Stiftung Bayerisches Amerikahaus www.amerikahaus.de Amerikahaus-Bibliothek [email protected] Leitung: Christine Waleczek Öffnungszeiten: Amerikahaus Di. bis Fr. 13 -17, Mi. 13 – 20 Uhr Karolinenplatz 3 Tel.: 089/55 25 37 20 80333 München Fax: 089 / 55 25 37 24

Aufsatzdienst September 2014

01 The War: fifty years ago, the stepped up its involvement in a war that tore the nation apart / Veronica Majerol In: New York Times Upfront. 146.12 (Apr. 21, 2014) p18. - 2591 words “On the morning of Nov. 9, 1965, 22-year-old Roger Allen LaPorte sat cross-legged outside the United Nations in midtown Manhattan, poured gasoline over his body, and set himself on fire. "I'm against wars, all wars," the devout Catholic said before dying in the hospital the next day. "I did this as a religious act." LaPorte's was one of the more tragic acts of protest against the , a decade-long conflict that tore the U.S. apart, spawned a near-revolution by young people, and left many Americans' faith in their nation and its political leaders shaken.”

02 Decision at Pine Ridge: the ongoing, awful question of alcohol on the reservation / Jay Nordlinger In: National Review 14 Oct. 2013. - 2561 words “In August, a potentially momentous vote took place--not momentous for the nation, but for the nation of the Oglala Sioux, or Oglala Lakota, as they're also called. Here on the Pine Ridge reservation, tribe members voted to lift the longstanding ban on alcohol: its sale, possession, and consumption. The vote was 1,843 to 1,683, or 52 percent to 48 percent. The issue has stirred passions on the reservation. And it's not quite over.”

03 Turning up the heat: new warnings from scientists say the effects of climate change could be drastic if nations don't act quickly / Patricia Smith In: New York Times Upfront. 146.12 (Apr. 21, 2014) p14. - 2429 words “We're running out of time. - That's the conclusion of a stark new report on climate change by the world's largest scientific organization. If the world doesn't address the issue of Earth's warming temperatures soon, the report says, the result could be severe food shortages as crops become harder to grow, rising sea levels that make many major coastal cities unlivable, and a large-scale extinction of plants and animals.”

04 These three kings / Jonathan W. Emord In: USA Today (Magazine). 142.2826 (Mar. 2014) p50 - 1278 words “Few people in American history have risen to national prominence in service to a great cause while also delivering oratory and rhetoric so profound as to transform the hearts and minds of people the world over. Martin Luther King Jr. is just such a transformational figure. He stands shoulder to shoulder with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln in that regard. Like King, Jefferson's and Lincoln's rhetoric transcend the ages and propound lasting truths of undeniable force.”

05 10 Photos that made history / Veronica Majerol In: New York Times Upfront. 146.13 (May 12, 2014) p18. - 1772 words “WITH CAMERA-EQUIPPED SMARTPHONES everywhere today, it may be hard to imagine a world before photographs. But photography is actually pretty young, going back to about 1826. That's when Joseph Nicephore Niepce snapped what's believed to be the first-ever permanent photograph from his window in the Burgundy region of France. Since then, cameras have captured images of war, peace, injustice, joy, and everything in between. Here, we offer a selection of photos that have captivated America-and, sometimes, changed how we think about the world.”

06 EBONY Special Report: Guess Who's Coming to the Prom? / Teresa Wiltz Ebony . Apr2014, Vol. 69 Issue 6, p122-127. 6p. “It’s just after lunch at a magnet high school in Washington, D.C. Kids of all colors - Black kids and White kids and mixed kids - hovering on the cusp of being grown, are waxing philosophic about dating. Not that they date much, because seriously, how can they, what with college applications and after-school sports and the crushing burden of homework? Still, they’ve got their opinions on the subject.”

07 Echoes of the Raj: what Britain brought home from colonial India / James Graham In: British Heritage. 35.3 (July 2014) p34. - 1817 words “When you use English, you can hear an echo of the Raj in every sentence. The resonances of India in the UK extend far beyond the takeaway food counter. The British Raj bowed out over two days in 1947. That summer, British control over Indian affairs ended, under the watch of the last Viceroy of India, war-time hero Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, and British India was carved into two separate, independent states, Pakistan and India.“

08 Drilling down [Fracking] / Melanie D.G. Kaplan In: National Parks Summer 2014. – 2430 words “In many ways, Roosevelt would find that little had changed [in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park] since the late 1800s--[…] But thanks to the biggest oil and gas development boom in the country, he would also find that the park sits dangerously close to a construction site large enough to defy comprehension: a latticework of dirt roads, a round-the-clock procession of trucks, and a landscape of pumpjacks moving up and down like giant donkey heads dipping into feed bags.”

09 Growing up in the world’s most dangerous place / Hania Mourtada In: Junior Scholastic, 00226688, 9/1/2014, Vol. 117 Issue 1. – 1197 words “Amna al-Khodr was once a typical Syrian teen. She loved shopping with friends, surfing the Web, and decorating her spacious bedroom inside her middle-class home in Yarmouk, a suburb of Damascus, Syria's capital. She looked forward to going to college to study computer science. […] Then, in 2011, 13-year-old Amna found herself surrounded by violent and unpredictable forces. Syria became engulfed in civil war. “

10 There's no place like home: Hollywood rolled out dozens of soon-to-be classic movies in 1939 and assured America that its remarkable past held the key to a brighter future / Bruce Chadwick In: American History. 49.2 (June 2014) p42. - 3567 words “Seventy-five years ago, a beat-up America was entering the 10th year of the Great Depression, with no end to the economic disaster in sight. Germany invaded Poland to start World War II in Europe, and many Americans feared the United States would be dragged into the conflict. Unemployment had hit record highs, people stood on bread lines, and banks foreclosed on an increasing number of insolvent homeowners. But on movie screens in 1939, America was still a land of hope and promise.”

11 Downfall of a president /Bryan Brown In: Junior Scholastic, 00226688, 5/12/2014, Vol. 116 Issue 17 “On the evening of August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon addressed the nation from the White House. All day, millions of Americans had awaited the broadcast with feelings of anger, sorrow, glee -- or all three. Everyone knew what was coming. "I have never been a quitter," the president said that summer night. "

12 Portrait of a heroin victim: Alysa Ivy's fatal overdose at 21 has made her one of the faces of a grim epidemic / Deborah Sontag In: New York Times Upfront. 146.12 (Apr. 21, 2014) p8. - 2360 words “The use of heroin in the U.S. has doubled since 2007. Almost all of it comes across the border from Mexico into the Southwest and it has now wormed its way into many unsuspecting communities far from the border. Alysa's death was believed to be the seventh fatal heroin overdose in eight months in Hudson, a town of 13,000 near Minneapolis.”

13 Made in hell: meet the girl who thought she was getting married and made your T-shirt instead / Dana Liebelson In: Mother Jones. 39.1 (January-February 2014) p44. - 4155 words “As a child, Arena dreamed of going to college. But by the time she was 15, when her government-subsidized schooling ended, she understood that she was too poor. Then, a stranger promised to change her life. He offered her a job at a textile factory that has supplied companies including, until recently, UK-based maternity wear maker Mothercare.”

14 Voyage of freedom voyage of doom: Jewish refugees trapped between U.S. immigration laws and duplicitous Cuban officials face a return to Nazi Germany / Barbara D. Krasner In: American History. 49.3 (Aug. 2014) p54. - 3278 words “Despite the growing crisis for European Jews, Americans in the late 1930s were reluctant to ease the most restrictive immigration policy in the nation’s history. In 1939, the year the St. Louis was forced to return to Europe, Congress rejected a bill to waive the quotas and allow 20,000 Jewish children under the age of 14 to seek refuge in the United States.”

15 Designer babies / Patricia Smith In: New York Times Upfront. 146.13 (May 12, 2014) p6. Word Count: 1537. “Science may soon allow parents to assemble a more perfect baby. Is that a good idea? What if parents could select the traits their children will be endowed with, picking from a catalog of options like "tall," "high IQ," "athletic," or "musical"? Scientists say that day may not be far off, and the possibility is raising a host of ethical questions about whether and how much we should tamper with the way humans reproduce.”