William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst was a renowned American newspaper publisher, in addition to holding the political position of a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, running for the Mayor of New York, and creating the Independent Party. Growing up in an extremely wealthy family provided much motivation for him to be successful throughout the course of his life. This lead to many outstanding achievements and a legacy that will never be forgotten.

William was born in San Francisco, California to his mining millionaire father George Hearst and mother Phoebe Apperson Hearst on April 29, 1863. His grandparents had immigrated from Ireland, under the motivation of Protestant immigration. His father was actively involved in working in some of the greatest mines in American history such as the Anaconda, Homestake, and Comstock mines. This provided great sums of money for the Hearst family, causing William to go through primary schooling and later went to Harvard University where he studied journalism. He worked on the Harvard Lampoon, which was the school’s undergraduate humor publication and social organization. In addition to this, he was also an apprentice under Joseph Pulitzer.

It was due to his training that William took over the management of his father’s newspaper company in 1887 that he had previously purchased in 1880 known as the San Francisco Examiner and later on, presented it with the nickname “Monarch of the Dailies.” It was during this time that he obtained the best equipment and the most talented writers of that day and age, which consisted of mean like Mark Twain and Jack London. As a self-proclaimed populist, Hearst carried on in this career and published stories of both municipal and financial corruption. He did this by way of attacking companies, and within a few years, his paper dominated the San Francisco market.

In 1896, with the financial aid of his mother, he bought the failing New York Morning Journal, and hired writers such as Stephen Crane and Julian Hawthorne. This caused him to get engaged in an intense circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer, who was the owner and publisher of the New York World. As a consequence the price of the Journal was reduced to one cent per copy, and in addition to the newspaper's attention grabbing headlines and interesting stories on popular subjects like crime and pseudoscience (a style referred to as yellow journalism, or a type of journalism that is not accurate in the news it presents, but rather uses intriguing headlines in order to make more money.) allowed the newspaper to maintain successfully high levels when it came to popularity from the general public.

After having a career in the newspaper business, Hearst moved on to being a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1907. After serving this term, he continued on and failed in the attempts to become mayor of New York City in both 1905 and 1909, and campaigned for governor of New York in 1906, but was defeated by Charles Evans Hughes. However, he still remained a devote Democrat, and even created the Independence Party. A change in Hearst's writings caused him to have a different reputation in the 1930s as his political views changed. In 1932, he was a loyal supporter of Roosevelt, and his newspapers vigorously supported the New Deal throughout 1933 and 1934. Hearst then supported FDR in spring 1935 when the President vetoed the Patman Bonus Bill, which caused his papers to be more dramatic, as portrayed by all-capital-letters editorials. Despite this, but he no longer hired energetic reporters and editorialists who had the opportunity to make serious attacks.

William Randolph Hearst died in Beverly Hills on August 14, 1951 when he was 88. In today’s modern times, the Hearst printing company owns 12 newspaper and 25 magazines (including the Cosmopolitan), and also manage other media corporations. This is due to his sons following in his footsteps and emerging themselves in the media industry. Hearst's impressive 90,000 square foot castle at San Simeon, California stands as a landmark as a reminder of his great achievements throughout his life. While his name is not familiar to those who do not know much about the history of journalism, and is renown to many of those who are familiar with its past. William Randolph Hearst's legacy still remains to this day, being that he was a superbly good businessman and successful politician.

The 1893 World's Fair

The 1893 World’s Fair was an event unlike anyone had ever seen in 19th century America. Its official title was the Colombian Exposition that was held in Chicago in 1893 in order to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus arriving in America in 1492. The fair had a particularly significant impact on architecture, the use of electricity, and amusement attractions. It was an event that not only impacted the United States, but also made a lasting impression on forty six other nations around the world. The “white city” as it was labeled was an excellent portrayal of America’s continual growth in many areas of life.

The first primary region that the Chicago World’s Fair greatly demonstrated was in its architecture. Most of the buildings were built in the classical style of architecture derived from the Greeks and Romans, which entailed that the famous architects such as Richard Morris Hunt, Charles McKim, and Burham and Root who were the overseers of the construction of the main buildings who all utilized Corinthian, Doric, and Ionic columns in addition to other traditional ancient building techniques, such as curved arches and domes. The agricultural and administration buildings were the primary example of this, as they magnificently portrayed beautiful Corinthian columns and magnificent statues. However, these buildings were never meant to be permanent structures, as they were covered in a white stucco-like material known as staff which was flexible, yet durable and dried quickly. They chose white because it was the cheapest color, as they had many buildings to cover over a six hundred acre site, and did not want to spend massive amounts of money. In the end, people grew accustomed to the color as they claimed it “illuminated the city” and gave it the famous name “The White City.”

A second aspect that made the World’s fair so impressive was the utilization of electricity in ways the world had never seen before. The International Exhibition was located in a building that was devoted to electrical exhibits, featuring the General Electric Company that was primarily supported by Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan. The main source of power behind the electricity was known as the “direct current” which had cost the United States 1.8 million dollars; however the General Electric Company managed to buy it for $554,000. Although Edison and Morgan were the two key men that made electricity available to be utilized at the fair, it was George Westinghouse who showcased it to the public by illuminating the exposition by way of spectacular lights. Westinghouse’s company displayed many polyphase systems, which were a means of distributing alternating current electrical power. They had two or three electrical conductors that provided highly-energized electrical currents that had a time offset between the voltages contained in each conductor. Their major function was to offer power to induction and synchronous motors. There was even one of these intricate motors on display for the public to appreciate the working force behind the high frequency lights that could be seen throughout the fair.

The third aspect of the fair that had the most practical use for electricity was in the wide variety of amusement attractions that were readily available for the entertainment pleasure of people. The 1893 World’s Fair was the first to have an area for amusements that was separate from the exhibition halls, an idea that was first introduced by Sol Bloom who called it “Midway Plaisance” causing the term midway to be placed in the American dictionary as a word used to describe an area where sideshows are located. It featured carnival rides such as the first Ferris wheel that was built by George Ferris that was 264 feet tall and had thirty six cars that could fit sixty people each. Edweard Muybridge also introduced a machine called a zoopraxiscope that displayed moving pictures, creating the world’s first movie theatre located in the Zoopraxographical Hall. Another groundbreaking invention was the moving walkway created by Kate McPhelim Cleary that was the first of its kind built along the banks of the lake that allowed people to move about the fair faster.

As demonstrated, there were many inventions that contributed to the successfulness of the 1893 World’s Fair and had left America a changed nation. The United States was in the midst of a major industrialization period, making steady progress through advances in architecture, electricity, and the practical outworking of electrical power through amusement attractions. Above all, the fair’s main goal was to show the world the progress it had made throughout the past century. It truly went above and beyond people’s expectations, portraying that America was genuinely a land of opportunity and industrial positivism.

Funding Your Future Education

With the constant rise in the price of education, the idea of going to a four year university is an one that is seemingly unreachable for many aspiring students that want to continue in their learning experience. However, there are several scholarships available to students who are willing to do the research necessary to find them. I have found this particularly useful when exploring the money that will be available to me through Biola University, Master’s College, and Pepperdine University. It is when students engage in this examination that they will find many ways in which to save money which will benefit them greatly in the future.

In my own life, I have examined what scholarships can pertain through me through Biola University, when considering both my GPA and SAT scores. The first one that I came across was the general approximation that was given to me based on the two aspects of GPA and SAT scores, and figured that I would receive between 7,000 and 9,000 dollars a year. This would help me out substantially throughout four years as it would bring the grand total of tuition for one year from an original cost of $36,332 to $28,332 considering I would be getting an average of $8,000 dollars in scholarship money a year. In addition to this, I am also eligible for their Community Service Scholarship, or CSS, because I have been involved in leadership and community service efforts while maintaining a high GPA. This would grant me an additional $3,000 by freshmen year, decreasing the price to $25,332. The display of community service also makes it possible for me to save additional money through what is known as the SURGE scholarship, which is awarded to those who maintain at least a 3.0 GPA, and whose leadership displays ethnic diversity and multicultural awareness. This particular scholarship has the potential of saving me $4,000 to $6,500 dollars a year. In total, this would save approximately $16,000 my freshman year and $13,000 during my next three years.

In addition to Biola, Master’s College also has many scholarship opportunities. Within the undergraduate program, the starting tuition would be $15,810 per year, including the prices for the dorm and meal plans. However, I would be qualified for two scholarships, these being the Distinguished Scholar Scholarship and the Honors Scholarship. The Distinguished Scholar Scholarship is for those who have an unweighted GPA of 3.85 or higher, which would reward me with an average of $7,050 per year. In addition to this, the Honors Scholarship would grant me approximately $5,500 my freshmen year by having above a 3.65 GPA and a cumulative SAT score (of the math and critical reading sections) between 1050 and 1600. This amount of scholarship money would significantly decrease my tuition from $15,810 a year to about $6,810, essentially cutting the price in half.

The third college that I am very interested in going to where scholarships would help a substantial amount is Pepperdine University. Scholarships are particularly important when it concerns this school because they just had a hike in their tuition that has just broken $50,000 a year. An estimate of what I would be paying a year including board and meal plans would be about $53,000 a year. There are limited scholarships that Pepperdine offers, however I am qualified for a couple of scholarships which include the Faculty Scholarship and the Talbots Women’s Scholarship. The Faculty Scholarship is aimed at students who are able to maintain a 3.5 GPA or higher, and can vary from $3,000 to $12,000 or more, but it cannot exceed the tuition rate. The second is the Talbots Women’s Scholarship that directly applies to women living in the United States who are planning to enroll in a full four year undergraduate study. Ten $15,000 and one $30,000 scholarship is provided for those who show outstanding academic dedication. If I were to get a $10,000 faculty scholarship it would reduce tuition to about $43,000 a year, and the Talbots scholarship would decrease it to $38,000 a year. Although the tuition rate would still be high, the money granted to me per year would help significantly, as I would be saving over $52,000 during four years through an average grant of $13,000 each year.

In conclusion, scholarships can be an extremely beneficial way in cutting down the costs of going to a four year university. The primary focus of my scholarships is academics, but I also can get a combined amount of $3,000 from my dance studio and from volunteering at St, Mary’s Hospital that would apply to any college I choose attend. In addition to the scholarships that are available to me, the colleges mentioned above also have other ways of helping students through financial aid opportunities depending on your economic status. Another outlet that can save students an extra 1,000 to 3,000 dollars is by applying for FASFA(free application for student aid) early, and most colleges with honor that commitment with a particular grant of money. Applying the above to scholarships, the final totals per year are as follows: Biola: $20,332, Master’s: $11,810 and Pepperdine: $33,000. Between all three of these colleges and the additional dance and St. Mary’s scholarship money, I am looking an offer of over $40,000 per year, or $160,000 over four years. When seeing the breakdown of how beneficial scholarships can really be to my college education is extremely encouraging and motivates me to continue to perform my best in the last two years of high school as I know how much it will help me have a successful future.

Renaissance Literature

Renaissance Literature refers to the time of European literature that had its start in Italy during the fourteenth century, and later extended into a majority of Europe in the seventeenth century. The first major contribution that made Renaissance literature possible was the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg that caused writers to be able to have their works spread our amongst the people. This literature is particularly notable not only for this reason, but also because of the humanism movement which produced optimistic thinking when it came to the potential of human beings. A third explanation for why Renaissance literature was so distinguished was because of people utilizing writing in their own local vernacular rather than the classical languages of Greek and Latin.

The very machine that made literary works possible in book form was the Gutenberg printing press that was established in 1456. It was a mechanical device that applied pressure on an exterior that was covered in ink that was on a piece of paper or cloth. The components that were involved were first accumulated in the Holy Roman Empire by Gutenberg around 1440, centered on the idea of the existing screw presses. It was because of this that the process of bookmaking was possible, and as a result led to the first mass manufacturing of books throughout all of history, as one Renaissance printing press was able to create 3,600 pages a day. This is how the great works of Luther and Erasmus were able to be sold by the thousands.

With the institution of the printing press now being available, more and more people were starting to read books, realizing the depth of the ideas that were contained in them. One of the primary themes throughout these concepts was humanism, which was a movement of both cultural and educational improvement. It was headed primarily by writers, scholars, and civic leaders who would be considered humanists in our modern society. It challenged Renaissance education, as it was designed to be taught to individuals from textbooks that focused on logic, philosophy, theology, medicine, and law. This provided people with an extensive vocabulary, which caused them to write well and have a strong impact on their communities. Although it was taught through textbooks that centered on the above concepts, the foundation of the humanist movement was grounded in the studia humanitatis, or liberal arts curriculum. This consisted of grammar, rhetoric, logic, history, poetry, and moral philosophy, causing the great scholars and writers to emerge.

Society also started becoming aware of the vernacular literature that the humanists were utilizing when producing their writings. It was towards the middle of the fifteenth century that Latin was the primary literary language, but that quickly changed as several common vernaculars starting to occur. The Certame Coronario, which was a poetry contest held in Florence in 1441, had a particular goal in wanting to prove that the spoken language of Italian was not mediocre compared to Latin. It was this event that marked a significant change, which caused works to not only be written in Latin and Italian, but also in French and German, depending on the vernacular language of the region.

In conclusion, it is clearly seen that all three factors had a significant contribution when it came to having an impact on Renaissance literature. They are all interconnected as the Gutenberg printer made it possible for humanism to be portrayed through written works that were comprised using varying vernacular languages. The era of Renaissance literature is marked by written masterpieces comprised by people who took education very seriously. It is the combination of these two intellectual areas that makes the writings of this time so influential to the generations in the past, and also to those in the future.

Lewis, Clive. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1998.

Payne, Michael. Renaissance Literature: an anthology Wiley-Blackwell Publishing: Malden, Massachusets, 2003.

The Black Death

The most important thing that I have learned this year was the Black Death. I thought that it was a very interesting topic that had a significant impact on the European world as a whole. The aspects of this topic that caught my attention were what caused it, what symptoms occurred, and the overall results of this disease. The Black Death was the deadliest pandemic in European history that reached its apex between the years of 1348 and 1350, and certainly a disaste that will never be forgotten.

There were several possibilities for what caused the Black Death, but the most common was the widespread transmission of a bacteria known as yersinia pestis, which is carried by way of fleas. It was these fleas that then infected black rats, which were brought into Europe through trading with Asia. This happened when ships both imported and exported goods to different countries and rats would get onto the ships unnoticed. In correspondence with the rats, many cats had been killed in Europe because of their growing population. People disliked this because of cat's association with witchcraft and Satan. It was this mass slaughter of cats that led to the arrival of the infected rats, whose populations began to thrive.

The Black Death had several symptoms including fever, headaches, muscle pain, nausea, and vomiting, and above all black buboes that were extremely painful. These buboes were puss filled blisters that appeared on places on the body that were particularly warm, such as the armpit, groin, and neck. They were a result of swollen lymph nodes that caused the blisters to arise and become black in color, which gave the Black plague its name. In addition to the buboes, the fever that those who were infected experienced was very unpleasant because it could reach anywhere from 101 degrees to 105 degrees fahrenheit. The other symptoms which were headaches, muscle pain, nausea, and vomiting were very similar to that of the flu that we experience today.

Results of this terrible disease were devastating, as forty to fifty percent of the European population died within just four years. However this deadly sickness did not just affect Europe, but also had an impact on Germany, Spain, England, and the Middle East. It killed approximately seventy five to eighty percent of the population, while in Germany and England it was closer to twenty percent. The Middle East also suffered greatly from this plague, as one third of their population died. Overall, the death toll was so devastating, that it took many years for Europe and its surrounding areas to have their population grow to the number that it was before the Black Death stormed in, taking the lives of the many it came into contact with.

In conclusion, the Black Death was certainly a widespread disease that had a traumatic effect on the people that it came into contact with. No one could figure out the cause of this killer or why it was so violent when it was claiming the lives of many, all they could see was the shocking effect that it had on their people. It created much havoc when it came to society, economics, and religion throughout European history. Such a cataclysmic event that killed an estimated 350 to 375 million people will always be remembered.

Benedictow, Ole J. The Black Death, 1346-1353: the complete history the Boydell Press: New York, 2004.

Cantor, Norman F. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made Free Press Publishing: New York, 2002.