West European Studies

Introduction
The Black Death is an important pandemic that hit the United Kingdom in the middle ages. The pandemic entered the United Kingdom in the years 1348 and is estimated to have killed over half of the British population. The Black Death originated from Asia and spread to the European countries including the United Kingdom. It was first reported in the mid 1348 at the Port of Weymouth. By the end of 1348, the disease had reached London and within a very short time, it had spread all over the United Kingdom.

The Black Death had several implications on the United Kingdom as an international prosperous country. However, the outbreak affected several countries in the world claiming millions of lives. Although many lives were lost in the United Kingdom, the British government was able to handle the situation well. The pandemic had various social, political and economic implication in the affected countries, the United Kingdom included. Decreased population as a result of the outbreak decreased the workforce in the country which led to an increase in wages. This development was opposed by the land owners who used punitive and legislative measures at the expense of the lower class. As a result, the lower class started rebellions against the landowners. The Black Death also impacted on the cultural and artistic aspects of the British society. However, the most striking aspect of the Black Death is its recurrence in the United Kingdom in the early 1360s, in the 14th, 15th and 17th century.
Black Death in the United Kingdom

The plague commonly known as the Bubonic plague was caused by a bacillus bacteria that was carried by fleas in rats. The fleas had rats and other rodents as their hosts and moved freely from their hosts to the human population spreading the bacteria. The fleas spread the disease by regurgitating blood from the host, to the human beings. The rat however died immediately from the infection. The human also died within a short time after infections. The infection did not spare the flea which also died as a result of blocked stomach. In other world, the grim infection killed every one, human beings, the vector and the rodent.

The symptoms of the infection included swollen lymph nodes in the neck, groin and armpits, fever, vomiting blood and aching limbs. The swelling of the glands in the neck was very pronounced and could easily be noticed. The swelling made the skin turn blackish which gave the plague the name, Black Death. The swelling of the glands continued eventually bursting and leading to death soon after. The infection caused death within four days since the first symptom was observed. The plague was terrifying because of the swiftness of the spread of the infection, the pain the infected people suffered and the grotesque look on the plagues victims. Vomiting of blood was as a result of the disease reaching the lungs thus causing the pneumonic plague. This form of infection is very contagious since it could easily spread through breathing or coughing. The infection caused death in days when the bloodstream was infected causing the septicemic plague. The septicemic plague is reported to have been the most dangerous with a 100 mortality rate though it was less common. This plague was characterized by high fevers and dark spots on the skin.  

In the 1340s, the population of the United Kingdom is estimated by historians to have been between three million and seven million people. However, recent studies indicate that six million is a more precise figure. Although there were catastrophic famines such as the great famine that hit Europe between 1315 and 1317, there is no evidence of reduction in population as a result. Less that ten percent of the people in the United Kingdom lived in the cities with the better part of the population living in the countryside where they practiced agriculture. During that period, the United Kingdom was an economic and political superpower in the European continent. It was the main producer of wool in the region and had won many decisive wars. This was as a result of excellent leadership by King Edward III who was both young and energetic.

It is believed that the plague arrived in the United Kingdom from Asia by ship in the mid 1348. It was first reported at the port at modern day Weymouth but it is also believed to have been reported at Southampton and Bristol. The plague spread rapidly to other parts of the country. Bristol was the first urban center to be attacked while London which had about seven hundred thousand inhabitants was reached before the end of 1348. The plague arrived in London by road and by ship. In early 1349, London faced the full wrath of the plague due to the high population, congestion, poor sanitation, overcrowding and poor health standards. The disease had spread all over the southern parts of the United Kingdom by the end of the first quarter of 1349. The disease was also spreading fast northwards but the arrival of the plague at Humber in the first half of the 1349 made the plague explosive. The plague started spreading fast northwards and southwards. The northern part of the country was hard hit by the plague because they had been made more vulnerable by attacks and constant invasions by the Scots. The disease took less than five hundred days to spread to all parts of the United Kingdom. Usually, diseases transmitted in this manner are less virulent in winter and the disease seems to spread less rapidly. In many cases, the disease is unable to survive the winter. However, the Black Death survived the winter in 1348 and 1349 but it was unable to survive the next winter. By the end of 1349, the spread of the disease had reduced significantly and the conditions were back to normal.

Casualties
Although historical records in the United Kingdom are much better compared to other countries in Europe and around the world, it is still difficult to establish with certainty the total number of victims who perished in the plague. Historians have disagreed on the population of the United Kingdom at the time as well as the victims of the plague. Some inflated statistics indicated that almost ninety percent of the population perished in the plague which has been disputed by the historians. Many of the modern historians however agree that total number of casualties in the plague could have been up to sixty percent of the total population in the United Kingdom. A recent study indicated that the death toll reached over sixty percent where the total population of the United Kingdom is estimated to have been about six million people with about 3.75 million people perishing in the plague. This figure may be higher than the estimated figure of sixty percent of the total population of European population perishing in the plague.

It was assumed that the plague affected all people across the social divide, but the position has been disputed by recent studies. The death rate was not uniform across all social classes in the society. The lower class had a higher risk of infection and the mortality rate among them was higher. The social elites on the other hand were able to escape the wrath of the plague by avoiding infection. The post infection death among the elites was also less since they had access to better health care compared to the lower class. The low mortality rate was also observed among the clergy and the religious leaders where the death rate was lower than average. In general, all over the European continent, the death toll among the nobles and those in the highest social class were less affected by the Black Death. Only one member of the royal family, Joan, the daughter of Edward III who lived in France was reported to have died from the plague. However, a great philosopher in the 14th century, William of Ockham is reported to have died of the plague.

Recurrence of the Plague
The worst aspect of the Black Death plague in the European effect is the fact that it did not come once. The plague came over and over again. However, the recurring plagues were not as devastating as the first one. The recurring plagues were not very contagious and limited on one geographical zone but were as virulent as the first one. The first recurrence of the pandemic in the United Kingdom was in the 1360s. The statistics on the pandemic is however limited though it is also believed to have been relatively high claiming about twenty percent of the population. This recurrence of the plague had far reaching effects on the recovering population after the first plague in the late 1340s. The plague affected the young men and the infants who were the future of the population. This was also the case when the plague recurred not more than a decade later claiming almost fifteen percent of the population.

The plague continued to recur over the following decades at intervals of five to ten years either in the United Kingdom or other regions in Europe. The death tolls however reduced with the subsequent recurrence. However, the pandemic returned in full force in the 15th century between 1430 and 1480. Among the outbreaks during the period, two of them in the 1470s claimed over fifteen percent of the population in the United Kingdom each. Since the end of the fifteenth century, the recurrences of the Black Death became less frequent and manageable. This was as a result of the European governments and the general public consciousness and efforts that started in the late 15th century to contain the disease. The pandemic ended in the 17th century with the great plague of London in the mid 1660s. It is important to note that most of the recurrence of the Black Death took place during the reign of the Tudor and the Stuarts in the middle ages.

Consequences of the Black Death in the United Kingdom
The Black Death plague in the middle age has numerous impacts on the society of the United Kingdom. This is directly as a result of the high number of casualties. The plague had far reaching and numerous social, economic impacts on the society. It also affected the religious and cultural aspects of the society.

The immediate negative impact of the plague was economic decline. The plague killed the productive members of the society. The high number of deaths in the lower class affected the agrarian society in England. The agricultural production depended on the labor provided by the large population in the country side. High mortality rate led to a reduction of the labor force which reduces agricultural productivity. As a consequence of limited labor force, the wages skyrocketed which attracted a lot of attention among the nobles who owned land. In the 14th century, the nobles had very little knowledge on the market forces and could not be able to interpret the socioeconomic changes that resulted from the plague. They blamed the public for being immoral which attracted a lot friction between the two classes in the society. The land owners who were the social elites interpreted the rising wage rates as an indication of declining morals and an indication of insubordinate. The landowners reacted by coercing the farmers which resulted in uprisings. After the plague subsided, the king introduced punitive measures that fixed the wages that the farm workers should be paid. Later, the United Kingdom parliament reinforced the ordinance by the king when it the passed the Statute of Laborers. In the following decades, the labor laws were enforced on to the workers with ruthless determination by the nobles and the administrators.

As stated earlier, the administrators as well as the land owners were unaware of the market forces. Their move to enforce the labor laws was inefficient in regulating the market forces. Although the legislative measures such as the Statute of Laborers which was introduced in 1351 proved ineffective, the administration continued to enforce the measures which resulted into public resentment. These factors among others led to the Peasants Revolt three decades, after the labor laws were formulated in 1381. The effects of the revolt were far reaching with the Savoy Palace being burnt and the chancellor John of Gaunt being killed. The revolting farm workers demanded that the serfdom be done away with and were determined to push their agenda forward. They did not calm down until king Richard II intervened. The rebellions and uprisings ended but they had left a large impact on the society that could not be reversed. By the end of the century, the serfdom labor laws did not exist in the United Kingdom and were replaced by the copyhold. This was a form of tenure based on the traditions of the manor which introduced title deeds to the land owners as a copy of the records in the court.

The political impacts of the plague were evident all over the European countries with several governments such as the Valois of France collapsing. This was as a result of poor handling of the social and economic consequences of the plague. The British administration such as William de Shareshull who was the treasurer and William Edington who acted as the Chief Justice was able to handle the crisis and it was saved from collapse. Prior to the plague, the United Kingdom was an economic and political superpower in the region. To save the government from the chaos and eventual collapse as for the case of the French government, competence in leadership was essential. The effective leadership of the British administration maintained the stability of the government throughout the crisis.

The plague also impacted on the religious as well as the cultural aspects of the United Kingdom society. The church was adversely affected by the high mortality rate among the clergy men. Though the rate of death among the priests was lower compared to the overall rate in the country, it resulted into a decline in the number of priests. The shortage of priest called for the participation of the general public in religious affairs of the society to save the church from collapse. The fact that death was present everywhere transformed the religious and cultural aspects of the society with the church encouraging people to repent their sins. Piety was also inspired among the upper class which has been used by historians to explain the founding of the Cambridge colleges shortly after the Black Death subsided. The roving band of flagellants which was observed in other parts of Europe was not experienced in the United Kingdom. The prosecution of Jews that was observed in other European countries did take place in England. The number of Jews in the United Kingdom was significant since they had been expelled from the country in the 13th century by King Edward I who ordered all the Jews out of the United Kingdom in year 1290.

The emergency of protestant churches in England as a result of the protestant revolution is closely linked to the Black Death. It is one of the impacts of the Black Death that is felt all over the world today and the years to come. It is estimated that over forty percent of the priests in the United Kingdom died as a result of the plague. The gap created was so enormous that the church filled the gap with untrained and unqualified priests which led to a declining authority in the church. The declining influence and power in England led to the protestant reformation which led to the modern day protestant churches. The inability of the church to explain the plague and the under qualified priests were a disappointment to the plague survivors.

Other social and cultural impacts of Black Death plague was the use of vernacular English. Before the plague, most of the teachings were done in French. The plague significantly reduced the number of French speaking teachers. The adoption of vernacular language as a direct impact of the plague is believed to be the reason behind the flourishing of the English literature starting the end of the 14th century. Great authors and writers who are believed to have developed as a direct influence of the plague and its impacts include Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower.

Historical Timing
The Black Death is the most disastrous plague in the history of Europe especially due to its recurrence and appearing in one epidemic in different forms. The historical timing of the plague was as devastating as its form. It struck when the European powers were struggling economically due to the interference of the trade routes by the arrival of the Ottoman Muslims. The region was also faced with recurring famines due to increased population and decreased crop yield. The church was also hard hit by the plague all over the European continent because it was not in good shape in the fourteenth century. The church was unable to handle the heresy around Europe, the popes did not reside in Rome and it was unable to recover the Holy Land that was lost towards the end of the 13th century after the fall of the Roman Empire. The plague was presided over by a period of centuries of war which made the European countries more vulnerable. The economic and social impacts of the wars in the 13th and 14th century were aggravated by the impacts of the plague.

Introduction
You wait in line to buy tickets for a movie and right next to you are posters for upcoming films that will be shown next summer. One poster catches your eye a summer blockbuster with its bright colors, dark curvy lines that are reminiscent of graphic novels particular style. The line moves forward and, reminding yourself to watch it when it shows, you follow suit. You dont know that when you look at that poster, you are in fact looking at a vestige of the past, a reminder of a formerly popular genre that has laid the groundwork for modern art movements.

Defined by cursive lines, floral and animal patterns, the feminine silhouette, and vivid colors, this movement known as Art Nouveau came about during the latter parts of the nineteenth century and flowing into the first quarter of the twentieth. Largely a reaction to the strict rules of Classicist schools of art and the onset of modern technology, Art Nouveau, in its short reign as the most popular genre during that period, came to influence architecture, decorative arts, and the visual arts so profusely its reach can still be felt until today. We look at these designs everyday not knowing where it had originated the poster, which was born during that period Gustav Klimts iconic painting The Kiss that has been translated into the covers of many notebooks and wallpapers and Antoni Gaudis grotesque-looking buildings in Spain.

For this paper, I shall discuss the birth of Art Nouveau and how it came as a reaction to its predecessor, Historicism. I shall also look into its major influences and the people who have come to represent and popularize this style during that period. Finally, I will look into how it has come to influence the succeeding movements and how its influence can still be felt today.

A Description and History of Art Nouveau
As with any emerging art movement, Art Nouveau came about not just as a reaction against the timely rising of modern technology and science, but also as a move against the strict rules of Classicist schools of art. To better understand how Art Nouveau came to be we must first take a look at the principles and dynamics of its predecessor, Historicism, in order to see why twentieth-century avant-garde artists decided to rebel against it.

For the practitioners of Art Nouveau, Historicism represented a kind-of stiffness and rigidness that they wish to reject. Just as Art Nouveau is characterized by flowing lines and a leaning towards nature, Historicism is characterized by the insistence of the importance of historical context in addressing texts, whether visual or narrative. The basic premise of Historicism rests on the belief that we cannot have natural laws governing our understanding of human behavior, and should therefore look upon our history as the ideal standard that we must follow (2). Imitations of Classical art were popular during this period, particularly sculptures. There was also a tendency to use hard and heavy colors and rigid forms. The style was basically a play on shadow and light that aimed for an open form. (Historicism and Studio-Style online) In terms of Historicisms reaction to technology, it faced this new phenomenon by conjuring up the past in order to defend its artistic territory.

Tired of the stiff Classical ideals of the previous movement, avant-garde artists from Germany, Britain and Austria sought to create a new genre, a New Art, that worked with technology and its practices, at the same time relishing in the concept of Nature. They also sought to create a movement that will match with the changing environment that is seen around the world. And so, Art Nouveau was born amidst the changes in the world, a great representation of the outlook shared by artists worldwide.

Art Nouveau was not called such until the latter part of the nineteenth century. In fact, before coming to itself, the movement was actually born out of an earlier artistic faction called the Arts and Crafts Movement. Much like Art Nouveau that reacted against the rigid tendencies of Historicism, the Arts and Crafts Movement challenged Victorian notions of art by promoting the quality production of products. Grounded on the notion that a happy worker can create better products, promoters John Ruskin and Walter Crane (who later on became a pioneer in Art Nouveau) wanted beautiful objects that can enhance the lives of ordinary people. The movement was short-lived though when prices for such products skyrocketed and eluded its target market.

Taking cue from this movement, the style of Art Nouveau or French for New Art began to take flight. Formerly a nameless style, only called Jugendstil in Germany and Sezessionstil in Austria, it got its name from a Paris art gallery called the Maison de lArt Nouveau, that showcased a lot of works following its principles. The movement basically finds inspiration in the lines, patterns, and colors found in Nature. This, we can say, is an idealist impression of the future relationship of Nature and Technology. It was also pursued as an international style based on decoration as we will further see in its extensive application in pottery, tableware, and furniture design. We can further characterize the genre based on their purpose or ideology, and the style that it exuded.

Unlike Historicism, and even the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau put itself before technology and tried to accommodate it in its principles. Says Klaus-Jurgen Sembach (2000) in his book entitled Art Nouveau Art Nouveau must be given credit for attempting to alter this situation, for striving to bring about a reconciliation between traditional expectations of art and the modern face of technology. At first it would seem like a monstrosity to attempt to combine a genre that is grounded on the concept of Nature with its ultimate contradiction, Technology. But, this is what Art Nouveau attempted to do despite criticism of its overt Utopian ideologies. It can be seen with architect Hector Guimards stylish entrances for Paris metro stations. It was a clear manifestation of the joining of two very separate ideas, art portrayed in the entrances and the cold, black steel of trains, which until now is representative of Parisian life. In a sense, as Sembach states, Art Nouveaus way of creating a stylized mask to hide the terrifying concept of technology made it easier for people to accept the notion of technology getting involved further in their lives. Through this it became impossible to see the functional, constructional, material relationships exemplified in modernity and technology, making it easier for people to forget its intimidating nature. With this attempt we see one of the principles of Art Nouveau to make economic necessity into an aesthetic experience, or, to put it rather differently, to make purposeful pleasurable.

To create a most pleasurable experience, avant-garde artists who were supporters of Art Nouveau looked into the light, airy appeal of Nature as their inspiration. One of the unifying characteristics of the style is the simplification of forms for the sake a more organic art. These forms were usually cursive lines that echoed the feel of vines as they grown on walls, bright colors found in abundance in the many different floras, and animal depictions, like the Chimera, seen in August Endells work. In Jeremy Howards book he says that he was not only creating art forms that represent nothing, but also of the immense power natural forms may have if the perception is opened to them.

The concept of the machine also had a huge influence on the technique and style of Art Nouveau. One their primary inspirations is the concept of human flight, as prevailed by the American Wright brothers during the first manned flight in Kitty Hawk. Aesthetic design was then unified with the science of flight. With this in mind, lines began to expand from just being traditionally horizontal, inspired by a birds wide viewpoint. Wings of flying creatures became motifs for several artists. Speed, a highlight of the Industrial Revolution, was also taken into account, to show abstract dynamism.

These more or less show the background principles behind Art Nouveaus purpose and style. Art circles in Germany, Austria, and Britain were already quite a-buzzed about this rising new style, but it was only during the Paris Worlds Fair (Exposition Universalle) in 1900 that Art Nouveau has come to cement its reputation as a legitimate, intenational style. Art Nouveau was featured in many of the national pavilions, much to the enjoyment of the international gathering of the people amounting to more than fifty-one million. But the best showcase of the new style was in the pavilion organized by Siegfried Bing, also the owner of famous art gallery LArt Nouveau, showing furniture, jewelry, ceramics, posters, and glass form many of upcoming artists of the genre. One could also see interiors by Georges de Feure, Eugene Gaillard, and Edouard Colonna, in which the furniture, fabrics, and decorations were all part of a total work of art unified by the same design.

Art Nouveau Artists and their Different Genres
Art Nouveau has a wide breadth of influence that ranges from architecture to, even, cutlery. Few such movements in the twentieth century were used in that many forms. For this part of the paper, we shall discuss some of the many Art Nouveau artists who have come to rise to a certain international popularity with their art, and how theyre art works are still seen now.

Perhaps one of the most resounding names in architecture history, Antoni Gaudi, is a clear representation of the creative extent devoted by Art Nouveau artist into their work. Born in 1852 in Reus near Barcelona in Spain, Gaudi was a product of many political and social upheavals in his native Catalonia. He pursued his architectural studies in Barcelona amidst intense political turmoil that almost made him stop studying. But he went on, and became one of the most imaginative, revolutionary architects of his time. Now, seven of his major works are World Heritage sites, a testament to Gaudis exceptional creative contribution to the development of architecture and building technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At times grotesque, Gaudis work is the physicality of Art Nouveau principles curvy lines that at times look sinister, and at times look like majestic tree trunks, they exemplify a certain unity with nature. Such works include the very famous Crypt of La Sagrada Familia, Casa Vicens, Casa Batllo, and the Crypt in Colonia Guell. It was also one of the few buildings of its time that used cement to create irregular lines that are descriptive of Art Nouveau ideals. Like the genre, Gaudi merges technology with art in his pioneering process of construction. Gaudies work anticipated and influenced many of the forms and techniques that were relevant to the development of modern construction in the twentieth century.

Another familiar name in Art Nouveau is Gustav Klimt whose iconic work The Kiss is one of the most reproduced works of art in todays society. Though he is primarily associated with the Vienna Secession Movement as its organizer, his works are still considered Art Nouveau as it echoes the same sensibilities of the style. Born in 1862, Klimt started as an artist-decorator with his brother and fellow artist Franz Matsch. Several of his first works were mural decorations for the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Looking at these works we can instantly see how Klimts eclecticism, with his use of gold-leaf and patchwork to enhance the feel of his paintings. Other than frieze and murals, Klimt also dabbled in portrait work, and given his style, was able to come up with uniquely Art Nouveau portraits that were cannot be duplicated by another other artist of his time. But, upon the fall of the Art Nouveau movement, Klimt gradually withdrew himself, greatly dismayed by the growing partiality for naturalism.

Famous for his glass works, Emille Galle is one of the main practitioners of Art Nouveau in France, having founded the School of Nancy, or the Alliance Provinciale des Artistes, in 1901. Aside from glass, he also designed furniture and pottery. Galle was a master of glass, dabbling in every possible technique available, cleverly exploiting even the minute imperfections such as air bubbles, clouding, and crazing. His works are characterized by two or more colored that resemble plants as inspired by his deep interest in botany. And much like the rest of artists following the styles of Art Nouveau, his works also evoke the soft, curved lines that should resemble that of flora. These works were shown and sold at Samuel Bings LArt Nouveau showroom, much like most of the Art Nouveau practitioners in Paris. Now, Emille Galles works are considered collectors items and fetch thousands of dollars in auctions.

But aside from the genres discussed above, Art Nouveau also welcomed the rise of the Poster Movement, popularized by artists Jules Cheret and William H. Bradley. Of the two, it was Jules Cheret who the academic institutions regard as the Father of the Poster, having been the pioneer in this rediscovered form. A talented artist with minimal background in design except for a course at the Ecole Nationale de Dessin in Paris, he was able to create 1000 posters that were representative of the graphic design style of that era. Born in 1836 to a family of artisans, Cheret was not able to finish his studies because of financial troubles. But he was able to acquire a apprenticeship with a lithographer, beginning his life-long career in poster design. His works were regarded as quite original, raising lithography to art. His most famous posters, also quite reproduced in our time, are the La Goulue for Moulin Rouge and his iconic posters of his Cherettes, his depiction of the dancers from Moulin Rouge.

Though Art Nouveau is primarily a European movement, there were still a few other nationalities that managed to attain popularity in this sphere. One of them is American William H. Bradley, a poster designer that can be viewed as Cherets American counterart. He was born in Boston to minimal financial support, he supported himself by working in a printers shop, perhaps opening him to the world of poster design and advertising. His most important work was his 1894 cover design for Chap-Book, titled The Twins, which most academics believe is the first American Art Nouveau poster. Subsequent designs brought him great acclaim and recognition.

Art Nouveau and the New Movements
Most critics view Art Nouveau a shallow art form, relying mostly on their decorative appeal for their widespread recognition. But despite this harsh admonition, there can still be no denying the extent of influence Art Nouveau has on further movements.

Shortly following the rise of Art Nouveau, several other artists decided to create their own groups following Art Nouveaus principles. One such organization is the Vienna Sezession Movement, organized by Gustav Klimt, as previously mentioned in this paper. The group was founded in 1897 by Klimt, along with Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffman, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, Otto Wagner, and others, as an objection against the prevailing conservatism of the Vienna Kunstlerhaus and its penchant for Historicism. Following the footsteps of Art Nouveau, the Sezession artists wanted to discover other forms and modes of art outside what is taught within the academic community. They sought to explore a more festive style that veers away from the rigidity of Historicism. The movement, though highly influential during its time, began its untimely collapse when the artists decided to separate ways because of artistic differences.

One movement weve already touched upon is the Poster Movement. Seen as the beginnings of advertising, the Poster Movements effectiveness relies on the catchy appeal of the posters done, in accordance to Art Nouveau styles. Before this time, posters remained black and white works with no general appeal and only served as a means of information dissemination. But with Art Nouveaus colorful images drab streets and boring roadsides of Paris, Belgium, and Holland were reawakened. These posters highlighted various products, ranging from fashion, stores, even alcoholic beverages, once viewed as a taboo. Women were also then put on these posters, something never before done, as a way to entice male drinkers to buy the product. At our perspective, these posters were the predecessors of our posters today leading us to understand the influence of Art Nouveau on our current understanding of graphic design. Several times, Art Nouveau was resurrected in graphic design to create a particular feel for a poster, something that still evokes emotions from its audience until today.

Other such movements that were immediate influences of Art Nouveau were Symbolism and Art Deco. Almost two different styles, what ties Art Nouveau and Symbolism is their inclination to using mythological and dream-like subject in their works. Also taking it path apart from the stiff movements of Realism and Naturalism, Symbolism took to the other-worldly to portray their ideas. Art Deco, on the other hand, is a reaction against Art Nouveau. Though theyre both decorative styles that looked into opulence, Art Deco had a more geometric feel and is also a reaction against the austerity of the World War I. It lost its popularity when, after reaching the mass market, it was deemed gaudy and fake.

The 1960s saw the revival of the Art Nouveau style as a syntax of sexy, youthful rebellion after a major exhibit of Aubrey Beardsleys work. In 1964, Time Magazine announced that Art Nouveau is back, with scholarly exhibits popping up everywhere, and the style of the time reproduced in wall paper, notebooks, etc. It became the chic in-thing, becoming the core of a counterculture that centered in San Francisco.

Conclusion
When Art Nouveau was re-established as a major nineteenth century style during the sixties, people were highly dubious of the peoples sincerity in portraying this style. Like the age old debate on the legitimacy of Art Nouveau as art, they asked is this all just decorative. But in this study, we have come to understand the style in general is not just propelled by a need for extravagances, but reflects that societies current outlook faced by a daunting future filled with machinery and science, people reverted to the comforting notion of Nature in order to transition to a period of technology with veritable ease. Essentially, Art Nouveau did not just serve as a decorative form of art, but as a societys way of facing a changing future.

The Beginnings of Suffrage Movement
In the early 1900s, the womans movement had come to a standstill. Women activists had been campaigning for womens rights for over half a century, and many people in the United States already agreed that women deserved the right to vote. The activities of the National Womans Party (NWP) and the narrowed focus on suffrage came at the end of the early womens movement when many activists and supporters were trying to decide how they could re-energize the effort to reach their goalthe ballot for women.

The NWP alone did not gain suffrage for women. The NWPs activities came at the end of a mature movement for womens rights. The national and regional womans rights conventions that began in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York, formed the organizing principles and networks of the early womens movement. Out of the 1848 convention emerged the Declaration of Sentiments, the early movements manifesto. Along with listing the grievances that existed between women and society and acting as an ideological statement of the goals of the early womens movement, the resolutions that accompanied it included a demand for woman suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stantons speech to the Seneca Falls convention spoke clearly to those who objected to womens demand for the vote. She vehemently argued that the vote for women was a natural right of women citizens.

Although the conventions held for the next twelve years served to solidify support for womans rights, just as the movement began to gain momentum, it experienced internal conflict and the Civil War began. Womans rights activities ceased during the war. Linda Brigance writes When the war started in 1861, the most visible womens rights activity, the conventions, were discontinued.  After the war ended, women activists resumed their battle for womans rights and especially the right to vote. Women involved in the earlier womens movement and the war effort hoped that their contributions during the war might be rewarded with suffrage.

The suffragists experienced more internal conflict because of the Fourteenth Amendment, which not only did not give women the vote but also inserted the word male into the Constitution for the first time. Some took a principled stand for universal suffrage for women and African Americans, but others felt strongly that freed male slaves needed the political power that only the ballot could bring. The rift between factions of the suffragists grew, and in 1869, two separate organizations were created, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Henry Ward Beecher and Lucy Stone. The split lasted until 1890 when the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) emerged from the merger of the two organizations.

Suffragists realized that ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment meant that the vote would require constitutional change, and, therefore, they began the long, arduous process of pursuing a federal woman suffrage amendment. What became the Nineteenth Amendment was introduced first in December of 1868, followed in March of 1869 by a Joint Resolution to both Houses, but to no avail. Realizing the difficulty of achieving a federal amendment for woman suffrage, Susan B. Anthony registered and voted in the election of 1872. Following the unsuccessful attempts to introduce suffrage as a federal amendment, Anthonys vote, the exhausting defense of her position, woman suffragists worked to influence male voters and to introduce suffrage amendments into state legislatures and state constitutions.

Although the suffragists worked hard to achieve the vote, only a few states had enfranchised women. Accordingly, the period between 1890 and 1915 frequently was referred to as the doldrums. Campbell details their lack of progress By 1912, for example, after sixty-four years of organized effort, only nine Western states with forty-five electoral votes allowed women to vote. Explanations for the lack of progress and motivation range from the deaths of the original movements leaders, to a transition and upheaval in movement leadership, and to anti-suffrage ascendancy.

But, beginning in Washington in 1910, through Arizona in 1912, state referendum campaigns were beginning to be successful. During the lull in the woman suffrage campaign, NAWSA President Carrie Chapman Catt used her organizational finesse, leadership skills, and motivation to build a better organization. NAWSAs existence as a long-standing suffrage organization combined with its new leader and increased organizational strength provided the organization, public recognition, and national leadership needed to move the organization forward.

Carrie Chapman Catt contributed a great deal to NAWSA and the suffrage movement with her leadership from 1900 to 1904 and later from 1915 until 1920. She began her political work on the NAWSA Organizing Committee and proved her organizing skills during the late 1880s in suffrage campaigns in Iowa, Colorado, Idaho, and South Dakota. She resigned from the presidency of NAWSA in 1904 stating that she needed to rest and care for her husband and mother.

After Catts resignation in 1904, the Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw became president of NAWSA, a post she would hold until 1915. Carrie Chapman Catt had contributed leadership and organizing to the movement, but Anna Howard Shaws abilities as an orator made her invaluable to suffrage campaigns. Although Shaw successfully articulated suffrage arguments across the country, many doubted her administrative and organizational skills and feared that her connection with the Womans Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) would intertwine temperance and suffrage.

As president of NAWSA, Shaw willingly spoke for woman suffrage everywhere and as often as she could. During Shaws presidency, membership in NAWSA rose from 17,000 to 200,000, but woman suffrage did not prosper as rapidly as NAWSA membership thought it should. During the last years of Shaws presidency, NAWSA members and other suffrage supporters had become impatient with suffrage tactics and lack of progress. Before Shaw resigned, some NAWSA members questioned the state-by-state campaigns for suffrage and called for more militant tactics.

Alice Paul and Foundation of NWP
Born in 1885 into a Hicksite Quaker family in Moorsetown, N.J., Alice Paul attended Quaker schools and then Swarthmore College where she earned a B.A. in social work in 1905. Alice Pauls life as a Quaker influenced her role in the NWP, her philosophical justifications for her positions, and her connections to the womans movement. As Adams and Keane noted, Pauls Quaker faith assisted her in overcoming the obstacles faced by a women speaking in public.

Alice Paul earned a masters degree at University of Pennsylvania in 1907 and began her dissertation almost immediately. Pauls academic background was in sociology, political science and economics. She put her doctorate work on hold to accept a sociology fellowship in Woodbridge, England. This trip changed her life by introducing her to social issues and suffragism.

While in England, Paul observed not only the sentiments but also the militant tactical style of the British suffrage movement and was invited to stay beyond her fellowship to work as a caseworker or social worker. She agreed to stay and became infatuated with the British. suffrage movement. She became an active suffragette and demonstrated, was imprisoned, and marched in parades in favor of suffrage. She made strong political alliances, most importantly with Lucy Burns, with whom she created a dialogue regarding the American womens suffrage movement.

In 1907, Paul encountered Emmeline Pankhurst and the militant suffragettes of the WSPU. While in London, Paul joined the WSPUs activities and was arrested. Paul returned to the United States in 1910 anxious to use tactics similar to those of the Pankhursts in the U.S. struggle for suffrage. Her English experiences had convinced her that U.S. women needed to adopt new strategies in their struggle for equality and suffrage. As Adams and Keene comment When Paul came home, she recognized that her tie to the Pankhursts and her time in jail gave her access to the media and to women that she would not otherwise have had since she had no experience in American organizations.

The single-issue focus Paul assimilated in England shaped her views of the political process and the goals and tactics she chose for the NWP. After Pauls own arrest for picketing in front of the White House, she was examined by the federal hospitals psychiatrist, whose report of her condition clearly reflected Pauls dedication to suffrage. The doctor adjudged her sane but noted that she had a will of iron She would die for her cause but she would never give up.

What became the NWP originated out of NAWSA and evolved into an independent organization. In 1912, the Congressional Committee of the NAWSA was led by Alice Paul. It was charged with enfranchisement work at the federal level, including tracking legislation and lobbying. Early in 1912, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns met to discuss what they might do to pursue goals and tactics different than those of NAWSA. Burns and Paul presented NAWSA with a proposal that met with resistance because of its plan for an anti-Democratic party campaign and other militant actions.

After revision, NAWSA approved a march on Washington on the eve of Woodrow Wilsons inauguration. Paul was allowed to choose the members of her committee and to carry out all of the responsibilities for planning the parade. At that point, NAWSA made it clear that the Congressional Committee (CC) would have to raise their own operating expenses. The CCs first general meeting on January 2, 1913, drew women the CCs founding members had culled from their own contacts and the NAWSA Washington, D.C., membership list. The CC carried out a number of militant actions, but its primary contribution to the NWP would be the development of a focus on the federal amendment as the only means to attain suffrage.

The Congressional Committee (CC) became the Congressional Union (CU), which took the position that a combination of increased federal activity and militant demonstrations, marches, and pickets was necessary to reach the goal of a federal amendment for woman suffrage. NAWSA disagreed with the CUs militant tactics, its exclusive focus on a federal amendment, and the policy of holding the party in power responsible for the failure to pass the amendment. Although the CU started in 1913 as a division of NAWSA, the differences in membership, tactics, and philosophies soon drove the two groups apart.

These disagreements led the CU to sever any connection to its parent organization in 1914. The CU planned and executed many militant demonstrations, pickets, and deputations, which allowed Pauls ideas concerning strategies and a focus on a federal amendment to gain more adherents and more attention. In November of 1913, the CU began its own journal, the Suffragist, a move that symbolized a definite break from NAWSA.

In 1916, during a National Convention in Chicago, the CU merged with western womens movement organizations to become the National Womans Party and continued, with increased fervor, its fight for a federal woman suffrage amendment. Paul saw the creation of the NWP as a necessary tool to serve as the balance of power in the national election which promised to be closely contended. Creation of the NWP gave Paul and her followers increased strength and numbers due to the networks, membership, and activities of the groups that formed the new, National Organization. The NWP was founded with one aim, the need for a federal amendment for woman suffrage, and its new standing as a truly national organization made achievement of their goal increasingly feasible.

The NWPs militant tactics and successful use of the press pushed suffrage to the top of the agenda for the Congress, and the president, and it mobilized suffragists. Simply stated, the NWPs goal was to secure an amendment to the Constitution of the United States enfranchising the women of the whole country. In other words, the rhetorical situation called for actions that could influence the government, gain significant press attention, keep moderate supporters happy, and create and maintain the morale of NWP members.

NWP and Its Innovative Tactics
The NWP was the first organization to gain successful coverage in the press, to mobilize women and Congress to act, and to make use of both non-traditional and traditional strategies. Alice Paul and her well-organized band of determined and energetic women created an effective and highly respected press bureau that maintained almost constant press coverage of the NWPs activities and ideas. Other organizations had been radical andor militant in action and print, but no other womans rights group had seen the benefit of combining militant actions with sustained efforts to gain press coverage.

The NWPs strategies also went well beyond what other womens and suffrage organizations had done. Women had been speaking out in favor of suffrage, lobbying, and running state-by-state ratification campaigns since the late 1850s. All of the women campaigning for suffrage had violated the norms prescribed for women because of their appearances in public and interest in a political topic, but none had pushed the norms as far as the NWP did. Through their use of increasingly militant tactics, NWP members violated norms in ways that U.S. women had not previously attempted.

The visual and nonverbal tactics employed by the NWP challenged and adapted to norms for women while providing the woman suffrage movement with a much needed rhetoric of agitation and mobilization. Never before had women engaged in such strikingly political and militant actions. The marches, parades, pickets, watchfires, and other visualnonverbal tactics allowed NWP members to violate norms for women while giving voice to their concerns. The NWPs innovative visual and nonverbal tactics were so distinctive and attention-getting that audiences could not avoid them, yet they were so carefully feminized that they did not alienate supporters or audiences.

Realizing that not all women in the NWPs audience would approve of their more militant tactics, the NWP published the Suffragist. The Suffragist made the militant tactics of the NWP more palatable to women while educating them to be more effective advocates. A publication dedicated to the enfranchisement of women, the Suffragist was not without historical precedent. The Una, The Lily, The Revolution, the Womans Journal and the Womans Tribune, among others, preceded it, but all differed from it in content and purpose. Other womens journals were similar in reporting on organization activities, but differed due to their persuasive goals, their inclusion of literary pieces, their support of other social and political reforms, and their attention to aspects of domestic life.
The impact of the NWPs mobilizational techniques was heightened by the political situation of the time. Before and during 1910s, the United States experienced great turmoil. The increase in immigration, labor unrest, the onset of World War I (WWI), the paranoia of the Wilson administration, which led to the suppression and limitation of civil liberties, the birth of propaganda, and womens enfranchisement in the western states all affected the NWP and its actions.

Out of the stagnant period in the womans movement and the turbulence in society and politics, the NWP forged a new direction for the womens movement. The NWPs militancy and agitation encouraged movement members and sympathizers to take action. In her essay on Alice Paul, Vivian Gornick clearly stated the importance of the NWPs actions Carrie Chapman Catt could not see that Alice Pauls activism revitalized NAWSA and brought to an entire nation the urgency of womans suffrage as probably no other kind of action could have.

As the Congressional Union (CU) left the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to pursue goals that differed from those of the larger organization, the CU leaders saw the need for an internal publication. In order to mobilize women activists, the NWP needed a central place to issue information, to educate, to empower, and to train women to use the tools necessary for them to confront and overcome the numerous obstacles they faced. Its internal organ, the Suffragist, met those goals.

The Suffragist ran from November 15, 1913, to 1920. Begun as a weekly newspaper, it became a biweekly in 1919 and a monthly in 1920.3 It measured approximately eleven by fourteen inches, averaged eight to twelve pages, and balanced print with photographs or drawings. By December of 1913, the magazine claimed at least 1,200 paid subscribers the June 26, 1916, issue reported an average subscription rate of 3,320. The increasing circulation of the Suffragist allowed the NWP to counteract the unfavorable publicity given its militant tactics by some of the suffrage and general press.

Paul rejected a propaganda newspaper because she felt it hat mass persuasion in support of woman suffrage was no longer needed. Rather, suffrage sympathizers and supporters needed to be activatednot just to believe. As explained in the Salutatory

There is hardly a town, village, or wayside hamlet in the United States that has not been reached by the suffragists hardly a man or a woman in the United States who has not listened to suffrage speeches or read suffrage literature. There is not one single literate person, now in doubt, who can not easily and cheaply inform himself fully as to the merits of woman suffrage. It is a subject infinitely more familiar to voters than the tariff, the currency, or conservation. Therefore, we declare that woman suffrage has passed beyond propaganda and has reached its political stage.

Accordingly, the Suffragist would not attempt to persuade readers to support womans right to vote it assumed that readers already believed in woman suffrage all that remained in dispute were the means to achieve that goal. The Suffragist would be political in its focus on persuading readers of the necessity of a federal amendment and of participatory, militant action in order to achieve that goal.

The Suffragist differed from other woman suffrage publications because it abandoned the usual forms of persuasion in favor of a rhetoric of visualization and mobilization.7 While similar journals attempted to persuade readers to support woman suffrage and offered them arguments to defend their positions, the Suffragist assumed that such persuasion had been successful and aimed its efforts to complement the NWPs specialized focusto work for a federal amendment. Editor Rheta Childe Dorr accurately stated its purposes.

The Suffragist is the most important part of our work. We could not work effectively for the federal amendment unless our members were kept, by the paper, in close touch with the position of the suffrage amendment in Congress, the methods of Congressional action, and the plans and policy of the Union.

The NWPs political strategy was twofold to demand a federal amendment and to hold the party in power responsible for the failure of its enactment.

Because many NWP members might have been shocked by their more radical tactics, the NWP used a balance of traditional and non-traditional rhetoric and femininity in its internal communication. The Suffragist contained lengthy descriptions of NWP activities described in terms that framed them as moderate and traditional. Marches and parades were described as things of beauty and descriptions of those involved in the NWPs activities often referred to the womens families.

Once women had been educated in the workings of the government and energized to take action, the NWP had to convince suffragists that its militant tactics and focus on a Federal Amendment were the only ways to win suffrage. To gain passage of a suffrage amendment, the NWP focused its energies on less traditional, more militant tactics. The NWP justified it choices by arguing that state-by-state campaigns were too expensive, would take too long, and were too risky. The NWPs militant tactics demonstrated womens commitment to the cause as they mobilized supporters and pressured the government to take action on suffrage.

Militant NWP activists delivered pointed political messages chat challenged traditional norms for women. To counterbalance negative perceptions of these methods, they feminized their actions. The NWP paid careful attention to beautiful costumes, parades filled with elaborate floats, striking banners, and sashes of colored satin. Much of the militancy associated with NWP strategies stemmed from the controversy over women undertaking such actions in public. In other words, what is viewed as militant can vary. The traditional roles for women and their behavior affected how the public viewed the NWPs efforts. The simple acts of marching in a parade, carrying a banner, or picketing the White House became defiant, militant actions when carried out by women.

The NWPs innovative, non-traditional messages and tactics were made more palatable by careful attention to feminizing them. As part of their more radical tactics, the NWP countered the perception that suffragists were unsexed, fanatic women with feminine costumes and gestures. Plans for NWP demonstrations and parades stressed colorful, beautiful costumes and attractive floats covered with flowers. NWP activists appealed for their cause in tableaux vivants with characters dressed in flowing costumes, sent Suffrage Valentines and birthday cakes to senators, and hung flower-filled May baskets on the White House fence.

The NWPs first Washington, D.C, action was the march before Woodrow Wilsons inauguration on March 3, 1913, which followed months of careful planning and fundraising by CU executive committee members in Washington. The march required a great deal of money, and the CU formed a mens committee that was committed to raise 100,000, while the CU executive committee would raise 6,000. Substantial funds were needed because the CU (later the NWP) had not been involved in such public actions and needed to make enough banners, costumes, floats, and sashes to outfit between 5,000 and 8,000 people. Although the costs were high, the money raised far exceeded expenditures.

The procession began at the Capitol, moved up Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House, and ended in a mass meeting at the Hall of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Participants included women in costumes, floats, banners, suffrage groups from across the country, government dignitaries, bands, horses, the CU mens committee, and the CU executive committee. Like all the women who participated in any of the NWPs actions, participants were dressed in costumes or in uniformly white fashionable, feminine styles of the day. In most of the demonstrations, the women wore white dresses that could be accented by purple or yellow satin sashes (to show the NWP colorswhite, purple, gold) or VOTES FOR WOMEN sashes or a badge from the womans home state or other organizational affiliation.

The NWPs march achieved strategic goals by attracting a great deal of press coverage. The March 4, 1913, issue of the New York Times highlighted its impact on inaugural festivities in an article titled, WILSON EVADES VAST CROWDGoes by Side Streets to Hotel While Suffrage Parade is On, which described the NWPs impact on Wilsons reception

Woodrow Wilsons arrival in Washington to-day was not accompanied by the wildly enthusiastic welcome that might have been experienced. It was a strange greeting for the man who is to rule the Nation for the next four years. The suffragist parade was to blame. The crowds had found it a greater attraction.

Along with the women in costume and formation, the marches, parades, demonstrations, and other militant activities always included banners. One style of banner carried by NWP activists for most events consisted of the NWP tricolor, a banner suspended from a t-shaped carrier that consisted of three horizontal strips of fabric (purple, yellowgold, and white) sewn together.

Another tactic used was the voiceless (or living) speech. Similar to a message banner, a voiceless speech allowed NWP activists to present non-traditional messages in a silent, nonverbal, feminine fashion. Harriot Stanton Blatch describes the tactic of a voiceless speech in her January 28, 1913, letter to Alice Paul

You mount cards on an easel in the order of the list I am enclosing you leave the first in place until the crowd has read it, and then show the next one and so on. Mrs. Rogers is going to Washington on Thursday and will give any kind of information on the subject as she is the one who introduced it here. It was first used in the Ohio campaign.

Blatchs letter goes on to list thirty-one different cards to be used in a sample voiceless speech. The voiceless speech offered NWP members the opportunity to speak without breaking taboos against women speaking in public.

Many of these tactics also helped decrease the tension between speaking as a woman and speaking effectively. Because women had been kept from participation in politics, they lacked both public speaking experience and credibility. Now that NWP members were entering the public arena, they faced not only the taboo against women speaking in public and their lack of public speaking experience but also audiences hostile to their cause. The NWPs use of visual tactics parades, demonstrations, banners and costumesassisted women to overcome many of the obstacles they faced while allowing them to craft effective, pointed messages that were well adapted to the speakers and their audiences.

The NWPs persistence kept attention focused on them in Washington, D.C. In June 1917, NWP pickets began marching in front of the White House every day in a perpetual delegation to the president. The pickets ignored the weather, angry mobs, nasty crowds, and sore feet as they returned to the picket line day after day. Their constant presence at the White House gates and on the front pages of major newspapers across the country reminded the agents of change of the intensity of NWP commitment and made it clear that woman suffrage would be an inescapable part of the political agenda until the vote was won. In this manner, the NWP maintained constant pressure on the president and members of Congress while also dramatizing their message.

At first, the pickets were to be silent sentinels, but as time went on, the women engaged in educating, conversing, and debating with passersby. As Belinda Stillon Southard comments, The Silent Sentinels ultimately constituted a militant identity as women fighting for political voice. The Sentinelss simultaneous incorporation and subversion of dominant ideologies empowered and, shaped their militant identity and generated a unique brand of militancy. The early pickets carried out the NWPs nonverbal, traditional actions by picketing in silence and carrying banners identifying the theme of the day. The later and most common pickets embodied militant action as they verbally jousted with onlookers, carried specific, militant message banners, resisted arrest, and were arrested.

The NWPs militant tactics did not diminish in the face of crowd violence or the threat of arrests and imprisonment. The arrests and imprisonments did not quiet the NWPs call for a federal amendment. The NWPs non-traditional tactics had attracted attention and support beyond its wildest dreams. The Wilson administrations fatal mistake lay in its assumption that the arrests and imprisonments would denigrate the NWP and draw attention from its cause.

In August of 1917, members of the House and Senate discussed whether or not woman suffrage should be a war measure. In both houses, discussions made reference to the NWP pickets, but both bodies decided it was too early to take action. The NWP pickets continued as President Wilson included suffrage in his annual message to Congress on December 2, 1918. The NWP pickets ended their protest by calling on President Wilson to act immediately to passage in the Senate.

Finally, President Wilson called for a Special Session of Congress to convene on May 19, 1919. Early in May, President Wilson had secured the final vote needed for suffrage when he convinced Senator Nathaniel Harris of Georgia to vote for the suffrage amendment. The NWP had finally obtained action the president saw that suffrage must pass if his party was to survive. In Iron-Jawed Angels, Linda Ford provides the details of Wilsons final conversion to suffrage

The embarrassment of NWP demonstrations, their constant presence, and the pressure they generated on the President directly and indirectly from the public, did have an effect on Wilson. They definitely helpedmove him to take the last step. Wilson the politician, reading the public tide and avoiding any more political embarrassment, finally acted to ensure the woman suffrage amendment by persuading the last Senator and calling a special session.

In order to gain as much press coverage as possible from its varied tactics, the NWP formed a press bureau that developed savvy public relations strategies. The NWP press bureau assured that news of the NWPs activities reached the general public and politicians. The NWP was the first organization to combine militant, innovative actions with sustained efforts to gain press coverage. Unlike other womens organizations who bought space in newspapers for woman suffrage advertisements, the NWP had press agents who supplied newspapers with press releases and scoops.

The NWPs activities were planned to attract optimal press coverage. Stories about NWP events before they occurred that appeared in large and small papers across the country demonstrated the effectiveness of press bureau. The NWPs public relations enhanced the impact of militant and visual strategies, which were also newsworthy and appealing to journalists. Alice Paul realized that widespread press coverage of NWP actions would pressure and eventually embarrass the agents of change. The Wilson administration was particularly vulnerable after U.S. entry into World War.
World War I began in the midst of the NWPs activities, and it presented them with a difficult dilemma. When the Civil War began, womans rights activists discontinued their efforts in order to support the Union. After the war ended, women hoped that their contributions would be rewarded with suffrage, but they were disappointed. As the United States prepared to enter World War I, NAWSA leaders were similarly ready to defer their demands for suffrage. NAWSA members ended up fighting more for the war and less for suffrage.

Alice Paul and the NWP disagreed with the NAWSAs stand. Paul saw U.S. entry into World War I as an opportunity, not an obstacle. She realized the potential benefit of not waiting to fight for suffrage until after the war ended. Alice Paul knew that the rise in patriotism spurred by the war might increase antagonism toward the NWP, but she also realized that heightened patriotism would be the perfect backdrop for the NWPs calls for democracy and freedom for women.

Not until late in World War I did the rest of the country begin to realize the importance and persuasive potential of well-orchestrated public relations campaigns. Alice Paul and the NWPs press bureau preceded George Creel and his Committee on Public Information (CPI) by at least five years. As the NWP planned events designed to attract publicity and distributed press releases that gave the NWP a wholesome spin, they offered the country a glimpse of what was to comea world in which spontaneous and staged events could not be distinguished.

The NWP and Alice Paul Contributions to Woman Suffrage
Because the NWP came into existence near the end of a social movement that had engaged in ongoing persuasive campaigns throughout the nation for over fifty years, the NWP assumed that a majority already agreed with their cause. Accordingly, the NWP was faced with the problem of mobilizing their audiences to action. The voice of the NWP was the voice of Alice Paul. She argued that the only way women could win the vote was by holding the party in power responsible, adapting to journalistic norms to ensure press coverage, agitating to make their presence known (militancy),  lobbying the agents of change, and focusing on a single issuethe vote. The rhetoric of the NWP mobilized those who already believed in enfranchisement for women.

Although Alice Paul and the National Womans Party (NWP) played a key role in the battle for a federal amendment, they did not act alone. The NWPs brilliant battle for suffrage came at the end of a mature movement for womens rights. When the NWP entered the struggle for a federal amendment most people were familiar with the arguments for woman suffrage. Womens movement members and supporters, however, needed to re-energize their effort to gain woman suffrage.

Alice Paul, the NWP, and its politically savvy strategies provided the spark necessary to re-kindle the suffrage fire. The NWPs strategies and its influence on the press mobilized suffragists and cast suffrage as an issue that the Congress and the president could no longer ignore. The work of the U.S. womans movement from 1848 forward and especially the work of the NAWSA and Carrie Chapman Catts pragmatic Winning Plan laid the groundwork for the NWPs tightly focused, successful campaign.

To Catt and Paul the Winning Plan and the NWPs militant actions and focus on a federal amendment seemed incompatible. Paradoxically, the two strategies were complementary. Although Catt and Paul might not have agreed, their strategies reinforced each other. Although Alice Paul did not publicly criticize NAWSA or Carrie Chapman Catt, evidence from the NWP papers reveals that the NAWSA had tested her patience. A letter from NWP field worker Dora Lewis admonished Paul and asked her to use tact when corresponding with the NAWSA president

Mrs. Catt, at my request, is writing to you. Please write her very fully and very politely (you were not polite the day we met them at the New Willard, and I was a little disappointed in you, for I think we lose something when we do not maintain an absolutely equible demeanor, now, please dont show this to anybody, it is only meant for you) about these matters.

In a sense Catt was right, because it seemed that no organization could simultaneously embrace the NWPs strategies and the Winning Plan yet, because of the political and cultural climate of the time, both were necessary. Catt saw the NWP as an anathemairresponsible radicals whose idea of holding the party responsible was utterly wrongheaded and whose actions were detrimental to the cause of suffrage. Vivian Gornick disputes this view Carrie Chapman Catt could not see that Alice Pauls activism revitalized NAWSA and brought to an entire nation the urgency of womans suffrage as probably no other kind of action could have. The NWP put suffrage at the top of the national agenda and used constant pressure to demonstrate womens tireless commitment to the right to vote.

Catts Winning Plan systematically increased the numbers of pro-suffrage politicians and enfranchised women who elected them. Both the NAWSA and the NWP were committed to the same goalwoman suffrage. The two different leaders, their moderate and militant organizations, and their traditional and non-traditional strategies all worked together to forge a suffrage victory.

The NWPs strategies also assisted women in overcoming the numerous obstacles to women entering the public arena. The NWPs rhetoric of mobilization came at a particularly hard time for women who wanted to speak in public or participate in any movement. Although womens roles adjusted during World War I, the Cult of True Womanhood still held women hostage in the private sphere while also encouraging their submission. The mobilization rhetoric of the NWP provided women of the era with the tools necessary to participate successfully in the public arena. The irony of the feminine, traditionally dressed NWP activists engaging in non-traditional, militant rhetoric enabled women socialized into submissiveness to act.

The feminine style of NWP activists and many of their activities made the actions and goals more palatable to the audiences and to the women involved. The traditional framing of NWP activists and their activities assisted suffragists in overcoming an increasingly well-organized opposition. The anti-suffragists strongest social arguments stemmed from the cult of true womanhood,  a set of attitudes and norms of special force for advantaged white women who were likely to be the wives of business leaders and politicians, men of great influence in this struggle.

Alice Paul and the NWP believed that the tradition of representative government and Americans belief in freedom and democracy, emphasized in Wilsons war rhetoric, would counteract the anti-suffragists power while assisting their battle for enfranchisement. Anti-suffragists believed that the long-standing tradition of the appropriate roles for women would outweigh such vague political values.

Even though anti-suffragists were well-organized and heavily funded, they were no match for the NWPs timing, public relations efforts, and political sense. The NWPs fusion of traditional and nontraditional elements in its rhetoric of mobilization counteracted the anti-suffragists as it energized supporters. Activists had been fighting for womens rights since at least 1848 and those involved were accustomed to the arguments of the opposition and the slow pace of change.

When the NWP entered the battle for suffrage, the womans movement needed fresh approaches that could mobilize the energies of individual suffragists and reactivate the entire movement. The NWPs rhetoric achieved that by enlivening familiar arguments for suffrage, making the goal of a federal amendment seem attainable, pressuring and influencing the agents of change, and empowering women.
Alice Pauls impact on the NWPs rhetorical style should not be underestimated. The NWPs entry into the suffrage battle near the end of a mature social movement allowed Paul to make her rhetorical choices with knowledge of what tactics had and had not worked previously. In addition, her background as a Quaker, her experiences with the Pankhursts in England, her fierce dedication to the cause, and her advanced understanding of politics and public relations all contributed to the success of what would become the NWPs rhetoric of mobilization.

Vivian Gornick argues that when Paul returned to the United States from England in 1910, she brought the suffrage movement two things, the boldness of outrageous tactics and the ideabrought from England--that the suffragists must hold the party in power responsible for not passing the federal amendment. Holding the party in power responsible was less successful in the United States because of differences in the political system.

Campbell argues that Pauls policy of holding the party in power responsible had some merit because, it reflected a realistic assessment of the power of the Democratic Caucus in Congress and its influence on the floor and in committees. The policy was less successful in the state-by-state ratification process because of Republican majorities in many state legislatures.

Alice Pauls fierce dedication to woman suffrage and womens rights was fueled by her background as a Quaker and her experiences in England. Inez Haynes Irwin points to her intense, fanatical devotion to her cause, which was absolute. She loved books, for example, but during her battle for woman suffrage, she would not allow herself to enter a bookstore lest she be tempted to buy books not related to the cause.

NWP worker Anne Martin was quoted as saying, Alice Paul made a vow not to think or to read anything that was not connected with Suffrage until the Amendment was passed. In the NWP headquarters and museum, the explanation card next to a revolving bookshelf at Pauls bedside stated that she rarely slept. If someone forced her to go to bed, she would lie awake and read, until a reasonable amount of time had passed and it was safe to go back to work.

Her understanding of politics and the value of public relations was greatly enhanced during her time in Great Britain. As she joined the Pankhursts in their battle for suffrage, Paul began to understand the need to understand and influence the government. As Alice Paul participated in the Pankhursts militant actions and saw the press coverage their militant actions gained without the work of a press bureau or a comprehensive public relations plan, she realized the potential of implementing a formal press bureau for suffrage activities in the United States. Alice Pauls experiences in Great Britain, her motivation, and innovative ideas made the group she led different from any other womans group.

Conclusion
In early 1900s, after years of utilizing the strategy of campaigning for suffrage state-by-state, some became disillusioned that this method would work to achieve enfranchisement. The primary suffrage organization in power at the time, the NAWSA, became mired at the state and local level, settling into a low-keyed, plodding pace that characterized it until 1913. Some members of the NAWSA became dissatisfied and the suggestion to push for a federal amendment seemed a plausible strategy. The conservative and traditional leaders of the NAWSA saw no need to change the current strategy or philosophy of the movement until Alice Paul joined the ranks.

The combination of the NWPs innovative tactics, its focus on a single goal, its political and public relations savvy, and its ability to mobilize women and the government to act made it different from other womens rights organizations. The NWP was the first organization to gain successful coverage by the press, to mobilize women and Congress to action, and to make use of both traditional and non-traditional strategies.

Faced with the NWPs activities and their role in gaining suffrage, one is led to ask As a specific effort that came into being near the end of a larger, tired social movementwhat made the NWP able to agitate and mobilize women and agents of change to take action The answer is in its organizational force, the Suffragist its militant, visual tactics its traditional tactics its press bureau and public relations savvy and its decision to continue its work during World War I.

The NWPs innovative strategies worked together to create a steady pressure on Congress and the president. Each tactic became more successful due to the NWPs savvy use of and knowledge of the political system. As a result, the NWP played a key role in the passage of a federal suffrage amendment. Women who voted for the first time in 1920 should not be the only ones to gain from the experience and savvy of Alice Paul and the NWP.

On February 19, 1945, the United States invaded the island of Iwo Jima to capture the islands airfields. The battle was one of the fiercest battles of the Second World War. The Japanese Army was tasked to defend the island to the death. A month prior to the American invasion, the Japanese constructed bunkers, artillery positions, underground tunnels, and heavy fortifications around the island. Thousands of Japanese soldiers dug up on predefined positions, awaiting the American invasion.

The American invasion was supported by enormous naval and air bombardment. The American flotilla was composed of battleships, newly commissioned aircraft carriers, battle cruisers, and hundreds of support ships. On the first day of the battle, the Americans bombarded Japanese positions on the island. The US Marines launched preemptive attacks on shore defenses. For more than a month, the battle raged tenaciously. Thousands of US Marines and Japanese soldiers perished in the island.

Background
On October 20, 1944, an American invasion force landed in Leyte, Philippines. The objective of the invasion was to cut off Japan from its resource bases in Southeast Asia. The Japanese Navy reacted quickly by sending its heavy battleships and aircraft carriers to destroy the invasion force. The Japanese force was divided into three forces. The first force was under the command of Admiral Ozawa. It was composed of Japans remaining aircraft carriers. Its objective was to lure the main American naval force away from Leyte. Admiral Kurita commanded the main Japanese force. The center force consisted of five battleships, a dozen heavy cruisers, and seventeen destroyers. Its objective was to cross the San Bernardino Strait and destroy the unprotected American invasion force. The southern force was under the command of Admiral Nishimura. It consisted of two battleships, one heavy cruiser, and four destroyers. Its objective was to destroy the American invasion force from the South.

The American force guarding the San Bernardino Strait spotted Ozawas force. Admiral Halsey, commander of the US 3rd fleet, decided to pursue Ozawas force. Admiral Kurita seized the opportunity and ordered the main Japanese force to head for Leyte. Meanwhile, the Southern force headed for the Surigao Strait. In response to the impending Japanese attack, the Americans organized a small force of fast battleships and surface raiders. The American force repeatedly attacked the main Japanese force. The attacks were so intense that Kurita decided to withdraw. Meanwhile, Ozawas force made its last stand at Cape Engao. The Southern force also suffered the same fate. Only one of its two battleships survived the American onslaught.

The Japanese Navy suffered its greatest loss in the Battle of Leyte. Its failure to destroy the American invasion force from Leyte meant the loss of the Philippine islands. This also meant that Japan would be completely cut-off from its occupied territories in the south. Many of these territories provided Japan with invaluable resources necessary for the continued prosecution of the war. This also opened Japan for an invasion. Indeed, from a military perspective, Japans fate was sealed.

Japanese Strategy
The Japanese High Command assigned Lt. General Kuribayashi to defend the island of Iwo Jima. Breaking established military doctrine, Kuribayashi established strong, mutually supporting defensive lines within the island. The objective of such defense was to inflict heavy casualties on the Americans and delayed an American invasion of the mainland. Tanks were deployed in camouflaged positions.

Due to the expected heavy American bombardment, Mount Suribachi was organized as the main initial defense. A system of tunnels connected the mountain to the surrounding defenses. Bunkers and pillboxes were irregularly established throughout the island. Sniper positions were initially scarce. But after the landing of US marines, the number of sniper positions tripled.

General Kuribayashi was pessimistic of the outcome of the impending battle. He wrote to his wife
I may not return alive from this assignment, but let me assure you that I shall fight to the best of my ability, so that no disgrace will be brought upon our family. I shall fight as a son of Kuribayashi, the Samurai, and will behave in such a manner as to deserve the name of Kuribayashi. May ancestors guide me.

General Kuribayashi was a high-spirited military commander, born to serve in the Imperial Army. Newcomb and Schmidt provided an account of General Kuribayashi
In the service of thirty years, Kuribayashi served all over the world. In 1928, as a thirty-seven-year-old captain, he went to Washington as deputy military attach and for two years traveled throughout the country. He was intelligent and rational, much to the surprise of most American military officials. In his letter to the Japanese High Command, he wrote The United States is the last country in the world that Japan should fight. Its industrial potentiality is huge and fabulous, and indeed, its resources far outweigh any nation on the planet.

For Kuribayashi, the only way Japan could win a war against the United States is through surprise attack. A war of attrition would only worsen Japans situation. However, with no choice left, he had to follow the directives of the Japanese High Command.

American Strategy
American strategy was relatively straightforward. The 4th and 5th Marine Divisions were assigned to land on the southern end of the island and secure Mount Suribachi. The 3rd Marine Division would advance from the north and push Japanese forces inward. Prior to the invasion, B-24 bombers would bombard the island from the Marianas.

The US Marines requested a ten-day bombardment of the island but the navy refused the request arguing that it had to conserve ammunition for the eventual invasion of Okinawa, Japan. About a dozen capital ships bombarded Japanese positions from the sea. Two days prior to the impending American invasion, Japanese batteries opened fire on US gunboats. A US destroyer was hit killing 50 men. The counter bombardment exposed Japanese positions in the island. Regardless of the outcome of the heavy bombardment, the American invasion force was schedule to arrive on February 19, 1945.

The Americans studied previous battles in order to probe the effectiveness of any predetermined attack. As Haynes and Warren argued

The Corps studied the Gallipoli campaign closely and reached a different conclusion. The assault there cost the lives of more than 40 000 allied troops. It failed not because the Turks were better fighters than the British, Australians, and New Zealanders, but for lack of proper amphibious doctrine and equipment. Particularly glaring problems concerned the absence of specially designed landing craft and adequate supporting fire from ships and aircraft.

In response to the glaring difficulties of the impending invasion, the marines made adequate preparations for the attack. As Haynes and Warren correctly observed

Personal weapons and communications equipment and procedures had improved over those used in the earlier battles, such as Guadalcanal and Tarawa. So, too, the organization and tactics of tankers, demolition teams, and infantrymen had been revised and integrated in the light of earlier combat experience. By the time the 28th Marines were forming up, extraordinary progress had been made in coordinating the movement of troops ashore with supporting air and naval gunfire. By this time, it was widely recognized that large-caliber naval guns had to be used to knock out the largest enemy installations in advance of the landing and that such naval gunfire had to be accurate if the operation was to succeed without drastically high casualties.

Before the Invasion
On the 24th of February 1945, a large American invasion force sailed for Iwo Jima from American-controlled islands in the Pacific. On February 16, Japanese troops saw the American warships preparing to bombard the island. American aircraft carriers launched sorties to dislodge Japanese positions in the island. The US Navy planted underwater mines and explosives to prevent the remnants of the Japanese Navy from supporting the beleaguered Japanese forces. The marines installed large nets along the sides of the ships.

The American capital ships began to shell the island. The bombardment was so intense that observers argued that it was impossible for a single Japanese soldier to survive the onslaught.

The American Invasion
On the 19th of February 1945, the American battleships USS North Carolina, USS West Virginia, and USS Washington signaled the beginning of the American invasion of Iwo Jima. Hundreds of B-24 bombers attacked the island. The bombardment failed to destroy the Japanese defenses. Many of the Japanese defenses were heavily fortified and well-protected from bombardment. A significant number of Japanese troops were sheltered on Mount Suribachi. Japanese artillery was supported by massive fortifications inside the mountain.

Six hours after the commencement of the invasion, thirty thousand marines landed on the beach. The Japanese did not open fire. General Kuribayashi ordered his troops to hold fire until the beach was massing of marines and heavy equipment. American patrols began to move inland to search for hidden Japanese fortifications.

After the marines reached the first Japanese line of defense, the Japanese opened fire killing hundreds of marines. To the surprise of the Americans, the Japanese suddenly rose from the ground and opened fire on the advancing force. Advancing inland was extremely difficult since the ground consisted of soft volcanic ash. Japanese artillery easily destroyed American formations north and south of the mountain. Japanese artillery stationed in the mountain opened fire on the American flotilla. The Navy responded by pounding the island with heavy bombardment.

After the marines cleared the bunkers located on the beaches, they advanced inland. However, because the bunkers were connected by a system of tunnels, many of the deactivated bunkers became hostile again. The Army decided to bring in armored units to prevent sustain bombardment on the beaches. The marines were then able to advance inland and cut the mountain from the rest of the island.

At night, the Japanese launched surprise attacks against American positions in the island. The objective of these suicidal attacks was to stall the Americans from advancing inland. General Kuribayashi prohibited the use of such tactic because of its utility. At day, the marines were ambushed by Japanese soldiers stationed in temporary bunkers. Japanese artillery incessantly bombed American forces advancing inland.

The Americans soon learned that their firearms were ineffective against Japanese positions. The Army Command commissioned the use of grenades and frame throwers to destroy Japanese positions. The Sherman tank proved effective at disabling hidden Japanese fortifications.

On March 6, 1945, escort carriers arrived in the island. These ships provided the troops with invaluable air support and communication. On the same day, the marines began to establish artillery positions in the island to neutralize the main Japanese defense at Suribachi. After the third wave of marines secured the landing area, troops and heavy equipment massed along the beaches.

The Japanese were running out of basic provisions. General Kuribayashi informed the Japanese High command that defeat was imminent. He was unable to prevent his troops from launching suicide attacks against the marines.

The Flag
On the 23rd of February 1945, five US marines and a US Navy personnel raised the American flag on the top of Mount Suribachi. Joe Rosenthal took the photograph and presented it to the American public. The photograph became a historic symbol of war and liberty. On the same day, Suribachi was completely cut-off from the main Japanese force. At this point in time, the marines knew that the Japanese had a massive network of tunnels and hidden fortifications.

North of the Island
The loss of Suribachi was not the end of the battle. The Japanese still held impenetrable positions north of the mountain. The fortifications constructed at the northern end of the island were highly sophisticated. The remaining force consisted of one infantry division, a tank regiment, and several mortar battalions. The marines were tasked to capture the Motoyama Plateau and the surroundings hills, codenamed Hill 382 and Hill 362. The main objective though was to capture the second Japanese airfield.

The marines were caught up with the Japanese defenses. Marines were gunned down despite heavy naval bombardment. Few Japanese soldiers were captured. Despite the heavy Japanese defense, the marines were able to break the initial Japanese defense. General Erskine, the commander of the 9th Marine division, ordered a surprise attack. Japanese soldiers were still sleep when the marines attacked. The Japanese launched a general counterattack. The counterattacked failed miserably, allowing the Americans to capture Hill 362.

Captain Inouye of the 5th Japanese battalion launched a suicide attack with the objective of recapturing Mount Suribachi. The marines inflicted heavy casualties on the charging Japanese. Out of 1000 Japanese soldiers, 780 died.

The American Victory
On the 16th of March, 1945, the island was declared militarily secured. The island though was far from safe. General Kuribayashi still held strong positions at the northwestern end of the island. On March 21, the marines launched a powerful attack and destroyed Kuribayashis command post. Finally, on March 25, the Japanese launched a final counterattack near Airfield No.2 with the goal of breaking the main American force. More than half of the attacking force was either killed or wounded. The charge was the final act of sacrifice on the part of the Japanese soldiers to defend the homeland from invasion.

The marines began to establish military installations throughout the island in preparation for the impending assault of the Japanese mainland. Airfields were constructed to support air units from the Marianas (especially the Flying Fortresses). Naval units constantly guard the island for an expected Japanese counter invasion (which was very unlikely considering the conditions of the Japanese Army).

The Aftermath
Top American military officials downgraded the worth of the Iwo Jima campaign. General Jones, for example, argued that the campaign was unnecessary because the United States could simply bypass the island straight toward the mainland. The island proved impractical because the flying fortresses could simply head toward the mainland from the Marianas.

In reality, the lessons learned from the Iwo Jima campaign served as operational guidelines for succeeding battles.

Conclusion
The battle of Iwo Jima was the culminating battle of the Second World War. The Japanese Army had lost the initiative of defending the mainland from an American invasion by allowing the Americans to seize a foothold on Japanese soil. The Americans, on the other hand, was able to establish a base for an eventual attack on the mainland.

After the Czar abdicated in 1917, Russia was ripe for revolution. The Provisional Government failed to fulfill its promises to the people. The Russian army was on the verge of collapse. The countryside was in total chaos after the famine of 1917. Provision for the Russian army had dwindled. In urban centers, mass unemployment was a reality. In October 1917, the countrys foreign debt tripled.

Kerenskys unpopularity with the Soviet councils triggered mass strikes. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the workers seized control of production and distribution facilities owned by private individuals. The incompetence of the Provisional Government was manifested when it sent army units to arrest the rioting peasants. Instead of arresting the peasants, the soldiers joined them. The decision of the government to continue the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary further enraged the masses.

General Kornilov, the Chief Army Commander, initiated a military revolt and ordered troops to be deployed in Petrograd. The Bolsheviks rallied the workers to crush the revolt. The Red Guard supported by units from the navy and army defeated Kornilovs troops. With the defeat of Kornilov, the popularity of the Bolsheviks dramatically increased. On the 13th of August, the PSWSD adopted the main Bolshevik manifesto calling for the workers to takeover industrial and urban centers.

With the Bolsheviks in power, the Central Committee voted for the initiation of an uprising. The Bolsheviks led an uprising in Petrograd and subdued the Provisional Government. The Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace. By the 14th of October 1917, almost all major offices in Western Russia were on the hands of the Bolsheviks. On the 26 of October, the Second Congress of Soviets was established. The Congress decreed the arrest of the leaders of opposition parties. Members of the Menshevik faction were arrested as well as prominent army commanders.

The peasants were ordered to seize land and appoint leaders of the local Soviet councils. Vladimir Lenin established the Cheka to consolidate Bolshevik power in Western Russia. Suspected loyalists were terrorized. However, the revolution was far from complete. Fragments of the Russian Army loyal to the Czar gathered their strength and launched attacks against major Bolshevik strongholds.

The White Army was, in essence, a counter revolutionary force dedicated to the restoration of the Czar. Leaders of the White Army, however, were unwilling to yield power to a democratically elected government. Initially, the White Army was able to stale Bolshevik power in Central Russia and Siberia. However, the newly-organized Red Army was able to launch a powerful counterattack, driving the White Army eastward.

The success of the White revolution depended on the support of the Allies. General Wrangel convinced the Allies that a strike against Russias heartland was necessary in order to stall the revolution. Great Britain refused to heed the call. Following Britains lead, France also withdrew its initial support for the White Army. The Japanese Army, having occupied major parts of Siberia, also withdrew. The United States supplied the White Army with ample provisions, but after the Bolshevik victory over the White Army in Southern Russia, it stopped all shipments of provisions.

Lenin was now the absolute dictator of Russia. The Bolshevik Party, with its promises of land, bread, and peace became the slogan of the revolution. The feeble White reaction only triggered mass denunciation of the White Army. Indeed, after the October Revolution, Russia was a complete autocratic and socialist state.