Great Political Leaders of the Twentieth Century
The history of the 20th century can be defined by the biographies of six men: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, and Josef Stalin. Each of these men had a lasting significant involvement in world affairs. This essay will focus on the significance each individual had on the ideologies of Democracy and Totalitarianism. Four of the six individuals were leaders of a totalitarianistic state, and three of these led a communist country. Also four of the six leaders were in power during the Second World War. The profiles of these six men formed the world that we live in today.
Vladimir Illich Lenin was the first individual to put Marxist ideologies to work. In April 1917 Lenin returned to Russia from his exile in Switzerland to give his 'April Theses.' It was here that Lenin outlined how his revolution was to take place, the Bolshevik Revolution began on November 6 1917. Within a week the Bolsheviks were in control of most of European Russia, and immediately Lenin ordered that the Russians abandon the war against Germany. After abandoning her allies in World War One the Russians were hurled into a civil war. It is here that we first see the ideologies of Totalitarianism and Democracy clash. The democracies of Britain, France, and the United States all sent troops to Russia in the support of the 'Whites,' or enemies of the Bolsheviks. Lenin took the poor country of Russia and turned it into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or U.S.S.R. Through his policies of War Communism and its replacement the NEP Lenin was able to stand the newly formed U.S.S.R. on its own two feet. One of Lenin's ideas was 'International Socialism,' it was under this idea that he set up the Comintern with the purpose of spreading communism throughout the world. His successor, Josef Stalin took a different approach in his ideas of 'Socialism in one country."
Josef Stalin led the U.S.S.R. from the death of Lenin to his own in 1953. Stalin led the Soviets through the betrayal of the Germans in the Nazi-Soviet Pact, he turned back the Nazis on the Eastern front, and brought the U.S.S.R. out of the Second World War as one of the only two superpowers in the world. After the end of the World War Two Stalin spread the Soviet sphere of influence to include East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Alabania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
Adam Smith was a philosopher whose political philosophies was based off of economics. He believed to some extent that there should be a redistribution of wealth, but at the same time there should be a limit to government interference in economy. He wanted the state to end politics that favor industry over agriculture or vice versa, and that business should be left to the business people. He also believed that the government cannot make people virtuous with laws, and that the state should not promote religion or
After Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist, died, Stalin outmaneuvered his rivals and won the control of the Communist Party. In the tardy 1920’s he became dictator of the Soviet Cumulation. Then he wanted to industrialize the country because at the time the economic was farming. Millions of farmers reluctant to be apart of Stalin’s orders and were killed as penalization. The civilization led a widespread famine across the Soviet Coalescence and killed millions of people. Stalin wanted to kill anyone who opposed him of his orders. He engendered an army of secret police, and inspirited citizens to spy on others which had many people killed or sent to a labor camp. Virtually everyone around Stalin was considered a threat to him, even the Communist Party, the military, and components of the Soviet Coalescence society, s...
Approaching Emily Dickinson’s poetry as one large body of work can be an intimidating and overwhelming task. There are obvious themes and images that recur throughout, but with such variation that seeking out any sense of intention or order can feel impossible. When the poems are viewed in the groupings Dickinson gave many of them, however, possible structures are easier to find. In Fascicle 17, for instance, Dickinson embarks upon a journey toward confidence in her own little world. She begins the fascicle writing about her fear of the natural universe, but invokes the unknowable and religious as a means of overcoming that fear throughout her life and ends with a contextualization of herself within both nature and eternity.
Emily Dickinson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both lived in a time where women were considered to be “second class citizens”. During this time it was expected of women to be obedient and submissive to their husbands. A woman’s thoughts and opinions were never valued as much as a man’s was. Despite these unfavorable conditions both Emily Dickinson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman fought back and expressed themselves. They served as huge inspirations for other women enduring the same struggles. Although both works depict how each author overcame gender inequality, Dickinson was a rebel who didn’t hesitate to express herself while Gilman
This opposing perspective follows the philosophical viewpoint of leaders such as Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, and Stalin. Fascism, which is the extreme shift on the right wing of the spectrum and an anti-liberal belief with a reactionary-authoritarian system of government, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had both the government and freedom of Germany and Italy eliminated to obtain total control. Fascism rather incorporates the idea of control, power and eradication of both interdependence and independence which disputes the principles of having collectivism and individualism side by side, thus caused dystopia -- World War Two, as caused by the fascist belief of Hitler. On the extreme left side of the spectrum, is communism or Marxism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels co-wrote the book, “The Communist Manifesto” which described communism as something to eliminate class warfare, with the dispute between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, as an instance -- greatly valued equality as its ultimate goal. Nonetheless, leaders such as Lenin and Stalin greatly stretched the radical idea of communism and took it to its extremes, making the Russian government in their control through revolutionary means. In this perspective both fascism and communism are similar in terms of rejecting the ideas of having individualism and collectivism co-exist. Relatively, radical and reactionary leaders would rather have everything in their control in lieu of having the government or the citizens have the power, therefore, either individual or collective freedom is
In the time after the fall of radical black reconstruction of the nineteenth century, African Americans were being oppressed by rural farming, civil rights, economical advancement and sharecropping. Booker T. Washington charged the fight for economical and political accommodation with his dream of equal civil rights. Timothy Thomas Fortune was an influential black journalist that fought for the rights of African Americans through literal resistance. The Lonely Warrior, Ida B. Wells was an outspoken voice against lynching throughout America and fought against the oppression of men and woman everywhere.
Stalin put forward an opposite theory - the theory of Socialism in One Country. He argued that the USSR must always come first in the government's plans. The rest of the world must take second place. The Communists should concentrate on building up the economy of the USSR, not waste money on helping revolutionary groups abroad....
... and fascism offered bold new approaches to modern politics. These ideologies maintained that democracy was effeminate and that it wasted precious time in building consensus among citizens. Totalitarian leaders’ military style made representative government and the democratic values of the United States, France, and Great Britain appear feeble- a sign that these societies were on the decline. Totalitarianism put democracies on the defensive as they aimed to restore prosperity while still upholding individual rights and the rule of law”(Hunt & Martin, 852).
The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.
According to most historians, “history is told by the victors”, which would explain why most people equate communism with Vladimir Lenin. He was the backbone of Russia’s communist revolution, and the first leader of history’s largest communist government. It is not known, or discussed by most, that Lenin made many reforms to the original ideals possessed by many communists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He revised Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles’ theories to fit the so-called ‘backwardness’ of the Russian Empire. Lenin’s reforms were necessary to carry out a socialist revolution in Russia, and the contributions he made drastically changed the course of history. It can be assumed that, the Soviet Union would not have been as powerful if it was not for Lenin’s initial advocacy of violence and tight organization.
Though this poem mainly describes the suffering of these children, William Blake wrote another poem also titled “The Chimney Sweeper” where he described how as these chimney-sweepers grew older, they began to realize how they were taken advantage of and how the promises of the Church were all just a big hoax. From these two poems, it can be inferred that Blake intentionally pointed out and revealed the malfeasance of the Church and society and how they exploited younger children due to their gullibility and innocence solely for the economy without having any regard for the children’s lives.
Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul Selects her Own Society” presents herself as absolute and her rights as unchallengeable. The poem puts forward the idea of “friendship or love” which means choosing a significant person and excluding other people. Dickinson reveals that she was shutting people from her life, but because it had been so long, they are no longer interested in taking part of her life. Dickinson’s actions imply that the ability to create and construct a world for oneself, such as choosing your own actions, provides an example of a god-like achievement. Overall, Dickson asserts the importance of “the Self” theme which is shown my just speaking and writing as a ratification of the will to explore and express “the Self” to others.
William Blake presents two poems both titled The Chimney Sweeper, but both have a different perspective. The first poem that Blake wrote titled The Chimney Sweeper comes from Blake’s book Songs of Innocence and comes from the perspective of an innocent and ignorant mind. The second poem titled The Chimney Sweeper, was included in Blake’s book Songs of Experience and has a matured perspective. Blake utilizes both versions of The Chimney Sweeper in order to present his social critique of society. I believe that William Blake’s Songs of Experience version of The Chimney Sweeper presents social criticism better than Songs of Innocence version of The Chimney Sweeper because Songs of Experience articulates an outspoken and direct criticism of child labour while Songs of Innocence criticism is more implicit.
Shakespeare’s Coriolanus asks, what does it mean to be virtuous. Today, Virtue means to be of high moral standards, but this definition is not culturally transferable. Virtue originally meant manliness, which at the time was the pinnacle of social achievement. Coriolanus was a Roman general born into a time of war, when men had to be brave and physically powerful. If manliness was seen as the highest achievement then femininity and juvenility were both viewed as failure. Even women, as shown by Volumnia and Valeria, possessed typically manly qualities. Volumnia, in training her son to be a man, forced Coriolanus into a mental regression manifesting in both a childlike state and one of hyper-masculinity. Coriolanus’s downfall is attributed to his lack of a political and social mindset, something his mother did not teach him.
Right away in the first lines of the poem we learn through the child narrator his life is about to change dramatically for the worse. “’When my mother died I was very young, / And my father sold me while yet my tongue / Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!'” (1-2). The use of the word ‘weep’ is a clever play on words to get the reader to understand the grief the boy experienced and also foreshadows what is to come next. If you add the letter “s” to “weep” the word becomes “sweep”. Repeating the words “weep, weep, weep” almost sounds like a chorus of a song or maybe even the raising of an alarm. We know the child was small, otherwise he would not have been able to clean chimneys, but it is possible also that the child was so young that he couldn’t even pronounce the word “sweep” correctly and instead pronounced it “weep” which would account for the poet’s use of the words “scarcely cry” (2) and “tongue” (3). We get the impression that th...