BP #3 Mini research on hela themes.

"Essex acts to prevent mixed races in school". The crux of Zeitz's argument lies in the different messages communicated by secular public schools and private Catholic schools: educational (and religious) differences, he believes, shaped the very different political ideologies that emerged in Jewish and Catholic ethnic subcultures in postwar New York City. In the second and third chapters of White Ethnic New York, he compares the progressive educational philosophy that stressed child-centered learning, democratic values, and permissiveness in the secular public schools with the more traditional philosophy of Catholic schools, which stressed duty, obedience, and hierarchy. These educational philosophies were consonant with substantial reinterpretations of Catholicism and Judaism that were taking place in the postwar era and that were reflected in rabbinical sermons, Catholic newspapers, and clergy pronouncements. While American Jews had begun in the era of mass migration (1880-1924) to reinterpret their religion as one that valued dissent, argumentation, and challenging authority, Catholics were part of a century-long worldwide trend towards restructuring the Catholic Church along stricter, more hierarchical lines. It is difficult to know how much these religious sermons and clergy pronouncements actually mattered in the actual lives of Jews and Catholics; Zeitz offers a few impressionistic accounts of individuals shaped by the ideology of High Holy Day sermons and Catholic school lessons, but he admits that there were many Jews and Catholics whose behavior was not at all shaped by these religious pronouncements. As a result, Zeitz's descriptions of Jewish and Catholic thought verge toward the stereotypical at times. Nonetheless, by emphasizing the historical context in which Jewish and Catholic religious beliefs were being reinterpreted during this era, Zeitz rightly encourages historians to think more closely about the significance of religious ideology in American ethnicity.

  http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14558

"As a nation , we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted."

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The political and economic turbulence of the Civil War years intensified racial troubles. Emancipation was viewed throughout the war as a military necessity rather than a human rights issue. In December of 1865, eight months after the Civil War ended, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted: slavery was abolished. But even in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the black population in the United States saw few changes in its social, political, and economic condition. Read more: African Americans - History, Modern era, The first africans in america http://www.everyculture.com/multi/A-Br/African-Americans.html#ixzz1j52PE2GX