The Thermidorian Reaction had begun on 27 July 1794 in which the National Convention turned against the increasingly radical Jacobin leaders of the French Revolution. It ended the dominance of the Committee of Public Safety and resulted in the arrest and execution of Robespierre and 21 other leading members. Their executions were followed by a purge of other radicals in what became known as the White Terror.
Having alienated itself from the radical left-wing, the National Convention also faced threats from the right that culminated in a Royalist attack on 13 Vendémiaire. This uprising was put down by Napoleon Bonaparte with ‘a whiff of grapeshot’. Prior to the Royalist uprising, the National Convention had ratified a new constitution known as the Constitution of the Year III. This established a bicameral legislature and a five-man Directory that wielded executive power. Although it survived for four years, the Directory was generally unsuccessful at dealing with the domestic problems facing France. Even the numerous military victories against foreign enemies were not enough to secure much support. In response the Directory used the Army to repress its opponents, which only fuelled the opposition further and gave the Army increasing power within France.
By 1799 even the government realised that it could not continue for much longer. On 9 November, Napoleon launched the coup of 18 Brumaire. This replaced the Directory with the Consulate and effectively brought the French Revolution to an end, ten years after it began.
The "Thermidorian Reaction" was named after the month in which the coup took place and was the latter part of the National Convention's rule of France. It was marked by the end of the Reign of Terror, decentralization of executive powers from the Committee of Public Safety and a turn from the radical Jacobin policies of the Montagnard Convention to more conservative positions. Economic and general populism, dechristianization, and harsh wartime measures were largely abandoned, as the members of the Convention, disillusioned and frightened of the centralized government of the Terror, preferred a more stable political order that would have the approval of the affluent. The Reaction saw the Left suppressed by brutal force, including massacres, as well as the disbanding of the Jacobin Club, the dispersal of the sans-culottes, and the renunciation of the Montagnard ideology.
In March and April 1792, barely a year after the creation of the Bank of the United States, a financial panic rocked confidence in the fledging American economy. Easy credit, combined with rampant speculation by bankers such as William Duer and Alexander Macomb, led to an unsustainable rise in the price of securities that inevitably plummeted. Without any safeguards in place, and at a time when securities were often bought and sold in auction houses with unpredictable prices and high commissions, public confidence in the market plummeted.
In the midst of the panic of 1792, a group of 24 brokers and merchants met to discuss possible regulations in an attempt to restore trust in the securities business. On 17 May they met again to sign the Buttonwood Agreement, named after the buttonwood tree in New York City’s Wall Street where they traditionally met to conduct their trades.
The Buttonwood Agreement was significant for two regulatory reasons. Firstly, the brokers guaranteed that they would not try to undercut each other by setting a fixed floor commission rate of 0.25%. This reduced the risk of manipulative pricing and competition between brokers. Secondly, the signatories agreed to only ever trade with each other, closing the system to outsiders who might be less scrupulous. With the knowledge that every broker operated by the same rules, they could trust that the market prices were fair and that deals would be honored. These original New York stockbrokers traded from the Tontine Coffee House at 82 Wall Street before moving to their first dedicated trading space in 1817.
We take it for granted in the UK that if a fire breaks out, you can call firefighters, and they will try to put it out and save lives. In the 18th century, that wasn't guaranteed. If your building didn't have a fire mark, they might just let it burn. The reason: fire insurance, and fire insurance companies.
The Highland Clearances (Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal, the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in the period 1750 to 1860.
In the first phase, clearance resulted from agricultural improvement, driven by the need for landlords to increase their income (many landlords had crippling debts, with bankruptcy playing a large part in the history). This involved the enclosure of the open fields managed on the run rig system and the shared grazing. Especially in the North and West of the region, these were usually replaced with large-scale pastoral farms stocked with sheep, on which much higher rents were paid, with the displaced tenants getting alternative tenancies in newly created crofting communities, where they were expected to be employed in industries such as fishing, quarrying or the kelp industry. The reduction in status from farmer to crofter was one of the causes of resentment from these changes.
The eviction of tenants went against dùthchas, the principle that clan members had an inalienable right to rent land in the clan territory. This was never recognised in Scottish law. It was gradually abandoned by clan chiefs as they began to think of themselves simply as commercial landlords, rather than as patriarchs of their people—a process that arguably started with the Statutes of Iona. The clan members continued to rely on dùthchas. This different viewpoint was an inevitable source of grievance. The actions of landlords varied. Some did try to delay or limit evictions, often to their financial cost. The Countess of Sutherland genuinely believed her plans were advantageous for those resettled in crofting communities and could not understand why tenants complained. A few landlords displayed complete lack of concern for evicted tenants.
Cole Porter
Let’s Misbehave 1927
Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love 1928
You Do Something to Me 1929
Night And Day, The Gay Divorcee, 1934
I've Got You Under My Skin - Born to Dance (1936) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap9BZo18Tss
Night and day you are the one
only you beneath the moon or under the sun
whether near to me or far, it's no matter darling
where you are
I think of you
day and night, night and day
why is it so that this longing for you
follows where ever I go
in the roaring traffics boom, in the silence of my lonely room
I think of you
night and day, day and night
under the hide of me , there's an oh such a hungry yearning burning
inside of me
and this torment won’t be through
‘til you let me spend my life making love to you
day and night, night and day
The economic turmoil of the Great Depression profoundly impacted the Greatest Generation, leaving its members with the desire to end poverty and create economic opportunities. As a result of their drive, this generation is recognized for their success in later years.
In part a result of the Great Depression and World War 2, this generation developed great resilience in surviving hardship and solving problems. Below are a few characteristics that define the Greatest Generation.
Personal Responsibility: The harsh reality of the Great Depression forced many to a higher standard of personal responsibility, even as children.
Humility: The Great Depression fostered modesty and humility in many of those who lived through scarcity.
Work Ethic: Hard work enabled survival during both the depression and the war. Many jobs at the time were physically demanding, with long hours.
Frugality: Saving every penny and every scrap helped families survive through times of shortage. “Use it up, fix it up, make it do, or do without” was a motto of their time.
Commitment: One job or one marriage often lasted an entire lifetime.
Integrity: People valued honesty and trustworthiness, values fostered by the need to rely on one another.
Self-Sacrifice: Millions sacrificed to defend their country or support the war effort from home.
Millennials, 1981 to 1996, Generation Y, Gen Y grew up around the turn of the3rd millennium. The Pew Research Center reported that Millennials surpassed the Baby Boomers in U.S. numbers in 2019, with an estimated 71.6 million Boomers and 72.1 million Millennials.
Generation Z (Gen Z, "Zoomers"), 1997 to 2012 [include whiny, self-obsessed weakists]
Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha), early 2010s to mid-2020s. First born entirely in the 21st century. As of 2015, there were some two-and-a-half million people born every week around the globe, and Gen Alpha is expected to reach two billion in size by 2025.
The Kindertransport (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Nazi-occupied Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust. The programme was supported, publicised and encouraged by the British Government. Importantly the British Government waived all those visa immigration requirements which were not within the ability of the British Jewish Community to fulfil. The British Government put no number limit on the programme - it was the start of World War II that brought the program to an end, at which time about 10,000 kindertransport children had been brought to the Unitied Kingdom.
The term "kindertransport" is also sometimes used for the rescue of mainly Jewish children, but without their parents, from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Holland, Belgium, and France. An example is the 1,000 Chateau de La Hille children who went to Belgium. However, often, the "kindertransport" is used to refer to the organised programme to the United Kingdom.
--- Sir Nicholas George WintonMBE (né Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British humanitarian who established an organisation to rescue children at risk from Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton supervised the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of WW2. Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for "children's transport").
His work went unnoticed by the world for over 50 years, until 1988 when he was invited to the BBC television programme That's Life!, where he was reunited with several of the children he had saved. The British press celebrated him and dubbed him the "British Schindler." In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia". On 28 October 2014, he was awarded the highest honour of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion (1st class), by Czech President Miloš Zeman. He died in 2015 at the age of 106. --- World Jewish Relief (then called the Central British Fund for German Jewry) was established in 1933 to support in whatever way possible the needs of Jews both in Germany and Austria. Records for many of the children who arrived in the UK through the Kindertransports are maintained by World Jewish Relief.
The British Kindertransport programme was unique - no other country had a similar program. In the United States, the Wagner–Rogers Bill was introduced in Congress, but due [is anyone surprised?] to much opposition, it never left Committee.
This film short is trying to relay the message that only five pounds in notes could be taken abroad in the late 1940s. Although the message offers little or no explanation for the restrictions it is almost certainly to avoid a 'balance of payments' crisis.
Before war broke out in 1939 Britain was saddled with debts totalling £496million, which by 1945 debt had risen to £3.5billion. Britain was in effect, an economic dependant of the United States.
With industry run down or converted to the war effort, and traditional world markets disrupted, Britain was near bankruptcy during the Second World War. In March 1941 the United States offered much needed economic support for the British to continue the fight against the Axis Powers through the Lend-Lease agreement.
Britain 'borrowed' over £5 billion worth of goods through Lend-Lease. But the extent to which the British economy had become dependent upon the American support became clear after the war.
American Lend-Lease abruptly ended within days of the unconditional surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945. The post-war negotiated loan repayments left Britain near to economic collapse less than two years later.
In the summer of 1947 Britain faced a huge balance of payments deficit. More money was flowing out of the country than flowing in. The crisis was exacerbated by a fuel shortage the previous winter that led to a 25 per cent loss of exports. Also the conditions of repayment for the wartime loans imposed by America placed further pressure on the balance of payments and the value of sterling.
The crisis proved to be a major setback for Attlee's administration, denting public confidence and forcing reductions in public spending. It also demonstrated the fragility of post-war economies throughout Europe. The subsequent introduction by the United States of Marshall Aid in 1948 assisted the rebuilding of European nations ravaged by the war with American dollars. Britain was the largest beneficiary.
Post-war bankruptcy blues
Britain's wartime enthusiasm and self-confidence had become seriously eroded by the crisis-laden year of 1947. Domestically, the continuation of rationing, including for the first time bread (between 1946-48) and the fuel and economic crises, together with Indian independence, 1947 was largely a year that dented the immediate post war assurances.
Although the wartime Lend-Lease agreement had enabled Britain to continue its struggle against the Axis Powers alone [to America's great benefit], it gave the misleading appearance of the nation as a first-rank power. In the immediate post war years it gradually became hard to understand how as a winning power, head of a great empire, second only to USA in influence [now deep in debt to America, which had stayed out as long as possible], became so austere and destitute.
Prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the 19th century. Led by pietisticProtestants, they aimed to heal what they saw as an ill society beset by alcohol-related problems such as alcoholism, family violence and saloon-based political corruption. Many communities introduced alcohol bans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and enforcement of these new prohibition laws became a topic of debate. Prohibition supporters, called "drys", presented it as a battle for public morals and health. The movement was taken up by progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic and Republican parties, and gained a national grassroots base through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After 1900, it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Opposition from the beer industry mobilized "wet" supporters from the wealthy Catholic and German Lutheran communities, but the influence of these groups receded from 1917 following the entry of the US into the First World War against Germany.
The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and finally ended nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified by the requisite number of states on January 16, 1919, which passed "with a 68 percent supermajority in the House of Representatives and 76 percent support in the Senate" as well as ratification by 46 out of 48 states. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act(October 28, 1919), set down the rules for enforcing the federal ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited.
On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The act established the legal definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them.[19] Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the federal government lacked resources to enforce it.
Not all alcohol was banned; for example, religious use of wine was permitted. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, with some states banning possession outright.
Following the ban, criminal gangs gained control of the beer and liquor supply in many cities. By the late 1920s, a new opposition to prohibition emerged nationwide. Critics attacked the policy as causing crime, lowering local revenues, and imposing "rural" Protestant religious values on "urban" America. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933, though prohibition continued in some states. To date, this is the only time in American history in which a constitutional amendment was passed for the purpose of repealing another.
Some research indicates that alcohol consumption declined substantially due to Prohibition. Rates of liver cirrhosis, alcoholic psychosis, and infant mortality also declined. Prohibition's effect on rates of crime and violence is disputed. Despite this, it lost supporters every year it was in action, and lowered government tax revenues at a critical time before and during the Great Depression.
On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen–Harrison Act, legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight) and wine of a similarly low alcohol content. On December 5, 1933, ratification of the Twenty-first Amendmentrepealed the Eighteenth Amendment. However, United States federal law still prohibits the manufacture of distilled spirits without meeting numerous licensing requirements that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal beverage use.
Rise & Fall of Lesbian Bars (USA) ..Despite the risks involved, the 20th century saw a thriving underground queer community develop. National Archive records show a wonderful defiance to live and love despite the law. Using unique archive items, this talk seeks to tell the important story of some of the clandestine LGBTQ+ spaces that were raided and closed by police and the covert methods of communication that had to be relied upon. The talk explores a number of spaces, from the Caravan Club – known as ‘London’s greatest bohemian rendezvous’ – to the lively Shim Sham Club, so named after the Harlem tap dance. Through photographs, court reports, witness statements and even tantalising love letters that were never meant for our eyes, this talk provides an insight into these little-known underground venues and the powerful voices of individuals inside them.
