Last week, I started reading The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry. It's the story of the flu pandemic of 1918 which some estimate killed as many as 100 million people. I'm only about a quarter of the way through the 550 pages and while I have mixed feelings about the book and I suspect a serious spin is being put on some of the material, I still find it really interesting.
The chapter I finished most recently tells of the US during WWI - the efforts, the morale, and the politics. It was really interesting to contrast the attitude of the nation during WWI to our attitude now. Before the war, there were about 100 chapters of the American Red Cross. After we got involved in the war, there were nearly 4,000. They used fruit pits (from peaches, plums, cherries, etc) to make carbon for gas masks, so grocers sold fruit at cost and people bought it en masse to do their part. Fashion designers removed pockets, made lapels smaller, ties thinner, and skirts slimmer to conserve fabric. Daylight savings time was implemented to save fuel. Everyone did their part in the war effort.
According to Barry, much of the high morale came from censorship. The post master had the right not to deliver mail that might be anti-war. Even jokes and songs that might be questionable were banned. Suspision of and disdain for Germans and other foriegners was highly encouraged (hence the "liberty cabbage" instead of sauerkraut). Barry makes the US sound like a sugar-coated version of Nazi Germany.
Now, of course, we have quite the opposite problem - we have much lower morale and are skeptical of everything the president does (for better or for worse) and the press prints whatever they want (which I think they should be able to, for the most part).
I won't get into all the pros and cons of these two differents ways of dealing with war morale. I just found the contrast interesting. Of course, the war is not the point of The Great Influenza and I have learned a lot about the history of medicine and medical education in the US and the world. Once I finish the book, I'll try to post a full review of it.
Christin, I was just noticing your price of gas peice on the front page. It's 2.39/gallon here for deisel. I would cry, but it wouldn't do any good. And it would make me look like a wimp; crying over fuel when there are so many more noble causes to feel helpless over.
Posted by: Aman at June 15, 2004 05:56 PMI did read the above precis and it looks interesting, though my reading like that is confined to chemistry papers at present. I have a lot of really interesting/dreadful information about radiation chemistry. Let me know if you want to hear it. Otherwise I'll reserve it in that category known as; cool to know, but not for public consumption.
Posted by: Aman at June 15, 2004 05:58 PMAfter converting from litres to gallons, and from CND to USD, our gas price here in Grande Prairie is $2.69US per gallon. To fill the tank of my truck costs over $100US. The insane part is that we live in an oil and gas rich province were I would think we could get it cheaper then all of you down south.
Posted by: Alex at June 16, 2004 12:54 AMVery interesting post. My question is; how does daylight savings time save fuel? I'm interested because we were just discussing the origins of DST and whether it is really necessary or not. I'm thinking of starting an underground movement to boycott the thing.
Posted by: Patrick at June 16, 2004 09:01 AMMike - deisel is only $1.68 here - makes me wish I drove a Volkswagon. Even with my fairly fuel efficient Camry, it costs me about $27.00 to fill up (if it's completely empty). I know it's not much compared to Alex's $100 tank, but only ten years ago, I could fill my accord for 15 bucks.
Alex - Louisiana and Texas are also oil-rich, but I'm not sure how much influence that actually has on regional gas prices. I've usually found gas to be the cheapest in the southeast - Alabama, Georgia, etc. It might be influenced by general cost of living, which is lower in the southeastern states (except in real cities) than it is in most other parts of the country.
Patrick - I've always wondered why we implimented DST as well. I'm not sure how it actually saved fuel because I can't imagine there was that much driving going on in the evenings. Unless they actually worked an hour less each day (which I doubt, since they needed extra productivity for the war) I don't know what the point was. They must have had some good reasoning to get almost the whole country to go along with it. The funny this is that we still do it (except for Arizona and Indiana).
Posted by: Christin at June 16, 2004 10:23 AMI just bought gas at Sam's today for $1.64. That's practically free!
Posted by: Amy at June 17, 2004 04:51 PMSheesh! For $1.64, I'll run my currently full tank empty, just to buy gas that cheap! That's practically free!
Posted by: Christin at June 17, 2004 05:10 PMI know a person can find the information if they are persistent, but I am kind of curious how much of the price/gallon is taxes. Kind of infuriates me to think that fuel really wouldn't be nearly as expensive without the tax.
Posted by: Aman at June 21, 2004 08:01 PM