I Died a Million Times

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Miklitsch
Keyword(s):  
Outer Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Crime Film ◽  
Left Handed ◽  
Human Endeavor ◽  
Rearview Mirror ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Private Eye

The Age of Affluence. Ike and Mamie. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. In the United States, the 1950s have been memorialized as the Pax Americana. A similar stereotypical view has characterized the 1950s crime film. While the big-shot gangster dominated the headlines in the 1930s and the private eye graced the 1940s, both the gangster picture and film noir were declared DOA in the 1950s. There is, of course, another, less than perfect picture of the ’50s in which the tropes associated with the decade are rather darker. Commies. Aliens from outer space. The bomb. I Died a Million Times argues that the crime film is alive and well in the 1950s in the generic guise of gangster noir. The corpus delicti is a trio of subgenres that crystallized in the period and that correlates with the above symptomatic events: the syndicate picture, the rogue cop film, and the heist movie. These subgenres and the issues associated with them--the “combo” as capitalism incarnate, the letter of the law versus the lure of vigilantism, and the heist as a “left-handed form of human endeavor”--may appear black and white in the rearview mirror of history, but from another perspective, one that’s attentive to issues such as race (The Phenix City Story), class (The Prowler), gender (The Big Heat), sexuality (The Big Combo), the nation (The Asphalt Jungle), and the border (Touch of Evil), these signal, not-so-generic films are as vibrant and colorful as the decade itself.

The Crimson Kimono

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Miklitsch
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
Film Noir ◽  
Black Film ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Crime Film ◽  
Interracial Romance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Police Detective ◽  
American Police

Samuel Fuller’s Crimson Kimono (1959) is, like Odds against Tomorrow (1959), a paradigmatic late ‘50s American noir. Part policier, part melodrama, part “art” film, part “B” or exploitation picture, The Crimson Kimono deploys the sort of self-reflexive devices associated with Douglas Sirk’s ‘50s melodramas in order to “estrange” or “alienate” the dark crime film. For example, by portraying an interracial romance and commenting on the cliché of Oriental inscrutability, The Crimson Kimono foregrounds the black-and-white moral calculus of melodrama even as italicizes the racial difference, not to say racism, that has been a part, however occluded, of the history of “black film.” Equally importantly, by refiguring the film’s Asian-American police detective as the “hero” of the narrative who solves the case and “gets the girl,” Fuller’s film refashions one of the constitutive tropes of the genre, the “Shanghai gesture,” a trope that can itself be traced back to The Maltese Falcon (1941) and the origins of classic American film noir.

Wage Compression and Wage Inequality Between Black and White Males in the United States, 1940–1960

1994 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas N. Maloney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Wage Inequality ◽  
Wage Gap ◽  
Wage Structure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black And White ◽  
White Males ◽  
Worker Characteristics ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Wage Compression

The gap between the mean wages of black men and white men in the United States narrowed substantially between 1940 and 1950. There was, however, almost no change in this wage gap between 1950 and 1960. Some of this discontinuity in the path of black progress can be explained by general changes in the wage structure—wage compression in the 1940s and slight expansion in the 1950s. However, most of the gains of the 1940s were driven by race-specific factors, including increasing relative wages controlling for worker characteristics. These race-specific gains ceased in the 1950s.

Turning Aliens into Socialists

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Jessica Moberg
Keyword(s):  
Outer Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Swedish History ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Highly Evolved

Immediately after the Second World War Sweden was struck by a wave of sightings of strange flying objects. In some cases these mass sightings resulted in panic, particularly after authorities failed to identify them. Decades later, these phenomena were interpreted by two members of the Swedish UFO movement, Erland Sandqvist and Gösta Rehn, as alien spaceships, or UFOs. Rehn argued that ‘[t]here is nothing so dramatic in the Swedish history of UFOs as this invasion of alien fly-things’ (Rehn 1969: 50). In this article the interpretation of such sightings proposed by these authors, namely that we are visited by extraterrestrials from outer space, is approached from the perspective of myth theory. According to this mythical theme, not only are we are not alone in the universe, but also the history of humankind has been shaped by encounters with more highly-evolved alien beings. In their modern day form, these kinds of ideas about aliens and UFOs originated in the United States. The reasoning of Sandqvist and Rehn exemplifies the localization process that took place as members of the Swedish UFO movement began to produce their own narratives about aliens and UFOs. The question I will address is: in what ways do these stories change in new contexts? Texts produced by the Swedish UFO movement are analyzed as a case study of this process.

Psyche and Soul in America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Abzug
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The United States ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Relationship

Rollo May (1909‒1994), internationally known psychologist and popular philosopher, came from modest roots in the small town Protestant Midwest intending to do “religious work” but eventually became a psychotherapist and in best-selling books like Love and Will and The Courage to Create he attracted an audience of millions of readers in the United States, Europe, and Asia. During the 1950s and 1960s, these books combined existentialism and other philosophical approaches, psychoanalysis, and a spiritually-philosophy to interpret the damage bureaucratic and technocratic aspects of modernity and their inability of individuals to understand their authentic selves. Psyche and Soul in America deals not only with May’s public contributions but also to his turbulent inner life as revealed in unprecedentedly intimate sources in order to demonstrate the relationship between the personal and public in a figure who wrote about intimacy, its loss, and ways to regain an authentic sense of self and others.

Disparities in Health Between Black and White Americans: Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Research

2018 ◽  
pp. 456-478
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell ◽  
David S. Curtis ◽  
Adrienne M. Duke
Keyword(s):  
Health Disparities ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Biological Mechanisms ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Conceptual frameworks for racial/ethnic health disparities are abundant, but many have received insufficient empirical attention. As a result, there are substantial gaps in scientific knowledge and a range of untested hypotheses. Particularly lacking is specificity in behavioral and biological mechanisms for such disparities and their underlying social determinants. Alongside lack of political will and public investment, insufficient clarity in mechanisms has stymied efforts to address racial health disparities. Capitalizing on emergent findings from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study and other longitudinal studies of aging, this chapter evaluates research on health disparities between black and white US adults. Attention is given to candidate behavioral and biological mechanisms as precursors to group differences in morbidity and mortality and to environmental and sociocultural factors that may underlie these mechanisms. Future research topics are discussed, emphasizing those that offer promise with respect to illuminating practical solutions to racial/ethnic health disparities.

scholarly journals Inequality in Life Expectancy, Functional Status, and Active Life Expectancy Across Selected Black and White Populations in the United States

Demography ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arline T. Geronimus ◽  
John Bound ◽  
Timothy Waidmann ◽  
Cynthia G. Colen ◽  
Dianne Steffick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Functional Status ◽  
The United States ◽  
Active Life Expectancy ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Active Life

Why Are the Missiles (and Missile Defence) Called Peace-Keepers? – Corroding the Concept of Peaceful Use

2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-828
Author(s):  
Keith Wilson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Security Framework ◽  
Crucial Element ◽  
Earth Space ◽  
Peace And Security

The United States is abrogating the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to deploy a limited missile defence shield. Amongst other developments, this is prompting a reconsideration of the global security framework. However, a crucial element is missing from the current missile defence proposals: a clearly articulated concept of peaceful use, applicable both to outer space and to earth-space. The deployment of missile defence runs counter to emerging norms. It has effects going far beyond the abandonment or re-configuration of specific Cold War agreements. In a community of nations committed to the maintenance of international peace and security (cf. national or plurilateral security), sustainable meaning for widely used and accepted norms of peaceful use and peaceful purposes is at risk.

Abstract T P146: Vitamin D Deficiency is Associated With Stroke in Black and White Participants of the REGARDS Study

Stroke ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne E Judd ◽  
Virginia J Howard ◽  
Paul Muntner ◽  
Brett M Kissela ◽  
Bhupesh Panwar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin D ◽  
Vitamin D Deficiency ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dietary Vitamin ◽  
Equal Distribution ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Regards Study

Objective: Black Americans are at greater risk of both stroke and vitamin D deficiency than white Americans. We have previously shown that both higher dietary vitamin D and sunlight exposure are associated with decreased risk of stroke; however, serum 25(OH) is thought to be a better marker of vitamin D status. Methods: Using a case cohort design, we examined the association of plasma 25(OH)D with incident stroke in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, a cohort of black and white participants from across the United States enrolled between 2003 and 2007. Medical records were reviewed by physicians and strokes were classified on the basis of symptoms and neuroimaging. Strokes through July 1, 2011 were included. A stratified cohort sample was selected to ensure approximately equal numbers of black and white participants and an equal distribution across ages. We used Cox proportional hazards models weighted back to the original 30,239 participants, excluding those with history of stroke. Serum 25(OH)D was measured by Immunodetection Systems ELISA. Results: Over mean follow-up of 4.4 years, there were 539 ischemic and 71 hemorrhagic strokes. The stroke-free sub-cohort included 939 participants. After adjustment for age, race, sex, education, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, atrial fibrillation, heart disease, physical activity, kidney function, calcium and phosphorous, 25(OH)D level 30 ng/mL. The direction of association was similar for hemorrhagic stroke though not statistically significant (HR=1.59; 95%CI=0.78, 3.24). Vitamin D deficiency was associated with an increased risk of all stroke (HR=1.54; 95%CI=1.05, 2.23). This effect was greater in blacks (HR=2.09; 95%CI=1.09, 3.99) than whites (HR=1.38; 95%CI=0.78, 2.42). Results were not as strong when we modeled 25(OH)D as a continuous variable (HR=0.99 per 1 ng/ml change in 25(OH)D; 95%CI=0.98, 1.01). Discussion: Similar to low vitamin D intake, vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for incident stroke. These findings support evidence from cardiovascular and cancer epidemiology that treating low 25(OH)D may prevent strokes.

How the Federal Republic Became an Immigration Country: Norms, Politics and the Failure of West Germany's Guest Worker System

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Triadafilos Triadafilopoulos ◽  
Karen Schönwälder
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
The United States ◽  
German Society ◽  
Guest Worker ◽  
Economic Miracle ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Migration Law

With the passage of a new citizenship law in 1999 and the so-calledZuwanderungsgesetz (Migration Law) of 2004, contemporary Germanyhas gone a long way toward acknowledging its status as an immigrationcountry (Einwanderungsland). Yet, Germany is still regarded bymany as a “reluctant” land of immigration, different than traditionalimmigration countries such as Canada, the United States, and Australia.It owes this image to the fact that many of today’s “immigrants”were in fact “guests,” invited to work in the Federal Republicin the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and expected to leave when they wereno longer needed. Migration was meant to be a temporary measure,to stoke the engine of the Economic Miracle but not fundamentallyalter German society. The question, then, is how did these “guestworkers” become immigrants? Why did the Federal Republicbecome an immigration country?

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