https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/1b0fe019fddbb6334c67242c7112ef85.pdf?Expires=1785369600&Signature=kIOvxBiNB5b9byDLakoMAbjrCRuxp2pAOHzOLwu4EnhlrTqPgn1y8FI-%7EpGRfHhTeZEYNmsNvZXaUFEuDWw3LOmytgUSt4VXoPIG8hmZJ3Fh6eacu6PzcVJuHiblRSYT78u8ZZVbJl4pRGJf%7E-JIjBb%7ECBD0gQh6xBilh2pPCjjGBs%7EcxXpYZ0VuC44BuU2iLdwA9UkxToe-O6N%7EKbLviVghf0cpG8b9BtAf%7E68n8P7b-F4m407nrcoecFCqzOUWQ18Nvph8o5dGwNJuy5G8PCd0DcC98AHM6xLsLFQzrkCVarN8gWeXAGt6NyX91QZkPwkiNhg5OKcWfbnyJAZLmQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 54ca87bf3d3cf5600a66cdba335b9dae PDF Text Text ��EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION The Wagner Forum for Undergraduate Research is an interdisciplinary journal which provides an arena where students can publish their research. Papers are reviewed with respect to their intellectual merit and scope of contribution to a given field. To enhance readability the journal is subdivided into three sections entitled The Natural Sciences and Quantitative Analysis, The Social Sciences, and Critical Essays. The first two of these sections are limited to papers and abstracts dealing with scientific inquiries, business research, clinical investigations and the use of mathematical/statistical modeling. The third section is reserved for speculative papers based on the scholarly review and critical examination of previous works. Read on and enjoy! Gregory J. Falabella, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief Editorial Board Dr. Annemarie Dowling-Castronovo, Nursing Dr. Donald E. Stearns, Biological Sciences Dr. Amy Eshleman, Psychology Dr. Lori Weintrob, History ��Section I: The Natural Sciences & Quantitative Analysis Full Length Papers 3 Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror Christina Ottrando 21 Investing in Greece Good or Bad Idea? Konstantinos Syrmas Section II: The Social Sciences Full Length Papers 43 Cardiovascular Disease on the North Shore of Staten Island in Low Income Families: Solving the Problem Starts with “A Heart HealthyYou” Christina Foote, Kristen Evangelist, and Cassie Paradise Section III: Critical Essays Full Length Papers 57 “The Shining City Upon the Hill:” Christian Zionism and the Politics of Woodrow Wilson & Harry S. Truman Maggie Winton 86 The Pantsuit as a Symbol of Advancement for Women in the Entertainment, Business, and Political Spheres Savannah Yates 108 Care and Compassion Override Violence and Genocide: The Work of Female Physicians and Nurses Michael Hubert ����Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror Christina Ottrando (Business Administration)1 This paper illuminates a plausible theory suggesting that different types of social media and social media networking companies (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) are deliberately addicting users to their products for immense financial gain. In particular, it argues that social media companies are continuing on the path of immense financial growth and show no signs of slowing down. This paper uses relevant case studies, filings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and graphs to emphasize the hypothesized theory. I. Introduction Starting in 2003, MySpace became popularized as it was the first recognizable social media site with over 100 million active users. MySpace was originally founded with the intent of sharing music and concert dates. However, it soon became a social media sensation as the once simple site turned complex as users were able to create profiles, post photos and videos, and add friends. In September of 2006, the era of MySpace came to an end as Facebook opened its free website to anyone over the age of 13 to connect with friends, “like” pictures, music, videos, and articles, share their own relationship status’s, thoughts and opinions, plan events, and establish a timeline. Fast-forward to today, Facebook has over 2.7 billion monthly active users (and counting) with a net worth of $872.13 billion (Facebook, 2021) and is no longer the only networking site that helps us share our lives. Other sites such as Twitter and Instagram have also made it easy to connect with family and friends on a realtime basis. However, social media can be very influential in both positive and negative ways. In the current paper, I further explore the social media websites of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I focus on the research and development of these companies and emphasize how they are profiting off of their users. I first begin this paper with a detailed description of social media, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and, second, explain the addiction to social media as it exists in the world today. Third, I examine the side effects of social media as it has been proven to cause depression and anxiety based on a survey 1 Written under the direction of Dr. Shani Carter in partial fulfillment of the Senior Program requirements. 3 �made by Kingdom's Royal Society for Public Health. This paper is concluded with a financial analysis of Facebook and Twitter, along with how they are profiting off of everyone, including you. II. Literature Review Introduction to Social Media Social media are forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content, such as videos (MerriamWebster, 2021). Social Media plays a crucial role in connecting people and developing relationships, not only with key influencers and journalists covering your company's sector, but also provides a great opportunity to establish customer service by gathering input, answering questions and listening to their feedback. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others have made it possible for individuals to access information at the click of a button. About 3.5 billion people out of 7.7 billion to be exact (PewResearchCenter, 2019). Social Media Companies Instagram is a free photo and video sharing app available on iPhone and Android. People can upload photos or videos and share them with their followers or with a select group of friends. They can also view, comment, and like posts shared by their friends on Instagram. Anyone 13 and older can create an account by registering an email address and selecting a username (Instagram, 2021). In 2010, at the age of 27, Kevin Systrom began building what today is Instagram. Within a year, 500,000 people a week were signing up for the app's photo-sharing network. (Forbes, 2012). Fast Forward 11 years, and over one billion people are currently using the app which is now worth roughly $101 billion (Bloomberg, 2021). Facebook is a social networking site that makes it easy for you to connect and share with family and friends online. Originally designed for college students, Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was attending Harvard University. However, by 2006, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address could join Facebook. Today, Facebook is one of the world's largest social networks, with more than 2.7 billion users worldwide and worth over $872.13 billion (GCFGlobal, 2021; NASDAQ, 2021). Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, a shocking sum at that time for a company with 13 employees. Instagram today has over one billion users and contributes over $20 billion to Facebook's annual revenue (CNBC, 2020). 4 �Twitter is a 'microblogging' system that allows you to send and receive short posts called tweets. Tweets can be up to 140 characters long and can include links to relevant websites and resources. You can create your own tweets, or you can retweet information that has been tweeted by others. Retweeting means that information can be shared quickly and efficiently with a large number of people (UKRI, 2021). The snappy nature of tweets means that Twitter is widely used by smartphone users who don’t want to read long content items on-screen. Twitter currently has 353 million users and has a market cap of $53.48 billion. Social Media “Addiction” The word “addiction” brings to mind alcohol and drugs. Yet, over the past 21 years of my life, I have witnessed a new type of addiction emerge: addiction to social media. A quote from The Social Dilemma, “There are only two industries that call their customers “users”: illegal drugs and software,” sends shivers down my spine. “Internet addiction is known to have the same pattern as individuals with drug addiction and alcoholism which in pathology has a negative impact on the lives of individual pathology” (Kavaklı, M., & İnan, E.,2020). We’ve simply created a world where online connection has become primary. Especially for younger generations. And yet, in that world, anytime two people connect, it needs to be manipulated by a sneaky third person behind a screen. So, we’ve created an entire global generation of people who were raised within a context with the very meaning of communication, the very meaning of culture, is manipulation. (The Social Dilemma, 2021). As we move away from having a tools-based technology environment to an addiction- and manipulation-based technology environment, the hours spent looking at the screen just continue to get longer. According to the eMarketing Organization, on average, global internet users are spending roughly 2 hours and 44 minutes on social media sites every day (2020). This statistic is strictly time spent on social media and does not include the time spent staring at the screen when using facetime, texting, taking photos, etc. Individuals from age 16 to 29 are spending the most time on social media platforms at 3 hours daily while the average United States aged adult was spending anywhere from 1 to 2 hours each day. In essence, this means that the average individual will spend over 6 years of their life on social media (Pew Research, 2021). In 2012, Harvard University conducted a series of experiments that involved hooking up volunteers to a magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) and found that regions of the brain associated with the reward center were strongly engaged when individuals talked about themselves. And when people got to share their thoughts with family or friends there was an even larger amount of energy in the reward center of the 5 �brain. In contrast, when these subjects were told that they could not talk about themselves, there was little to no activity in the reward part of the brain. This can act as evidence as to why people are constantly revealing so much personal information on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and enjoy the attention. These social media websites are not unaware of the harm they are doing to society as they have purposely sought out ways to make their product more addicting. Just like tobacco companies eventually added sugar and menthol to cigarettes so you could hold the smoke in your lungs longer, Facebook added photo tagging and likes, and Instagram added stories and actionable insights to keep your fingers scrolling. During an interview with CBSN, former Facebook executive Tim Kendell, told CBS News that “it all boils down to the social media giant's advertising-based business model, in which the objective is to get more people to pay attention to your product and to pay attention longer each and every day” (CBS News, 2020). In summary, these advertising-based business models are combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that is constantly evolving and constantly searching for new ways to get us to look at the screen. Whether this is a notification for a new friend joining Facebook, or an old memory on your timeline, these algorithms have their own goals and own way of pursing them. Their data shines light on the idea that social media usage is connected with serious mental health issues and tech giants such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have done nothing to address the issue or take any accountability. Social Media Effects of Mental Health Social media has a reinforcing nature. Using it activates the brain’s reward center by releasing dopamine, a “feel-good chemical” linked to pleasurable activities such as sex, food, and social interaction. The platforms are designed to be addictive and are associated with anxiety, depression, and even suicide. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home. Anxiety feels different depending on the person experiencing it. Feelings can range from butterflies in your stomach to a racing heart. You might feel out of control, like there’s a disconnect between your mind and body (Healthline, 2018). Based on a survey of 1500 people ages 14 to 24 made by Kingdom's Royal Society for Public Health, the result on the negative impact of uncontrolled Instagram usage shows that Instagram is the worst social networking site which causes a decrease in 6 �the quality of sleep, bullying, FoMo (fear of missing out), low self-esteem, as well as an increase of anxiety and depression (Kavaklı, M., & İnan, E.,2020). The anxiety and depression feelings are coming from a “compare and despair” attitude set by the unrealistic expectations of the app. Although it is natural human instinct to compare yourself to others and constantly evaluate yourself, these applications are heightening that ability with the touch of a button to do so. Instagram’s algorithm puts the most popular posts at the top of your feed, most of which are posts by celebrities and influencers such as Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Bella Hadid. Then you have young children and adults constantly seeing these photos and videos that were edited, filtered and morphed for hours thinking this is what a normal body should look like presenting a false representation of life. The chart below presents the negative psychological effects that social media usage has on our mental health leading to depression and anxiety. Figure 1: Negative Effects of Social Media on Your Mental Health In 2019, Instagram had to introduce a new set of rules regarding the promotion of diet products and cosmetic surgery after a BBC news report declared that eating disorder content on Instagram was out of control after noticing children were sending graphic images of weight loss and advice on how to make eating disorders more extreme. In an online survey conducted by the United States National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health, 680 social media users were assessed using their social media usage, eating behaviors, and orthorexia nervosa symptoms, an eating disorder that involves an 7 �unhealthy obsession. “Orthorexia symptoms are associated with healthy lifestyle choices such as eating more fruit and vegetables, eating fewer white cereals, shopping in health food stores, exercise, and reduced alcohol consumption. But orthorexia nervosa is also associated with significant dietary restrictions, malnutrition, and social isolation” (United States National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health, 2017). The results of this experiment directly correlated higher Instagram usage with a greater tendency toward orthorexia nervosa and unhealthy eating habits. This result can be due to the fact that #fitinspiritation tagged photos on Instagram tend to show images of thin and toned bodies with objectifying elements. These findings highlight the implications that social media are causing for the psychological well-being of many individuals. Financial Analysis of Social Media Companies As the economy contracts and many companies struggle to survive, the biggest tech companies are amassing wealth and influence in ways unseen in decades. On May 18th, 2012, Facebook Inc. (FB) shares hit the public market trading on the Nasdaq Exchange (NASDAQ) with an initial public offering price of $38 per share (Yahoo). Becoming a public company is the process of taking a private company public and issuing stock to investors who would like to invest in the company. The offering of stock is “the foremost important channel of new capital flow to young companies” (Gregoriou). A shareholder is a person, company, or institution that owns at least one share of a company's stock, which is known as equity. The company’s most important goal is to maximize shareholder wealth which stems from dividends and price appreciation. To make these two things happen the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) must develop long term strategies, implement the right processes and create a plan to see what the company needs to do on a day-to-day basis. If a company follows this process to the end, it should lead to the maximization of shareholder wealth. Companies such as Facebook contribute their success to their day-to-day operations and their financial statements which show they are able to maximize shareholder wealth. Facebook is one of the five largest publicly traded companies in America and rose 37 percent in the first seven months this year, while all the other stocks in the S&P 500 fell a combined 6 percent, according to Credit Suisse (Eavis, P., & Lohr, S., 2020). “The performance of social media stocks is not associated with macro-level sentiment, but rather with firm-level attention paid by potential investors” (Chiou, W.-J. P., Knewtson, H. S., & Nofsinger, J. R., 2019). And currently, Facebook's stock is worth $306.21 and shows no sign of slowing down. 8 �During the first three months of 2021 Facebook’s revenue rose to $26.17 billion, a 48% increase from the end of 2020. Net income has also increased by almost 100% rising to $9.5 billion. And basic earnings per share (EPS) increased from $1.72 to $3.34. Facebook’s total assets, total liabilities, and total equity have also seen a consistent incline from the beginning of 2020 to today, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Facebook’s day-to-day success is based on their ability to effectively implement the ten strategic decision areas of operations management (OM) seen in the table below. Table 1: Facebooks Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management The Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management 1. Design of Goods and Services 2. Quality Management How Facebook Achieves the Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management • Continuous innovation of new products and abilities. • Implement suitable human resource policies. • Address issues based on user experience • Collect customer feedback daily. • High quality servers. • Uses code ownership to make sure each developer is personally responsible for the quality of their own work. 3. Process and Capacity Design • Online AI technologies facilitate efficient dissemination of data among work teams in the company’s facilities. 4. Location Strategy • Keeps its headquarters near the best talent pools and markets such as Silicone Valley in California known for cloud computing technology. • Overseas offices are put in place for easy access to the cheap labor market. • Employees are empowered to take control of their workspaces. • Employees are allowed to bring in artists, designers, and friends to design the office space and walk around. • Cultural artifacts are used all around the building to inspire designers. 5. Layout Design and Strategy. 9 �• No cabins or cubicles. • Cafes, ice-cream shops, banks, and restaurants are placed all along Facebook’s campus. • Free lunch and snacks at its offices 6. Job Design and Human Resources • Facebook, uses interns, new graduates, PhD, and early-in-career hires to shape the future of the company. 7. Supply Chain Management • The company’s headquarters are centered flooded with endless access to equipment supply, the labor market, energy, and top of the line environmental operational conditions. 8. Inventory Management • Uses just-in time (JIT) inventory system which is a management strategy that has a company receive goods as close as possible to when they are actually needed, similar to Amazon’s delivery system. 9. Scheduling • Flexible scheduling to ensure employees comfortability. Four months of paid time off for new mothers and fathers A wellness allowance to finance gym membership or other healthy activities An extensive healthcare plan for each employee. • • • 10. Maintenance • Takes advantage of the environment around its offices to keep costs low. For example, the Sweden data center capitalizes on the country’s cold climate to minimize maintenance cost of the building. Thompson, Andrew (2022). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online. https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/09/21/10-critical-decisions-operationsmanagement. On November 7th, 2013, Twitter Inc. (TWTR) shares hit the public market trading on the NASDAQ with an initial public offering price of $44.90 per share (Yahoo). 10 �For Twitter, millions of users who have been quarantined in their houses due to COVID19 have caused a spike in the social media company's traffic and user sign up. However, due to the shutdown of many businesses, Twitter’s mainstream of revenue coming from selling advertisements has seen a decline (Twitter, 2020). Despite this, Twitter still managed to pull a powerful price move to beat earning expectations in Q1 2020 ending March, delivering adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.11 compared to a consensus estimate of $0.10. In addition, Twitter's stock price is currently worth $67.00 despite its ups and downs in the past year (NASDAQ, 2021). Twitters successful day-to-day operations is also based on their ability to effectively implement the ten strategic decision areas of operations management seen in the table below. Table 2: Twitter’s Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management The Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management 1. Design of Goods and Services 2. Quality Management How Twitter Achieves the Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management • Continuous innovation of new products and abilities. • Models its company off of creativity, empathy and global business. 3. Process and Capacity Design • AI technology determine what tweet recommendations to suggest on users' timelines. 4. Location Strategy • Employees work from home permanently as it increases productivity and provides a better work-life balance. 5. Layout Design and Strategy. Job Design and Human Resources • Employees work from home permanently. • Does not target specific companies or competitors from which to hire people. • Does not conform its hiring to individuals who have certain types of degrees from a specific list of colleges and universities 6. • Focus on specific skill sets and talents. • Ensures a positive candidate experience. 7. Supply Chain Management • Cloud-based services connect everyone in the supply chain, providing a more strategic approach for inventory deployment and improvement. 8. Inventory Management Scheduling • Collect their own data. • Working from home allows for flexible work hours. 9. 11 �10. Maintenance • Twitter's plans to work from home indefinitely cut costs for both the employees and company. Thompson, Andrew (2022). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online. https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/09/21/10-critical-decisions-operationsmanagement. Profiting Off Our Addiction The primary way social media companies like Facebook and Twitter make money is through selling advertising. The concept of selling advertising while offering a free service is not new. This means that every time you log onto a social media platform, and click, look at, or like anything, AI technology collects this data which is then sold to other companies without our permission. For example, almost all of Twitter's revenue about 85% of it - comes from advertising on its site (Tse, T. C. M., 2018). However, social media companies have jumped from selling advertising to selling our personal information. “Based on the theoretical perspective presented using CPM, four main constructs for measuring users ‘concern for information privacy on social media platforms are introduced, including 1) unauthorized access and secondary used of personal information—information access, 2) information collection—collection, and 3) erroneous storage and representation of personal information—errors” (Bennet, A. 2014). III. Hypothesis H1: Social media companies are deliberately addicting users to their products. H2: Social media companies are continuing on the path of immense financial gain. IV. Method Subjects Subjects include some of the roughly 3.96 billion individuals who use social media, which accounts for roughly half of the global population (Digital Marketing, 2020). Subjects Social Media Companies Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Cost of Operations Research, Development, Marketing and Sales 12 �Measures Variables will include the time users spent on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (Coombe, Curtis & Orlowski, 2021). Variables will also include the cost of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter research and development, and marketing and sales departments, and profit from the date of the companies’ founding to 2021. Data will be gathered from each company's annual report filed under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Analysis will examine changes in the cost of operations, profit, and the time users spent on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Analysis will examine whether Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter endorse, research, and create addictive behavior. Analysis will determine whether individuals are spending more time on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, leading to each company’s upward profitability trend. Data will also be gathered on the number of individuals currently signed up in that year. Table 3: Components of Study Variables Data Instrument Social Media Company Suicide Rate Time Spent by Individuals Cost of Operations (Research and Development, and Marketing and Sales) Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Centers for Disease and Control Prevention Statistica Company Data Securities and Exchange Commission Filings Securities and Exchange Commission Filings Statista Database company Securities and Exchange Commission Filings Securities and Exchange Commission Filings Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Qualitative Number of Deaths Average Hours Spent Annual Revenue Profit Data Source Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Centers for Disease and Control Prevention Type of data gathered Qualitative Company Name Types of scores produced Annual Growth Rate Adapted from: Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R. (1992). Surviving Your Dissertation. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, Inc. page 140. 13 �Table 4: Hypothesis, Instruments, and Statistical Analysis Hypothesis Social Media Company Time Spent by Individuals Instrument Cost of Operations (Research and Development, and Marketing and Sales) Annual Growth Rate Hypotheses Variable Relationship s Statistical Test H1: Social media companies Social Time Correlation; are Media Spent by Cost of Operations regression; line deliberately Company Individuals Cost => charts addicting Profit Time users to their products. H2: Social media Social companies Media are Time spent Correlation; Company continuing on by Cost of Operations regression; line Social the path of individuals charts Media Cost =? immense Company Profit Time=> financial Profit gain. Adapted from: Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R. (1992). Surviving Your Dissertation. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, Inc. page 140. Procedure In conducting this study, I did extensive research on these three social media companies while analyzing their financial filings under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I also found peer reviewed articles and case studies that provide evidence when showing the negative side effects of social media on mental health and the continuous increase of social media companies profitability. Data was collected by using the following databases, Business Source Premier as well as EBSCO Discovery Service. From there I used the search terms, Facebook finances, Instagram finances, Twitter finances, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in their connection to addictive behaviors, suicide, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders such as orthorexia nervosa symptoms. Other sites used were The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fox News, ABC, CNN, Yahoo Finance and the New York Times. These articles provided knowledge on the respective company. 14 �From the above articles and documentaries, I analyzed the addictiveness of social media and how it was continuously impacting our mental health in more than one negative way throughout the years leading up to today. From there, I analyzed a study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on U.S. Suicide Rates in Pre-Teen Girls from1999 to 2017. Furthermore, I was able to perform a financial analyzation of the Annual Revenue of Twitter and Facebook from 2009 to 2020 and present the issue that they are continuing on a path of financial growth with few signs of slowing down. And lastly, I created a line graph that represents the number of social media users against the suicide death rate of individuals from 15-19 years of age. V. Results Figure 2: Annual Revenue of Twitter and Facebook, 2009 to 2020. Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This chart presents the persistent growth of Facebook’s and Twitter’s annual revenue from 2009 to 2020. Figure 3 shows a gradual increase in the suicide rates of Pre-Teen Girls from ages 10–14 and 15-19. Lastly, figure 4 presents the comparison in the number of social media users against the suicide death rate of individuals from 15-19 years of age. 15 �Figure 3: U.S. Suicide Rates in Pre-Teen Girls, 1999 to 2017. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Figure 4: Number of Social Media Users on the Rise with Suicide Rates. Source: Centers for Disease and Control Prevention, 2018 and Pew Research Center, 2021. VI. Discussion The results of Figure 3 indicate that suicide rates have soared over 150% in the United States in Pre-Teen Girls from 1999 to 2017. The largest spike in this data can be 16 �seen after the year 2009 when social media was available on all devices. In 2008, the suicide rate of preteen girls from 15-19 was 32 individuals and 5 for preteen girls ages 1014. These numbers are heavily increased and some almost doubled as 2016 saw rates of 53 (Ages 15-19) and 2017 53 (Ages 10-14). Different types of social media and social media networking companies in Figure 2 (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) are seeing persistent growth in their annual revenue as they are thriving financially off of the social media addiction created. Facebook and Twitter have both gone from making $1 billion in a year to roughly over $90 billion. The thesis results in figure 4 also show a correlation as more and more individuals are suffering from depression leading to suicide, companies like Facebook and Twitter are thriving financially off of the addiction. This is where I want to draw the connecting line between social media addiction, negative mental health effects, and social media companies’ profits. VII. Conclusion This study explained the different types of social media and social media networking companies (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) and uncovered the success behind them as it relates to their day-to-day operations, and shareholder wealth using the ten strategic decision areas of operational management. It proposed the idea that social media usage is linked to negative mental health effects. In addition, it showed the persistent growth of Facebook’s and Twitter’s annual revenue over time. Lastly, it discovered the link between the number of suicides in young adults and the number of users signed up for social media networking sites. Moreover, this study sheds light on the true nature of social media companies as they are deliberately addicting users to their products for financial success. VIII. References About Facebook. (2021). https://about.facebook.com/. About Instagram's Official Site. Instagram. (2021). https://about.instagram.com/. Bennet, A (2014). Social Media: Global Perspectives, Applications and Benefits and Dangers. Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Chiou, W.J.P., Knewston, H.S., & Nofsinger, J.R. (2019). Paying Attention to Social Media Stocks. International Review of Economics and Finance, 59, 106-119. https://exproxy.wagner.edu:2310/10.1016/j.ired.2018.08.009 17 �Company Filings. (2019, June 30). Financial Statements. Retrieved from https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/viewer?action=view&cik=1428439&accession_number= 0001564590-19-042335&xbrl_type=v CVA, K. (2017). Https://www.medwinpublishers.com/jobd/jobd16000139.pdf. Journal of Orthopedics & Bone Disorders,1(7). doi:10.23880/jobd-16000139 Eavis, P., & Lohr, S. (2020, August 19). Big tech's domination of business reaches new heights. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/ technology/big-tech-business-domination.html Flores, J. (2020, October 4). Ex-Facebook executive says company made its product as addictive as cigarettes. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-addictiveas-cigarettes-former-executive-says Gregoriou, G. N. (2006). Initial public offerings. [electronic resource] : an international perspective. Butterworth-Heinemann. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx? direct=true&db=cat03980a&AN=ebr.EBC2703229&site=eds-live Kavaklı, M., & İnan, E. (2020). Psychometric properties and correlates of the Turkish version of INSTAGRAM ADDICTION Scale (IAS). Klinik Psikoloji Dergisi, (0), 1. McDavid, Jodi (2020) "The Social Dilemma," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 24: Iss. 1, Article 22. National Institutes of Health. (2017). National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/. Pew Research Center. (2021, April 26). Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/. Thao, D.P., Thuy, P.T.T., & Anh, P.T (2020). Sustainability of Financial Performance of a Social Media Giant – a Case Study. Journal of Security & Sustainability Issues, 10(2), 683. Thompson, Andrew (2022). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online. 18 �Turner, P. G., & Lefevre, C. E. (2017, June). Instagram use is linked to increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. Eating and weight disorders: EWD. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5440477/. Twitter. (n.d.). About Twitter | Our company and priorities. Twitter. https://about.twitter.com/. Yahoo! (n.d.). Yahoo Finance - Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News. Yahoo! Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/. 2016, admin 21 S., admin, 21 S. 2016 by, 2021, admin 28 A., 2021, admin 15 A., 2021, admin 6 A., & 2021, admin 19 M. (n.d.). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online. https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/09/21/10-critical-decisions-operationsmanagement. 19 ��Investing in Greece Good or Bad Idea? Konstantinos Syrmas (Business Administration)1 This research paper will be discussing topics about the Greek economy and its improvement over the years from the 2007-2008 financial crisis into today in 2021. I will be writing about the importance of FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) to the Greek economy, analyzing GDP, inflation rates in the country, unemployment rates, and imports/exports. The purpose of this essay is to prove the points I will be making in my three hypotheses and also come to the conclusion of if it is worth it or not investing in the Greek economy. I will present analytical data and the history of Greece’s economy after the 2007-2008 crisis until now looking to see if the Greek economy has improved itself after that period of time and if it’s ready to handle more investments flowing into the country. I. Introduction In my research paper I will be analyzing different sections of the Greek economy after the 2007 crisis up to current day 2021. I will get my audience to understand why after all, it would be a good idea to invest or not in Greece. I will analyze the 2007-2008 Greek economic crisis and other previous similar economic crises that have happened around the world in the past. I will include charts and data tables that will show the progress of the Greek economy during the years mentioned before by analyzing information on Gross Domestic Product, inflation rates, unemployment rates, imports and exports in Greece from 2007 to 2021 predictions. I will be writing about different sections of the Greek economy with the biggest investments over the years, such as the shipping industry and the tourism industry, from which the Greek economy has been strongly supported. I will be talking about the importance of FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) in Greece over the years, and also the impact of the Greek financial debt to the Greek economy. In this paper I will also be supporting my three hypotheses and will address how Greece is steadily making its economy stronger and better for new and current investors. The main purpose of my paper is to make my audience understand how Greece would be a great country for future investments and I will achieve that by presenting data and information on the economic growth of the Greek economy over the years. Trustworthy investment sections of the Greek economy show how Greece is steadily coming out of 1 Written under the direction of Dr. Shani Carter in partial fulfillment of the Senior Program requirements. 21 �financial debts and boosting up their economy and financial system. This research has a high importance to me as I am a Greek citizen and would like to depict and analyze if the Greek economy is doing better after the 2007 financial crisis hit and if it would be a good idea for me as a graduate international student to work and invest in my country in the future or to stay in the United States and find a work position here. II. Literature Review Economic crisis in Greece 2007 An economic crisis started in Thailand in 1997 after an astonishing three decades of growth in East Asian countries. Income had risen; poverty had decreased; and health status had improved. Many of the East Asian countries’ economies had outperformed the economy of the United States given that some of the East Asian countries had not experienced a recession year for over 30 years (Meier & Stiglitz, 2016). Due to international pressures, including pressure from the United States’ Treasury Department, East Asian countries liberated their capital and financial markets by the 1990s.This financial market liberation triggered a short-term capital flooding by various countries over the long-term investments. In the 1980’s, a financial crisis occurred in Latin America when many people lost their monetary policies, leading to continuous inflation (Meier & Stiglitz, 2016). The International Monetary Fund intervened to help provide aid and required strict financial guidelines (i.e., requiring balanced budgets). The 1929 stock market crash in the United States led to the Great Depression, which was the most severe economic crisis (Haralambie). It was initiated in the U.S.A then preceded for nine years of economic development promoted money supply in circulation by the Central Bank of America Federal Reserve (Haralambie, 2016). Following the creation of financial and monetary guidelines for stocks, many people invested in the stock market, something that led to a steady stock increase in the stock markets until September 1992, when there was a significant market crash (Goldberg, 2012). The United States then restricted the imports through various protectionist policies, leading to the intensification of the economic crisis in Europe. The Credit Crisis of 1772 originated from London then expanded to other parts of Europe. In the 1760s, the British empire had acquired much wealth through its trade and colonial ruling over the countries they colonized. This led to an atmosphere of overoptimism and a rapid credit expansion duration by several British banks (Sheridan, 2015). It came to an unexpected end in June 1772 when Alexander, a member of the British Banking house, fled to France to escape the debt payments. The news then spread everywhere, triggering British Bank partners' instant withdrawal demands, for they felt their savings were no longer safe in the bank as per the Alexander experience. This leads 22 �to an economic crisis because the massive withdrawals from the British banks affected the economic growth of the country by providing insufficient investments and bank savings to develop economically. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 triggered the great recession, which caused economic and financial turmoil globally (Cecchetti, 2018). The financial crisis was due to the collapse of the mortgage-financing market and the collapse of Lehman Brothers', which was one of the primary investment banks in the world; this breakdown then also led to the collapse of various financial and business institutions (Cecchetti, 2018). It took almost a decade for the government to bring the economic activities back to normalcy, doing away with several job opportunities and billions of dollars, hence promoting the economic crisis. The above economic crises affected the Greek economic crisis. Several adverse aspects in business and financial institutions trigger the economic turmoil in many countries worldwide. Almost all states countrywide are experiencing an economic crisis. Still, the difference comes with the level whereby countries like Greece are positively impacted, unlike the United States, which is less affected by the economic crisis. The Greek economic crisis began in 2007 as part of the world economic crisis (Visvizi 2012). The Greek economic crisis worried the European Economic Community because it seemed like the Greek crisis could impact the value and volatility of the euro. Due to Greece’s exposure to marginal assets at that period, Greece seemed to have a positive growth in the years 2007 and 2008 and also seemed unaffected from the rest of the world. In May 2010, Greece requested financial assistance (110 billion euros) from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Greece requested additional assistance in 2011 (Visvizi, 2012). Greece’s need for economic assistance packages worried the European Economic Community which realized that Greece was unable to support itself. Greek Economy After the 2007 Crisis To Greece, the debt crisis in 2007-08 is a problem that paralyzed its economy for a long time. One of the eminent effects of the crisis is unemployment. FDI is among the pertinent factors that helped the country address the situation. Therefore, an evaluation of how the foreign investments helped the country address the various adverse effects of the debt crisis is critical. Greece joined the European Union (EU) in 1981 to protect democracy in the country. The country had suffered a great deal of political instability, and the EU felt responsible for improving the country’s democracy and the rule of law. However, this move was made without considering the economic ramifications of adding such an unstable country to an economic block made up of well-developed countries recount that 23 �this failure to observe a vital aspect of an economic partnership was repeated in 1981, 1999, and 2001, when Greece became a full member of the EU (Ioannides and Pissarides 2015). It was clear that the country was not in any position to compete in the new market block. The fall in demand for local goods led to a sharp decline in employment, as Ioannides and Pissarides (2015) indicate. There was a rise in the number of unemployed people and, therefore, contributed negatively to the national economy. To address the problem, the EU supported the country to have more time to repay the loans to sustain its economic operations. The debt kept increasing between 2008 and 2018. However, in 2010, Greece learned of the negative ramification of joining the EU (Belkin & Jackson, 2015). The country wanted a way out, but it would be harsh to the people in the country. However, this alert by the government was answered by even more debt to the country. It is important to note that these loans come from various European authorities and private investors worldwide. It is also important to note that in 2009, the country indicated a budget deficit of 12.9%. This is more than the average 3% in many European countries (Oldani & Savona, 2010). This rate raised the alarm among many potential debtors, and the country’s credit rating was greatly affected. This report’s negative result is that it raised the interest rate of any future loans granted to the country. This situation was later confirmed when the country indicated that it might default on the loans it was sufficing at the time. The situation was quickly graduating from bad to worse. The debt situation was becoming an overwhelming burden to the country, and the government came to the point of uncertainty (Mah et al. 2014). The debt had grown from 112.9% in 2008 to 179.6% by 2013 (Mah et al., 2014). Impact of the Debt Crisis on the Country The first impact of the debt is the considerable interest that amounts after years of serving the loans. The government often took more loans to service the interest of the old loan. As Michelis (2011) indicates, this is only a short-term solution since the new loan will have to be paid. This cycle would mean that the country would remain in a loan crisis. This situation was a problem to the land that ideally needed to reduce its loan progressively. Another problem that Greece grappled with is imposed austerity measures. These measures have come to harm the country on several fronts. The first problem is that many families felt the impact of reduced spending in the form of reduced pension. The country experienced a 22% less GDP due to restrained government spending (Mantalos, 2015). Many families in Greece rely on pension plans, and they account for a considerable 24 �fraction of government spending. Therefore, these families were left with little to nothing to rely on for their economic welfare. There was less money in circulation since many projects undertaken by the government were brought to a halt. The reduced expenditure led to reduced cash in circulation of the economy. Unemployment rates increased by 21% due to the shrunken economic activities, more people ended up jobless since government projects were stopped (Mantalos 2015). The country’s debt crisis has seen the country face trying political times. The government has cut the pension available to many families and increased the taxes levied on essential goods. This move has angered many people who feel that the government should be excused from paying some of the debt by the EU lenders. Michelis (2011) points out that debt haircuts can effectively save Greece from the current debt burden. The crisis has been used as an essential pointer to the discussions among leaders. FDI in Greece Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an essential driver of the economic development of any country. In collaboration with other economic factors, FDI helps nations develop and improve the welfare of their citizens. Additionally, FDI helps nations overcome some of the vital challenges it may face as it attempts to overcome an economic crisis that recently hit them. The global financial crisis in 2007-08 is an example of a crisis that economically affected many nations (Ozturk & Sozdemir, 2015). Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was a promising alternative IMF and EU bailouts for Greece, whose spending rate was significantly reduced. There were positive results from FDI, however, there are some concerns associated with FDI. Positive Impact of FDI Greece can benefit from FDI because foreign investors can alleviate government budget shortfalls. Greece can benefit from the foreign resources injected into the economy as the country struggles to regain economic stability, and more people will be saved from poverty. FDI adds to the tax revenue. However, Greece must be careful not to overwhelm investors with too high taxes, (Baltas, Tsionas & Baltas, 2018). Greek residents benefit from FDI through employment. Greece is suffering from the austerity measures, so there are fewer government projects in progress, which led to a significant reduction in employment. Specifically, for every 3% decrease in investment, a 1% increase in unemployment is reported. The austerity measures caused high unemployment. Therefore, FDI will provide new job opportunities and reduce unemployment (Karfakis, Katrakilidis, and Tsanana 2014). Sales of locally produced goods will also help Greece achieve a balance between the exports and imports (Pegkas & Tsamadias, 2016). Foreign investors will sell their 25 �products. Greece, and foreign (i.e., non-EU) high technology goods are better positioned to compete with Europe’s goods. Therefore, the government can have some locally produced goods that meet the regional market quality and prices. This benefit will have a long-term value to the country, primarily as it seeks to realize economic stability to match the developed countries in the region. Another vital benefit of FDI for Greece is the advanced technological skills and workforce that foreign investors bring. Usually, local people learn more skills and techniques from foreigners (Pegkas & Tsamadias, 2016). Technology and the new skills bring vital benefits to the country, including improved work efficiency and better-quality products. These benefits are crucial benefits to the country, as it attempts to match fellow European countries’ standards. Major Concerns Associated with FDI One disadvantage of FDI is that it may exploit the local resources and market. Most private investors in foreign countries seek means of tapping the unexploited resources and demand. This situation means that foreigners benefit from the local resources more than the local people and the local government, which could eventually worsen the country’s economic situation. (Monastiriotis, 2011). Occasionally, local businesses are jeopardized by the operation of foreign investors because local entities often have fewer resources, and lower quality products. As a result, foreign investors can negatively affect the local firms trying to grow and improve their quality of products. Therefore, the foreign entities can jeopardize the local firms’ future (Eimers, Nouwens, and Toorman, 2005). The government must intervene and find innovative methods to protect the local firms while attracting foreign investors. Occasionally, foreigners do reinvest profit into the local economy. However, if foreigners have a parent company in another country, their operations within Greece would be limited to only exploiting the available commercial opportunities, and profit goes back to their parent company. Greece could experience the same problem if companies are not interested in having extensive operations within Greece and instead take their earnings back to the developed countries (Vlachos & Bitzenis 2018). Greece stands to lose many more resources and revenue if the foreign investors take all the country’s profit. Investments Made Over the Years in Different Sections of the Economy For anyone who likes risky investments, Greece is the most convenient place for investing. The most convenient way to invest in Greece is through The Exchange Traded 26 �Fund (ETF) such as GREK2. In this chapter, we will focus on some of the significant investments that have been in Greece to prove that it is fit for investing. Tourism Greece is one of the most renowned major tourist attractions and destinations in Europe since the 1960s. From the research results, it should be clear that Greece's tourism industry is one of the sectors that has positively contributed to the country's economic growth. Although, Greek tourism as well as the shipping sector of the economy got huge losses in the greek crisis years after 2007 but found its way to get back to the top contributor of the economy (Visvizi, 2012) . This fact has influenced large masses of people to invest in this sector. For instance, the effects of tourism on Greece's gross domestic product are estimated to be 20.6 percent (Buhalis & Deimezi, 2016). It is a clear indication that one out of five euros spent in Greece came from the tourism and travel industry. It is making it one of the most invested industries in the nation. As a result, this sector has promoted the economy of Greece. If the country laid even more emphasis on its Tourism sector, it would be sure to experience more development and increase its economic growth rate. Some other benefits of the tourism industry in Greece are that it has provided a good number of employment opportunities to both the citizens of Greece and those of foreign countries. Therefore, this provides citizens with an additional source of income, especially during the summer months, adding to the well-being of Greek households. However, some challenges are known to hinder tourism by lowering the number of tourists in the country. Among these challenges is climate. Climate plays a big role in the Greek tourism because tourists always want a nice place with nice weather to go to for their vacation, especially in the summer. If the climate is not perfect for vacation (if there is rain and cold), this could be a big issue for the tourists and they would rethink their decision of going to Greece for their vacation, but this is something that the climate in Greece has never let happen in the summer months. Therefore, it is right to say that the tourism industry is one of Greece's sectors that has historically performed exceptionally well and, hence, is always a positive weight in the efforts of raising the GDP of Greece (Buhalis & Deimezi, 2016). Also, it would be even more effective if more people opted to invest in the field. Shipping Shipping has always been one of Greece's most important sectors of the economy and possibly the most profitable one. Greece is a nautical country and shipping is considered to be its oldest form of occupation. The shipping sector of the Greek economy “GREK tracks a market-cap-weighted index of about 15 Greek firms” (GREK ETF Report) 2 27 �took a big hit after the 2007 crisis (Visvizi, 2012). Therefore, the results obtained from the research should indicate that shipping is Greece's most fundamental industry. In 2018, the shipping industry in Greece was worth $ 21.9 billion (Kapros & Panou, 2017). As a result, many people have opted to venture into the shipping industry, making it one of Greece's most invested fields. The Greek shipping industry is strongly internalized, and it holds 18% of the world market in that sector, which is very high for a small country like Greece (GIG, 2020). The shipping industry has therefore provided many job opportunities to many people enabling them to earn their income, and as a result, they are better able to rely on themselves. However, some challenges are known to affect the effectiveness of the shipping industry's performance. Some of these challenges include security risks shipping services are prone to insecurities such as pirating whereby certain terrorist groups may kidnap them - and weather since many times the ships and their crew have to endure very bad weather conditions. UN Related Topic Selection During my research at the United Nations website, I found some very interesting facts about unemployment globally under their subject 8 “Decent work and economic growth”. IMF predicts a worse global recession than the one in 2009 due to Covid 19 and that the damage in the economy will be huge in the years 2020 to 2021 globally (UN, 2020). Unemployment rate hit 5.6 percent in 2017 globally which was better than the unemployment rate of 6.4 percent in 2000 (UN, 2020). On Greece’s side, the unemployment rate was much higher in the rate of 9.6 percent in 2009 and reached its peak in 2013 with 27.5 percent but it seems to be declining in the prediction rates of 2020 and 2021, 16.4 and 16.6 percent, but again these prediction rates might change at the end when they come out because of the COVID-19 global pandemic, financial and economic damage (IMF, 2021). UN set target goals for the next years as well as Greece and every other country in the world for the upcoming years. Their goal is to achieve full and more productive employment for both men and women by 2030, but not limited to economic productivity increasement and higher GDP (UN, 2020). III. Hypotheses H1: The 2007-2009 recession caused Greece's debt to increase. H2(a): The 2007-2009 recession caused Greece's unemployment rate to increase. H2(b): The 2007-2009 recession caused Greece’s unemployment to be higher than unemployment in other countries. H3: The 2007-2009 recession caused Greece’s inflation to increase. 28 �IV. Method Subjects The subject of the thesis is Greece. Industries examined include tourism and shipping. Measures The variables measure aspects of the Greek economy. The thesis will examine the economic crisis of 2007 in Greece, the impact on the economy, Gross Domestic Product, public and private debt, the unemployment rate, and inflation, debt, and foreign direct investment (FDI). Table1: Components of Study Table 1: Components of Study Data GDP Instrume nt Greece’s GDP over the years Visvizi(201 2), Ioannides, y., & Pissarides, c. (2015), Karfakis, c., Katrakilidis, c., & Tsanana, e. (2014), Pegkas, P., & Tsamadias, C. (2016) Inflation Inflation in Greece after the 2007 crisis Variables Unemployment Greece’s unemployment rates after the 2007 crisis Karfakis, c., Katrakilidis, c., & Tsanana, e. (2014), Mantalos, P. (2015). Greek crisis General information on the Greek financial crisis in 2007 FDI Michelis, L. (2011). Mantalos, P. (2015), Oldani, C., & Savona, P. (2010), Ioannides, y., & Pissarides, c. (2015), Karfakis, c., Katrakilidis, c., & Tsanana, e. (2014), Baltas, N., Tsionas, M. G., & Baltas, K. (2018), Eimers, N., Nouwens, J., & Toorman, J. (2005), Monastiriotis , V. (2011). Importance of FDI in Greece Data Source Data sources Type of data Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Qualitative gathered Adapted from: Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R. (1992). Surviving Your Dissertation. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, Inc. page 140. Debt Greek Financial debt Quantitative Procedure Literature Review The research depends on statistical data sampled by many articles, websites and books found during this research. Lastly, data collection aims at reflecting the reality of 29 �ordinary life and also analyzing the combination of Greece’s economy with the sociological elements. Database: Business Source Premier, Google Scholar, Articles and books from the Wagner College Library, JSTOR, EBSCOhost Search Terms:2007 Greek crisis, inflation in Greece, unemployment in Greece, Shipping in Greece, Tourism in Greece, Greek financial debt, Greece after the crisis, Greek GDP, FDI in Greece. Table 2: Hypothesis, instruments, and Statistical Analysis Hypothesis H1: The 2007-2009 recession caused Greece's debt to increase. H2(a): The 20072009 recession caused Greece's unemployment rate to increase. H2(b): The 20072009 recession caused Greece’s unemployment to be higher than unemployment in other countries. GDP Inflation Instrument Unemployment GDP after the crisis Greece’s unemployment rates FDI FDI after the 2007 crisis and its importance Greek crisis Greek debt over the years after the 2007 crisis Statistical Analysis Graph for GDP Graph for unemployme nt Greece’s unemployment rates compared to other countries H3: The 2007-2009 Inflation rates recession caused after the 2007 Greece’s inflation to financial Graph for increase. crisis inflation Adapted from: Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R. (1992). Surviving Your Dissertation. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, Inc. page 138. V. Results Gross Domestic Product The onset crisis that has been experienced by Greece has played a significant role in the decline in trade that is evident in the region and this has subsequently affected the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. Between 2007 and 2008, Greece had a steady GDP which showed potential for a steady economic growth, however, this slowly declined after 2008 and the only increase in the GDP was witnessed in the years 2018 and 2019 and declined thereafter. Table 3 and Figure 1 contain data on Greece’s Gross 30 �Domestic Product from 2007 to 2021. During this time, GDP declined from 240.04 billion Euros to 174.80 billion Euros, a decline of 27.2%. Table 3: Greece’s Gross Domestic Product (IMF, 2021) Year Gross Domestic Product Euros % change 2007 240.04 2008 239.23 -0.3% 2009 228.95 -4.3% 2010 216.28 -5.5% 2011 194.33 -10.1% 2012 180.56 -7.1% 2013 175.61 -2.7% 2014 176.84 0.7% 2015 176.11 -0.4% 2016 175.25 -0.5% 2017 177.49 1.3% 2018 180.26 1.6% 2019 183.61 1.9% 2020 168.46 -8.3% 2021 174.80 3.8% Figure 1: Greece’s Gross Domestic Product (IMF, 2021) 31 �Inflation Rate The inflation rate in Greece has witnessed a downward trend in terms of its inflation rate and this has been attributed by various factors. Some of these factors are inclusive of the higher food prices, increased oil price, and a higher rate of domestic consumption taxes. Between 2001 and 2009, the competitiveness of the Greek economy declined by 20 percent when measured using the consumer price, while the unit labor resulted in a decline of 25 percent. Table 4 and Figure 2 detail the past, current, and projected Greek inflation rates from 2007 to 2021. During this time, GDP increased from 106.4% to 120.13%, an increase of 13.2%. The rate increased from 2007 to 2011, then remained steady. Table 4: Greece’s Inflation (IMF, 2021) % change Year Inflation 2007 106.4 2008 110.9 4.2% 2009 112.4 1.4% 2010 117.7 4.7% 2011 121.4 3.1% 2012 122.6 1.0% 2013 121.6 -0.9% 2014 119.9 -1.4% 2015 118.6 -1.1% 2016 118.6 0.0% 2017 119.9 1.1% 2018 120.9 0.8% 2019 121.5 0.5% 2020 119.9 -1.3% 2021 120.1 0.2% Unemployment Rate Table 5 and Figure 3 contain data on Greece’s Unemployment rate from 2007 to 2021. During this time, GDP increased from 8.4% 16.58%, an increase of 97%. The rate increased from 2007 to 2013, then declined. From Figure 3 we can also see that unemployment reached its peak in 2013 and after that it started to steadily come down. The Greek labor market is directly linked to the structure of the economic system and the 32 �improvements made within the public sector based on the activities conducted by the private sector which leads to increased tax rates for both indirect and direct taxation. The unemployment rate in Greece has been outlined in Table 5 and further translated in Figure 3 where the projections for 2020 and 2021 have been included. Figure 2: Greece’s Inflation (IMF, 2021) Table 5: Greece’s Unemployment Rate (IMF, 2021) Year Unemployment Rate (%) 2007 8.4 2008 7.8 -7.7% 2009 9.6 23.9% 2010 12.7 32.6% 2011 17.9 40.2% 2012 24.4 36.9% 2013 27.5 12.5% 2014 26.5 -3.6% 2015 24.9 -6.0% 2016 23.6 -5.4% 2017 21.5 -8.9% 2018 19.3 -10.0% 2019 17.3 -10.2% 2020 16.4 -5.4% 2021 16.6 1.1% 33 % change �Figure 3: Greece’s Unemployment Rate (IMF, 2021) In table 6 I have included important information about Greece’s exports over the years 2014 to 2020 (in millions of $) and their percentage change. As you can see exports had a small increased until 2019 in comparison to the exports in 2014. Table 6: Greece’s Exports (WTO, 2021) Year Exports in Millions $ 2014 35960 2015 28554 -20.6% 2016 28151 -1.4% 2017 32627 15.9% 2018 39502 21.1% 2019 37907 -4.0% 2020 35094 -7.4% % change In table 7 I have included important information about Greece’s imports over the years 2014 to 2020 (in millions of $) and their percentage change. As you can see in the graph, imports had a small increase in 2019 in comparison with the imports in the year 2014. 34 �Table 7: Greece’s Imports (WTO, 2021) Year Imports in Millions $ 2014 61983 2015 46786 2016 46809 0.0% 2017 53495 14.3% 2018 63877 19.4% 2019 62510 -2.1% 2020 55513 -11.2% % change -24.5% VI. Discussion Gross Domestic Product During the financial crisis, Greece experienced a decline in trade that subsequently affected Greece’s gross domestic product (GDP). Between 2007 and 2008, Greece had a steady GDP which showed potential for a steady economic growth, however, GDP slowly declined after 2008, and the only increase in the GDP was in 2018 and 2019, and GDP declined thereafter. The GDP in 2009 was reported to have a -4.3 percent change, however, this significantly contracted to a staggering low rate change of 0.7 percent in the year 2014. In 2019 it seems that the GDP percentage rate changed by 1.9 percent, however in 2020 the percentage changed by -8.3 percent and it is projected to change again in 2021 by 3.8 percent. During this period, Greece’s imports and exports had almost the same percentage changes in the years 2014 to 2020. Although, as we can see at Tables 6 and 7 Greece has definitely improved the import and export in terms of millions of dollars per year from 2014 to 2021. Some decline occurred in hourly productivity, and productivity in Greece declined more than productivity declined in other European countries. This productivity decrease indicates Greece is performing poorly when compared to other European countries. The main contributors towards the Greece GDP include tourism services, shipping services (two sections of the economy that discussed about in my literature review), food and beverages, industrial products, petroleum, and chemical products where its key export markets are mainly the European countries (i.e., Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Cyrus, and the United Kingdom), Turkey, and the United States of America. Greek GDP in 2020 was recorded at a -8.3 percent change which was a decrease from the 2019 GDP 35 �rate of 1.9 percent. It is, however, predicted that this GDP will contract to 3.8 percent change at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. Table 3 and figure 1 highlight the Greek GDP rates from 2007 and further portrays the predicted rate that accounts for the year 2021. Inflation Rate The inflation rate in Greece increased due to various factors (i.e., higher food prices; increased oil prices; and a higher rate of domestic consumption taxes which resulted from the deficit experienced from the 1990s until 2009 where the inflation rate subsided from a rate of 4.2 percent to 1.4 percent in the year 2009). Greece’s membership in the Eurozone allows Greece to receive loans with lower interest rates because bankers and investors perceived that the Euro currency effaced the differences that existed between Greece and European countries prior to the introduction of the Euro. Furthermore, this provided increased capital inflows, however, these capital inflows have influenced the inflation experienced in Greece reports that between 2001 and 2009, the competitiveness of the Greek economy declined by 20 percent when measured using the consumer price, while the unit labor resulted in a decline of 25 percent. Prior to 2009, Greece developed and implemented a monetary policy that aimed to fight against inflation which led to a transition from a high inflation rate to a moderate one which was at 11 percent. Unemployment Rate Since its membership into joining the European countries in 1981, the Greek labor force has been ranked as the leader in terms of the working hours per year across the European countries. From 2007 until 2013 the unemployment rate in Greece increased significantly but then started to decline again after 2013. Also, from Table 5 we can see that 2008 was the year with the lowest unemployment rate (7,75%) but then it started to increase and as of 2021, has not yet reached that low of a rate. From the Figure 3 we can also see that unemployment reached its peak in 2013 and after that it started to steadily come down. The Greek labor market is directly linked to the structure of the economic system and the improvements made within the public sector based on the activities conducted by the private sector which leads to increased tax rates for both indirect and direct taxation. The unemployment rate in Greece has been outlined in Table 5 and further translated in Figure 3 where the projections for 2020 and 2021 have been included. 36 �VII. Conclusion Greece has encountered a vast economic slump since it joined the EU. The problem resulted from the unmatched economic might of the rest of the EU nations that Greece could not compete with. As a result, the country has amassed a considerable debt and defaulted on loans. To solve the problem, the government has worked closely with the EU member countries to regulate its economic operations, make efficient investment decisions, repay the debt and even monitor its overall financial performance. Various policies imposed against Greece have seen the country struggle with the debt and regain its economic power. FDI is an alternative that has been commended as an ideal way of helping the country regain some economic strength. The investments from foreigners have helped the country in fundamental ways, but they still leave specific financial gaps. Therefore, despite the resources injected into the economy, the government has much to do to ensure that the country gets back on track towards prosperity. From various investment projects introduced in Greece, such as tourism and shipping, the government has seen a transformation in the growth of its economy. Some significant investments that have been launched in Greece are in the field of medicine, tourism, and shipping. These sectors, mainly tourism and shipping, could be referred to as the main Greek sectors because they are the backbone of its economy. Besides, Greece is also advancing in other fields such as food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals mining, petroleum, and metal products. Therefore, it is right to say that if many citizens and dual citizens took it as their responsibility to invest, even more, the Greek economy would transform for good, and Greece would turn to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. For instance, as table 5 shows, unemployment rates went down almost 10 percent from the years 2013, where unemployment reached its peak in Greece, till today, 2021, with a prediction of 16.6 percent unemployment by the end of the year. Those investment sectors that I mentioned above definitely opened up more job positions during the past years for Greek citizens to work causing unemployment to go down. In recent years, the economy of Greece has shown clear signs of recovery and improvement. For instance, the GDP growth in Greece in the year 2020 was around 183 billion euros and focusing on the new tax bill and reformation program that has been introduced to the country by the new government, the GDP is expected to grow to 2% before the end of next year if COVID-19 doesn’t slow down even more of the global economy. All this been said and analyzed, I came to a conclusion that Greece would be a good idea for someone to invest, due to the country’s economic growth and rehab. After the 2007-2008 financial crisis Greece seems to begin to be standing on its feet again and more and more people are trusting the Greek economy for future and current investments. 37 �VIII. References Meier, G., & Stiglitz, J. (2000, December 01). Frontiers of development economics: The future in perspective. Retrieved April 06, 2021, from http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13842 Cecchetti, S. G. (2008) Crisis and Responses the Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis of -2008. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. [Web.] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://lccn.loc.gov/2008610950. Sheridan, R. B. (2015). The British credit crisis of 1772 and the American colonies. Journal of Economic History, Pages 161-186. Haralambie, G. (2016). The Global Crisis and Cyclical Theory. Theoretical & Applied Economics, 18(11). Goldberg, G. S. (2012). Economic inequality and economic crisis: A challenge for social workers. Social work, 57(3), 211-224 Buhalis, D., & Deimezi, O. (2016). E-tourism developments in Greece: Information communication technologies adoption for the strategic management of the Greek tourism industry. Tourism and hospitality research, 5(2), 103-130. Kapros, S., & Panou, C. (2017). Chapter 10: Coastal Shipping and intermodality in Greece: The weak link. Research in Transportation Economics, 21, Pages 323-342. GREK ETF Report. (n.d.). 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Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe. London School of Economics and Political Science. Hondroyiannis, G., & Lazaretou, S. (2004). Inflation Persistence During Periods of Structural Change: An Assessment Using Greek Data. European Central Bank International Monetary Fund. (2019). 2019 Article Iv Consultation—Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Greece. IMF Country Report No. 19/340. Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund. (2019). World Economic Outlook database: April 2021: Greece. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2021/April/weoreport?c=174,&s=NGDP_R,PCPI,LUR,&sy=2007&ey=2021&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&s sd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1 Rodokanakis, S. (2012). Unemployment in Greece: Econometric Evidence after the Athens 2004 Olympics and before the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009. International Scholarly Research Notices, 2012. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/619602 World Trade Organization. (2021). 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Retrieved May 11, 2021, from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/economic-growth/ 40 ���Cardiovascular Disease on the North Shore of Staten Island in Low Income Families: Solving the Problem Starts with “A Heart Healthy You” Christina Foote (Nursing), Kristen Evangelist (Nursing), and Cassie Paradise (Nursing) 1 Cardiovascular disease is a problem faced worldwide among various groups. Cardiovascular disease is an umbrella term for several conditions that affect the circulatory system throughout the lifespan. The focus of this research is to investigate contributing factors that increase the risk of plaque that builds up and impedes blood flow in the arteries, which can lead to cardiovascular disease. Without intervention the prevalence of disease complications increases, thus decreasing quality of life (American Heart Association, 2020). Cardiovascular disease is particularly high in Staten Island Community District 1, specifically in low-income families. How will participation in community gardens along with education and health promotion improve cardiovascular health in lower income populations? The proposed solution is to encourage engagement in local community gardens and to educate about the importance of a heart healthy diet, exercise and smoking cessation. Studies support the use of community gardens to provide access to fresh fruits and vegetables while fostering relationships. The evidence has shown that an effective exercise regimen, a nutritious diet, and smoking cessation prevent cardiovascular disease. Education and health promotion will be achieved through the innovative health program, A Heart Healthy You. Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a problem faced worldwide among various groups. The prevalence of CVD is particularly high in Staten Island Community District 1. Low-income families residing in this community are the target population. How will participation in community gardens along with education and health promotion improve cardiovascular health in lower income populations? A lack of resources for proper nutrition, exercise and healthcare are contributing to the high mortality rate in this community. Northwell Health uses a mapping of Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs) quintiles as a data analysis to identify pockets of diminished health in the communities they serve. In their 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment of Richmond County, Northwell Health assigned these quintiles based on their comparative rates of disease per 1 Written under the direction of Prof. Tinamarie Petrizzo-Hughes in partial fulfillment of the Senior Program requirements. 43 �100,000 population, and thus are used to assess the relative health of different zip codes. Circulatory PQIs had the highest rates in Port Richmond, St. George, and Stapleton– compared to the rest of Staten Island (Northwell Health Community Health Needs Assessments, 2019). In 2001, CVD was the leading cause of death in Staten Island Community District 1, followed by cancer and other comorbidities like diabetes and chronic lung disease (Karpati et al., 2003). Although it has dropped from the top spot, CVD remains a leading cause of death (Hinterland et al., 2018). Wagner College is included in the District 1 community – what better way to make a difference than to start close to home? The proposed solution is to encourage the use of community gardens and teach the importance of a heart healthy diet and exercise programs as well as smoking cessation. Community Assessment and Analysis Staten Island Community District 1, the “North Shore'' of Staten Island, comprises: Mariner’s Harbor; Port Richmond; Westerleigh; West Brighton; New Brighton; Saint George; Stapleton; Grymes Hill; Park Hill; and Rosebank. The current population of Staten Island Community District 1 is 181,484 (Hinterland et al., 2018). There are six public libraries on the North Shore, one in each neighborhood with the exception of Grymes Hill-Park Hill. About 15% of land use on the North Shore is dedicated to open space and recreation, with Cloves Lark Park in Westerleigh and Silver Lake Park in West Brighton being the largest of these community assets. Outside of these parks, there is a multitude of playgrounds located throughout the district. However, it appears that residents in certain areas do not have a park within walking distance; most notably in a large area covering the southern parts of Mariner’s Harbor, Port Richmond, and Westerleigh (Mehrotra et al., 2018). The Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC) reported that throughout the North Shore of Staten Island, sidewalks are only on one side of the street, and are often broken and lifted from tree roots. Along with the unsafe walkways, the crime rates in Staten Island District 1 also pose a threat. The 120 precinct covers the eastern part of the North Shore. CCC reported the violent felony rate of the 120 Precinct from 2014-2016 was nearly equivalent to the citywide level, and nearly twice the rate for Staten Island as a whole. In 1990, the total population of Staten Island Community District 1 was 137,978. From 1990 to 2000, the population increased by 17.6% to a total population of 162,273 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004). From 2000 to 2010, the population increased by 8.1% to a total population of 175,756 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). As of 2018, the total population is 181,484 (Hinterland et al., 2018). This data shows an increasing trend, so it 44 �can be assumed that the population of Community District 1 will continue to increase. In 1990, the foreign-born population of District 1 was 12.5%, and in 2000 it was 19.2% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004). As of 2018, the forein-born population is 24.3% (Hinterland et al., 2018). This data indicates that this community’s foreign-born population is also trending upward. The North Shore of Staten Island is one of only ten community districts in New York City (NYC) where no racial/ethnic group represents more than 40% of the population. Demographics vary considerably within the North Shore by neighborhood. In Westerleigh and West Brighton, the majority of the population is white. In the remaining neighborhoods, the majority of the population is black or Latino, including over 70% of residents in Grymes Hill-Park Hill (Mehrotra et al., 2018). On the North Shore of Staten Island, 12% of adults are without health insurance and 10% of adults have reported going without needed medical care within the past 12 months. In the 2018 Community Health Profile on Staten Island Community District 1, it is listed that 9% of adults have been diagnosed with diabetes and 26% of adults have been diagnosed with hypertension. This health profile also includes information on the top causes of premature death in this community, in those prior to age 65. The second ranked issue is heart disease which contributed to 45.5% of the premature deaths recorded in this article (Hinterland et al., 2018). The rate of obesity on the North Shore is the tenth highest out of fifty-nine community districts. It has been reported that 33% of adults in Community District 1 are obese (Mehrotra et al., 2018). There are 10 large grocery stores located throughout the North Shore, equivalent to about one grocery store for every 17,400 residents. Much of the North Shore is not within walking distance of a grocery store (Mehrotra et al., 2018). Within this community there are 28 bodegas for every one supermarket. “Bodegas are less likely to have healthy food options than supermarkets.” (Hinterland et al., 2018, p. 10). There is one hospital—the Richmond University Medical Center—located on the North Shore in West Brighton. In addition to the hospital, there are 13 clinics, two diagnostic and treatment centers, and three schoolbased health centers on the North Shore. Each neighborhood has at least one clinic with the exception of Grymes Hill-Park Hill (Mehrotra et al., 2018). The current economic environment of the community is not favorable. Approximately one out of five residents on the North Shore (21%) lives in poverty. There are substantial differences in poverty rates between neighborhoods on the North Shore. For example, 30% of Grymes Hill-Park Hill residents live in poverty, compared to fewer than 10% of residents in Westerleigh. The North Shore’s median household income is nearly $62,500. Median household income varies considerably within the North Shore by neighborhood. For example, the median household income in Westerleigh is nearly 45 �$79,500, more than $35,000 higher than in Grymes Hill-Park Hill, where the median household income is just over $44,000 (Mehrotra et al., 2018). Similarly, to its current economic environment, the overall present health of the community is also unfavorable. City Harvest, a NYC nonprofit, has launched the Healthy Neighborhoods program on the North Shore. The Healthy Neighborhoods program takes a long-term approach to hunger relief by: providing free fresh fruits and vegetables through their Mobile Markets in Stapleton and Mariners Harbor; nutrition education on healthy cooking and eating skills; and increasing access to affordable and fresh food on the North Shore. Through community partnerships like the Staten Island Neighborhood Food Initiative and Grow To Give, City Harvest brings together passionate residents, retailers, and local organizations to have a voice in the decision making process that shapes the local food system. In addition to healthy eating, construction in Cloves Lake Park in Sunnyside has recently been completed, where $1.9 million has provided a 5k running trail which includes markers to help runners/walkers navigate (Mehrotra et al., 2018). Currently, there are several community gardens throughout District 1 (GreenThumb). By encouraging the utilization of these gardens, the community can gain further insight to healthy eating and exercise. Problem in the Community CVD is the leading cause of death in the United States, one in four deaths in the country can be attributed to one of the several conditions labeled as CVD (American Heart Association, 2020). CVD can be attributed to a multitude of factors including, but not limited to; a congenital defect, obesity, smoking, poor diet, insufficient exercise, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes, etc. (American Heart Association, 2015). CVD occurs when plaque builds in the arteries (American Heart Association, 2020). Over time the arteries will narrow and reduce blood flow to the heart, potentially leading to a myocardial infarction. CVD is the leading cause of death and a major cause of disability in adults worldwide (Mensah & Brown, 2007). “These diseases are common and occur in infants, children, and adults of both sexes, and they affect people of all races and ethnicities.” (Mensah & Brown, 2007, p. 38). The lifetime risk for someone 40 years old is 50% in men and 32% in women. Advanced age is the most powerful risk factor for CVD. However, it is seen that 62% of adults living with CVD are below the age of 65. CVD is the leading cause of admissions or discharges from acute hospital visits and nursing homes. “CVD is the most-costly disease in the United States.” (Mensah & Brown, 2007, p. 41). The estimated cost of care and lost productivity in the United States from CVD exceeds $400 billion. 46 �A correlation between the limited options for a healthy diet can be seen in the rate of childhood obesity (Hinterland et al., 2018). It is similar to the citywide rate being that one out of five children in grades K through 8 in this community are obese. Based on this data collected in 2018, 16% of the population are smokers and 27% of the population report having one or more 12-ounce sugary drinks per day. Consumption of these drinks can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, CVD, cavities, weight gain, and obesity. Despite the United States being the world’s wealthiest nation, the population living in low-income cities in the United States are constantly met with challenges involving their health maintenance (Baptiste, 2018). Nearly half of the African American population in the United States has some form of CVD, 46% among men and 48% among women. People living in low-income urban areas or living in poverty have a higher likelihood of suffering from a CVD with a poor outcome due to lack of access to health care, poor housing conditions and housing instability. “… health outcomes are affected by postal codes.” (Baptiste, 2018, p. 3441). This is supported in this article where they specifically referenced the population in Baltimore City, Maryland (Baptiste, 2018). CVD is the leading cause of death in Baltimore City, Maryland. It is shown that this area has several low-income neighborhoods where the primary demographic is African Americans and there are notable disparities in these neighborhoods. These disparities include; an inability to walk outside due to high crime rates, lack of resources for recreation, and lack of access to affordably priced fruits and vegetables. The author states that Baltimore City is a prime example of where you live being a key factor in your health outcomes because it has been statistically supported that Baltimore City’s mortality rates due to CVD are highest when compared to the entirety of the state of Maryland. CVD is the number one cause of mortality globally accounting for 31% of deaths worldwide (Aminde et al., 2018). Over 4/5 of premature deaths before age 70 from noncommunicable disease occurs in low-income and middle-income countries. There is data supporting the increase in the mortality rates of CVD (Jagannatham et al., 2019). The highest age-standardized CVD mortality rates since 1990 shows that more than 725 per 100,000 deaths were seen in Bulgarian and Estonian men and Afghani women. It is also observed that the highest mortality rates of CVD are observed in men and women who live in low- and middle- income countries in Europe such as Afghanistan and Ukraine versus those of high-income countries such as Switzerland and France. In comparing western and eastern countries, urban Shanghai, China had a delayed shift from infectious diseases and perinatal diseases as the main cause of mortality to chronic diseases (Zhang et al., 2020). However, as of late, the population in 47 �Shanghai, China is showing comparable rates of mortality due to chronic diseases such as CVD with that of western countries. Research was conducted on the permanent residents of the Yangpu district, one of the 16 districts in Shanghai, with a total of 41,879,864 person-years were analyzed and the data shows that out of those analyzed, 101,822 were from CVD deaths. Of the data collected, CVD mortality is higher in men than in women in this study. The life expectancy in Staten Island Community District 1 is 2.2 years shorter than NYC overall (Hinterland et al., 2018). As previously stated, the lack of resources for proper nutrition, exercise and healthcare are increasing the mortality rate in this community. Coronary heart disease hospitalization rates in Staten Island were above both the New York State (NYS) average and the New York State Prevention Agenda Objectives (NYSPAO), but congestive heart failure hospitalization rates were below the NYS average and the NYSPAO (Northwell Health Richmond County CHNA, 2019). Currently, Covid-19, is causing dramatic shifts in daily life for those affected and those unaffected by chronic illness. There is evidence supporting that CVD is aiding in the progression and poor prognosis of patients who contract Covid-19 (Li et al., 2020). CVD is the most common comorbidity in patients with Covid-19 and they are at a higher risk of becoming critically ill and/or possibly dying. They conducted a study utilizing both patients who had CVD and those who did not, they also excluded those with other comorbidities to decrease the chance of it influencing the results of their studies. Their studies have shown that the participants who had CVD were older, had a poorer appetite than those without CVD, experienced more nausea and vomiting, there were more severe cases, and the mortality rate was higher. Proposed Solution In today’s society where a sedentary lifestyle is commonplace, it can be difficult for individuals to become motivated to get up, get out, and live a healthy lifestyle. The evidence supports exercise as an important factor in lowering the risk of developing CVD. Ho, et al. (2012) conducted a study involving twelve people at random with different medical ailments. Various health parameters were tested such as; a fasting measure of a lipid panel, blood glucose level, and even insulin changes in the body. They also tested changes in body weight, fat mass, and dietary intake. Each group was randomly assigned into a control group, only aerobic exercise, only resistance training, or a combination of aerobic and resistance training. The results revealed a decrease in the risk for developing CVD with the combination group which included aerobic and resistance training exercise programs in overweight and obese participants. The results were compared to the control group who participated in no exercise at all. That group saw 48 �no changes. The study supports that “from our observations, combination exercise gave greater benefits for weight loss, fat loss and cardio-respiratory fitness than aerobic and resistance training modalities. Therefore, combination exercise training should be recommended for overweight and obese adults in National Physical Activity Guidelines.” (Ho et al., 2012, p. 1). Another considerable modifiable risk factor for CVD is smoking. An article published by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology authored by Rigotti and McDermott emphasizes the role tobacco plays in CVD. The article explains, “Cigarette smokers had a substantially increased risk of developing all 3 CVDs examined. The pattern of increased risk was consistent for both the duration and the intensity (e.g., cigarettes per day) of smoking.” (Rigotti & McDermott, 2019, p. 508). Evidence supports that smoking causes vasoconstriction, which increases blood pressure, resulting in increased risk of developing CVD. Furthermore, the journal includes smoking cessation as an essential component in the reduction of CVD. “Stopping smoking was associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular events within 5 years of cessation, and the association fell to a never smokers’ level of risk within several decades.” (Rigotti & McDermott, 2019, p. 508) This is a significant finding. Education is a key factor in reducing this modifiable risk factor. The lack of access to healthy, nutritious foods is another contributing factor. The health benefits of having access to nutritious meals may be challenging. There is evidence to support healthy foods aid in decreasing the risk for CVD. However, what if a person does not have access to nutritious foods? The American Heart Association (2017) recommends people, “Eat a variety of fresh, frozen and canned vegetables and fruits without high-calorie sauces or added salt and sugars. Replace high-calorie foods with fruits and vegetables.” Doretha Orem created the Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory, which provides the framework for the proposed solution. It is known that self-care is a vital aspect of maintaining overall health and wellbeing; people typically want to do this for themselves. Orem’s theory defined nursing as “the act of assisting others in the provision and management of self-care to maintain or improve human functioning at the home level of effectiveness.” (Gonzalo, 2021). This relates to how people care for themselves to prevent CVD through self-care methods. One of the goals of nursing is to help people within the community to meet their own self-care goals and therapeutic selfcare demands through the use of adequate exercise, heart healthy nutritious meals, and smoking cessation. This theory frames our solution, as the risk for CVD can be lessened through self-care and education on preventative methods. It is supported that regular exercise, such as walking, can decrease the manifestations of CVD. 49 �The innovative health program for the proposed solution is A Heart Healthy You. The aforementioned gardens within this community will be utilized to support this initiative. GreenThumb, through NYC Parks Department, is the largest community garden program in the nation (GreenThumb). This organization provides a liaison that works with community members to maintain local gardens. While tending to the local gardens, health professionals as well as aspiring student nurses and health science majors can partner with the available community resources to promote a healthy diet, exercise and smoking cessation. Pamphlets will be available with a sample heart healthy diet along with recipes, smoking cessation information, and exercise tips. Participants can track their daily intake and exercise plans on the pamphlet for review with health science and pre-nursing students, mentored by health professional faculty, to encourage success for the participants. Within the community garden, there will be postings of a suggested weekly schedule. For example, “Meatless Monday” with an emphasis on vegetables replacing meat, “Turn up Tuesday” centers around an aerobic day, “Wake Up Wednesday” starts with a morning resistance workout, “Therapeutic Thursday” leads to a nature walk and an active rest day, “Fit Friday” begins with a weekly weigh in. The surplus of fresh fruits and vegetables harvested from local community gardens can be donated to bodegas and the community Mobile Market for distribution to those in need. An article by Litt, et al. (2011) supports that a prevalent modifiable risk factor is the consumption of fruits and vegetables which has been shown to maintain a heart healthy diet. Through supporting evidence, a community garden will provide the ingredients necessary for a heart healthy lifestyle while promoting a sense of community pride as the gardens are maintained. Families can work together to tend to the garden when their availability allows. Participants with physical limitations can be accommodated with less strenuous tasks within the garden. The article by Litt, et al. (2011, p. 1466) goes on to say that “by allowing residents to actively engage in natural and social processes in an ongoing basis, the garden can promote a tactic and more holistic understanding of food-related behaviors among its members and others affected by such neighboring places”. The overall community health goal for Staten Island’s District 1 is to work with current opportunities to decrease the risk of developing CVD or to manage existing manifestations of CVD. Wagner College’s learning communities provide students with experiential learning (Wagner College). There are three levels, freshman, intermediate, and senior. Microbiology and nutrition are requirements for nursing and health sciences. These two courses are housed within the intermediate learning community (ILC) and currently there is no off campus experiential learning for these courses. A relationship 50 �between Wagner College students and District 1 community gardens can be mutually beneficial as the students can work with the community to help promote, maintain, and restore heart healthy living and District 1 engages students in the necessary experiential learning component. The learning objectives for this innovative program will be laid out as follows: ● ● Demonstrate an understanding of heart health terminology. ● Teach-back specific lifestyle modifications and heart healthy plans via demonstration and verbal rationales for implementing these changes. Participate in a local community garden to grow fresh foods, engage in exercise and take pride in their efforts to maintain the health of themselves and their neighbors. There is a noteworthy association among CVD and the lack of adequate exercise, improper diet, and smoking. Studies have shown through supported evidence that there is a relationship between utilizing an adequate and effective exercise regimen, eating nutritious meals, and smoking cessation for preventing CVD. Our goal is to help Staten Island Community District 1 to focus on giving people the tools needed to understand prevention and health promotion to reduce their risk of acquiring CVD. References Aminde, L. N., Takah, N. F., Zapata-Diomedi, B., & Veerman, J. L. (2018). Primary and secondary prevention interventions for cardiovascular disease in low-income and middleincome countries: A systematic review of economic evaluations. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, 16. American Heart Association. (2017) The American Heart Association Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations. Heart. Retrieved November 21, 2020, from https://www.heart.org/en/ healthyliving/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/aha-diet-and-lifestyle-recommendations American Heart Association. 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Total Population, Under 18 and 18 Years and Over by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin and Total Housing Units New York City Community Districts, 1990 to 2010. Retrieved 2020, from https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ planning/download/pdf/community/community-portal/socio_demo/si01_socio_demo.pdf U.S. Census Bureau. (2004). Socioeconomic Profile Social Characteristics - Staten Island Community District 1 1990 and 2000 Census. Retrieved 2020, from https://www1.nyc. gov/ assets/planning/download/pdf/planning-level/nyc-population/census2000/19902000_si_cd_profile.pdf Wagner College. First-Year Program. Academics. https://wagner.edu/academics/ undergraduate/fyp/ Wagner College. Intermediate Learning Community. Academics. https://wagner.edu/ academics/undergraduate/ilc/ 53 �Wagner College. Senior Learning Community. Academics. https://wagner.edu/ academics/undergraduate/slc/ Zhang, L., Li, Q., Han, X., Wang, S., Li, P., Ding, Y., Zhang, T., Zhao, J., Chen, Y., Liu, J., Li, J., Tan, X., Liu, W., Zhang, R., & Cao, G. (2020). Associations of socioeconomic factors with cause-specific Mortality and burden of cardiovascular diseases: findings from the vital registration in urban Shanghai, China, during 1974-2015. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1291. https://ezproxy.wagner.edu:2310/10.1186/s12889-020-09390-1 54 ���“The Shining City Upon the Hill:” Christian Zionism and the Politics of Woodrow Wilson & Harry S. Truman Maggie Winton (History) 1 Since the Republican primaries in 2015, it has become commonplace for American evangelicals to compare President Donald J. Trump to the Biblical King Cyrus. In the Bible, the Persian emperor is appointed by God to fulfill his divine will, freeing the Jewish people held captive in Babylon and rebuilding the holy city of Jerusalem. 2 Just as Cyrus was anointed by God to accomplish his divine will on Earth, so do American evangelicals perceive President Trump to be similarly anointed by God to, as prominent evangelical speaker and author Lance Wallnau stated, “restore the crumbling walls that separate us from cultural collapse.” 3 President Trump himself is not influenced by Christian Zionism, and therefore it is easy to attribute this association of him with a Biblical king to a small but vocal group of fundamentalist evangelical Christians who support him. However, the reality is that this connection of American politics to Biblical destiny is indicative of a more pervasive and widespread belief system. 4 This belief system is known today as Christian Zionism. Just as evangelicals currently see President Trump as the man divinely instituted to the presidency to “restore the crumbling walls that separate us from cultural collapse,” so did certain evangelical Protestant presidents perceive their role to be one of fulfilling God’s plan for humanity. Such is the case with President Woodrow Wilson and President Harry Truman in the aftermaths of the two World Wars. Each of these presidents, influenced by their own beliefs in Christian Zionism, perceived their duty as president to be one of divine appointment, that they had been chosen by God to restore his chosen people to the Holy Land and propel the world into the new millennium. Within their addresses and speeches to the American public, their personal writings, and the first-hand 1 Written under the direction of Dr. Alison Smith in partial fulfillment of the Senior and Honors Programs requirements. 2 Isaiah 45:1, 13. 3 Katherine Stewart, “Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus,” New York Times, Dec. 31, 2018, accessed Oct. 26, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/opinion/trump-evangelicals-cyrusking.html. 4 Peter J. Miano, “Mainstream Christian Zionism,” in Prophetic Voices on Middle East Peace: A Jewish, Christian, and Humanist Primer on Colonialism, Zionism, and Nationalism in the Middle East, ed.Thomas E. Phillips, Peter J. Miano, Jason Mitchell, 163-186 (Claremont, CA: Claremont Press, 2016), 165. 57 �accounts from those who worked closely with them, Wilson and Truman displayed their Christian Zionist beliefs, connecting their personal religious views to their political duties as President of the United States. Christian Zionism, with its theological foundation of dispensationalism and its connection to American manifest destiny, served as a driving force in the policy decisions of President Woodrow Wilson and President Harry Truman immediately following the two World Wars. Since its introduction to America in the mid-nineteenth century, Christian Zionism has created a situation in which politics and religion intersect and collide in complicated ways. The theological foundation of Christian Zionism has permeated American religious, cultural, and political life in numerous ways, from integrating into America’s existing evangelical Protestant tradition to supporting the belief in America’s divinely granted manifest destiny. By the twentieth century, Christian Zionism became so ingrained in American political life that it even affected America’s highest positions of leadership, creating circumstances in which policy decisions were directly influenced and driven by the personal religious beliefs of political leaders. In fact, the emphasis on interweaving theology and politics allows for religiously devout individuals occupying the highest political offices in the United States, including the presidency, to use their position as political leaders to further their religious agenda. Christian Zionism, because of its heavy focus on Biblical literalism and fundamentalism, is generally associated with Christians from the “Christian right.” These Christian Zionists are the easiest to identify because they are often the most vocal and most visible in displaying their opinions. 5 However, for scholars like Peter J. Miano and Rosemary Radford Reuther, associating Christian Zionism exclusively with fundamentalist and conservative Christians is dangerous as it ignores the fact that the majority of Christian Zionists belong to mainstream branches of Christianity. 6 As Miano points out, Christianity as a religious tradition, whether mainstream or not, both directly and indirectly engages in promoting the Zionist narrative in some capacity. 7 Similarly, there is a propensity to dismiss those who believe in Biblical literalism or Fundamentalist Christianity as unintelligent and uneducated. This is certainly true in the case of Harry S. Truman. As Gary Scott Smith points out, scholars often cite Truman’s religious rhetoric and biblically influenced approach to public policy 5 Miano, “Mainstream Christian Zionism,” 171. Miano, “Mainstream Christian Zionism,” 164; Rosemary Radford Reuther, “Christian Zionism and Mainline Western Christian Churches,” in Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison, ed. Gӧran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, 179-190 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014), 179. 7 Miano, “Mainstream Christian Zionism,” 172. 6 58 �as crude, misguided, and simplistic. 8 That and his vulgar mouth and brash nature got him branded as an unintelligent religious fanatic. 9 In reality, Truman was an incredibly wellread and intelligent man. Scholars like Paul C. Merkley discuss how he regularly read a wide range of newly published books from academic historians, including biographies, narrative histories, and American political and military histories. 10 Truman’s interpretation of the Bible might have been a fundamentalist one, but he genuinely believed that it was the correct interpretation based on his extensive study and reading on the topic and this interpretation served as the foundation for his policies and decisions as president. 11 Christian Zionism likewise spans across the United States and is not limited to one particular region of the country. Wilson and Truman were from Virginia and Missouri, respectively, and it is easy to dismiss the Christian Zionism as a belief exclusive to the South or Midwest even though it is found in mainstream Christian denominations nationwide. Recognizing these three points ‒ that Christian Zionism is not exclusively associated with the “Christian right,” that adherence to Biblical literalism and Fundamentalist Christianity does not inherently mean one is unintelligent or uneducated, and that their respective statuses as non-East Coast political outsiders influenced Wilson and Truman to take actions to help restore the Jewish people to the Holy Land ‒ is imperative for understanding the influence Christian Zionism has had in American politics. Both Woodrow Wilson and Harry S. Truman were members of mainstream Protestant Christian denominations, and they were both intelligent, well-read men. And yet, they both strongly believed in the Christian Zionist cause and perpetuated it throughout their respective tenures as President of the United States. Clearly, Christian Zionism is more than just a political movement belonging to a specific sector of the “Christian right.” It is something that encompasses mainstream American Protestant theological beliefs, American patriotism and national pride, and American national politics, influencing those in even the highest of governmental offices. Christian Zionism, simply defined, is the belief held by Christians that the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land is in accordance with Biblical prophecy. 12 Whereas Jewish Zionists called for the restoration of the Jewish people in the Holy Land 8 Gary Scott Smith, Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2015), 230. 9 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 229. 10 Paul C. Merkley, The Politics of Christian Zionism, 1891-1948 (London, England: Routledge, 1998), 165. 11 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 229. 12 John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007), 107. 59 �and the establishment of a Jewish homeland for nationalistic and political reasons, Christian Zionists are more religiously motivated. They see the establishment of a Jewish homeland as a necessary step in God’s plan for the salvation of humanity, one which will fulfill Biblical prophecy and allow Jesus Christ to return to Earth and save the true believers. 13 While Christian advocacy for the restoration of the Jewish people to the Holy Land was an established theological belief system, it gained political traction with the rise of Jewish nationalism. In the mid-nineteenth century, Jews in Europe began assimilating and adapting to the dominant cultures of their countries in an attempt to fight antisemetism. 14 However, towards the end of the century, a new wave of antisemitism swept over Europe and Jews began to call into question their assimilationist sentiments and tactics. 15 The late nineteenth century saw the rise of various nationalist movements, from ethnic nationalism to cultural nationalism, and for the European Jews facing conflict in their home countries, their Jewish identity became the foundation for their own form of nationalism. 16 With the publication of Der Judenstaat, a pamphlet written in 1896 by a Jewish Austro-Hungarian journalist named Theodor Herzl, the modern Zionist movement was born. 17 In Der Judenstaat, Herzl argues that, for the safety of the Jewish people and to prevent worsening antisemitism, an independent Jewish state must be created. For the global Jewish community, the rise of Zionism signaled a desire to mobilize and fight against anti-Jewish sentiments. However, for Christian Zionists, the rise of Zionism was a sign from God that the time for fulfilling his theological timeline had come. The theological foundation of Christian Zionism, known as dispensationalism, is steeped in Biblical literalism, prophetic interpretation, and belief in the apocalypse. It is a form of premillennial futurism, an end-times view of Christianity that unflinchingly interprets portions of certain books, specifically the Books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, as the events scheduled to take place before Christ’s return. 18 It states that all of history can be divided into dispensations; according to C.I. Schofield, a prominent American dispensationalist and author of the popular Scofield Reference Bible, a dispensation is “a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to 13 Miano, “Mainstream Christian Zionism,”164. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 97. 15 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 97. 16 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 97. 17 Paul C. Merkley, “Zionists and Christian Restorationists,” Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies 3 (1993): 94. 18 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 20. 14 60 �some specific revelation of the will of God.” 19 During each dispensation, God shares a specific revelation of divine will or a distinctive administrative principle, and humanity is responsible for following that will or principle. 20 Christian Zionists believe that God reveals his plan for humanity subtly; God expects that humanity will recognize the signs He is presenting to them and will act upon them to fulfill His will. 21 To dispensationalists, the Bible is meant to be interpreted literally, particularly in regards to its prophetic revelations. 22 Dispensationalists view the Old and New Testament prophecies in which Jesus’ return is foretold as literal indications as to what must happen in order to catalyze his Second Coming. 23 The Bible, therefore, serves as a text “progressive revelation” wherein people can understand the flow and development of God’s ways in the world over time through studying it. 24 The strongest focus of dispensationalists in regards to fulfilling Biblical prophecy is the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land. Dispensationalists believe that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people, and through his solemn covenants with them, God attempted to enact his godly plan for his earthly people. 25 The Jewish people, therefore become integral figures in fulfilling Biblical prophecy, as their sacred covenants with God signal their status as his chosen people and their return to the Holy Land is necessary in order to catalyze Jesus Christ's return to Earth. Understanding the theology of dispensationalism is important to understanding the complex relationship between the dispensationalist religious theology and the political elements of the Christian Zionist movement. Dispensationalism is the religious foundation for Christian Zionism, and Christian Zionism is the political vehicle that contextualizes the religious doctrine within current socio-political circumstances. 26 To dispensationalists, the mobilization of Jewish people through the Zionist movement was one of God’s signs signaling what he expected humanity to accomplish in this dispensation, and Christian Zionism became the political vehicle through which dispensationalists could accomplish this divine mission. Thus, politics became reconstituted as a form of religious practice, allowing dispensationalists to spread their 19 C.I. Scofield, ed., The Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909), 5. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 20. 21 Sean Durbin, “Walking in the Mantle of Esther: "Political" Action as "Religious" Practice,” in Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison, ed. Gӧran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, 85-124 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014), 93. 22 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 21. 23 Mearsheimer and Walt, The Israel Lobby, 132. 24 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 20. 25 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 21, 96. 26 Durbin, “Walking in the Mantle of Esther,” 93. 20 61 �beliefs and accomplish God’s will through political activism and action, and Wilson and Truman both exemplify this. 27 Woodrow Wilson’s personal religious beliefs strongly influenced his politics during his tenure as President of the United States. He was brought up in a strong Presbyterian household, and was descended from a long line of scholars and Presbyterian preachers. 28 Wilson’s father, a Presbyterian minister, believed in the power of education, raising his children in a pious and bookish home with an emphasis on the learning of theology, moral philosophy, literature, and the sciences. 29 Thus, Wilson became powerfully devoted to religion beginning at a young age, reading the Bible every day and being active in his church. 30 It is this devotion to religion and strong educational background in theology, philosophy, and literature that helped drive Wilson’s dedication to the Christian Zionist movement. According to Dr. Cary T. Grayson, Wilson’s close friend, political advisor, and personal physician, Wilson’s religious convictions directly influenced how he governed as President of the United States. In a statement written the day Wilson died in 1924, Grayson stated that: Wilson did not parade his religion. He lived it…[He] conceived the Christian Life as a process and development of character in accordance with the teachings of Christ...he understood personal religion as a matter of the heart but tempered by reflection and judgement and fixed purpose...The bulk of Mr. Wilson’s Christianity was in practice -- not talk. 31 Wilson’s actions as president and the decisions he made, for both domestic and foreign policy, were affected by his personal religious beliefs, as he saw political action to be a truer form of Christianity than just practicing the religion in a church. As president, Wilson relied on God’s power and guidance, as well as his belief in the Bible as the word of God. In a 1918 letter responding to Thomas F. Logan, a constituent expressing fear after progressives and Democrats lost their political seats in the midterm election, Wilson wrote that, I am of course disturbed by the result of Tuesday’s elections, because they create obstacles to the settlement of many difficult questions which throng so on 27 Durbin, “Walking in the Mantle of Esther,” 110. Lawrence Davidson, “Christian Zionism as a Representation of American Manifest Destiny,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14, no. 2 (2005): 163; Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 79. 29 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 79. 30 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 79. 31 Cary T. Grayson, “The Religion of Woodrow Wilson,” February 3, 1924, 13, 16, 20, http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/22351. 28 62 �every side, but I have an implicit faith in Divine Providence and I am sure that by one means of another the great thing we have to do will work itself out. 32 He believed that, despite all that happened, God had a plan for humanity and God would guide him as President of the United States. For Wilson, political action was directly tied to religious devotion, and the Bible served as a manual of divine revelation upon which he could base his political policies. Wilson likewise saw a direct correlation between religious faith and public morality. He perceived history to be a story of progress that leads to the betterment of society. 33 During World War I, one such way Wilson promoted this mentality was through his food rationing program. In his 1917 press release encouraging American citizens to ration their food to send to Europe, Wilson directly tied this act of public morality with religious actions like sacrifice and devotion, stating: Our country...is blessed with an abundance of foodstuffs...To provide an adequate supply of food for both our own soldiers on the other side of the seas and for the civil populations and the armies of the Allies is one of our first and foremost obligations...The solution of our food problems, therefore, is dependent upon the individual service of every man, woman and child in the United States...We cannot accomplish our objects in this great way without sacrifice and devotion, and no direction can that sacrifice and devotion be shown more than by each home and public eating place in the country pledging its support to the Food Administration and complying with its requests. 34 According to Wilson, because of its covenant-like relationship with God and the blessings He regularly bestows upon the nation, America is meant to fulfill its divinely ordained destiny through political action that promotes public morality and social justice. 35 Like Wilson, Harry S. Truman’s personal religious beliefs strongly influenced his politics during his tenure as President of the United States. As a child, Truman was raised in a deeply religious family that based their familial guidelines directly on Biblical scripture. 36 Like Wilson, Truman was educated beginning at an early age, and much of his educational upbringing revolved around his Baptist faith. He regularly recounted how 32 Woodrow Wilson, Letter to Thomas F. Logan, November 8, 1918, http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/27605. 33 Cara Lee Burnidge, A Peaceful Conquest: Woodrow Wilson, Religion, and the New World Order (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2016), 2. 34 Woodrow Wilson, “Food Administration,” Press Statement, October 27, 1917, http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/34084. 35 Burnidge, A Peaceful Conquest, 2. 36 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 229. 63 �that, by the age of fifteen, he had read the Bible in its entirety twelve times, that he “never cared much for fairy stories or Mother Goose” because the “stories in the Bible...were to [him] about real people, and [he] felt [he] knew some of them better than actual people [he] knew.” 37 For Truman, the Bible was a source of strength, inspiration, and historical record. 38 Through his religious upbringing and reverence for the Bible, he formed most of his ideas about the world early on and believed that the stories in the Bible were meant to serve as records of the past and prophetic revelations about the future. 39 These religious convictions followed him throughout his life, even when he became President of the United States after Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Truman attributed much of his success in life and politics to God’s power and will, stating, Luck always seems to be with me in games of change and in politics. No one was ever luckier than I’ve been since becoming the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief. Things have gone so well that I can’t understand it -except to attribute it to God. He guides me, I think. 40 Truman saw his life as being guided by God’s divine will, particularly in regard to his political career as a Missouri State Senator, the Vice President of the United States under Roosevelt, and the President of the United States. Like Wilson, Truman saw a direct link between religious faith and public morality, and he strongly believed that Christians should live their faith through tangible action based on religious values and scripture. 41 He believed that Exodus 20 (the Ten Commandments) and Matthew 5-7 (the Sermon on the Mount), were the best system of philosophy to adhere to as well as the most fundamentally sound moral code for public servants to base their policies on. 42 In his radio address during the 1949 nationwide, interfaith campaign, “Religion in American Life,” Truman proclaimed that America must follow its religious convictions as a nation because: [The] faith that inspires us to work for a world in which life will be more worthwhile -- a world of tolerance, unselfishness, and brotherhood -- a world that lives according to the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount...every problem in the world today could be solved if men would only live by the principles of 37 Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (New York: Berkeley, 1974), 31. 38 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 234. 39 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 234. 40 R.H. Ferrell, ed., Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1980), 37-38. 41 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 160; Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 232. 42 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 234. 64 �the ancient prophets and the Sermon on the Mount…Religious faith and religious work must be our reliance as we strive to fulfill our destiny in the world. 43 According to Truman, political decisions should be based on the transcendent moral standards written in Biblical scripture. 44 For Truman, America’s Christian heritage should be reflected in its politics, serving as the moral standard not only for citizens of the United States but citizens of the world. Christian Zionism’s history in America reflects this belief held by both Wilson and Truman that America’s Christian heritage and religious values should be displayed in public political action. Moreover, it is an excellent example of how interconnected religion and politics are within America. While the belief that the restoration of the Jewish people to the Holy Land was necessary for the salvation of humanity had existed in America since the Puritans arrived in the seventeenth century, dispensationalism as a theological belief system was officially introduced to America in the 1870s when John Nelson Darby, its creator, visited America just after the Civil War. 45 Throughout the late nineteenth century, Darby visited America multiple times in hopes of sharing his dispensationalist teachings and gaining support for his Biblical theological framework. 46 However, initially, American reception to dispensationalism was negative. Many, particularly those in elite religious circles, saw it as a serious departure from traditional Biblical scholarship and historic interpretations of the Bible. 47 James H. Snowden, a priest and opponent of dispensationalism, voiced some of the issues American priests and religious scholars saw with dispensationalist theology, stating, [Premillenarianism] violates the principle of historic interpretation by tearing passages out of their context and imposing on them meanings that they do not bear in their original connection...Premillenarians give a literal interpretation to all the Old Testament prophecies of the coming messianic kingdom, though this requires them to believe that the whole world (“all flesh”) shall go up to Jerusalem every week in the millennium…[It] is extremely selective in its 43 Harry Truman, "Radio Address as Part of the Program 'Religion in American Life,'" October 30, 1949, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/radio-address-part-the-program-religionamerican-life. 44 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 148. 45 Reuther, “Christian Zionism and Mainline Western Churches,” 183; Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 26. 46 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 26. 47 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon 27. 65 �treatment of Scripture. It picks out the passages that suit its theory and passes over what does not fit in with it. 48 Despite these grievances with dispensationalism, it quickly became a prominent theological belief system in America, due in part to the socio-political circumstances surrounding its development in the United States. Immediately following the Civil War, America’s religious institutions faced a period of conflict, realignment, reorganization, and aimlessness. The Civil War and its aftermath had shaken people’s faith in religion, just as it had shaken people’s faith in America’s democratic system. 49 The rise of urban living, massive influx of immigration from “ethnic” non-Protestant European countries like Italy and Ireland, and the country’s rapid industrialization likewise threatened America’s established evangelical Protestant Christian tradition, as did the introduction of concepts like the theory of evolution, comparative religion, and the higher criticism of the Bible. 50 In short, America’s evangelical Protestant communities were facing a crisis: should they attempt to redefine their belief systems in terms that are more compatible with the modern ways of thinking, or should they continue on with their faith as it’s been traditionally preached and practiced? Liberal evangelical Protestants chose to modernize, affirming the uniqueness of Jesus and the special nature of the Bible as a source of divine revelation while still allowing for scientific and academic scrutiny. 51 For conservative evangelical Protestants, however, this modernization of faith stripped the spiritual power of Christ’s message. Interpreting the Bible in a novel way to encompass modern issues like scientific inquiry and scholarly criticism to conservative evangelical Protestants rendered the Bible itself useless: if God’s word as written in the Bible was incompatible with modern life, then the implication is that God is fallible and capable of making mistakes. 52 The literal interpretation the Bible and its meaning was of the utmost importance to establishing the supremacy of the Bible as God’s word, and thus conservative evangelical Protestants saw their conflict with their liberal counterparts as a mission sent to them by God, one in which their task was to battle against the heretics attempting to alter God’s mission. 53 To win this battle, mainstream conservative evangelical Protestants formed a trans-denominational coalition, one which included the 48 James H. Snowden, "Summary of Objections to Premillenarianism," Biblical World 53 (1919): 166 49 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 30. 50 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 30. 51 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 31. 52 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon 31. 53 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 31. 66 �previously ostracized dispensationalists. 54 Dispensationalists quickly became a dominant force in the leadership of this coalition, because their theology affirmed everything the mainstream conservative evangelical Protestants wished to affirm: the authority of the Bible and its centering in Christ, the absolute necessity of one’s personal conversion to Christ, importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and the individual believer, the justification by faith alone, and the final separation of all people for eternal life or damnation. 55 According to William Bell Riley, a Baptist preacher known as “The Grand Old Man of Fundamentalism,” dispensationalism became “the sufficient if not solitary antidote to the present apostasy.” 56 As a result, dispensationalist theology, specifically its focus on Biblical literalism and prophetic interpretation, began to insert itself into the dominant mainstream Christian denominations. The concept of American manifest destiny emerged in the nineteenth century as America began establishing itself as an imperial power, both at home and abroad. John L. O’Sullivan, editor of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, is often the person credited with coming up with defining the term in his 1839 piece “The great nation of futurity.” According to O’Sullivan, “America is destined for better deeds…destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High -- the Sacred and the True.” 57 America is “the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement” and it is its destiny as a nation to “establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man -- the immutable truth and beneficence of God” through its imperial endeavors. 58 This concept of American manifest destiny influenced the United States’ political and cultural lives, but it also heavily influenced its religious life. America’s belief in its own divinely ordained destiny is a major factor why dispensationalism, and later Christian Zionism, became so infused in American evangelical Protestant culture. Christian Zionists support Jewish restoration to the Holy Land almost by any means necessary, using parallel ideas of American patriotism and triumph as the framework with which to justify America’s support of the Jewish homeland. 59 Just as America 54 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 31. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 32. 56 William Bell Riley, The Evolution of the Kingdom (New York: Charles C. Cook, 1913), 5. 57 John L. O’Sullivan, “The great nation of futurity,” The United States Democratic Review 6, no. 23 (1839): 427. 58 O’Sullivan, “The great nation of futurity,” 429-430. 59 Mae Elise Cannon, “Mischief Making in Palestine: American Protestant Christian Attitudes toward the Holy Land, 1917-1949,” in Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison, edited by Gӧran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, 231-255 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014), 236. 55 67 �believed their political destiny was divinely granted, so did they believe their religious destiny was divinely granted. Both Woodrow Wilson and Harry S. Truman believed that America’s political manifest destiny was divinely ordained by God, and they regularly used religious rhetoric to express this belief. Wilson’s personal religious beliefs deeply influenced how he viewed America and its national destiny. Even before he was president, Wilson believed that America was divinely blessed by God to be the purveyor of his will on Earth. In 1911 at the aforementioned celebration for the English translation of the Bible in Denver, Wilson stated, America is not ahead of other nations of the world because she is rich. Nothing makes America great except her thoughts, except her ideals, except her acceptance of those standards of judgement which are written large upon these pages of revelation. America has all along claimed the distinction of setting this example to the civilized world...America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture. 60 Wilson’s belief in America’s divinely ordained political destiny was only heightened during World War I. America’s success in helping its European allies defeat their enemies was, according to Wilson, indicative of God’s special relationship with America. In a press statement declaring a day of prayer in May of 1918, Wilson discussed that God’s “blessings on our arms” will bring about a “speedy restoration of an honorable man and lasting peace to the nations of the earth.” 61 Similar sentiments are seen in Wilson’s press statement in November 1919 proclaiming a day of thanksgiving. Wilson states that: The Season of the year has again arrived when the people of the United States are accustomed to unite in giving thanks to Almighty God for the blessings which He has conferred upon our country during the twelve months that have passed. A year ago our people poured out their hearts in praise and thanksgiving that through divine aid the right was victorious and peace had come to nations which had so courageously struggled in defense of human liberty and 60 Wilson, “The Bible and Progress,” Denver, CO, May 7, 1911, 5, 7, http://frontiers.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2012/20120129002bi/20120129002bi.pdf. 61 Woodrow Wilson, “Day of Prayer Declared,” Press Statement, May 11, 1918, http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/34288. 68 �justice...These great blessings...should arouse us to a fuller sense of our duty to ourselves and to mankind. 62 To Wilson, American exceptionalism both prior to and after the war was the result of Providence, the creation of God’s design to fulfill God’s will. 63 He saw democracy as a form of government that is based on God’s order and that reflects a social gospel that must be spread domestically and internationally. 64 Wilson perceived the end of World War I to be America’s opportunity to build its empire, exerting its influence internationally by supporting rebuilding nations and offering spiritual guidance. 65 In his 1920 State of the Union speech, Wilson expresses this, proclaiming, I found my thought dominated by an immortal sentence of Abraham Lincoln’s -“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it”...I believe that I express the wish and purpose of every thoughtful American when I say that this sentence marks for us in the plainest manner the part we should play alike in the arrangement of our domestic affairs and in our exercise of influence upon the affairs of the world…[t]his is the mission upon which Democracy came into the world...This is the time of all others when Democracy should prove its purity and its spiritual power to prevail. It is surely the manifest destiny of the United States to lead in the attempt to make this spirit prevail. 66 Not only was America’s help necessary for helping the world to move on from the aftermaths of the Great War, but it was preordained according to its God-given political destiny that America and American ideals such as democracy would prevail. Truman likewise believed the United States had a divinely ordained destiny, to serve as the creator of a free world and the protector of democracy. 67 To Truman, American democracy was a spiritual force that rested in God and Christian moral principles, and the American creed is directly derived from the word of God. 68 During his 62 Woodrow Wilson, “Thanksgiving Day Proclaimed,” Press Statement, November 5, 1919, http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/34322. 63 Burnidge, A Peaceful Conquest, 2. 64 Burnidge, A Peaceful Conquest, 3. 65 Burnidge, A Peaceful Conquest, 1. 66 Woodrow Wilson, 8th State of the Union Message, December 7, 1920, https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/state-of-the-union-address-109/. 67 Davidson, “Christian Zionism as a Representation of American Manifest Destiny,” 163; Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 161. 68 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 241. 69 �address for the aforementioned 1949 “Religion in American Life campaign, Truman stated that, The United States has been a deeply religious Nation from its earliest beginnings...Building on this foundation of faith, the United States has grown from a small country in the wilderness to a position of great strength and great responsibility among the family of nations. 69 This responsibility of the United States is gifted by God, just as God gifted responsibilities and obligations to the Biblical Israelites in his sacred covenants with them. 70 And just like Biblical Israel, America must follow God’s will and mission in order to fulfill their divine destiny. Truman further expands on the divinely ordained responsibility and destiny of the United States in a speech given during a church cornerstone laying in Washington D.C. in April of 1951: Considering all the advantages that God has given us as a nation and all the mercies that He has shown to us from our very beginnings, we ought to ask ourselves whether we today are worthy of all that He has done for us. We ought to ask ourselves whether we, as a people, are doing our part; whether we are carrying out our moral obligations. I do not think that anyone can study the history of this Nation of ours -- study it deeply and earnestly -- without becoming convinced that divine providence has played a great part in it. I have the feeling that God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose. And up to now we have been shirking it. Now we are assuming it, and now we must carry it through. 71 Thus, the fulfillment of God’s plan for humanity on Earth is directly tied to America’s God-given political destiny. Truman additionally called upon the established identification of the United States with Biblical Israel to further support his claims of America’s divinely ordained destiny. In September of 1951 in his address to the Washington Pilgrimage of American Churchmen in Washington D.C., he stated that, We cannot be satisfied with things as they are. We must always be striving to live up to our beliefs and to make things better in accordance with the divine commandments. The people of Israel, you will remember, did not, because of their covenant with God, have an easier time than other nations. Their standards 69 Harry S. Truman, "Radio Address as Part of the Program 'Religion in American Life.'" Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 240. 71 Harry Truman, “Address at the Cornerstone Laying of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church,” Washington, D.C., April 3, 1951, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/publicpapers/68/address-cornerstone-laying-new-york-avenue-presbyterian-church. 70 70 �were higher than those of other nations and the judgement upon them and their shortcomings was more terrible. A religious heritage, such as ours, is not a comfortable thing to live with. It does not mean that we are more virtuous than other people. Instead, it means that we have less excuse for doing the wrong thing -- because we are taught right from wrong. 72 To Truman, America like Biblical Israel has a special covenant with God, and this relationship meant America was not only blessed by God but the nation also has a moral imperative to follow God’s will and spread his teachings. 73 In particular, Truman stressed this moral imperative in regards to America’s spreading of democratic values, which he saw as a blessing from God, internationally through its foreign policy. In 1952, at a celebration for the cornerstone laying of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Virginia, Truman spoke to this: Democracy is first and foremost a spiritual force. It is built upon a spiritual basis -- and on a belief in God and an observance of moral principles...In foreign affairs...the churches should hold up the standard and point the way. The only hope of mankind for enduring peace lies in the realm of the spiritual. The teachings of the Christian faith recognize the worth of every human soul before Almighty God...We must try to find ways to carry these spiritual concepts into the field of world relations...we are all our brothers’ keepers. 74 Truman believed that the United States was destined by God to bring world peace because of its democratic values based on its Christian heritage. 75 For American Christian Zionists, no singular event signaled the time to fulfill their national destiny and God’s will like World War I. The United States officially entered the war in April of 1917, and Americans saw their entrance as a major turning point in the war. More specifically, however, American Christian Zionists saw the subsequent victories in the Middle East after their entrance to the war as indicative of America’s divine political destiny in fulfilling God’s will. Only six months after America entered the war, British forces invaded Palestine, which caused the Ottomans to surrender 72 Harry S. Truman, “Address to the Washington Pilgrimage of American Churchmen,” Washington D.C., September 28, 1951, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-thewashington-pilgrimage-american-churchmen. 73 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 240. 74 Harry S. Truman, “Remarks in Alexandria, VA., at the Cornerstone Laying of the Westminster Presbyterian Church,” Alexandria, VA, November 23, 1952, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-alexandria-va-the-cornerstone-laying-thewestminster-presbyterian-church. 75 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 151. 71 �the holy city of Jerusalem to the British. 76 With the Biblical land of milk and honey and the “shining city upon the hill” finally returned to a Christian empire after centuries under control of the Muslims, the goal of restoring the Jewish people to the Holy Land finally seemed achievable. 77 Furthermore, with the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in November of 1917, the British Empire officially proclaimed their dedication to creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, that “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.” 78 To American Christian Zionists, particularly those in the US government, this declaration was a major step in the right direction. Speaker of the House Champ Clark, in an official statement on Christmas Eve in 1917 just a month or so after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, stated that, So far as war operations are concerned, the one thing that pleases most people most is the capture of Jerusalem, “The Holy City.” That rejoices the hearts of Jews and Christians. Whatever else results from this bloody and titanic struggle, Jerusalem will never again be dominated by the Turks. After these hundreds of years the dream of Peter the Hermit, Richard Coeur de Lion and their fellow crusaders is an accomplished fact; and good people everywhere rejoice with exceeding great joy. 79 The fall of the Ottoman Empire coinciding with the Balfour Declaration was a sign for American Christian Zionists that their time to restore the Biblical prophetic timeline. 80 With Palestine and Jerusalem finally back in control of a Christian nation and with America proving itself a major global power, there seemed to be nothing stopping America from using its divinely-granted political superiority to restore the Jewish people to the Holy Land. Such was the opinion of many prominent politicians influenced by Christian Zionism, including President Woodrow Wilson. Specifically, in regards to the restoration of the Jewish people to the Holy Land, Wilson saw everything happening at the end of World War I, from the fall of the 76 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 109. Lawrence Davidson, “The Past as Prelude: Zionism and the Betrayal of American Democratic Principles, 1917-1948,” Journal of Palestine Studies 31, no. 3 (2002): 21. 78 Arthur Balfour, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, November 2, 1917, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp. 79 “Christmas Greetings from Officials; Wilson Looks Forward to Peace; Jerusalem Joy to Speaker Clark: “what is Life without Liberty?” Asks Daniels -- Pan-American Sentiment from Naon -Selectives’ Best Gift to Country is Prompt Response to Questionnaire, Says Crowder.” The Washington Post, Dec. 24, 1917, 4. 80 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 111. 77 72 �Ottoman Empire in Holy Land to the Balfour Declaration to America’s ability to turn the tide of the war, as a sign that the time for America to fulfill God’s divine will had finally come. However, the Holy Land was still under control of European imperial powers, specifically Britain and France, under the mandate system. 81 This prevented the United States from directly helping the Jewish people return to Jerusalem, as allowing the Jewish people to create their own nation-state ran somewhat counter to the British and French mandate system, which essentially was another form of European imperialism. 82 Wilson, dedicated to his mission to, as his close advisor Rabbi Stephen Wise recounted in his autobiography, “help restore the Holy Land to its people…” decided to work with the European powers instead of fight against them. 83 To Wilson, the most efficient way to ensure the Jewish people would be restored to the Holy Land was to ensure that larger, more powerful nations could not interfere with the affairs of the Jewish state. Wilson recognized that the conflict of World War I was caused, at least in part, by larger empires interfering with the wellbeing of small nations and ethnic groups. When the war began in 1914, Wilson confided in his friend Dr. Greyson that he believed, “patriotism must no longer be a cloak for depredations on smaller nations...that between the nations there must be a solemn league and covenant pledging all to the protection of the just rights of each and every one.” 84 The only way for the Jewish people to successfully be restored to the Holy Land and bring about Christ’s return was for them to be independent and establish themselves as an autonomous nationstate through self-determination. However, Wilson additionally recognized that because of Britain and France’s influence in the region and America’s still-burgeoning influence as a global power, he would not be able to single handedly restore the Jewish people. 85 Wilson’s compromise to give America the opportunity to fulfill its divinely ordained destiny and help restore the Jews while still allowing European empires to keep their mandates was to create the League of Nations. In his 1919 speech explaining and defending the League of Nations, commonly referred to as the “Pueblo Speech” for it was given in Pueblo, Colorado, Wilson outlined exactly what the League hoped to accomplish in terms of allowing groups like the Jewish people to establish themselves. He stated, [These treaties] are based upon the purpose to see that every government dealt with in this great settlement is put in the hands of the people and taken out of the hands of coteries and of sovereigns who had no right to rule over the people. It 81 Davidson, “The Past as Prelude,” 23. Davidson, “The Past as Prelude,” 23. 83 Stephen Wise, Challenging Years (New York, NY: Putnam, 1949), 186-187. 84 Grayson, “The Religion of Woodrow Wilson,” 25-26. 85 Davidson, “The Past as Prelude,” 24. 82 73 �is a people’s treaty, that accomplishes by a great sweep of practical justice the liberation of men who never could have liberated themselves, and the power of the most powerful nations has been devoted not to their aggrandizement but to the liberation of people whom they could have put under their control if they had chosen to do so...That is the fundamental principle of this great settlement. 86 Powerful nations like Britain, France, and America, thus, could use their influence to not rule smaller nations or ethnic groups, but to help them realize their full potential as governing bodies. For the Jewish people, this meant the support from the British under the Balfour Declaration could finally be acted upon through Wilson’s creation of the League of Nations. The League was built upon American ideals and democratic values, declares Wilson later in the speech: [T]he principle that America has always fought for, namely, the equality of selfgoverning peoples...Let us accept what America has always fought for, and accept it with pride that America showed the way and made the proposal. I do not mean that America made the proposal in this particular instance; I mean that the principle was an American principle, proposed by America. 87 It was through this intergovernmental organization, since Wilson based the League of Nations’ principles upon American ideals and convinced the other world powers to agree to its stipulations and join, that he hoped to help restore the Jewish people to the homeland. The various treaty agreements every nation must adhere to are even referred to as “covenants,” furthering Wilson’s plan for fulfilling America’s divine destiny by tying the relationship between large and small nations a covenantal one. 88 Unfortunately for Wilson and his Christian Zionist aims, his plan to have America lead the world in the League of Nations and restore the Jewish people to the Holy Land failed. He presented the treaty to the Senate on July 10, 1919 in an address to the chamber; the Foreign Relations Committee then held public hearings from July 31 to September 12. 89 The Senate began to consider the treaty on September 16, but by November 15 they voted to invoke cloture and cut off the debate. The Senate eventually voted on the treaty to join the League of Nations on March 19, 1920, falling short of the necessary two-thirds majority to win by just seven votes; thus, Wilson could not join the organization he himself created to establish America as a global power and help restore 86 Woodrow Wilson, “The Pueblo Speech,” Pueblo, CO, September 25, 1919, https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wilson-the-pueblo-speech-speech-text/. 87 Wilson, “The Pueblo Speech.” 88 Wilson, “The Pueblo Speech.” 89 Davidson, “The Past as Prelude,” 23-24. 74 �the Jewish people to the Holy Land. 90 Additionally, Wilson suffered a stroke in October of 1919, effectively incapacitating him and preventing him from doing many of his presidential duties, including continuing to fight for the League of Nations. Dr. Grayson, his friend, close advisor, and personal physician discussed the toll working on the League of Nations took on Wilson in the statement he wrote the day Wilson died in 1924, stating, As his physician I did all I could to persuade him to spare himself...but the sense of duty was stronger in him than the sense of self-preservation...During the struggle over the League of Nations and while he was a bed-ridden invalid, his fighting instinct remained as strong as ever, and he struggled to have his way, which he was convinced was the right way. He was still the fighting Christian. He believed that God would overrule all things for good. 91 Wilson, between his illness, his presidential term coming to an end, and the United States’ decision to not join the League of Nations, was unable to accomplish his Christian Zionist aims as president. While America as a nation was dedicated to the Christian Zionist movement during the Wilson Administration, that support faltered once Wilson left office in 1921, gradually decreasing throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. 92 This occurred for a number of reasons. First, the political scene after Wilson left office changed dramatically. The three presidents after Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, all pursued “unilateral internationalism” foreign policies; they refused to participate in the League of Nations or any other collaborative responsibility and specifically designed their foreign policies to focus on international economic opportunities for the United States. 93 With Wilson out of office, the Christian Zionists had lost their most powerful political supporter and it became difficult to justify America’s involvement in helping to restore the Jewish people to the Holy Land when America wasn’t involved in international politics or the League of Nations. 94 Second, a new wave of antisemitism occurred in the 1920s due to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the association of Jews with ethnic nationalism movements like the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the perpetuation of antisemitic stereotypes in major newspaper publications throughout the United States. This new wave of antisemitism caused the more liberal evangelical Protestants who originally embraced Wilson’s Christian Zionist policies and the Jewish 90 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 98. Grayson, “The Religion of Woodrow Wilson,” 27-28. 92 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 98, 114. 93 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 98. 94 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 114. 91 75 �Zionist movement to revoke their support. 95 Third, in addition to the new wave of antisemitism, in the 1920s there was a corresponding rise in Christian fundamentalism and Biblical literalism. Since Christian Fundamentalists still viewed the restoration of the Jewish people to the Holy Land as integral to fulfilling Biblical prophecy regardless of any widespread antisemitism, this meant that the only Christians still speaking zealously about establishing a Jewish homeland were increasingly fringe conservative Christians with relatively little political power. 96 These three aspects together contributed to the faltering support of Americans to the Christian Zionist movement. Just as World War I signaled a major turning point for Christian Zionism, so too was World War II a generation later. The failure of the League of Nations to keep international peace and America proving once again that it was a powerful global entity only fortified the belief American Christian Zionists had of their own national superiority over other nations, particularly Britain and France. 97 With the Holy Land once again in chaos after the war due to the fights in the Middle Eastern theater against fascist Italy, the United States believed that an independent Jewish state would provide some much needed stability in the region by allowing the Jewish people to return to the region gifted to them by God. 98 But perhaps the most compelling reason for the Christian Zionists to once again begin petitioning for the restoration of the Jews was the Holocaust. With the slaughter of six million Jews, it became imperative for the Christian Zionists to help the Jewish people establish their own independent nation so the end-times prophecy in the Book of Revelation could be fulfilled before any more harm came to God’s chosen people. 99 Compared to Wilson, Truman was much more vocal about his religious opinions and beliefs, particularly in regard to his interest in restoring the Jewish people to the Holy Land. In Merle Miller’s interviews with President Truman, from which an oral biography was published in 1974, Truman reflected, One of [my appointments]...was with Rabbi Wise. I saw him late that morning, and I was looking forward to it because I knew he wanted to talk about Palestine, and that is one part of the world that has always interested me, partly because of its Biblical background, of course...it wasn’t just the Biblical part about Palestine that interested me. The whole history of that area of the world is 95 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 114. Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 114. 97 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 98. 98 Reuther, “Christian Zionism and Mainline Western Christian Churches,” 184-185. 99 Mearsheimer and Walt, The Israel Lobby, 107; Reuther, “Christian Zionism and Mainline Western Christian Churches,” 185. 96 76 �just about the most complicated and most interesting of any area anywhere, and I have always made a careful study of it. 100 Truman was not only religiously interested in subjects dealing with Palestine, the Middle East, and the Holy Land, but he was also incredibly educated in the history and politics of the region as well as Biblical scholarship and study. 101 He believed this combination of religious interest and historical, political, and philosophical education made him an expert. 102 Not only did he believe himself an expert, but he believed himself to be a modern incarnation of Cyrus, the Persian king who freed the Jews from Babylon. 103 In November 1953 on a visit to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, when introduced to the crowd as the man who “helped create the State of Israel,” Truman replied: “What do you mean, ‘helped to create?’ I am Cyrus.” 104 To Truman, he was called by God to restore the Jewish people to the Holy Land through his position as President of the United States. Truman, long before he became president, had his mind made up about using his platform as an American politician to help restore the Jewish people to the Holy Land. During his time as a Missouri Senator from 1934 to 1945, Truman was a member of the American Palestine Committee, along with two-thirds of the American Senate. 105 The precursor to the American Christian Palestine Committee, this committee was a political lobby group founded to influence American foreign policy towards the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. 106 In an address to Congress in 1939, Truman publicly denounced Britain for going back on the promise it made in the Balfour Declaration to help create an independent Jewish state in Palestine. He stated that, “[t]he British government has used its diplomatic umbrella again, this time on Palestine. It has made a scrap of paper out of Lord Balfour’s promise to the Jews. It has just added another to the long list of surrenders to Axis powers.” 107 Additionally, though President Franklin Roosevelt made the decision not to establish an independent Jewish state until after an 100 Miller, Plain Speaking, 30-31, 32. Davidson, “Christian Zionism as a Representation of American Manifest Destiny,” 163. 102 Davidson, “Christian Zionism as a Representation of American Manifest Destiny,” 163. 103 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 166. 104 Paul C. Merkley, American Presidents, Religion, and Israel: The Heirs of Cyrus (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004), vii. 105 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 156. 106 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 156. 107 Harry S. Truman, Congressional Record, 76 Cong., 1st sess., 1939, Vol. 84, pt. 13, Appendix, 2231. 101 77 �Allied victory occurred, Truman continued his vocal and outspoken support for Christian Zionism after he became Vice President in 1945. 108 Regarding his Christian Zionist actions as president, Truman fortunately had the benefit of historical hindsight. Truman saw Wilson as a Cyrus-figure, an inspiration and presidential predecessor in terms of implementing Christian Zionist policies towards restoring the Jewish people to the Holy Land. 109 However, while Truman took inspiration from Wilson’s actions as President of the United States, he recognized that ultimately Wilson failed to achieve his Christian Zionist objective during his presidency. 110 He expressed this sentiment in a speech he gave in June of 1949 at the dedication of the World War Memorial Park in Little Rock, Arkansas: We entered the First World War to restore peace and to preserve human freedom; but when that war was finished, we turned aside from the task we had begun. We turned our backs upon the League of Nations...We ignored the economic problems of the world...We let our domestic affairs fall into the hands of selfish interests. We failed to join with others to take the steps which might have prevented a second world war...This time we are fully aware of the mistakes that were made in the past. We are on guard against the indifference and isolationism which can only lead to the tragedy of war...We have assumed the responsibility which I believe God intended this great Republic to assume. 111 Thoroughly convinced that Wilson’s failure indicated that he was the true American Cyrus, Truman was determined to do everything he could to ensure that he restored the Jewish people to the Holy Land by avoiding Wilson’s mistakes. The plan for partitioning Palestine was passed by the United Nations General Assembly on November 29, 1947 and six months later, on May 14, 1948, Israel’s provisional government declared the creation of the State of Israel. 112 That same day, President Truman officially recognized the State of Israel, stating in a press release: This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government 108 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 157. Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 166. 110 Merkley, American Presidents, Religion, and Israel, viii. 111 Harry S. Truman, “Address in Little Rock at the Dedication of the World War Memorial Park,” Little Rock, AR, June 11, 1949, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/120/addresslittle-rock-dedication-world-war-memorial-park. 112 Cannon, “Mischief Making in Palestine,” 233. 109 78 �thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel. 113 Prior to this statement of recognition, Truman was warned by members of the State Department that the United States should stay neutral. 114 In fact, the State Department had been trying to convince Truman that America should stay as neutral as possible since he became president after Franklin Roosevelt’s death in April of 1945. Within the first three weeks of his presidency, Truman was contacted by Secretary of State Edward Stettinius and the Under Secretary of State Joseph Grew, both of whom implored the new president to not take drastic action in Palestine with regards to establishing a Jewish state. 115 Truman resented that other American government bureaucrats, whom he regularly referred to as the “striped pants boys,” did not seem to recognize the importance of restoring the Jewish people to the Holy Land. 116 To Truman, America aiding in the restoration of the Jewish people encompassed America’s political manifest destiny in bringing about world peace, its obligation as a Christian nation to follow God’s will, and fulfilled Biblical prophecy. 117 While his advisors and other government officials might have claimed to be experts in United States-Palestine foreign policy issues, Truman believed that his knowledge of the Bible and his religious beliefs was more legitimate. 118 In his interviews with Merle Miller and in his own memoir, Truman expressed this frustration. To Miller, while reflecting on a conversation he had with Rabbi Wise about his dedication to establishing a Jewish state, he proclaimed: [A]s far as I was concerned, the United States would do all that it could to help the Jews set up a homeland. I didn’t tell him that I’d already had a communication from some of the “striped pants” boys warning me...in effect telling me to watch my step, that I didn’t really understand what was going on over there and that I ought to leave it to the experts. 119 113 Harry S. Truman, “Recognition of Israel,” Press Release, May 14, 1948, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/draft-recognition-israel. 114 Davidson, “The Past as Prelude,” 33. 115 Edward Stettinius, Letter to President Harry S. Truman, April 18, 1945, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/edward-stettinius-harry-s-truman; Joseph Grew, Memorandum to President Harry S. Truman, May 1, 1945, 2, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/joseph-grew-harry-struman?documentid=NA&pagenumber=2. 116 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, 167. 117 Smith, Religion in the Oval Office, 152. 118 Davidson, “The Past as Prelude,” 33. 119 Miller, Plain Speaking, 33. 79 �In his own memoir, Truman discusses that he “familiarized [himself] with the history of the question of a Jewish homeland and the position of the British and the Arabs.” 120 He even admitted to reading the “views and attitudes assumed by the ‘striped pants boys’ in the State Department.” 121 But ultimately, his religious convictions proved stronger than the advice and expertise from the State Department and other officials. Truman genuinely believed that restoring the Jewish people to the Holy Land was the crusade he was destined to lead as President of the United States, and he was willing to ignore the advice of his advisors and other government officials in order to make it happen. For both Woodrow Wilson and Harry S. Truman, their Christian faith and belief in Christian Zionism informed their understanding of politics and America’s role as a global power in the aftermath of international conflict. They saw America as the nation manifestly destined to lead the world into peace and prosperity after the chaos of the two World Wars, and it was their duty as the most powerful men in the United States to help make that happen. However, the historical contexts in which Wilson and Truman found themselves during their respective tenures as President of the United States greatly affected their ability to achieve their goals. For Wilson in the aftermath of the “Great War,” the first major global conflict on a massive scale, he thought the best way for America to lead the world into peace and prosperity would be through the League of Nations. Unfortunately for Wilson, he overestimated his own government’s desire to become involved in international affairs and its desire to listen to a president nearing the end of his second term. Moreover, Wilson’s own failing health at the end of his presidency prevented him from advocating and lobbying more heavily for the League of Nations, and when he left office, the American government reverted to its pre-war selfisolationist tendencies. For Truman, the socio-political circumstances after World War II were in his favor, thus allowing him to achieve his Christian Zionist goals as President of the United States. The aftermath of World War II saw the world in an incredibly different place than at the end of World War I, one in which European colonial powers were effectively disbanded and the mass genocide of Holocaust proved the necessity of a secure homeland for the Jewish people. Moreover, with the benefit of historical hindsight, Truman could follow the example of Wilson’s precedent while altering his behavior to avoid making the same mistakes Wilson made as president. Truman saw the difficulty Wilson had with getting the entirety of the American government to support his desire to help the Jewish people, so he decided to take matters into his own hands without asking for support in the 120 121 Harry S. Truman, Memoirs (Garden City, NY: Double Day, 1955-1956), vol. I, 84. Truman, Memoirs, 1:84. 80 �first place. Truman believed that he became president through the grace of God and to second-guess his position of power by referring to advisors, cabinet members, the Senate, or the State Department is to second-guess God’s will. Woodrow Wilson and Harry S. Truman were able to use their position as President of the United States to perpetuate their Christian Zionist agenda, but they were by no means the only ones in Washington D.C., or the entire nation for that matter, who believed America’s political destiny was tied to the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Nor has such a connection between American politics and Biblical prophecy ceased to exist since they left office. Even today, in seemingly far less dire circumstances than helping to rebuild the world after a massive global conflict, this connection of American politics to Biblical destiny remains. Invocations of religious rhetoric to establish, justify, and defend America’s national political destiny are used with some regularity, as evidenced by the propensity of American evangelicals to refer to President Trump as King Cyrus. And even today, such intertwining of religion and politics is not exclusive to a small, fringe group of Christian conservatives. According to the Pew Research Center, in the 2020 presidential election 78% of white evangelical Protestants, who make up nearly 25% of the vote nationwide, voted for President Trump and continue to elevate him to the status of a Biblical ruler. 122 There is a sustained connection between American politics and Biblical prophecy, and such a connection continues to influence American life even today. Bibliography Primary Sources: Balfour, Arthur. Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild. November 2, 1917. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp. “Christmas Greetings from Officials; Wilson Looks Forward to Peace; Jerusalem Joy to Speaker Clark: “what is Life without Liberty?” Asks Daniels -- Pan-American Sentiment from Naon -- Selectives’ Best Gift to Country is Prompt Response to Questionnaire, Says Crowder.” The Washington Post, Dec. 24, 1917. 122 Gregory A. Smith, “White Christians continue to favor Trump over Biden, but support has slipped,” Pew Research Center, Oct. 13, 2020, accessed Nov. 28, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/13/white-christians-continue-to-favor-trump-overbiden-but-support-has-slipped/. 81 �Grayson, Cary T. “The Religion of Woodrow Wilson.” February 3, 1924. http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/22351. Grew, Joseph. Memorandum to President Harry S. Truman. May 1, 1945. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/joseph-grew-harry-struman?documentid=NA&pagenumber=2. Miller, Merle. Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman. New York, NY: Berkeley, 1974. O’Sullivan, John L. “The great nation of futurity.” The United States Democratic Review 6, no. 23 (1839): 426-430. Riley, William Bell. The Evolution of the Kingdom. New York, NY: Charles C. Cook, 1913. Scofield, Cyrus I. The Scofield Reference Bible. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1909. Snowden, James H. "Summary of Objections to Premillenarianism." Biblical World 53 (1919): 165-173. Stettinius, Edward. Letter to President Harry S. Truman. April 18, 1945. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/edward-stettinius-harry-s-truman. Truman, Harry S. “Address at the Cornerstone Laying of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.” Washington, D.C., April 3, 1951. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/68/address-cornerstone-laying-newyork-avenue-presbyterian-church. Truman, Harry S. “Address in Little Rock at the Dedication of the World War Memorial Park.” Little Rock, AR. June 11, 1949. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/publicpapers/120/address-little-rock-dedication-world-war-memorial-park. Truman, Harry S. “Address to the Washington Pilgrimage of American Churchmen.” Washington, D.C. September 28, 1951. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-washington-pilgrimageamerican-churchmen. 82 �Truman, Harry S. Congressional Record. 76th Congress, 1st Session, 1939. Volume 84, Part 13. Appendix. Truman, Harry S. Memoirs. 2 vols. Garden City, NY: Double Day, 1955-1956. Truman, Harry S. Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman, edited by R.H. Ferrell. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1980. Truman, Harry S. “Radio Address as Part of the Program ‘Religion in American Life.’” October 30, 1949. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/radio-address-part-theprogram-religion-american-life. Truman, Harry S. “Recognition of Israel.” Press Release. May 14, 1948. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/draft-recognition-israel. Truman, Harry S. “Remarks in Alexandria, VA at the Cornerstone Laying of the Westminster Presbyterian Church.” Alexandria, VA. November 23, 1952. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-alexandria-va-the-cornerstonelaying-the-westminster-presbyterian-church. Wilson, Woodrow. “Day of Prayer Declared.” Press Statement. May 11, 1918. http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/34288. Wilson, Woodrow. “Food Administration.” Press Statement. October 27, 1917. http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/34084. Wilson, Woodrow. Letter to Thomas F. Logan. November 8, 1918. http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/27605. Wilson, Woodrow. “State of the Union Message.” December 7, 1920. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/state-of-the-union-address-109/. Wilson, Woodrow. “Thanksgiving Day Proclaimed.” Press Statement. November 5, 1919. http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/34322. Wilson, Woodrow. “The Bible and Progress.” Denver, CO. May 7, 1911. http://frontiers.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2012/20120129002bi/20120129002bi.pdf. 83 �Wilson, Woodrow. “The Pueblo Speech.” Pueblo, CO. September 25, 1919. https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wilson-the-pueblo-speech-speech-text/. Wise, Stephen. Challenging Years: The Autobiography of Stephen Wise. New York, NY: Putnam, 1949. Secondary Sources: Burnidge, Cara Lee. A Peaceful Conquest: Woodrow Wilson, Religion, and the New World Order. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2016. Cannon, Mae Elise. “Mischief Making in Palestine: American Protestant Christian Attitudes toward the Holy Land, 1917-1949.” In Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison, edited by Gӧran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, 231-255. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014. Davidson, Lawrence. “Christian Zionism as a Representation of American Manifest Destiny.” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14, no. 2 (2005): 157-169. Davidson, Lawrence. “The Past as Prelude: Zionism and the Betrayal of American Democratic Principles, 1917-1948.” Journal of Palestine Studies 31, no. 3 (2002): 21-35. Durbin, Sean. “Walking in the Mantle of Esther: "Political" Action as "Religious" Practice.” In Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison, edited by Gӧran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, 85-124. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014. Mearsheimer, John J., and Stephen M. Walt. The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. Merkley, Paul C. American Presidents, Religion, and Israel: The Heirs of Cyrus. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. Merkley, Paul C. The Politics of Christian Zionism, 1891-1948. London, England: Routledge, 1998. Merkley Paul C. “Zionists and Christian Restorationists.” Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies 3 (1993): 93-100. 84 �Miano, Peter J. “Mainstream Christian Zionism,” In Prophetic Voices on Middle East Peace: A Jewish, Christian, and Humanist Primer on Colonialism, Zionism, and Nationalism in the Middle East, edited by Thomas E. Phillips, Peter J. Miano, Jason Mitchell, 163-186. Claremont, CA: Claremont Press, 2016. Reuther, Rosemary Radford. “Christian Zionism and Mainline Western Christian Churches.” In Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison, edited by Gӧran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, 179-190. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014. Smith, Gary Scott. Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2015. Smith, Gregory A. “White Christians continue to favor Trump over Biden, but support has slipped.” Pew Research Center, Oct. 13, 2020. Accessed Nov. 28, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/13/white-christians-continue-to-favortrump-over-biden-but-support-has-slipped/. Stewart, Katherine. “Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus.” New York Times, Dec. 31, 2018. Accessed Oct. 26, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/opinion/trumpevangelicals-cyrus-king.html. Weber, Timothy P. On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004. 85 �The Pantsuit as a Symbol of Advancement for Women in the Entertainment, Business, and Political Spheres Savannah Yates (Theatre/Speech and History) 1 Women’s fashion in the past century has undergone radical changes from women abandoning corsets to burning their bras. However, many underestimate the significance and struggle for women to wear pants. The pantsuit, in particular, has become a symbol of women’s progress in business, academia, politics, and entertainment. The adoption of suits, a traditionally male garment, into women’s fashion has made it possible for women to advance in career fields traditionally dominated by men. The pantsuit has been controversial since it simultaneously imitates the male silhouette to gain women access to male spaces while representing female power as women claim the pantsuit as a symbol of femininity. A pantsuit, or trouser suit outside the U.S., is most often defined as a suit consisting of a matching jacket and pants worn by women. The fact that a suit is called a pantsuit only when worn by women, despite being the same ensemble for a man, already suggests a gendered connotation to the word pantsuit and indicates resistance and discomfort with women wearing pants. 2 The history of women wearing pants stems even from ancient times and greatly differs in Western and Eastern cultures. Since the Middle Ages, pants had become a Western symbol for masculinity. Pants were worn by men to do work that was gendered male like politics, war, and manual labor. Skirts became a symbol of femininity and for domestic work. However, in other non-Western cultures, this was not the case and women’s dress often included some type of trousers for the work required or the environment lived in. 3 In the Western, predominantly Christian world, women wearing pants was seen as something forbidden in the Bible. Deuteronomy 22:5 states, “a woman must not wear a man’s clothing and a man must not wear a woman’s clothing; because whoever does so is an abomination of 1 Written under the direction of Dr. Felicia Ruff in partial fulfillment of the Senior Program requirements. 2 Mary Edwards. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” Hypatia 33, no. 3 (August 2018), 9. 3 Martina Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” In Fashion through History. Costumes, Symbols, Communication. Volume 2. Edited by Giovanna Motta and Antonello Biagini. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), 458. 86 �the Lord, your God.” 4 Therefore, the right to wear pants became a religious issue for women (even though Biblical men’s dress differed greatly from Western male pants) and consequently the subversive wearing of traditionally male clothes made a rebellious statement. Wearing male clothes was scandalous for two seemingly opposite reasons. The first being that, imitating men, by wearing traditionally male clothes, subverted the gender roles and expectations for being a woman, which reduced femininity. The second being that the different fit of pants on a female’s lower half was sensational and increased sex appeal. Both reactions, as contradictory as they may be, are present throughout the history of the pantsuit and women wearing pants in general. The history of the pantsuit begins with the invention of bloomers, the first “pants” acceptable for Western women to wear. Before this, women crossdressing as men was reported on occasion in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries so women could operate in literary or intellectual circles, but was rare in the accepted mainstream, with most women conforming to beliefs about traditional differences in gender, where women should not be educated. 5 Women were second class citizens, they couldn’t vote, hold office, or work the same hours as men. 6 In the mid-nineteenth century Amelia Bloomer, a feminist, suffragette, and editor of the first newspaper for women, The Lily, presented her new invention to the public in the magazine. She was committed to dress reform for women, inspired by the work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 7 Women’s undergarments were heavy and tight corsets were restrictive. 8 The Bloomers, named after herself, were anklelength trousers to be worn under the dress, inspired by the pants women in the Ottoman Empire wore. 9 (Figure 1) Women could still have a feminine silhouette in society but the bloomers underneath enabled them to have greater physical mobility and to work outside the home, mostly in factories. 10 Amelia Bloomer wore her invention from 1851 to1859, when she stopped due to ridicule from men and conservative women. 11 4 Martina Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 460. 5 Martina Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 461. 6 Erica Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” VICE. VICE Media Group, March 21, 2016. 7 Tyler William Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing? The Hosenanzug, Women, and Political Power." (Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2018), 16. 8 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 460. 9 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 460. 10 Tyler William Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing? The Hosenanzug, Women, and Political Power." 17. 11 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 460. 87 �Fig 1. Amelia Bloomer 1849. Source: FIT In the wake of World War I, women’s roles, and subsequently the fashion required for them, changed. The male workforce was being deployed and women needed more practical clothes for their new positions as nurses, mailwomen, and factory workers. 12 In addition to work, women were getting involved in new sports, like bicycling, gymnastics, and tennis where they needed lighter and more movable clothes. “The introduction of pants in women’s clothing mirrored the admission of women into the world of work and sport.” 13 These new developments in women’s employment and recreation gave them the agency to push for the women’s right to vote, granted in 1920. 14 Fashion designers responded by starting to make suits with wide trousers. 15 However, one of the biggest designers in the industry resisted a full transition to menswear inspired trouser suits. In 1923, Coco Chanel created her signature skirt suit, inspired by a menswear silhouette with a knee length skirt and coordinating wool button down jacket. 16 (Figure 2) Chanel’s suit is a lasting icon in American fashion, particularly the pink 12 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 463. Maria Cristina Marchetti. “Power Dressing: Women and Power.” In Fashion through History. Costumes, Symbols, Communication. Volume 2. Edited by Giovanna Motta and Antonello Biagini. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), 498. 14 Erica Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 15 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 460. 16 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 13 88 �Chanel suit worn by Jackie Kennedy when President Kennedy was assassinated. 17 (Figure 3) The skirt suit remained a women’s fashion staple until the 1990s, even as the pantsuit grew in popularity simultaneously. Fig 2: Actress Ina Claire Modeling Fig 3: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and President A Chanel Suit in An Advertisement John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Source: Circa 1924. Source: CR Fashion Book, CR Fashion Book, Art Rickerby, Getty Images. Edward Steichen, Getty Images. “By 1930, 24.3% of American women were employed, mostly in domestic service or lower paying clerical work.” 18 Fashion began to respond by developing womenswear for the working woman. French designer Marcel Rochas is usually credited with being the first to pair pants with women’s suits in 1932, although this is disputed by fashion historians. 19 His original ensemble paired gray wool trousers with a matching jacket that included exaggerated shoulder pads. The addition of the shoulder pad into the pantsuit further masculinized the silhouette and began a trend that would last until the 1980s. This exaggeration of the silhouette continued with the designs of Italian designer 17 Veronica De Sanctis. “From the Kennedys to the Obamas: Style and Politics of American Presidential Couples.” In Fashion through History. Costumes, Symbols, Communication. Volume 2. Edited by Giovanna Motta and Antonello Biagini. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), 320. 18 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 19 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 89 �and Chanel rival, Elsa Schiaparelli. The designer was inspired by the surrealist art movement which features the “trompe l'oeil” or “trick of the eye” which contributed to Schiaparelli experimenting with the female silhouette. 20 As part of her 1939 fall/winter collection, she designed a menswear inspired wool pantsuit which included single pleat cuffed slacks and a speckled brown wool jacket with large buttons. 21 (Figure 4) “According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the outfit has been on display, during the time of its debut ‘only the most unconventional designer would offer a straightforward pantsuit, and only a fearless woman would wear it.’" 22 Although stylish clients and celebrities were beginning to adopt the high fashion trends of their patron designers, pantsuits were still a taboo in mainstream society, and in some areas still a punishable offense. Fig 4: Pantsuits from House of Schiaparelli Winter Collection 1939-40. Source: MET Museum of Art Like the war before it, World War II further increased women’s opportunities for employment and advancement in society. Able-bodied men were being sent to both the European and Pacific theaters of the war and the workforce back home needed women to fill the void for the war effort. From 1940-1945 women in the workforce increased from 20 Sophie Shaw. “The History of Shoulder Pads.” CR Fashion Book. Hearst Magazine Media Inc., January 1, 2019. 21 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 22 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 90 �27% to 47%. 23 Many women abandoned their skirts to become blue-collar workers in factories. (Figure 5) Women’s Levis jeans had been introduced in 1935 and many found it easier to wear pants on the job. 24 In England, women even wore their husband’s clothing because of rationing. 25 Working and wearing pants became an act of patriotism as one company offered a “woman-all” jumpsuit for “the patriotic woman eager to do her bit in the kitchen or garden.” 26 However, if women were in traditional roles of teaching or public service, a skirt or dress was still expected. 27 The style of women’s fashion overall looked much more militaristic and shoulder pads remained in style to create a male silhouette that women used to assume their new working roles. 28 As the war ended and men returned home, women were pushed back into their traditional roles as feminine wives and mothers. Martina Bitunjac, modern historian, argues that the nationalist and fascist ideology surrounding the war supported two contrasting messages: “women now worked in factories and in auxiliary jobs in the army; while on the other, in accordance with more conservative thinking, they went back to their privileged role as wives and mothers.” 29 Fig 5: Gender on the Home Front. Source: National WWII Museum, National Archives 23 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 25 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing? The Hosenanzug, Women, and Political Power." 21. 26 Daniel James Cole and Nancy Deihl. The History of Modern Fashion From 1850. (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2015), 124. 27 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 21. 28 Sophie Shaw. “The History of Shoulder Pads.” 29 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress As Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 464. 24 91 �The 1950s represented a return to traditional gender roles and fashion reflected this return to femininity by abandoning the Victory Suit and shoulder pads in favor of ALine silhouettes and sweeping skirts. 30 The 1960s were ready to change all of that yet again, introducing revolutionary change for women in their lives and fashion. Secondwave feminism fought for women’s rights and made strides with the passing of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal for employers to discriminate against women. 31 Hippie counterculture also influenced gender roles by advocating for pacifism and sexual freedom. 32 In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent introduced Le Smoking Suit, considered to be the first tuxedo designed for women.(Figure 6) The suit consisted of “a dinner jacket, trousers with satin stripes down the side, a white shirt, a black bowtie, and a cummerbund. The powerful look pioneered what the fashion world thought of women in pantsuits and the idea of androgynous dress.” 33 The 1960s signified radical changes for women and finally women wearing pants was accepted in the mainstream. 34 Fig 6: YSL’s Le Smoking Suit, 1967. Source: CR Fashion Book, Reg Lancaster, Getty Images. 30 Sophie Shaw. “The History of Shoulder Pads.” Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 32 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress As Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 464. 33 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 34 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress As Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 464. 31 92 �By the 1970s pants had become so popular for women that in 1972 the U.S. government had to allow girls wearing pants to public schools under Title IX policy. 35 Women also continued entering the workforce and the pantsuit became the uniform of choice. From 1972 to 1985, women in the workforce increased to 49% and women in management jobs increased from 20% to 36%. 36 The 1980s signaled a boom in the popularity of the pantsuit. From 1980 to 1987, annual sales of the women’s pantsuit rose by almost 6 million units. 37 The trend of power dressing can be credited with this dramatic increase. Designers like Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani presented the new wardrobe for the business woman. 38 Armani introduced his power suit in 1982, after his sister convinced him to make something powerful for women. 39 “Power suits updated pantsuits with broad shoulder pads, bigger lapels, and sharper cuts that emulated a man's silhouette. (Figure 7) These big shouldered jackets and pants disguised a woman's figure and took the focus off her gender, creating a feeling of authority as the traditional sex roles continued to blur.” 40 Shoulder pads were once again in style to create a male silhouette so women could enter male spaces and rise to positions of authority or higher education. “The female silhouette was rendered powerful by being rendered more masculine.” 41 Women in business, women on Wall Street and women in film and television were often seen wearing power suits. Women of the Reagan Era were reclaiming the pantsuit as a symbol of female power, not just a mere imitation of the male suit. In the 1990s, Armani redesigned his power suit to have a slimmer silhouette without shoulder pads. 42 The end of the power suit signals a shift towards the traditional women’s business clothing we see today. In a Forbes Magazine interview, Ivanka Trump mentions that the pantsuit is now obsolete because “we’re more comfortable expressing our femininity as opposed to assimilating, even in the most corporate of environments.” 43 Trump interprets the pantsuit as an expression of masculinity which I would argue is not the full meaning of the modern pantsuit. The world has not gotten more comfortable expressing femininity, since it has always been comfortable with traditional expressions 35 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 37 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 38 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 464. 39 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 27. 40 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 41 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 28. 42 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 28. 43 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 3. 36 93 �Fig 7: A model wears an Emporio Armani suit at a Paris fashion show, 1989. Source: Ted Blackbrow/Associated Newspapers of this, but the world has gotten more comfortable with what femininity can include. It can now include the power suit, jeans, pant suits, and more. What began as assimilation in male-dominated fields can now be redefined as a uniquely female fashion item and symbol. I would also argue that Ivanka is incorrect in saying the pantsuit is obsolete, as it is still a staple in women’s fashion, particularly in politics, and is often seen in her own wardrobe and fashion line. Historian Tyler William Johnson asserts that the question of whether the pantsuit performs masculinity or recodes femininity is still open in a complex debate. 44 The catch-22 of needing to present women in power as masculine in order to be taken seriously while also being ridiculed for imitating men is ever present in multiple fields. Scholar Mary Edwards argues this is because the feminine body always has the potential to be sexualized, and therefore clothing, especially in professional settings, matters infinitely more on women. 45 The interplay between sexualization and masculinization is a significant double standard and the pantsuit has been controversial in both ways throughout its history. I will explore the pantsuit in the realms of entertainment, business, and politics and analyze its controversy and benefits for women. 44 45 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 11. Mary Edwards. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” 2. 94 �Women in entertainment wearing pantsuits are some of the earliest and most influential examples in pop culture. Two movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood in particular subverted the accepted gender norms of the time and brought the symbol of pants and pantsuits to the forefront of American fashion debates. Marlene Dietrich, a German star famous for Germany’s first sound film, The Blue Angel, was coming onto the American scene. 46 Dietrich starred in her first American film, Morocco, in 1930. (Figure 8) The movie premiered just before the institution of the Hays Code, a system of Hollywood censorship against sensitive topics such as sexuality, homosexuality, and interracial relations. 47 Dietrich played the role of Amy Jolly, a cabaret singer, and was costumed in a tuxedo, top hat and bow tie. In the film she kisses a woman on the mouth, which was the first homosexual kiss in the history of cinema. 48 This marked the beginning of sexualizing menswear and its association with perceived transgressive sexuality. By adventuring into androgyny, Dietrich blurred the lines of gender and sexual expectations of the time. Dietrich also subverted the norm in her personal life. She was public about her independence, fluid sexuality, relationships with women, and dressing in menswear off screen. 49 Marlene Dietrich was an important figure to expose the movie going public to a woman in a tuxedo but also her portrayal fueled the stereotype of pantsuits imitating men or them symbolizing homosexuality. This first mainstream Fig 8: Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930). Source: The Criterion Collection 46 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 463. Hilary Weaver. “Famous Women Have Been Defying Gender Norms and Rocking Menswear for Years.” Vanity Fair. Condé Nast, June 22, 2017. 48 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 463. 49 Bitunjac. “Women Must Not Dress as Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” 464. 47 95 �feature of a woman in a pantsuit was revolutionary in sparking a public debate about archaic anti-pants laws for women. Another Hollywood actress, Katharine Hepburn, would continue this conversation with her unique style. Katharine Hepburn was a unique woman, and even more unique to be in the public eye subverting so many of the female norms that had been established for women, and particularly celebrity women, to follow. She defiantly dressed in menswear for her film roles as well as in her daily life before World War II had opened an opportunity for women to expand their practical fashion options. (Figure 9) In the 1935 film Sylvia Scarlett she played a woman who dresses like a man. 50 When working at RKO Pictures, Hepburn would wear jeans to set and they would be confiscated from her dressing room while she was filming. Instead of changing into a skirt, Katherine would return to set in her underwear and refuse to dress in protest until her jeans were returned. 51 Trousers for women was a debate in Hollywood and different stars seemingly took sides. In 1933, Movie Classic magazine published an article called “Will It Be Trousers For Women?” that named Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich, among other stars like Fay Wray Fig 9: The Most Daring Thing About Katharine Hepburn? Her Pants. Source: Vanity Fair, Alfred Eisenstaedt/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images 50 Hilary Weaver. “Famous Women Have Been Defying Gender Norms and Rocking Menswear for Years.” 51 Marcie Bianco and Merryn Johns. “The Most Daring Thing About Katharine Hepburn? Her Pants.” Vanity Fair. Condé Nast, May 12, 2016. 96 �and Greta Garbo as supporting the side of women wearing pants. 52 Her androgynous style was very rare in public life, considering women in the 1930s could still be arrested for wearing pants on the charge of “masquerading as men,” since it was considered crossdressing. 53 Fashion reporters Marcie Bianco and Merryn Johns credit these negative attitudes towards women dressing in traditional menswear to the publishing of Freud’s theories on “femininity, female masculinity, and female perversion, whereby the desire to don pants for Freud was conveniently reduced (like most things for women) to penis envy—and a sure sign of lesbianism.” 54 Freud’s theories reinforced the assumption that women wearing pants and pantsuits could only be a desire to imitate men or an indication that they were homosexuals. Clothing equated to an expression of male or female gender with no nuance or in between. Another movie star of the 1970s and 1980s brought menswear for women into the mainstream. Diane Keaton starred as the title role in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in 1977. 55 (Figure 10) At the dawn of the power dressing era, women were inspired to wear high waisted pants, hats, neckties, and button downs like Keaton donned in her roles and on red carpets. Annie Hall’s quirky character subverted the norm and was based on Diane Keaton herself, since Allen wrote the film based on their past relationship. Keaton even wore her own clothes for the film. This style was emulated in other collaborations with Allen and Keaton’s other movie roles. This helped paved the way for normalizing menswear for women, particularly in film. In a review of the 1993 film In the Line of Fire, Reviewer Loni Smith McKown asserts “More and more women are wearing pants in the workplace. And why not? This is the '90s, and it's about time that ancient workplace dress codes were pushed aside.” 56 The pantsuit appearing in films over time, from Marlene Dietrich in Morocco to the working professionals in In the Line of Fire show the popularization and mainstream acceptance of the pantsuit, even if its subliminal meaning is still interpreted as male imitation or subversive sexuality. The early exposure of the pantsuit by Dietrich, Hepburn and Keaton made the pantsuit a revolutionary garment and progressive conversation that made it possible for regular women to advance in male-dominated career fields. 52 Marcie Bianco and Merryn Johns. “The Most Daring Thing About Katharine Hepburn? Her Pants.” 53 Bianco and Johns. “The Most Daring Thing About Katharine Hepburn? Her Pants.” 54 Bianco and Johns. “The Most Daring Thing About Katharine Hepburn? Her Pants.” 55 Leah Rodriguez. “Praise Diane Keaton's Glorious Menswear Style.” The Cut. Vox Media, December 24, 2014. 56 Loni Smith Mckown. "Pantsuits Reflect Women's Attitudes." Indianapolis Star, Sep 09, 1993. 97 �Fig 10: Still of Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. Source: United Artists. Business, finance, and academia were (and in some ways still are) the most impenetrable of the male-dominated fields. The pantsuit provided women with a way to integrate into these professions by simultaneously using the male silhouette as a camouflage and a bold feminine statement to advance in their fields. Fashion reporter Sophie Shaw considers the pantsuit a way to “simultaneously fit in and assert their power.” 57 This double meaning for the pantsuit complicates reactions to it. The corporate world struggles to decide if it wants women to assimilate to male dress as a standard of professionalism or if it maintains a gendered dress code since it prizes female sexuality as a method of hierarchy in male-dominated environments. Since women were permitted to work in professional environments, they have been subjected to corporate dress codes. The pantsuit especially has been deemed an outfit that both helps and hinders women advance in business and has been highly regulated in corporate dress code. John T. Malloy’s The Woman’s Dress for Success Book, published in 1977 states, “In most business offices, the pantsuit is often a failure outfit… If you have to deal with men, even as subordinates, you are putting on trouble… If you want to be a liberated woman, burn your polyester pantsuit, not your bra. The polyester pantsuit will keep you in corporate serfdom, while your bra can help you up as well as hold you up." 58 The reference to bras 57 58 Sophie Shaw. “The History of Shoulder Pads.” Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 98 �being more helpful than pantsuits in advancing women seems to hearken back to the bra burning movements of the 1960s. I would argue Malloy’s statement ignores the fact that these movements helped increase women’s rights and opportunities. Women’s fashion as symbols of female empowerment is not one or the other. Both pieces of clothing have arguably made a difference in the lives of women. Malloy is also notable for coining the term “power dressing” in the 1975 handbook, Dress for Success. 59 This seems contradictory to his personal views on the pantsuit but the book concedes the pantsuit’s corporate appropriateness. His dress code states that “a dark (navy blue or gray) suit, consisting of trousers, and a jacket over a white shirt— representing a safe option for both men and women. For women, any reference to the erotic dimension— necklines, spiked heels, slits, but also light fabrics— should be eliminated.” 60 The female dress code, defined by men like Malloy, set the standard for corporate dress even today. Edwards asserts other power dressing manuals encouraged “the skirted-suit for the career woman, as a costume that protects her from seeming shamefully out of place in the workplace by sending the right message: I am a Business Woman, not an imitation man; but while we are working please treat me simply as a colleague.” 61 The trend of power dressing attempted to give women a sense of femininity in their suits while claiming positions in male dominated spaces. As I mentioned earlier, Ivanka Trump would agree femininity is an important element of female professional fashion. The corporate and professional spheres remain places where gender needs to be constantly projected through fashion, to create an unspoken hierarchy. While it is hard to analyze the motives behind men encouraging women away from menswear, it could be assumed that men felt threatened by women in power and by denying them access to the same uniform, they could keep women below them in positions of power. Male established corporate dress codes created a catch-22 for women where you must wear a suit to be taken seriously but then would be ridiculed for emulating men by wearing the required menswear inspired pantsuits. 62 Edwards argues that the issue lies with the constant potential for sexualization of the female body in male spaces and the pantsuit gives women the opportunity to “manage or at least limit the potential sexuality of their bodies.” 63 They argue the pantsuit, more than the skirt suit, has 59 Maria Cristina Marchetti. “Power Dressing: Women and Power.” 490. Maria Cristina Marchetti. “Power Dressing: Women and Power.” 490. 61 Mary Edwards. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” 4. 62 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 63 Mary Edwards. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” 4. 60 99 �the potential to make the female body invisible and neutral, like men’s. 64 While this isn’t always the goal, the pantsuit’s purpose begins as a tool for advancement before it can become a uniquely feminine symbol of power. The debate continues in business and other fields if women wearing menswear inspired pantsuits helps them create a new female powered world or just operate in a man’s world. Politics is another sphere where the pantsuit has been controversial but undoubtedly helped women advance and make a statement. Before female politicians, the First Lady had the power to be a fashion icon and no one is more notable than Jackie Kennedy. The public started paying attention to what women in politics wore and what it could potentially symbolize. Although Jackie Kennedy was iconic for her hats and brightly colored skirt suits, it was Pat Nixon who was the first to wear pants on the cover of a national magazine, signaling a major change in women’s fashion and attitudes. 65 After that, pants were not common in the wardrobes of successive First Ladies Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, or Barbara Bush, who favored dresses in varying degrees of extravagance. However, the next first Lady changed all of that. 1993 was a big year for the pantsuit. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) was striving to change the “men’s club” atmosphere of the Senate and that started with breaking the government dress code of skirts for women. 66 Mikulski wanted to be comfortable and asked for permission from a male senator who just nodded. She recounts the experience saying, “I'm most comfortable wearing slacks. Well, for a woman to come on the floor of the Senate in trousers was viewed as a seismographic event...the day I walked on the Senate floor in slacks, I became the first woman ever to do so. You would have thought that I was walking on the moon." 67 After the decade of power dressing, it seems unimaginable that 1993 would be the first year a woman would wear pants in Congress. Bill Clinton was also inaugurated in 1993 which began his first lady, Hillary Clinton’s reign as the queen of the pantsuit. Hillary Clinton was the first First Lady to wear a pantsuit in an official White House Portrait. 68 (Figure 11) Fashion reporter Erica Euse argues that the correlation between being the only First Lady with such a portrait and the only First Lady to run for president is no coincidence and signifies her power. 69 64 Mary Edwards. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” 5. Veronica De Sanctis. “From the Kennedys to the Obamas: Style and Politics of American Presidential Couples.” 321. 66 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 67 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 68 Mary Edwards. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” 7. 69 Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 65 100 �Clinton uses the pantsuit to symbolize that she is an equal player who occupies her own space within the male-dominated political world. With such a prominent figure Fig 11: Official First Lady Portrait of Hillary Clinton. Source: White House Collection. representing radical changes in women’s fashion, it further normalized the pantsuit in professional and public life. It also came with its criticisms and difficulties. Often Clinton’s clothes were given more attention than her platform or her words. Many critics used the pantsuit as reason “to shame her as an unfeminine, coldhearted, nasty woman.” 70 The connotation, even in the 1990s, that the pantsuit was a masculine garment only, that invited assumptions about women’s sexuality and inner self seems counter-productive after a decade where the power suit brought women success. Yet, women were still being eviscerated for wearing it. Even style icon Tim Gunn criticized Clinton for being “‘confused about her gender’ because of her ‘big, baggy, menswear tailored pantsuits.’” 71 Due to its criticism by men, it became a symbol of protest among female politicians and professionals. Johnson argues that “Clinton revolutionized the pantsuit ‘into a powerful symbol of female power and feminism.’” 72 It may not have been Clinton’s original intention to make the garment a revolutionary thing for women but it certainly has become a symbol of progress. In an interview Clinton explained why she wears the pantsuit. “First, it ‘makes me feel professional and ready to 70 Mary Edwards. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” 7. Euse. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” 72 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 5. 71 101 �go’...Second, it gives ‘visual cues … different from the men but also familiar.’ Third, ‘a uniform was also a distraction technique.’ And fourthly, ‘so you may as well wear what works for you.’” 73 (Figure 12) Clinton explains that the pantsuit, besides just being a comfortable and desirable outfit for women, grants women access to male-dominated spaces so that they may create their own space within it. The pantsuit is a necessary form of menswear mimicry where afterwards women may reclaim it as womenswear. Fig 12: Hillary Clinton in a Rainbow of Pantsuits. Source: Instyle. While the pantsuit is still accused of being masculine and imitative of men, Clinton’s mainstream wearing of it inspires other women in politics to adopt it as a uniquely feminine symbol. The goal became less about fitting in with men, and more about men fitting in with women in pantsuits in politics. Before the 2016 Presidential Election, a Facebook Group called “Pantsuit Nation” came to prominence. The Facebook Group became a group to show support for Hillary Clinton and other female politicians and a unifying place for women’s rights agendas. Creator Libby Chamberlain explains how the group is “a homage to Clinton and her trademarked ‘pantsuit.’ … why the pantsuit is not only an outfit, but it also is ‘more than any other campaign pin, slogan, or logo, the pantsuit symbolizes this moment in history, and I wanted to wear that symbol’ 73 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 41. 102 �defining the pantsuit as a symbol of optimism in the quest for gender equality.” 74 Other female politicians have also adopted the pantsuit as a symbol of female power and protest. Recent political statements made with the pantsuit also call into question the politics of the pantsuit itself and if it is a partisan garment belonging to Democrats or Republicans. For Donald Trump’s first State of the Union speech, Democratic members of Congress wore “suffragette white” pantsuits to protest the Trump Administration reversing women’s rights and progress, especially for women of color. 75 (Figure 13) The pantsuit in the chosen color symbolizes the history of women’s fight to wear pants, and in a broader sense, to wear whatever they choose. From suffragettes to Amelia Bloomer to Hillary Clinton, the pantsuit remains a symbol of female protest and advancement. Fig 13: Congresswomen dressed in “suffragette white” at the State of the Union Address Source: Reuters / Jonathan Ernst. However, the pantsuit is not only worn by Democrats. On the one year anniversary of that State of the Union address, Melania Trump wore a white pantsuit. (Figure 14) The New York Times argued that Mrs. Trump’s seemingly purposeful wearing of this garment may have symbolism as a silent protest of her husband. The pantsuit is “accepted as sartorial shorthand for both the suffragists and contemporary 74 75 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 5-6. Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 34. 103 �women’s empowerment and something of an anti-Trump uniform.” 76 Other media outlets such as Fox News, disputed the fact that she even wore a white pantsuit at all. “[E]xcept she didn't. Fake news. Didn't happen. Totally wrong. Melania wore a cream-colored pantsuit to the speech, and a pricey one at that, made by Christian Dior. She did wear a white Dolce & Gabbana blouse, but her Christian Louboutin pumps were tan. So, USA Today, it clearly wasn't an ‘all-white outfit.” 77 They furthered their argument against “suffragette white” by using gendered stereotypes about women, never referring back to the symbolism of the color. “She wouldn’t be caught dead in white after Labor Day...ladies, you know, ask your wives, if ‘eggshell’ is the same as white.” 78 Melania had made tone deaf fashion decisions before, namely a jacket with the graphic “I Don’t Care” when visiting children caged at the U.S./Mexico border. The defense of the color over the garment itself is notable, and may indicate that wearing a pantsuit is not a clearly Democrat statement, even if Melania’s step-daughter Ivanka says women should indicate femininity in how they dress. Another notable comparison is how Clinton was criticized as unmanly for her pantsuit while Melania is not facing similar criticism for the same garment. Perhaps this reveals a double standard in how men from opposing parties support and ally with different female political figures. Fig 14: Melania in a White Pantsuit at the State of the Union 2018. Source: Instyle / Olivier Douliery. 76 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 36. Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 35. 78 Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 36. 77 104 �While the pantsuit is not a uniquely American costume in politics, it has become a unique debate in the United States, contrasted with female politicians of the U.K. The first female Prime Minister of the U.K. happened to oppose pants for women. As someone in a revolutionary position of progress for women this is surprising but in the 1970s and 1980s the idea of male imitation informed many opinions about the radical change in women’s fashion. Margaret Thatcher took part in power dressing by imitating the broad shoulders of a male silhouette in a shoulder padded skirt suit. 79 (Figure 15) Thatcher was assuming a traditional male role and assumed the same visual cues mentioned by Clinton between male expectations of the job and masking her femininity. Thatcher is still considered an empowering female figure because of her functioning in a male space and knowing how to dress to display power. Writer Amanda Platell writes of meeting with the Prime Minister and expressing her opinion on trousers. “Never trousers, my dear. They rob a woman of her authority.” As a conservative politician, it was wise for Thatcher to follow traditional gender expectations of women wearing skirts. Johnson argues Thatcher purposefully did this to take attention away from her dress. 80 If she was not doing anything revolutionary in her dress, it would keep attention on her politics and job, which she cared more about than being a fashion icon. The Queen is also a political figure who rarely wears pants and seems to project a conservative femininity in her public outfits. Although it brings up a valid argument that women should claim their own traditional style as power without imitating men. I would argue the pantsuit grants women access to male spaces and it unapologetically puts women visually on the same plane as men. Fig 15: Margaret Thatcher, gestures outside 10 Downing Street May, 1989. Source: Elle. 79 80 Sophie Shaw. “The History of Shoulder Pads.” Johnson. "Empowerment Through Clothing?" 33. 105 �Through the history of the pantsuit, one can see its multiple uses in the realms of entertainment, business, and politics. The pantsuit at its core is a fight for equality by whatever means necessary. Whether it's by imitating male silhouettes to gain access to male spaces, or reclaiming it as a symbol of feminism and sex appeal, the pantsuit has undoubtedly been a tool for women’s progress in the professional world. The pantsuit is a piece of a larger debate over how much femininity women in power should display. Women’s clothing is infinitely more scrutinized than men’s and can make or break a career. Often what women wear overshadows what they do or say. The popularization of androgynous style, including women wearing suits for business, politics, and even on the red carpet has opened a conversation about what gender is and whether femininity defines womanhood. Pantsuits being in trend have coincided with eras of progress for women and their symbolism and power in this moment shows the advancement women have been making in the past few decades. Campaigns for women’s equality, the #MeToo movement, fighting for reproductive rights, equal pay, and equal opportunities have been supported by the two-piece garment that opened up these conversations almost a century ago; the pantsuit. Bibliography Arnold, Rebecca. Fashion: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford: OUP Oxford, 2009. Bianco, Marcie, and Merryn Johns. “The Most Daring Thing About Katharine Hepburn? Her Pants.” Vanity Fair. Condé Nast, May 12, 2016. Bitunjac, Martina. “Women Must Not Dress As Men: A Brief History of Female Trousers.” In Fashion through History. Costumes, Symbols, Communication. Volume 2. Edited by Giovanna Motta and Antonello Biagini. 458-466. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. Cole, Daniel James, and Nancy Deihl. The History of Modern Fashion From 1850. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2015. De Sanctis, Veronica. “From the Kennedys to the Obamas: Style and Politics of American Presidential Couples.” In Fashion through History. Costumes, Symbols, Communication. Volume 2. Edited by Giovanna Motta and Antonello Biagini. 318-326. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. 106 �Edwards, Mary. “Gender, Shame, and the Pantsuit.” Hypatia 33, no. 3 (August 2018): 571–77. (1-9) in Cardiff University database. Euse, Erica. “The Revolutionary History of the Pantsuit.” VICE. VICE Media Group, March 21, 2016. Johnson, Tyler William, "Empowerment Through Clothing? The Hosenanzug, Women, and Political Power. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2018. Marchetti, Maria Cristina. “Power Dressing: Women and Power.” In Fashion through History. Costumes, Symbols, Communication. Volume 2. Edited by Giovanna Motta and Antonello Biagini. 488-497. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. Mckown, Loni Smith. "Pantsuits Reflect Women's Attitudes." Indianapolis Star, Sep 09, 1993. Rodriguez, Leah. “Praise Diane Keaton's Glorious Menswear Style.” The Cut. Vox Media, December 24, 2014. Shaw, Sophie. “The History of Shoulder Pads.” CR Fashion Book. Hearst Magazine Media Inc., January 1, 2019. Weaver, Hilary. “Famous Women Have Been Defying Gender Norms and Rocking Menswear for Years.” Vanity Fair. Condé Nast, June 22, 2017. 107 �Care and Compassion Override Violence and Genocide: The Work of Female Physicians and Nurses Michael Hubert (Physician Assistant) 1 Every day in hospitals all over the world, healthcare professionals seek to provide the best possible care, treatment and comfort for patients suffering from a plethora of ailments. The Hippocratic Oath binds doctors, physician assistants, and nurses to the duties of their profession: treating the sick to one’s best ability, preventing harm to patients, and teaching medicine to younger generations. Even amid the starvation, disease, and filth in the ghettos and death camps of Nazi-occupied Europe, acts of benevolence and selflessness brought comfort and medical aid to Jewish people. The tireless work of Jewish physicians during the Holocaust, which involved treating people suffering from the abhorrent and rapidly spreading diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis and from starvation in ghettos and death camps, has often gone unrecognized. Furthermore, these professionals often resisted Nazi attempts of dehumanizing Jews by making “safe haven” hospitals and maintaining the comforting doctor-patient relationship in the ghettos. In death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Jewish doctors and medical professionals, especially women, played a significant role. A prime example of a Holocaust heroine is Dr. Alina Brewda, a gynecologist in Block 10 of Auschwitz who treated the side effects of the agonizing experiments that women were put through against their will. By devising painless experiments and hiding ill patients from Nazi soldiers, Dr. Brewda risked her well-being to protect Jewish life. Like Dr. Brewda, Jewish physicians in death camps and other female medical personnel worked fearlessly to protect and comfort Jews during the Holocaust. Prior to the “Final Solution,” Jews were isolated from non-Jews by being placed into segregated areas of major European cities in 1940-41. In these areas called “Ghettos,” Jews were held in inhumane conditions until a final solution of extermination was planned out. In these cramped and dirty ghettos, Jews were exposed to rapidly spreading diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis and had meager amounts of food. An estimated 500,000 Jews died from starvation and diseases in the more than 1,000 ghettos scattered throughout Europe. These atrocious conditions gave rise to Jewish medical 1 This essay was written in Spring 2021 in HI334 Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The author would like to thank Prof. Lori Weintrob for her support of his research. 108 �resistance, as Jewish doctors and nurses treated Jews who were suffering from health ailments as a result of living in ghettos. In the Vilna ghetto, Nazis gave very little regard to the public health conditions. People were forced into unfamiliar and poorly equipped homes crowded with strangers. This extreme overcrowding immediately threatened health and sanitation. It has been estimated that the population density increased by 7-10 times. As a result, the sewer systems which were barely adequate for the poorer neighborhood before the war, most housing complexes had only outdoor privies with two to four seats each, which were originally intended for a population only one tenth the size of the ghetto. The water supply was also inadequateparticularly in the winter when the pipes froze in the unheated buildings. These factors made personal hygiene exceedingly difficult to maintain. 2 Other health concerns were brought about by incompetent garbage removal and limited burials leading to a buildup of excrement and dead bodies. The proximity of the Vilna ghetto to labor camps also led to the outbreak of several diseases as labors came back sick from the unsanitary working conditions. 3 As a result of these conditions, Jewish doctors and medical professionals created a successful public health system which resisted against Nazi plans of killing Jews by disease and starvation. Jewish doctors continued fulfilling their goal of providing the best care possible to the ill through the establishment of a hospital within the Vilna ghetto. Four doctors made house calls and there was an array of different departments such as surgery, gynecology, neurology, pediatrics, and radiology. Medical knowledge was passed down to new generations as classes were taught in the hospital. Alexander Sedlis, a medical student who worked as an orderly in the Vilna ghetto hospital, described the hospital as a “safe haven” where people were protected from the dangers of the outside world. The hospital became a social center for both the workers and patients where people could hide from being transported along with providing treatment for the patients. He describes that the daily routine was conducted in a way as if almost no war existed, as the doctors performed normal operations and made their daily rounds while nurses sterilized equipment and collected dirty laundry. 4 Dr. “Boba” Zalkindson was another well-known figure in the Vilna ghetto hospital. A young and fearless doctor in the hospital, Boba 2 Mckenna Longacre, Solon Beinfeld, Sabine Hildebrandt, Leonard Glantz, and Michael A. Grodin. “Public Health in the Vilna Ghetto as a Form of Jewish Resistance,” in American Journal of Public Health, February 2015, pp.294-5. 3 Longacre, “Public Health in the Vilna Ghetto,” p.293. 4 Alexander Sedlis, “The Jewish Hospital in the Vilna Ghetto” in Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust edited by Michael Grodin, pp.142-143. 109 �risked death in the Gelbe Scheinen Atkion to treat patients. During the atkion or roundup for deportation, those who had scheins or tickets were counted and checked while those without them found hiding places. Despite pleas and cries to hide, Boba shouted, “I have to see my patients, they cannot be left unattached” and made his rounds. Boba also taught a plethora of different courses in the hospital to aspiring doctors. One of his most interesting accounts is in catching flies and other insects to supplement diets and limit starvation. 5. It is truly amazing that Jewish medical professionals were able to maintain a safe and normal environment for patients contrasting from the horrors that were occurring on the outside. Jewish doctors had risked their own lives hiding Jewish patients from the outside and even left the refuge of the hospital to scavenge for medical supplies. “Early on doctors scoured the attics and the ruined or abandoned premises of the ghetto in search of iodine, bandages, and other materials left by previous occupants.” 6 The widespread diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis were effectively eliminated as the hospital provided vaccinations to eliminate the spread of these diseases. 7 To display the success of the healthcare system and hospital in the Vilna Ghetto, statistics displays a far lower death rate than in other ghettos. The death rate in 1942 was calculated to be just under thirty per thousand while the Warsaw ghetto had a death rate of 109 per thousand from 1940-1942 while the Lodz ghetto had a death rate of 133 per thousand from 1940-1944. 8 Two female Jewish physicians who took part in resistance in the ghettos was Dr. Pesia Kisin and Dr. Adina Schweige Balidi are both known for their role in protecting Jewish children. Dr. Pesia Kisin was a pediatrician in the Kaunas ghetto in Lithuania who persisted in her efforts to Jewish children in the ghetto. While being at constant danger of being caught, Kisin smuggled children out of the ghetto through local connections and obtained fake identity cards for the children. 9 Another interesting act of resistance was from Dr. Adina Schweige Balidi who endangered her life by handing out morphine to Jewish children at the umschlagplatz. She felt that it was her duty to provide the children a suffering-free death. 10 The success that Jewish doctors had achieved when faced with unsanitary health conditions shows the strength and bravery that these medical 5 Sedlis, “The Jewish Hospital in the Vilna Ghetto,” pp.143-145. Solon Beinfeld, “Healthcare in the Vilna Ghetto” in Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust, pp. 124-125. 7 Beinfeld, “Health Care in the Vilna Ghetto,” p.130. 8 Beinfeld, “Healthcare in the Vilna Ghetto,” p.132. 9 Noa Gidron, “Jewish Women Medical Practitioners Who Rescued Fellow Jews During the Holocaust,” in Nashim, Spring 2020, p. 43. 10 Gidron, “Jewish Women Medical Practitioners,” p.44. 6 110 �professionals exhibit. The Jewish people of the ghettos faced dangers of starvation and disease, but Jewish medical workers showed determination in providing the best care and safest environment possible for their comrades unlike the Nazi doctors who worked to calculate how these diseases can diminish the Jewish population. Along with maintaining public health and preventing spread of diseases, doctors did everything in their power to hide and protect their patients from the Nazis. Although Jewish doctors did everything in their power to serve the Jewish community in the ghettos, it was only inevitable that the Jews would be deported to camps meant for arduous work to the death or immediate gassing. The death camps were meant for sick Jews who were suffering from the various diseases in the ghettos or suffering from starvation. These Jews would be sent to camps such as Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Along with treating their patients to the best of one's ability, Jewish doctors risked their lives to protect their patients from being deported to these death camps. During the deportations, Nazis coerced Jewish doctors into determining which Jews were fit to be sent to labor camps, while the others were sent to death camps. A Jewish doctor during the Holocaust, Esther F., described an act of resistance she carried out to save lives. Esther kept two records for each patient, one that recorded the patient's actual condition which was kept hidden, and a record that concealed the degree of the patient's illness which was given to the Nazis. Esther described that “the majority had tuberculosis and didn’t know if he (Nazi officer) should know it.” 11 This deception which was performed by Jewish doctors throughout Europe saved many Jewish lives from being sent to immediate death. In the camps themselves, Jews were exposed to even worse conditions than they experienced in the ghettos. Many suffered from tuberculosis, dysentery, typhus, pneumonia, and a rapid spread of lice. These diseases arose from the extremely unsanitary conditions in the camps. In an account from a passage in Robert Liftin's book, “The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide,” a Jewish doctor describes: At a certain point, he and a few other prisoner doctors were overwhelmed with moribund patients, with suffering people clamoring for relief. They did what they could, dispensed the few aspirin they had, but made a point in the process 11 Mike Cummings, “Researcher Illuminates a Jewish Doctor's Holocaust Experiences.” Yale News, May 21st 2019. 111 �of offering a few words of reassurance and hope. He found almost to his surprise that “in the situation it really helped”. 12 Something as simple as providing patients with words of reassurance and hope is considered as a form of resistance and providing assistance for patients. These comforting words contradicted the goal of the Nazis which was to isolate Jews and put them through the worst pain possible. A simple “it will be ok” can go a long way in helping a suffering patient. These patients were suffering diseases with high fatality rates, were malnourished and overworked, and were in constant danger of being sent to gas chambers. By providing comfort to someone, you are showing that you are there for them and that they are not alone in their suffering. Knowing that someone is with you in a dark time of suffering will always help in any situation that you are in. Patients can also find hope and comfort in a life after death where they will be free from the suffering they are going through. Words are powerful and are a form of resistance to the Nazi attempts at dehumanizing Jews. Other circumstances in the camps which gave rise to a demand in medical attention, were beatings of Jewish prisoners by Nazi guards and unethical experimenting on women. Both Dr. Alina Brewda and Dr. Slavka Kleinova revealed the extent of the unethical experiments performed on women that occurred within Block 10 of AuschwitzBirkenau. Dr. Alina Brewda was born in Warsaw in 1905 and specialized as a gynecologist and obstetrician. She is described as a very successful doctor through her skill and dedication in treating patients. She was captured in 1943 and sent to Majdenek where she worked as a surgeon. She played a pivotal role in treating patients there and was transferred to Auschwitz where she continued her work. 13 Dr. Slavka Kleinova who was once known as Dorata Lorska was born in Kielce, Poland in 1913. Describe as kindhearted and diligent, Dorata moved to Czechoslovakia where she studied medicine. She was engaged in politics as she moved to Spain by using a fake marriage which changed her last name and was also a member of the Czechoslovakian communist party. After the Spanish civil war, she moved to Paris which was invaded by Germany in 1940. Slavka joined the Czech underground to help in French resistance but was eventually captured in 1943 by the gestapo and was sent to Auschwitz where she was assigned to Block 10. 14 Both Brewda and Kleinova along with other Jewish prisoner-doctors helped treat and 12 Michael Nevins, “Moral Dilemmas Faced by Jewish Doctors During the Holocaust.” Jewish Virtual Library. 13 Tom Minney, “Dr. Alina Brewda is inspiring Holocaust Heroine (book review),” January 27, 2016. 14 Stanislaw Klodzinski,” Medical review Auschwitz”, (Dr. Dorata Lorska, December 1st, 2020) 112 �protect these women. Block 10 was an infamous place where women were used as human guinea pigs and subjected to a variety of gruesome medical experiments. Women were injected with various chemicals which caused pain, fever, vomiting, and bloody discharges. Experiments were also conducted with the goals of mass-sterilization to prevent reproduction of the inferior races that were held within the camps. A technique the Nazis used for sterilization was X-Ray irradiation which burns, fever, vomiting, and internal hemorrhaging. Dr. Brewda, Dr. Kleinova, and many other Jewish doctors took part in acts of resistance against these unethical experiments performed on the women in Block 10. After the chemical injections, the X-Ray sessions, and the operations, Alina Brewda and Slavka Kleinova looked after the patients, who suffered from vomiting, hemorrhages, and burns but they had only very limited supplies at their disposal: for instance, paper bandages to dress the suppurating wounds. Dr. Brewda stole some morphine from Clauberg’s rooms, but there was not enough. Dr. Kleinova and she sat up all night with the girls but “Bella died later that night” and Buena, another girl from Salonika “died two or three days later”. 15 The Jewish doctors not only treated the side-effects of these horrible experiments, but they also tried to prevent them as a whole. The Jewish doctors devised experiments that were harmless to the women, and they also prevented the very sick and ill from being gassed. When soldiers would come and round up ill women for gassing, the doctors would hide the women they knew would be taken. 16 The courageous work of Jewish doctors prevented innocent Jews from being gassed and did everything they can to treat the diseases, beatings, and experiments that took place in the camps. In a place where death and darkness prevailed, Jewish doctors served as comforting figures of hope in the camps. Gisella Perl was Hungarian Jew and gynecologist who worked to save lives and minimize the torment that she witnessed as a doctor in Auschwitz. Perl was one of five doctors and four nurses to establish a hospital in the largest Nazi death camp. She recalled that she was told to bring her instruments to the camp but hers was stolen on arrival. 17 Some of her acts of rescue and resistance were bandaging bleeding wounds, pulling out infected teeth, taping up broken ribs, and cleaning painful lacerations that 15 Claude Romney, “Jewish Medical Resistance in Block 10, Auschwitz” in Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust, 2014, p. 192. 16 Romney, “Jewish Medical Resistance in Block 10, Auschwitz,” pp.192-193. 17 Rachel Gross, “The Auschwitz Doctor Who Couldn't 'Do No Harm'.” BBC Future, May 26th, 2020 113 �resulted from whipping at the hands of Nazi guards. At great risk to herself Dr. Perl replaced her patient blood samples with her own vial of blood. This act of resistance saved patients' lives because contagious diseases would be detected in the samples and those who were ill were sent to the gas chambers. 18 The most infamous and heart breaking of Dr. Perl's acts of resistance was performing secret abortions to save pregnant women from being beaten and burnt alive. Despite varying opinions on the topic of abortion, most people may reach common ground that abortion is morally permissible when the mother's life is in danger. Perl viewed abortion as a necessity in this situation to save the lives of pregnant women. Dr. Perl recalled that “It was up to me to save the life of the mothers if there was no other way, than by destroying the lives of their unborn children.” 19 Several Holocaust survivors look back and remember the actions of Dr. Perl and how many Jewish people she impacted. “Without Dr. Perl’s medical knowledge and willingness to risk her life by helping us, it would be impossible to know what would have happened to me.” She is often described as “the doctor of the Jews” and is widely respected for her heroic acts in Auschwitz. 20 Often the medical role of women partisans in the forests are overlooked. Haya Alpert (1912-2006) was a combat nurse who was a part of the Belarussian partisan battalion. After escaping a labor camp in Lida, Belarus in 1943, they all joined the partisan group. Alpert served as medic who treated wounded partisans during gunfights. 21 Another partisan fighter was 14-year-old Zelma Steiner from Slovakia. Steiner served as a paramedic and a patroller for the partisans and played a significant role in helping treat and save her Jewish unit from German soldiers. Steiner ran back and forth between the Jewish huts and the village bringing medicine and supplies to treat the wounded partisans. She was a coordinator and leader of the efforts to evacuate and treat the Jewish men at the huts. Zelma Steiner was martyr for her bravery and courage as she was captured and executed. 22 Best known as a photographer, Faye Schulman was also a valued nurse in the partisans. Schulman was born in Lenin, Poland in 1919. Schulman was best known for her photographic abilities which was what spared her from the liquidation of the Lenin ghetto. Schulman fled to the forest during a raid and joined the Moltava Brigade where she served as a camp nurse despite having no medical experience. Using her photographic ability, she was able to capture and document images 18 ibid. ibid. 20 ibid. 21 Gidron, “Jewish Women Medical Practitioners,” p.51. 22 Gidron, “ Jewish Women Medical Practitioners,” p.52. 19 114 �of the Nazi crimes for proof of the atrocities that happened. 23 Jewish female medical personnel display that courage and bravery have no boundaries as both men and women collectively worked together to protect Jewish life during the Holocaust. All Jewish medical professionals should be recognized as heroes in Nazi resistance, as they continuously followed the principles of the Hippocratic oath providing the best possible care to their patients despite the risk of persecution. Faced with horrible conditions and possible death, Jewish doctors persevered to provide care and treatment in both ghettos and death camps. By limiting the spread of diseases maintaining hospitals or “safe havens” in ghettos and by mitigating effects of death camp experiments and protecting patients from being gassed, Jewish doctors and medical professionals saved Jewish lives. While Nazis used public health to exterminate the Jewish race, Jewish doctors altered it to the best of their ability to provide hope and comfort for ill and suffering Jews. The work of Jewish medical resistance during the Holocaust should be circulated more today to provide the respect these heroines deserve. Bibliography Beinfeld, Solon, “Health Care in the Vilna Ghetto” in Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust, Edited by Michael A. Grodin, Berghahn Books, 2014. Cummings, Mike. “Researcher Illuminates a Jewish Doctor's Holocaust Experiences.” Yale News, May 21, 2019. https://news.yale.edu/2019/05/21/researcher-illuminatesjewish-doctors-holocaust-experiences Gidron, Noa, ”Jewish Women Medical Practitioners who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust,” Nashim: Special Issue, pp. 43-52. Accessed May 2, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/10.2979/nashim.36.1.02 Grodin, Michael and Winick, Myron. Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust. New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2014. Accessed May 2, 2021. Gross, Rachel, “The Auschwitz Doctor Who Couldn't ‘Do No Harm’.” BBC Future. BBC. Accessed May 2, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200526-dr-gisellaperl-the-auschwitz-doctor-who-saved-lives. Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. Partisans and Countries: Faye Schulman. 23 Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation: Partisans and Countries: Faye Schulman. 115 �Klodzinski, Stanislaus, “Dr. Dorata Lorska,” Medical Review Auschwitz, December 1st, 2020. https://www.mp.pl/auschwitz/journal/english/253561,dr-dorota-lorska Longacre, McKenna, Beinfeld, Solon, Hildebrand, Sabine, Glantz, Leonard, and Grodin, Michael. “Public Health in the Vilna Ghetto as a Form of Jewish Resistance.” American Journal of Public Health. American Public Health Association, February 2015, pp.293301. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25521892. Minny, Tom, “Dr. Alina Brewda is inspiring Holocaust Heroine,” January 27th, 2016. Nevins, Michael, “Moral Dilemmas Faced by Jewish Doctors During the Holocaust.” Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed May 2, 2021. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ moral-dilemmas-faced-by-jewish-doctors-during-the-holocaust. Romney, Claude. “Jewish Medical Resistance in Block 10, Auschwitz” in Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust edited by Michael Grodin and Myron Winick. Berghahn Books, 2014. Sedlis, Alexander, “The Jewish Hospital in the Vilna Ghetto,” in Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust, edited by Michael Grodin and Myron Winick, Berghahn Books, 2014. 116 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wagner College Forum for Undergraduate Research Description An account of the resource The <em>Wagner College Forum for Undergraduate Research</em> provides an arena where students can publish their research and have a wider audience that can see what types of areas of academic intellect and expertise are being explored at Wagner College. 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