Adolf Hitler, Proclamation to the German Nation, February 1, 1933

      The theme of this reading starts with Adolf Hitler with his speech on Feb 1, 1933. He was speaking about Germany's freedom from unemployment, meaning of the country, and leadership. He went on saying that Germany  was losing their spirit and freedom from the war. Since Germany was in the middle of the chaos with different countries it had ended up paying the damages of the war. Hitler came in to power speaking about how Germany can be revived from the tragic loses that they had. As the reading went on it was mentioning Hitler's oh so great plan to bring back the true meaning of Germany. He wanted the freedom of his country, but to keep in mind that he wanted to be the leader of the new journey for the country. This time period was part of the great depression, and with the depression it had led into the war of WWII.
        Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 and died on April 30, 1945. He formed a party called the Nazi's which had sacred supreme political power without winning support from the majority of Germans. Hitler had used media to control his propaganda over Germany, he was then able to persuade most Germans that he would be their savior from their depression, the communist that was occurring, the Versailles Treaty and the Jews. While in power of dictator ship the Holocaust started coming in.  Which was the start of WWII and it was the time when Jews were to be put into concentration camps and be ruled by the Nazi party. The Holocaust was a tragic time for the Jews because, many were hiding the best they can, they would hide away for months sometimes years, but it would get to a point when they would be captured. Hitler was behind majority of the starting of the Holocaust, and it was a time when million of lives of Jews were lost. It had seemed that even though it seemed that Germany was beginning to get their power back it seemed to be achieved in a negative way.
          Ideas that stood out was just Hitler speaking, I felt like I could hear his speech. I kept in mind what he had done in past history, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was a powerful speaker. I could see why most Germans actually wanted to have the power. I understood that they were suffering a lot from the depression that they had. It sort of sounded like they had no choice but to choose him. They were so depressed and began to lose hope, then Hitler came into power. Then even though he made some Germans happy the country did seem to go down hill, because of the choices that were being made. The laws that he wanted had pros and cons to them, but some of them just seemed truly unfair to me.
         The ideas I started to generate was thinking about all of the lives of the Jews, it was a very sad time for them to go through. Families were lost and they began to lost hope in life. I like learning about the Holocaust, because it is a really eye opener to truly stand what was being fought. This reminded me of the story of Ann Frank of how her family hid away for months at a time with different people with them and in the end all that was left was her father. Learning what she or what any Jew went though was sad and depressing. I have seen a movie called The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas saddest story ever, about a boy who lived by one of the concentration camps and befriended a Jewish boy. He would play games and bring him food, his father was a Nazi and part of Hitler's army, but the little boy had no clue what that camp was and how his father was as a general. His father was a very strict and bad person, he believed in what Hitler thought. Worst thing of all he was in charge of the camp. One day he could not find his son, and the little crossed over to the camp and dressed as one of Jews and ended up being killed in the gas chambers. The day was when his father learned of his hatred ways, was when he lost his son at the camp he was running. Even though that little boy brought so much joy to his friend he ended up dying with his friend. I loved this movie, because it made me realize how little time for the people was precious. They barely had a chance to live their life to the fullest, because of the Holocaust so many lives were lost.
              This relates the text book in chapter 25, which mentions how Hitler was ruling and at the end of his ruling ended up going into trial for all that he done to Germany along with the citizens. It had discussed when his Nazi Revolution was starting to take over the Jews and his rise of power. It was time for Germany's history of their depression and the time of when WWII started to come to take place. It will be something that will carry on through out history and be remembered through out time.

Thorstein Veblen Conspicuous Consumption, 1902

     The theme of this reading is that it is describing how people look towards leisure, they have spending patterns that they are able to achieve status that they want. They are defining themselves on things that they have. The industrial revolution was increasing and what I researched it became be part of the " Second Industrial Revolution". It was able to form classes to show how leisure was being used. It began showing the leisure time of the working class and middle class. The industrialization was beginning to increase more and more people were working, but those who were rich  have more leisure time to buy expensive things to achieve a certain status. It started to involve economic theories such as men who are rich drink alcohol, but men who constantly drink, but it becomes an addiction. Together it involves on what people own by the goods it simply shows how people actually live their lives. 
          Thorstein Veblen was born in  Manitowoc County, Wisconsin and his parents were immigrants who were Norwegian, he then grew up in rural Minnesota. Where he graduated from Carleton College in Northfield. Thorstein did not learn English until he went to school. But he was able to go to the University of Chicago where he had taught political economy. He ended up becoming one of the first Academics to really examine the relationship between consumption and the wealth in the society. He also ended up writing The Theory of Leisure Class (1899). While going through his education he became an economist and sociologist. He attended John Hopkins to study philosophy and while going to Yale University he received a Ph.D from Yale in 1884. He was a well educated man that went to school to teach and learn. Though he had all the education he needed it had made several conflicts for him to receive a descent job and he was fired from one of them. Knowing all of the education that he had as a man of knowledge of economics, he ended up dying in 1929 at Melno Park in California after the time the New York stock market crashed.
            Ideas that stood out to me was that it was mentioning the leisure that a person has as being rich and the working class. I thought it was interesting that it was mentioning this idea, because it was mentioning that the people who are rich have more leisure time then those who constantly work. This is really true, because those who are rich are able to live a life without worries when people who work they have worries about jobs and caring for families. This is a concept to show how rich truly do have more leisure time then some people. I like how they mentioned how status is achieved and just by having certain kinds of goods such as expensive shows a persons status and how they live. I think that that you can tell how a person acts or dresses with the goods and it made me think about stereotyping.
          Generating ideas that I have formed from this idea is that it made me think about the men and women during this time period. It had mentioned that woman did not have more leisure time then men had, because even though men worked the women stayed home cleaned, took care of children, and cooked. It really made me think about their lives, because the article mentioned the use of alcohol that men used. The working men had stressed over work which led to drinking and having addiction. Since they were addicted to the substance they became violent and aggressive, which made me think about the how the children and the wives lived their lives. It led to me thinking that for those who were working class how many children or even wives went through pain because of the men, and for the rich it just seemed to me that they were just happy. They had happy families and the men in those families just really drink, because of their status. They did it for fun such as parties etc... but it truly shows the differences between the two classes.
           Parallels that I could make from this is comparing how we use goods to show status. Believe it or not we still buy the most expensive things to achieve some kind of status. It has been around for years it seems like. It is true the more things people have tends to be the case of how they live or as a person. We end up seeing how people dress and we form judgement such as are they rich, snobby, a good person etc... we have developed stereotyping against each other. This concept has been around for years it feels like. It just seems like nothing is really new, the history of leisure and economics still caries on. When this idea caries on it feels like we are against people who have more things then others, but we do not accept the concept of being happy with what we have. This concept can be for the working class and the rich. The working class can accept to have a family and be alive, but the rich can not spend money constantly. They can learn to be happy without the material things in life that is provided for them, but for some buying something new always makes them happy. Another idea came to me and it was the use of alcohol, because I knew some men were aggressive from it and it carries on also. Men who work are addicted and rich they do it for fun still, it is another concept that carries on today. Alcohol is still abusive in our society, but it had affected men, women and for people who are underage. It is very shocking to know alcohol had a long history that carried on back in 1902 to 2012. It just surprising it carried so long and that it is still abusive for those who are at risk of violence or health issues from it.