With the economy in the current chaotic condition, many investors turn to gold as a stable investment. Gold has been the basis for American currency for a long time and one of the most well known events involving the precious metal is the California Gold Rush that began in 1848 and lasted until 1855. Gold was discovered in California by James Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in the town of Coloma on January 24, 1848. The news of his find spread like wildfire and more than 300,000 men, women, and children made their way to California from all corners of the world.
The early gold seekers were referred to as “forty-niners” and they journeyed to California by boat and covered wagon and the trip provided many hardships. Most of the early settlers were Americans but they were joined by many thousands of people from Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. In the beginning, the gold was removed from streams and rivers by panning. This is the method most associated with prospecting involving scooping soil into a pan and sifting through the sand looking for gold flakes and nuggets.
An Illustrated History of Women in World War II: Sixty-five years ago, in a time of oil shortages, rising food prices and war, American women found the strength and skill to meet tremendous challenges. Their resourceful and energetic response to crisis, pictorially portrayed for the first time in the book When Our Mothers Went to War: An Illustrated History of Women in World War II, is an inspiring example for the nation today.
The pressures of World War II on the home front and overseas thrust women into roles previously denied them by custom and law, and generated impressive new capabilities. With the men gone, women stepped up to factory, farm and office jobs of every kind to keep the nation running. They also salvaged an incredible array of needed commodities, recycling everything from nylons to bacon fat. In victory gardens and neighborhood canning centers, women joined together to preserve local foods and ensure food security.
Their resilience and hard work did not end on the home front. Overseas, as frontline nurses, WACs, spies, news correspondents, resistance fighters, USO entertainers, Red Cross volunteers, and even prisoners of war, women risked the intensity and violence of the combat zone.
When people think of women in World War II, they envision Rosie the Riveter or the “kiss in Times Square.” Women did that and so much more. When Our Mothers Went to War intermixes hundreds of photographs and a concise overview of the war with women’s personal stories to show the courage and accomplishments of U.S. women in a dangerous time.
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About the Author: Margaret Regis, a writer and independent historian, is the coauthor of two previous books on World War II: The Attack on Pearl Harbor: An Illustrated History and U.S. Submarines in World War II: An Illustrated History.
When Our Mothers Went to War: An Illustrated History of Women in World War II |
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Tags: An Illustrated History of Women in World War II, Careers and World War II on DVD, female Red Cross volunteers, female USO entertainers, History CDs & DVDs Store, Margaret Regis, Rosie the Riveter, second world war, WACs, When Our Mothers Went To War, Women, Women and Religion Throughout History CD, women as news correspondents, women as spies, women frontline nurses, Women of the Civil War CD, women prisoners of war, women resistance fighters, world war 2, World War II, World War II Newsreels 4 DVD Film Library, WW2, WWII
The infamous pirate that we associate with danger and daring on the high seas is a strong presence in the imagination of children and adults alike. Piracy has existed for as long as seafaring vessels have existed but the glorified history of piracy as we know it reached a peak in the period known as the Golden Age of Piracy, between 1690 and 1730. The pirates preyed on merchant vessels, mostly in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and created an aura about them that instilled fear and trepidation in anyone who came across the iconic Jolly Roger. Piracy was most closely associated with this symbol of entertainment with death; lore about the pirates’ customs as well as costume rose with the prevalence of the Jolly Roger at sea.
Pirates took a firm place in the legends and stories of 17th and 18th century Europe, in novels such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Lord Byron’s poem, The Corsair. The description of the pirate in literature and legend may not have matched the reality of the hard-bitten and tattered fighter at sea, but became vivid enough to last through the centuries in a picturesque make-over. The pirate we envision is festooned with his flintlock pistol and trusted cutlass at either side and dons a tricorn hat as he ascends his ship’s masthead with telescope in hand to sight the next ship to be looted. The tricorn was a hat with its three sides turned up in a triangle when looked at from above– it was typically made of wool felt and came in basic colors such as brown and black, though sailors and pirates would adorn their hats in any number of ways. The clothing pirates wore was not different from that of their contemporary sailors and would have consisted of canvas doublets and breeches, linen shirts, and stockings– items designed to be somewhat consistent with the requirements of manning a ship.
The kepi became a common part of the American civil war soldier’s uniform, used by both the North and South, typically in shades of dark blue, grey, or brown. Slightly different in shape from the French version, the American kepi, also called a forage cap or bummer cap, was a slightly less structured form that tapered toward the top. The dark blue kepi was favored by the Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson as can be seen in the monument made to his memory in Manassas, Virginia where the Battle of Bull Run was fought. By 1902, the kepi was discontinued as part of the U.S. military outfit, though it remained the quintessential cap for the French gendarme up until very recently. 
