Bombing in the summer of 1945 showing planning, execution, and return after 3000 miles of flight. Our b29sn 1940 five, began fullscale operations against japan. And 1500 milese back from bases in saipan and guam. Campana mber command concentrated its massive japan down toing the last bomb. Here was beginning of the end to the road to tokyo. After six months of reoccupation, there were few signs of war along the quiet summer shores of guam. The liberated peoples were back in their reclaimed villages american citizens again, smiling and friendly. Unaware that a miracle had happened around them. A miracle that moved mountains of material, equipment, and supplies. Across the pacific. That changed their dirt roads into broad highways, that manicured their jungles into airfieldslack topped and nearby, new communities of american citizens had set up housing with various types of services. The latest labor saving devices. Few laundry problems. And no modern inconveniences. By midsummer, 21st B
War. Of course, nuclear dread and Nuclear Anxiety sort of hovered over the conflict in the 1950s and 1960s and even up through the 1980s to the end of the conflict. So its a fitting image to begin our class today. And today, we are thinking a lot about photography during the cold war. And specifically american photography during the cold war. And this is a massive topic one could imagine a week or two, even an entire course of this subject. General themes as well as case studies, and also in the meantime, along the way, talk about some advances in Media Technology and how newspapers were printing photographs during these years. Before we kind of get into photography, we should make sure we understand what the cold war is. As we get further and further removed from it, it becomes a little more fuzzy in the collective unconscious. But of course, the cold war was the idealogical battle between the United States and the soviet union. Which began after world war ii around 1945 and goes all
This has become over the years an all purpose media anecdote. Useful when describing any number of media sins and shortcomings. Including the scourge of fake news. So what are we talking about here . What are media smiths . These are prompt innoceinent stt are often retold, but which under spjute acrutiny show it by exaggerated media myths. In a way theyre cousins to fake news. They are cases of fake news that ma ma disguised for many years. Theyre like the junk food of journalism. Delicious, alluring, but not wholesome or healthy. The junk food of journalism. Some of the features of media myths, these invariably are pithy tales, short and to the point, almost always simplistic. And of course they are mediacentric. They involve around media, media actors, journalists. Theyre easily remembered, easily retold they are almost too good not to be true. These are some of the defining features. They almost always place journalists at the center of the action. At the center of important events
Happy leap day. [laughter] what could be better than a bonus day and some real meaningful history content . Its like a double win for me. I love it. Im thrilled to have you all here to your museum of history and culture. My name is jamie bosket. I have the pleasure of being the president and ceo here. Im just going to kick it off. We have awesome speakers for this collaboration. But i will point out since i see some new faces that are not our usual here at this museum that you are gathered here today in the oldest Culture Institution in the commonwealth of virginia. We are older by about a decade than the smithsonian. We are older than half of the states of this country. In fact, and this is rather interesting to consider of the historical overlaps within the topic we approach today. Our first president of the Virginia Historical society was in fact chief justice John Marshall. He served from 1831 until his death just a few years later. But beyond that, and this happens to us so often
Hes young, hes charismatic. He had platformed on a number of promises. So this should give a little bit of context where the Womens Movement is coming into play as we work through some of these overview issues. Now, the 60s, as much promise as there was, we also know there are a lot of issues, particularly racial issues. But there was a period of great change, warfare, and for those who did find promise in the 1960s, there were those who didnt get access to that. And so there are a number of individuals and groups fighting for that access. If you look at the 1960s, we had the 1967 detroit riots, a series of political assassinations, jfk in 1963. In 1968, he also have the assassinations of Martin Luther king jr. And bobby kennedy. So there is also a lot of fear about what this change means and a lot of people are reacting to that. Focussing in on jfk because were going to be talking mostly about women in the Civil Rights Movement today. We will be focussing in on other womens experience