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America in a global context

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Bracero Program. The bracero program (named for the Spanish term bracero, meaning "manual laborer" [lit.

Bracero Program

"one who works using his arms"]) was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated by an August 1942 exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Mexico, for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States.

DDT paper

Rivera Court: Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Fresco Paintings — The Detroit Institute of Arts. Print Page The Detroit Industry fresco cycle was conceived by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957) as a tribute to the city's manufacturing base and labor force of the 1930s.

Rivera Court: Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Fresco Paintings — The Detroit Institute of Arts

Rivera completed the twenty-seven panel work in eleven months, from April 1932 to March 1933. It is considered the finest example of Mexican mural art in the United States, and the artist thought it the best work of his career. Rivera was a Marxist who believed that art belonged on public walls rather than in private galleries. He found his medium in the fresco, where paint is applied to wet plaster. Want to learn more about the murals? The DIA offers a multimedia tour of Detroit Industry, available on iPads at the museum's Rivera Court Information desk and online at acoustiguidetours.com.

The tour is also available as a free downloadable app for iPad users. Detroit Industry: The Murals of Diego Rivera. Detroit Industry Murals. The Detroit Industry Murals are a series of frescoes by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, consisting of twenty-seven panels depicting industry at the Ford Motor Company.

Detroit Industry Murals

Together they surround the Rivera Court in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Painted between 1932 and 1933, they were considered by Rivera to be his most successful work.[1] The two main panels on the North and South walls depict laborers working at Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Plant. Other panels depict advances made in various scientific fields, such as medicine and new technology. The series of murals, taken as a whole, represents the idea that all actions and ideas are one. Notoriety[edit] Even before the murals were made there had been controversy surrounding Rivera's Marxist philosophy. One panel on the North wall displays a Christ-like child figure with golden hair reminiscent of a halo. "Rivera's politics and his publicity seeking are detestable.

References[edit] External links[edit] Greg Grandin. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City: Greg Grandin: 9780312429621: Amazon.com. Fordlândia. During the 1920s Henry Ford was benefiting from a major boom in the automobile industry.

Fordlândia

His company was selling thousands upon thousands of cars and needed massive amounts of rubber to make tires. Unfortunately, rubber manufacturers in East Asia were running a virtual monopoly that drove up the price of raw materials. Fordlandia in the Amazon. "Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City" Democracy Now 7/2/09 1 of 2. The Ruins of Fordlândia. A dilapidated building from Fordlandia In the early 20th century, a cartel of Dutch and English rubber barons had a stranglehold on the vast majority of the world's supply of rubber.

The Ruins of Fordlândia

At that time the sole source of rubber was the South American tree Hevea brasiliensis, whose sap is natural latex. In the 1870s a gaggle of entrepreneurial smugglers had secreted a stash of wild rubber tree seeds out of the Amazon rain forest, which they used to establish sprawling plantations in East Asia. Harry Bennett. Background[edit]

Harry Bennett

Walking the secret passageways of Harry Bennett’s heavily-fortified Ypsilanti castle. I just received a note from Nathan Ayers, the guy who won the first $1,000 grant from A2Awesome.

Walking the secret passageways of Harry Bennett’s heavily-fortified Ypsilanti castle

He wanted to let me know that, back in 1984, the television program PM Magazine ran a feature on Harry Bennett’s fortress on the banks of the Huron River, in Ypsilanti. Bennett, for those of you don’t know, was Henry Ford’s Chief of Security, and, as such, is rumored to have done all kinds of unspeakable shit in order to advance the agenda of the Ford Motor Company, and keep the employees from unionizing… Here’s the video. And, here’s an interesting aside, as long as we’re discussing Bennett. "Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City" Democracy Now 7/2/09 1 of 2. Family Attraction and Travel Destination, Dearborn, Detroit, Michigan.

The Henry Ford. The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and more formally as the Edison Institute) is a large indoor and outdoor history museum complex and a National Historic Landmark in the Metro Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, USA.[2][3] Named for its founder, the noted automobile industrialist Henry Ford, and based on his desire to preserve items of historical significance and portray the Industrial Revolution, the property houses a vast array of famous homes, machinery, exhibits, and Americana.

The Henry Ford

The collection contains many rare exhibits including John F. Kennedy's presidential limousine, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, and the Rosa Parks bus. Henry Ford said of his museum: I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used....

History[edit] Henry Ford Museum[edit] Greenfield Village[edit] A glimpse of Greenfield Village Signature events[edit]