teacher suffers, the subs suffer, and the students become disoriented and -- some -- become derisive and cynical.

After the second day with these students, it was clear that something beyond worksheets was required. (We had just finished the French Revolution and it seemed to me to be a distinct possibility that if I handed them another worksheet, I might be ascending the steps to the Guillotine!)

The curriculum called for moving into the Industrial Revolution and remember subbing a few weeks before for a psychology teacher in Roseville. I played the video. The video was about memory and how the mind remembers best when there is a context. In the video, one of the shrinks spouted off a set of random numbers and asked us, his audience, to remember them: 1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-8-6-1-1-9-1-4-1-9-4-1, Impossible. But then he said, "American history." Ah, yes, key dates in America history. Easy to remember.

Remembering this, I thought, "How do I give a simple but memorable introduction to the Industrial Revolution?"  I found a catchy (or perhaps irritating if you have taste in music) music video on YouTube and two other songs (one on consumerism, the other on oppressive work).

It was more interesting for me than another worksheet. Based on our discussions in class, same for some of the students.

Industrial Revolution Musical Retrospective

I Dreamt of Jello

I know what you're thinking: "No way! Too far!"

They say that the raw material for one's dreams comes from everyday experience.

The night before I watched a bit too much of Jello, Ice-T and others on an Oprah episode from way back.

Jello was there with a vengeance in my dreams that night.

I knew it was a dream because Jello was listening to me.

We were at a bar and I was telling him how I credited him with part of my return to Christianity -- Catholicism in particular.

He took it really well.

I thought then (the late 1980s) and still stand by it: punk was asking the right kinds of questions. Sure, the questions generally don't ascend beyond the sociological, but still, in many ways DK was on the right track.

Here's but one example (on the nature of work): "Soup is Good Food"* treats the nature of work and the evils of treating people as disposable. It's a great song, but what's missing? Well, in a word or two: hope, transcendence, meaning. The negative is there (which is not nothing -- in an age where Original Sin is vilified or ignored), but what is the "ought" that ought to be there?

That's why punk ultimately fails. One needs not perpetual cheerfulness but reality. Neither optimism nor unbridled pessimism, but simply the whole truth of the human condition.

He will surely laugh and scoff, but I pray for Jello.

*CAUTION: The song has some naughty words.

In praise of ambiguity

It's a curious thing: I'm listening to some music I haven't listened to for years. The curious thing is that what "turned me off" years ago is precisely why I find it so interesting now.

Here's an example from Daniel Amos' album Kalhoun.

(Yes, literate reader, the lyrics are not that ambiguous, but for me, ascending the heights of enlightenment are arduous!)

But this ambiguity also applies to bands like U2, The Call, The 77s and others. It opens a space, a human space.

It is perhaps that becoming an adult means the refusal of fundamentalism? Perhaps.