St. Nicholas Day December 6th

The Birth of Santa Claus in the Eleventh Century

Dec 1, 2009 Michael Streich

The modern image of Santa Claus is a hybrid of old Germanic pagan beliefs and the Medieval Cult of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor.

Demre in Southern Turkey on the Mediterranean seacoast is a sleepy, nondescript city. Shops selling icons and other religious paraphernalia line the square. In ancient times, Demre was the seaport Myra, known for over 700 years as the home of St. Nicholas, an early 4th Century bishop imprisoned during the last great persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. His remains were removed, however, in 1087 BCE in an act of piracy and carried to Bari,Italy. The subsequent prosperity of Bari added to the already growing Cult of St. Nicholas throughout Europe and is still celebrated on December 6th by Catholics and Protestants.

Nicholas as Bishop of Myra

Nicholas was born in Patara. When his wealthy parents died, Nicholas used the money to help the poor. Eventually, as Bishop of Myra, several miracles were attributed to him. In one celebrated story, a destitute father of three sisters was going to give them over to a life of prostitution because he could not afford a dowry for a wedding. Three separate times, Nicholas secretly flung bags of gold into their home, saving them from a life of sin.

Another miracle relates the story of three murdered boys that were brought back to life by Nicholas. He also appeared in a dream to Emperor Constantine, appealing for the lives of three condemned men about to be executed. The innocent men were set free by the emperor. Nicholas was also present at the First Council at Nicaea where he denounced the Arian heresy

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The many legends surrounding Nicholas made him the protector of children. His cult helped shape the season of giving as well as the eventual relationship between children and Santa Claus. Medievalists Rosalind and Christopher Brooke point out that the Cult of St. Nicholas was already expanding in Europe before the theft of his remains from Myra and that the act of piracy may well have been a consequence of the growth of the cult.

Death and Legacy of St. Nicholas

The body of Nicholas was placed in a monastery in Myra where it remained until the latter 11th Century. The 1071 battle of Manzikert, however, left the city deserted as Muslims ravaged the Byzantine countryside. The monks living in the monastery fled, returning after the Muslims had left. When the merchants of Bari forcibly took the body of Nicholas, they told the monks that the saint had revealed in a dream his desire to be moved, citing the cowardice of the monks. The subsequent prosperity of Bari served as proof that the saint approved of the change

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In England, the Cult of St. Nicholas signaled the annual election of boy-bishops on December 6th. These youths officiated as bishops until December 28th. The practice was eventually abolished during the reign of Elizabeth I but continued in Germany until the end of the 18th-Century. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Sint Klaes gave way to Santa Claus and it was the Dutch that richly embellished the legend, turning the saint into the familiar figure wearing red and carrying a sack of toys to give to children.

John Delaney writes that the Santa Claus image may have been a merging of the St. Nicholas legend as well as old Germanic pagan folklore. In this belief, the god Thor, associated with winter and other Christmas symbols like the Yule log, rode in a chariot drawn by goats. As the Cult of Nicholas grew, Christian traditions and legends blended with more ancient beliefs, ultimately creating the modern image of Santa Claus.

Sources:

• Rosalind and Christopher Brooke, Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000-1300 (Thames and Hudson, 1984)
• John J. Delaney, Dictionary of the Saints (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1980)
• Anna G. Edmonds, Turkey’s Religious Sites (Istanbul: Damko Publications, 1998)
• Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975) 
• [Author's Visit to tomb in 2007]

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The copyright of the article St. Nicholas Day December 6th in Medieval History is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish St. Nicholas Day December 6th in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

 

Causes of the Great Depression

Overproduction Led to Inflated Stock and Corporate Valuation

Dec 4, 2009 Michael Streich

The laissez faire policies of Calvin Coolidge and Treasury Secretary Mellon led to a cycle of catastrophic economic failures resulting in the Great Depression.

Herbert Hoover was inaugurated President of the United States in 1929, the same year of the great stock market crash that served as the catalyst for the coming Great Depression. Although Hoover won election largely because “Coolidge Prosperity” defined a prosperous economy, the causes of catastrophic economic failure were not readily apparent or were ignored. The growing wave of bank failures as well as other key financial institutions resulted in widespread loss of confidence and set into motion unprecedented unemployment figures. Yet the overall causes of the Great Depression predated the fateful events of late 1929

The Coolidge Years and the Façade of Wealth

The expansion of consumer credit in the years following World War I enabled a spectacular increase in American consumerism. This encouraged overproduction as new technologies in manufacturing allowed businesses to produce more goods. The consequence of this was an inflated value of industrial capitalization. Stock prices, which kept rising, inflated the real value of corporations. In 1929 a share of Montgomery Ward stock sold at $439.00 – far higher than the actual value of the retailer.

World War I left many other nations facing depression. Many of these nations were tied to American financial investments and potential customers of American products. High tariffs, however, exacerbated a smooth flow of trade, creating an imbalance. The 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff, for example – coming after the 1929 crash, featured the highest tariff rate in U.S. history. American foreign interests were also jeopardized by social and political unrest in some of the most lucrative and important foreign markets.

The Coolidge years represented unfettered laissez faire for American business. Without federal regulation and oversight, financial institutions and banks were left to their own devices, even if that represented potential threats to the stability of the economy. Neither the Federal Trade Commission nor the Interstate Commerce Committee exercised enforcement. Even the Supreme Court, led by arch-conservative William Howard Taft, ruled against minimum wage laws, child labor, and government regulation of utility companies.

Failure to Address the Needs of Farmers

President Coolidge was not a friend of the American farmer. His response to victims of flooding was, “the government is not an insurer of its citizens against the hazards of the elements.” He also vetoed the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Act which was presented three times during the Coolidge presidency. The administration’s failure to address the needs of farmers led to the resurgence of the Progressive Party in 1924, led by Bob La Follette of Wisconsin and Burton Wheeler of Montana. The stock market crash and resulting depression fell particularly hard on farmers who saw agricultural prices drop dramatically. Wheat, which had sold for $1.05 a bushel, fell to 35 cents.

The Snowball Effect of the Stock Market Crash

One of the more important causes of the Great Depression was psychological. The widespread loss of confidence led to a cycle of steps that worsened the overall impact of financial collapse. The October 29th crash erased 90 billion dollars and caused the market to lose 75% of its value. Financial institutions immediately tightened credit and stopped making loans.

Despite pleas from President Hoover to maintain wages and workforce numbers, American businesses began to lay-off employees. By 1933 one third of the work force was unemployed representing 15 million people. As people lost jobs, consumerism evaporated. Without consumer spending, manufacturers and retailers were forced to cut inventories and laborers.

Causes of the Great Depression were Many

The federal government’s initial failure to step in and stimulate the economy heightened the growing economic disaster. Hoover and the Republican Party agreed with Calvin Coolidge that “business should be unhampered and free.” Many of the root causes could have been seen before 1929 but were ignored. A popular contemporary phrase refers to “connecting the dots.” This was not done in the 1920s and Americans were destined to over a decade of depression.

Sources:

• Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s (New York: Harper & Row, 1931)
• Anthony J. Badger, FDR The First Hundred Days (New York: Hill and Wang, 2008

This article is under copyright to Mike Streich. Any attempt at reproduction whether digital or print is strict prohibited and requires written permission from the write/author

 

Vietnam and Containment

Fear of Communism and French Pressure in Southeast Asia

Dec 9, 2009 Michael Streich

America's longest war began after World War II when France reasserted colonial pretensions in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh began a war of liberation based on Communist ideals.

The lengthy Vietnam War demonstrated that the United States was not invincible and that “Containment” as a policy had failed. Ultimately, the United States had failed to consider that a western-style democracy was incompatible with Vietnamese culture, tradition, religious beliefs, and an agricultural economy. Vietnam represented a political “domino” that fed into the prevailing model of worldwide Communist domination, yet Ho Chi Minh never fully conformed to the image of a Kremlin puppet. He was a nationalist who also embraced Communism. Had the U.S. taken a more pragmatic view of post-World War Two Indochina, the Vietnam War might have been avoided.

Japanese Occupation and French Colonialism

Southeast Asia had been occupied by Japan throughout the Second World War. During this time, an insurgent movement led by indigenous nationalists and assisted by covert U.S. assistance harassed Japan. Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, the Vietnamese people sought independence, repudiating their former status as a French colonial possession. Initially, the U.S. supported this. Historian George C. Herring describes a victory parade in which the Star Spangled Banner was played, American troops marched, and U.S. planes flew overhead. The first Vietnamese Constitution was modeled on the U.S. Constitution.

The European allies, however, notably France and Britain, were not ready to grant independence to any former colonial possessions and struggled to maintain the veneer of empire. When the United States granted independence to the Philippines, held as a territory since 1898, it hoped that the example would be followed by other European colonial powers. France was determined to reclaim Vietnam and the vast mineral resources in Southeast Asia.

Diplomatic Blackmail and Fears of Communism

Post-war France pressured the U.S. government into supporting its efforts at reclaiming Vietnam. This pressure amounted to a quid pro quo. The United States needed French help and support in rebuilding Europe, especially the implementation of the Marshall Plan. Further, as the Soviet Union consolidated power in Eastern Europe making any atomic threat by the U.S. untenable, French support became even more important.

By the time Ho Chi Minh galvanized the Vietnamese people against French efforts at restoring Vietnam as a colony, the Soviet Union had come to be seen as a global threat, seeking to impose Communist-style puppet regimes throughout the world. In the U.S., Communism took on a new persona, one that was diametrically opposed to democracy and freedom. Communism had to be contained and anti-Communist leaders like Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan and Syngman Rhee in South Korea had to be supported, despite their gross corruption.

Communism was antithetical to the free world and had to be suppressed wherever it appeared in the world. Foreign policies were based on a dualistic assumption of good and evil. It was inconceivable that Ho Chi Minh, for example, could – as a Communist, create a nation that would not be tied to the perceived global ambitions of Kremlin-orchestrated plots to snuff out democracy and freedom. These assumptions helped forge the long path toward the Vietnam War.

Vietnam as the Slough of Despond

Both the Truman and the Eisenhower administrations earmarked millions of dollars to assist the French in Vietnam. But, as William Lederer and Eugene Burdick demonstrated in their 1958 book The Ugly American, neither the French nor the American observers and advisers fully comprehended the strategy of jungle warfare. After the fall of Dienbienphu in 1954, the French withdrew. Vietnam was divided by the Geneva Accords (without significant U.S. participation) and the necessity of keeping the South free of Communist influence became an American priority.

Containment, however, proved to be futile despite massive U.S. financial and military assistance. In contemporary terms, the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese people were won by the Communists, not the representatives of democracy. Neither massive bombing, chemical warfare, nor troop surges stopped the inevitable consolidation of Vietnam into a fully Communist state.

Sources:

• George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam 1950-1975, 2nd Edition (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1986)
• General Bruce Palmer, Jr., The 25-Year War: America’s Military Role in Vietnam (The University Press of Kentucky, 1984)
• Randall Bennett Woods, J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Foreign Policy (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

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United States' Support of Israel Since 1948

Establishing a Jewish Homeland after Centuries of Persecution

Dec 12, 2009 Michael Streich

The rebirth of a Jewish homeland was the culmination of centuries of oppression and persecution, ending with the Holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel.

Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948 after a long struggle against British opposition. The United States was first to recognize the new state, followed by Soviet Russia. Israel’s rebirth, however, would be greeted with war from neighboring states as Middle East leaders vowed to drive Israel into the sea. The result of the many conflicts with neighbors increased the resolve of the United States to guarantee the sovereignty of Israel while at the same time balancing strategic and commercial interests within the Middle East. Israel’s initial support, however, was in the form of military equipment obtained from Russia through satellite countries like Czechoslovakia.

Zionism and the Creation of a Jewish Homeland

Despite theories advocated by a minority of historians that many European Jewish communities could not directly trace their long term roots to Palestine, prevailing views hold that Israel is the logical and historical site to accommodate a people persecuted for centuries. In a March 4, 2002 speech by James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the senator told his colleagues that, “I believe very strongly that we ought to support Israel, and that it has a right to the land, because God said so.” The Senator then quoted from Genesis 13: 14-17.

The Jewish people have, historically, been resilient in the face of calamity. After the Babylonian Captivity or exile in 597 BCE ended, Jews returned to Jerusalem, charged by the Persian king Cyrus to rebuild the temple. The candles of Hanukkah are reminders of the Maccabees’ struggles against Antiochus Epiphanes, a brutal and insane king. In 70 CE the Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem, beginning an extended process of Diaspora. Almost 2,000 years of European persecution that included massacres during the Crusades and the Bubonic Plague were vivid reminders that Jews would never be fully accepted by society.

Even as mid to late 19th century progress, tied to industrialization and the birth of the modern, promised an end to persecution, Anti-Semitism was still strong and frequently resulted in new demonstrations of intolerance as with the Dreyfus Affair in France or the Russian pogroms under Alexander III. Many Jews immigrated to the United States. In Europe, the birth of the Zionist Movement came with the realization that Jews would only be secure in a national homeland. That homeland became Israel.

Role of the Holocaust

It goes without saying that the more than six million Jews killed during the Holocaust served as a catalyst in the creation of Israel. Prominent American Zionists, members of the Jewish intellectual community, promoted this cause as an extension of American morality, values, and commitment to freedom. Writer Geoffrey Wheatcroft states that these men and women worked under a dual allegiance as good Americans striving to achieve the American dream but also supporting Zionist goals in terms of the security of Israel.

After 1948, according to historian Stephen Ambrose, Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion reminded President Truman that the survival of Israel was a priority for American Jews. Whether Truman interpreted this as a hint regarding the “Jewish vote” may be debatable, but the United States has striven to support Israel ever since the Truman administration’s iron clad guarantee of Israeli sovereignty.

Detractors and Critics

Critics point to the status of the Palestinian people, many of whom became displaced after 1948. They question the “doctrine of propinquity” which holds that Israel has turned a barren land into a productive nation, legitimizing land expansion. Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (also the Green Party candidate for U.S. President) has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and was recently arrested in Israel.

Despite criticism, United States regional interests depend upon close relations with Israel, a fact reemphasized by President Obama several times, including changing views of Israeli frontier settlements. Israel continues on its own path, however, working to ensure that no Holocaust will ever again befall the Jewish people.

Sources:

• Stephen E. Ambrose and Douglas G. Brinkley, Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 (Penguin, 1997)
• Senator Jim Inhofe, “Israel’s Right to the Land,” U.S. Senate Speech, March 4, 2002
• Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Controversy of Zion: Jewish Nationalism, the Jewish State, and the Unresolved Jewish Dilemma (Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1996)

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The copyright of the article United States' Support of Israel Since 1948 in American History is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish United States' Support of Israel Since 1948 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.