The Epic Speech of Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King had an entirely different strategy to Malcolm X or the Black Panthers. He begins his speech by saying that the it is 'the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation.' Note the use of the word OUR, many of the more radical black activists rejected America as being 'their' country, and simply viewed themselves as enslaved subjects of an enemy power. King wanted to associate his movement with the best traditions of liberal, democratic and above all Christian America. He wanted to appeal to white Americans and persuade them that to be American is to stand against tyranny, that the country was born in a struggle for freedom and had not so long ago fought Nazism.

Suffragette Primary Evidence Link (Gold Dust!)

This is the kind of thing that will really help with your history coursework! Here is a link to a report in the Times in 1911 on how Suffragettes boycotted the census of that year in protest at not having the vote.

New Deal or Raw Deal?

This is an interesting article on the subject of Roosevelt and the New Deal. Now, as you all know (and yes, we did study this) not everyone greeted the New Deal with enthusiasm, the Republican rigt particularly thought that the best medicine for the depression was none intervention in the market and to let events take their natural course. Economic downturns do tend to remedy themselves over time, but normalyl not until a lot of hardship has taken place. There was a general feeling in the 1930s also that whilst cyclical economic downturns had been seen before, there was nothing quite like the great depression to have taken place in living memory. JM Keynes argued that individuals and businesses did not possess the capital to drag America (or anywhere else for that matter) out of the slump, so government would have to act. Read this article for the pros and cons of the New Deal.

Super link for historians

Here is a daily digest of history online, it's the site of the editor of History Today, well worth a read for all sorts of useful handy articles and ideas.

Haiti

Haiti was a product of the French Revolution. French Slave owners in the 18th Century were confronted by black revolutionaries demanding their freedom. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to the throne of France as Emperor in 1800 he had no qualms about crushing the revolt, even though he claimed to be spreading freedom and enlightenment across Europe using his vast armies. Read more on this hidden aspect to Haiti's past here. Coming up, how America ruthlessly exploited Haiti after the French....

The making of the modern middle east

The signing of the secret Sykes Picot Agreement in 1916 was the first act in the making of the Middle East crises of the 20th Century. It was the secret accord between Britain and France that designated how the dying Ottoman Empire should be dissected. Britain would control Iraq and Jordan and Palestine, France would control Syria and Lebanon. Check out this link that demonstrates exactly how the region was to be carved up.