9.1: Monitoring Population Size
The primary aim of population monitoring is to detect changes in the environment, population size, and species distribution over time. Such monitoring efforts frequently focus on a particular area or a population of concern, but it can also target more common but sensitive species, such as butterflies and macroinvertebrates, which can function as indicator species to assess ecosystem condition (Section 4.2.6). The great number of methods (which are all types of surveys) used to monitor populations usually fall into one of three different categories: biodiversity inventories, population censuses, and demographic studies.
Biodiversity inventories
The primary aim of population monitoring is to detect changes in the environment, population size, and species’ distributions over time.
A biodiversity inventory is an attempt to document which species are present in some defined locality. Such an effort can focus on one specific taxa (e.g. a bird survey) or several taxa, on a small area (e.g. a city park) or large area (e.g. a large national park), over a short period of time (e.g. a few hours) or long period of time (e.g. several years, Box 9.1). There are many methods to compile a biodiversity inventory, ranging from uncomplicated to highly organised, performed by a single person or a large team of experts. Some of the most popular methods for biodiversity inventories include site visits by professional naturalists and questionnaires distributed among local people. To tap into the knowledge and eagerness of amateur naturalists, conservation biologists are also increasingly compiling biodiversity inventories using citizen science surveys (see Box 15.3). Rapid biodiversity assessments (RAP) are sometimes used to compile an inventory under tight deadlines to answer urgent questions and inform urgent decisions. A bioblitz is a special type of biodiversity inventory during which experts on a range of taxa come together to record all the living species within a designated area over a brief period (usually over 24 hours).
Marc Stalmans 1 and Piotr Naskrecki 2
1 Scientific Services, Gorongosa National Park,
Mozambique.
2 E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory, Gorongosa National Park,
Mozambique.
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>and<EMAIL_ADDRESS>The 4,000 km 2 Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique was proclaimed in 1960 to protect one of the highest densities of large herbivores at the southern end of Africa’s Great Rift Valley (Tinley, 1977). National Parks are often victims of war and political instability and Gorongosa National Park is no exception. It suffered grievously during the protracted period of civil war from the early 1970s to early 1990s. During this time the park lost 90–99% of its elephants, common hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibious, VU), African buffalo (Syncerus caffer, NT), plains zebras, and common wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus, LC) through poaching by warring parties and hunters from nearby cities and rural communities.
Since then, restoration efforts that started in earnest in 2004 have brought about a spectacular recovery of several affected large mammal populations (Bouley et al., 2018; Stalmans et al., 2019). But conservation management cannot only focus on these flagship species. Considering, amongst others, the impact of climate change and the importance of agriculture (with its associated pests and pollinators) to rural communities, it is vital that conservationists understand the breadth of biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem functioning. To accomplish this, a program of systematic biodiversity surveys is currently being undertaken in Gorongosa. Each year, a group of international and national specialists team up with park technicians and rangers to conduct a three-week long bioblitz in a subsection of the park. These surveys also serve as training opportunities to prepare young Mozambican scientists to apply modern biological survey methods and technologies.
By the beginning of 2019, a total of nearly 5,900 species represented by some 44,000 observations have been entered into the park’s biodiversity database. Based on these data, initial projections suggest that Gorongosa protects 37,500–76,500 different species. Vertebrates are likely to number 850–1,000 species, while plants are estimated to number 2,000–3,000 species. Single orders of insects far exceed those numbers; for example, there may be 3,000–5,000 species of wasps, and 4,000–6,000 species of moths of which 15–25% may be new to science. Local ecosystems are also particularly rich. For the surveys around the Bunga inselbergs (Figure 9.A) in 2015, at least 580 species of butterflies and moths were collected, most of them never before recorded from the Park. Forty species of katydids were recorded, with two species of significance. A large population of Debrona cervina, a large arboreal katydid was discovered, until now known only from two type specimens collected in 1890. Also collected was the predaceous katydid Peringueyella macrocephala, Mozambique’s largest katydid, previously known only from a handful of specimens collected between 1850 and 1965. About 100 species of grasshoppers were recorded, including two species new to science. Additionally, about 30 species of mantids were recorded, including Rhomboderella thorectes, a species previously known from the single holotype collected in the early 1900s. It is expected that the full inventory of the park’s biodiversity will span a period of 20 years.
Biodiversity inventories play an important role in the management of Gorongosa and other national parks, especially in long-term conservation planning. Amongst others, baseline data obtained from our surveys will be used in future to measure overall biodiversity responses to large mammal population changes, evolving patterns of land use around the park, and the impact of climate change. Future biodiversity surveys will also target little known areas adjacent to the park to provide information required for corridor planning.
While biodiversity inventories seldom offer the kinds of detailed data required to predict likelihood of a species’ persistence, they have several uses in conservation. First, a biodiversity inventory can be a comparatively inexpensive and straightforward method to broadly monitor an area’s species and populations. Biodiversity inventories conducted over a wide area can also help determine the distribution of a species, while a comparison with follow-up inventories can highlight distribution changes (which often correspond to population changes). This was well illustrated in a study that used repeated citizen scientist surveys to investigate how songbird distributions have changed across South Africa, Lesotho, and eSwatini between 1987 and 2013 (Péron and Altwegg, 2015).
Population censuses
A population census (also called a count) uses a repeatable sampling protocol to estimate the abundance or density of a population or species which, in turn, can tell us whether a population is doing well or not. When a species is easy to detect, relatively sedentary, and the sampling area is small, a comprehensive census of all individuals may be possible. However, comprehensive censuses are generally very difficult, if not impossible, to conduct when implemented on large or highly mobile populations, or over large areas. In these cases, it may be better to restrict the census to a more manageable subsection of the population, by dividing the area of interest into sampling units, and randomly censusing only some of the units. Population estimates that capture only a fraction of the overall population can then serve as an index for broader trends, or it can be used to estimate the total population size through extrapolation, if the researcher knows which fraction of the population or area was counted.
Some popular methods for censusing subsections of wildlife populations are, sampling plots, distance sampling, and mark-recapture surveys. Sampling plots are popular in studies focussing on plants and invertebrates, allowing biologists to systematically count each individual observed in a small area (Figure 9.2). Birds and mammals are often censused using distance sampling, during which all observed individuals on predetermined transects or from points are tallied. The number of individuals observed in the count area can then be extrapolated to obtain population size (or density) estimates for individual (or multiple) species observed across the entire area of interest. Aerial censuses are often used to conduct distance sampling transects over large and open areas, while point counts and walked line-transects are more popular for small areas or closed-canopy ecosystems (White and Edward, 2000). Mark-recapture surveys, mark-resight surveys, and sight-resight surveys are popular for species that are easy to catch, trap, or individually recognized. In this case, captured (and thus counted) individuals would be marked for future identification, after which the total population in an area is estimated by accounting for the proportion of marked and unmarked individuals seen on subsequent visits. The marking of animals can be done with a variety of procedures, including using highly visible tags, paint approved for animal use, or unique marks on the animal itself. One creative study used tourists’ photographs to generate a mark-recapture dataset, which was used to estimate the size of cheetah and African wild dog (Lycaon pictus, EN) populations in South Africa’s Kruger National Park (Marnewick et al., 2014). Like inventories, population censuses can sometimes also lead to unexpected yet important findings: the first comprehensive population survey of sea turtles breeding on Africa’s Atlantic coast recently alerted marine biologists to the fact that Gabon hosts several globally important rookeries (Box 9.2).
Angela Formia
Wildlife Conservation Society,
Global Conservation Program,
New York, NY, USA.
Virtually all the characteristics of sea turtles’ life histories make them difficult to study and conserve. They are long-lived, slow growing, migratory, and almost entirely ocean-dwelling. Although they return to their natal beaches to reproduce, these are usually thousands of kilometres from their developmental and adult foraging grounds. In addition, sea turtle habitat often overlaps with areas of high human use such as developed coastlines and intensive fisheries. Describing population ranges and assessing interaction with human threats is thus critical to their survival.
Over recent decades, we have learnt much about sea turtles along the coastline of Africa (Figure 9.B) thanks to extensive research efforts. For instance, we know that these coasts host globally important populations of green turtles (Chelonia mydas, EN) in Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Republic of the Congo; loggerheads (Caretta caretta, VU) on Cabo Verde; hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricata, CR), on São Tomé and Principe; leatherbacks (Dermochelys coriacea, VU) in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon; and olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea, VU) in Gabon and Angola.
One of Africa’s most remarkable sea turtle populations is Gabon’s leatherback rookery, the biggest in the world with as many as 15,000 to 41,000 nesting females (Witt et al., 2009). Gabon also hosts the largest olive ridley rookery in the Atlantic (Metcalfe et al., 2015), and foraging grounds for green and hawksbill turtles. Until the late 1990s, virtually nothing was known about these populations, other than the fact that eggs and adults were frequently collected for human consumption. Since then, a multi-pronged approach has been adopted to describe and protect Gabon’s sea turtles. Intensive coastal monitoring has allowed scientists to assess spatio-temporal trends in nesting frequency and abundance, and levels of nest-site fidelity and reproductive success. Using techniques, such as satellite telemetry, flipper tagging, oceanic modelling, and dispersal simulations, and genetic and isotopic analyses, researchers have been able to map sea turtle behavior at sea, in Gabon’s coastal waters, and during post-nesting migrations to foraging grounds off South America and South Africa (i.e. Formia et al., 2006, Maxwell et al., 2011, Witt et al., 2011, Pikesley et al., 2018).
Building upon this knowledge, measures have been established to quantify and reduce the impact of threats to Gabon’s sea turtles. In 2002, the Gabonese government created a system of national parks and protected areas encompassing approximately 80% of Gabon’s sea turtle nests; in 2017, a new network of 20 marine protected areas (MPA) was officially created, covering 26% of Gabon’s territorial waters (Parker, 2017). Laws enacted in 2011 prohibit all hunting, capture, and commercialisation of sea turtles. Trained observers on-board industrial fishing vessels quantify sea turtle bycatch from bottom trawling and tuna seiners and reduce mortality by treating and releasing captured turtles. In addition, the Gabonese government now requires that all shrimp trawlers use turtle excluder devices (TED), aluminium grids sewn into the nets allowing sea turtles and other large bycatch to escape, while conserving shrimp catch; similar devices are being developed for fish trawlers. Ongoing efforts are shifting traditional turtle hunting and other destructive practices toward more sustainable fisheries. Turtle-watching ecotourism also represents a growing potential to increase awareness and incentivize conservation efforts.
Nevertheless, African sea turtle conservation remains a formidable challenge. Although the economic context is changing rapidly, impoverished coastal villagers in many countries continue to collect turtles and eggs for local consumption or market sale, and many wealthier urbanites continue to consider them delicacies. These problems are often compounded by corruption, political instability, inadequate law enforcement, and development priorities focused on destructive exploitation. With funding deficits, combating these challenges sometimes seems like a losing battle, but public attitudes are slowly shifting. Even in remote beach villages, the idea that a turtle alive is worth more than dead is no longer such a bizarre concept.
Demographic studies
Demographic studies monitor individuals of different ages and sizes over time (Figure 9.3) to obtain a more comprehensive dataset than would be produced by population censuses. Most demographic studies use the same methods that what would be used for a population census; however, in addition to counting and marking, individuals would also be aged, measured for size and body condition, and sexed, when possible. The best demographic studies involve collecting these data from the same individuals over time, which is easiest when working with sedentary species (e.g. plants), populations in an enclosed space (e.g. in a small fenced reserve), animals that are fairly resident and/or habituated to human presence, or individuals carrying biologging devices (Kays et al., 2015). This may not always be possible, in which case biologists may obtain data from different individuals during each field session, to serve as an index for larger population trends.
The data obtained from demographic studies are often used in combination with mathematical modelling to guide and refine conservation strategies. For example, researchers frequently compare the age structure (i.e. the percentage of juveniles, reproductively active adults, and older post-reproductive-age adults) of a declining population to that of a stable population to identify causes of decline, and the population parameters that are most sensitive to disturbances. This information can then be used to predict population sizes at different points in the future, and how those populations may respond to different management scenarios. The aim of many demographic studies is to predict, and identify strategies to reduce, extinction risk (see Section 9.2).
Recent progress in collecting survey data
Conservation activities are regularly impeded by insufficient information. This is especially true in tropical regions of the world, where most threatened species lack demographic data, and some species lack reliable data altogether. Faced with these gaps, biologists have started using several innovative methods to fill data gaps. Prominent examples include using market surveys (e.g. Kümpel et al., 2010, Ingram et al., 2015) and interviews with local people (e.g. Edwards and Plagányi, 2008) to obtain much-needed baseline survey data. It is important to note that such datasets, obtained second-hand rather than directly, can be unreliable and biased, especially if data are collected from harvesters unwilling to report on their own illegal activities. It is thus important to combine potentially unreliable datasets with reliable datasets, or obtain independent verification, before using such data to make important decisions. One such example comes from West Africa, where researchers wanted to quantify extinction risk for the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti, EN). Here, biologists related unreliable market survey data to two reliable datasets—orphan intake rate at wildlife sanctuaries and the number of young in wild groups—to estimate that the region’s chimpanzees might be extinct within the next 20 years because hunting was two to 13 times higher than the population could sustain (Hughes et al., 2011).
Camera traps, hair snares, and faecal samples all provide non-invasive sampling techniques to obtain baseline data needed for conservation assessments.
Collecting genetic material on elusive and rarely-seen animals with non-invasive techniques such as hair snares and faecal sampling are also becoming increasingly popular means of collecting survey data. Researchers in Gabon did just that, by using genetic material obtained from dung to estimate the population size, gender ratio, age distribution, breeding status, relatedness, and dispersal patterns of the region’s forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) population (Eggert et al., 2013). These non-invasive techniques reduce the need for researchers to be in the field, thereby reducing both the researchers’ exposure to dangerous conditions and disturbances to the populations they are trying to monitor.
Camera traps represent another non-invasive survey technique whose popularity has greatly increased in recent years. These special cameras, often placed at supplemental food or next to wildlife paths, are activated automatically when an animal passes into the area covered by the camera’s motion sensors (Figure 9.4). This photographic record of movement can then be used to obtain biodiversity inventories, population size estimations, or even to compile demographic datasets (Steenweg et al., 2017). Creative researchers at South Africa’s Robben Island even successfully combined camera trapping with human facial recognition technology—more generally associated with law enforcement—to automate monitoring of individual African penguins (Spheniscus demersus, EN) (Sherley et al., 2010).


2.2.3: The temperature-volume relationship
-
- Last updated
- Save as PDF
Consider a gas in a cylinder with a piston in Fig. 7.3.1. Increasing temperature increases the average kinetic energy ( KE ) of the gas molecules. The kinetic energy ( KE ) is directly proportional to the velocity of the molecules, i.e., \(KE=\frac{1}{2}mv^2\nonumber\), where m is the mass and v is the velocity. So, increasing temperature increases the velocity resulting in more frequent and more forceful collisions resulting in increased gas pressure inside the chamber. The gas volume starts to increase causing the pressure to decrease until the pressure inside the chamber is equal to the pressure outside. In other words, increasing temperature increases the volume of the gas if the pressure and amount of gas are not changed.
If two related parameters increase or decrease together, they are directly proportional to each other.
Charles's law
Charles’s law states that the volume of a given amount of gas is directly proportional to the temperature in the Kelvin scale at constant pressure.
Fig. 7.3.2 demonstrates that the volume of a gas decreases when the gas is cooled down.
The mathematical forms of Charles’s law are the following.
\[V\propto{T}\nonumber\], or \[V=\mathrm{k}T\nonumber\], or \[\frac{V}{T}=\mathrm{k}\nonumber\]
, where k is a constant, V is volume, and T is the temperature (in kelvin scale) of the gas. Since \(\frac{V}{T}\) is a constant, it implies that
\[\frac{V_{1}}{T_{1}}=\frac{V_{2}}{T_{2}}=\mathrm{k}\nonumber\]
where V 1 is the initial volume, T 1 is the initial temperature in Kelvin, V 2 is the final volume, and T 2 is the final temperature in Kelvin, provided the amount of gas and pressure do not change. Note that the kelvin scale is used in Charles’s law because the kelvin scale does not have negative numbers which means the linear curve starts from the origin without any y-intercept. If the given temperature is not in the kelvin scale, first convert the temperature to the Kelvin scale and then use the gas laws for the calculations.
Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)
A sample of CO 2 occupies 3.23 L volume at 25.0 o C. Calculate the volume of the gas at 50.0 o C if pressure and amount of gas do not change?
Solution
Given: T 1 = 25.0 o C + 273 = 298 K, T 2 = 50.0 o C + 273 = 323 K, V 1 = 3.23 L, V 2 = ?
Formula: \(\frac{V_1}{T_1}=\frac{V_2}{T_2}\), rearrange the formula to isolate the desired variable: \(V_{2}=\frac{V_{1} T_{2}}{T_{1}}\)
Plug in the values in the rearranged formula and calculate: \(V_{2}=\frac{3.23 \mathrm{~L} \times 323 \mathrm{~K}}{298 \mathrm{~K}}=3.50 \mathrm{~L}\)
Charles’s law explains the drifting of warm air upward in the atmosphere. As the gas is wormed, its volume increases and its density decreases which makes the gas drift upward. A hot air balloon, shown in Fig. 7.3.3 operates using hot air.


12.10C: Spinal Reflexes
- Distinguish between the types of spinal reflexes
Spinal reflexes include the stretch reflex, the Golgi tendon reflex, the crossed extensor reflex, and the withdrawal reflex.
Stretch Reflex
The stretch reflex (myotatic reflex) is a muscle contraction in response to stretching within the muscle. This reflex has the shortest latency of all spinal reflexes. It is a monosynaptic reflex that provides automatic regulation of skeletal muscle length.
When a muscle lengthens, the muscle spindle is stretched and its nerve activity increases. This increases alpha motor neuron activity, causing the muscle fibers to contract and thus resist the stretching. A secondary set of neurons also causes the opposing muscle to relax. The reflex functions to maintain the muscle at a constant length.
Golgi Tendon Reflex
The Golgi tendon reflex is a normal component of the reflex arc of the peripheral nervous system. The tendon reflex operates as a feedback mechanism to control muscle tension by causing muscle relaxation before muscle force becomes so great that tendons might be torn.
Although the tendon reflex is less sensitive than the stretch reflex, it can override the stretch reflex when tension is great, making you drop a very heavy weight, for example. Like the stretch reflex, the tendon reflex is ipsilateral.
The sensory receptors for this reflex are called Golgi tendon receptors, and lie within a tendon near its junction with a muscle. In contrast to muscle spindles, which are sensitive to changes in muscle length, tendon organs detect and respond to changes in muscle tension that are caused by a passive stretch or muscular contraction.
Crossed Extensor Reflex
Jendrassik maneuver : The Jendrassik maneuver is a medical maneuver wherein the patient flexes both sets of fingers into a hook-like form and interlocks those sets of fingers together (note the hands of the patient in the chair). This maneuver is used often when testing the patellar reflex, as it forces the patient to concentrate on the interlocking of the fingers and prevents conscious inhibition or influence of the reflex.
The crossed extensor reflex is a withdrawal reflex. The reflex occurs when the flexors in the withdrawing limb contract and the extensors relax, while in the other limb, the opposite occurs. An example of this is when a person steps on a nail, the leg that is stepping on the nail pulls away, while the other leg takes the weight of the whole body.
The crossed extensor reflex is contralateral, meaning the reflex occurs on the opposite side of the body from the stimulus. To produce this reflex, branches of the afferent nerve fibers cross from the stimulated side of the body to the contralateral side of the spinal cord. There, they synapse with interneurons, which in turn, excite or inhibit alpha motor neurons to the muscles of the contralateral limb.
Withdrawal Reflex
The withdrawal reflex (nociceptive or flexor withdrawal reflex) is a spinal reflex intended to protect the body from damaging stimuli. It is polysynaptic, and causes the stimulation of sensory, association, and motor neurons.
When a person touches a hot object and withdraws his hand from it without thinking about it, the heat stimulates temperature and danger receptors in the skin, triggering a sensory impulse that travels to the central nervous system. The sensory neuron then synapses with interneurons that connect to motor neurons. Some of these send motor impulses to the flexors to allow withdrawal.
Some motor neurons send inhibitory impulses to the extensors so flexion is not inhibited—this is referred to as reciprocal innervation. Although this is a reflex, there are two interesting aspects to it:
- The body can be trained to override that reflex.
- An unconscious body (or even drunk or drugged bodies) will not exhibit the reflex.
Golgi tendon organ : The Golgi tendon organ, responsible for the Golgi tendon reflex, is diagrammed with its typical position in a muscle (left), neuronal connections in spinal cord (middle), and expanded schematic (right). The tendon organ is a stretch receptor that signals the amount of force on the muscle and protects the muscle from excessively heavy loads by causing the muscle to relax and drop the load.
Key Points
- The stretch reflex is a monosynaptic reflex that regulates muscle length through neuronal stimulation at the muscle spindle. The alpha motor neurons resist stretching by causing contraction, and the gamma motor neurons control the sensitivity of the reflex.
- The stretch and Golgi tendon reflexes work in tandem to control muscle length and tension. Both are examples of ipsilateral reflexes, meaning the reflex occurs on the same side of the body as the stimulus.
- The crossed extensor reflex is a contralateral reflex that allows the body to compensate on one side for a stimulus on the other. For example, when one foot steps on a nail, the crossed extensor reflex shifts the body’s weight onto the other foot, protecting and withdrawing the foot on the nail.
- The withdrawal reflex and the more-specific pain withdrawal reflex involve withdrawal in response to a stimulus (or pain). When pain receptors, called nociceptors, are stimulated, reciprocal innervations stimulate the flexors to withdraw and inhibit the extensors to ensure they are unable to prevent flexion and withdrawal.
Key Terms
- golgi tendon reflex : A normal component of the reflex arc of the peripheral nervous system. In this reflex, a skeletal muscle contraction causes the agonist muscle to simultaneously lengthen and relax. This reflex is also called the inverse myotatic reflex because it is the inverse of the stretch reflex. Although muscle tension is increasing during the contraction, the alpha motor neurons in the spinal cord that supply the muscle are inhibited. However, antagonistic muscles are activated.
- alpha motor neuron : These are large, lower motor neurons of the brainstem and spinal cord. They innervate the extrafusal muscle fibers of skeletal muscle and are directly responsible for initiating their contraction. Alpha motor neurons are distinct from gamma motor neurons that innervate the intrafusal muscle fibers of muscle spindles.
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY
- Curation and Revision. Authored by : Boundless.com. Provided by : Boundless.com. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION
- Reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Anatomy and Physiology of Animals/Nervous System. Provided by : Wikibooks. Located at : en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Anatomy...tem%23Reflexes . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Reflex arc. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex_arc . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- reflex arc. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/reflex%20arc . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- sensory neuron. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/sensory%20neuron . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Withdrawal Reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- motor neuron. Provided by : Wiktionary. Located at : en.wiktionary.org/wiki/motor_neuron . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Anatomy and physiology of animals A reflex arc. Provided by : Wikimedia. Located at : commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...reflex_arc.jpg . License : CC BY: Attribution
- Pain withdrawal reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_withdrawal_reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Crossed extensor reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossed_extensor_reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Golgi tendon reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgi_tendon_reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Withdrawal reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Stretch reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- alpha motor neuron. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/alpha%20motor%20neuron . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- golgi tendon reflex. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/golgi%20tendon%20reflex . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- List of reflexes. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reflexes . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Anatomy and physiology of animals A reflex arc. Provided by : Wikimedia. Located at : commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anatomy_and_physiology_of_animals_A_reflex_arc.jpg . License : CC BY: Attribution
- Tendon organ model. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tendon_organ_model.jpg . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
- Gehuchten Jendrassik maneuver. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gehuchten_Jendrassik_maneuver.JPG . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright


13.7: Trends in Information Technology
-
- Last updated
- Save as PDF
6. What are the leading trends in information technology?
Information technology is a continually evolving field. The fast pace and amount of change, coupled with IT’s broad reach, make it especially challenging to isolate industry trends. From the time we write this chapter to the time you read it—as little as six months—new trends will appear, and those that seemed important may fade. However, some trends that are reshaping today’s IT landscape are digital forensics, the shift to a distributed workforce, and the increasing use of grid computing.
Cyber Sleuthing: A New Style of Crime Busting
What helped investigators bring suit against Enron, Merck’s Vioxx medication, and the BTK serial killer? Digital evidence taken from an individual’s computer or corporate network—web pages, pictures, documents, and e-mails are part of a relatively new science called digital forensics. Digital-forensics software safeguards electronic evidence used in investigations by creating a duplicate of a hard drive that an investigator can search by keyword, file type, or access date. Digital forensics is also evolving into areas such as cloud computing and blockchain technology. For instance, it is estimated that as much as 3.9 million of the original 21 million bitcoins are “lost” on hard drives confined to landfills and flash drives located in the back of old office desks. 21
But nowadays digital sleuthing is not limited to law enforcement. Companies such as Walmart, Target, and American Express have their own secret in-house digital forensics teams. And what if you’re in New York and need to seize a hard drive in Hong Kong? No problem. Over 75 members of the Fortune 500 now use technology that allows them to search hard drives remotely over their corporate networks. Digital forensics makes it possible to track down those who steal corporate data and intellectual property. Broadcom, a semiconductor chip designer, used computer forensics to investigate and apprehend former employees who were attempting to steal trade secrets. In the process, Broadcom gathered incriminating e-mails, including deleted documents, that gave it solid evidence to use the 2013 Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to stop the former employees from starting up a rival firm. 22
However, there is a downside to having these advanced capabilities. If this kind of software falls into the wrong hands, sophisticated hackers could access corporate networks and individual computers as easily as taking candy from a baby—and the victims would not even know it was happening. In an age of corporate wrongdoing, sexual predators, and computer porn, your hard drive will tell investigators everything they need to know about your behavior and interests, good and bad. Cybersleuthing means we are all potential targets of digital forensics. As evidenced by the huge increase in identity theft, personal privacy—once an unassailable right—is no longer as sacred as it once was.
 The FBI’s computer analysis response team confirms their caseload includes 800 cases reported per day in 2017. To keep up with the changing world we live in, law enforcement, corporations, and government agencies have turned to new crime-fighting tools, one of the most effective being digital forensics.
The leader in this technology is Guidance Software, founded in 1997 to develop solutions that search, identify, recover, and deliver digital information in a forensically sound and cost-effective manner. Headquartered in Pasadena, California, the company employs 391 people at offices and training facilities in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; New York City; and Brazil, England, and Singapore. The company’s more than 20,000 high-profile clients include leading police agencies, government investigation and law enforcement agencies, and Fortune 1000 corporations in the financial service, insurance, high-tech and consulting, health care, and utility industries.
Guidance Software’s suite of EnCase® solutions is the first computer forensics tool able to provide world-class electronic investigative capabilities for large-scale complex investigations. Law enforcement officers, government/corporate investigators, and consultants around the world can now benefit from computer forensics that exceed anything previously available. The software offers an investigative infrastructure that provides network-enabled investigations, enterprise-wide integration with other security technologies, and powerful search and collection tools. With EnCase, clients can conduct digital investigations, handle large-scale data collection needs, and respond to external attacks.
Notably, the company’s software was used by law enforcement in the Casey Anthony murder case and the Sony PlayStation security breach, and was used to examine data retrieved by the U.S. special forces in the Osama bin Laden raid.
Guidance Software also helps reduce corporate and personal liability when investigating computer-related fraud, intellectual property theft, and employee misconduct. It protects against network threats such as hackers, worms, and viruses and hidden threats such as malicious code.
In response to increases in the number and scope of discovery requests, Guidance Software developed its eDiscovery Suite. The software package dramatically improves the practice of large-scale discovery—the identification, collection, cataloging, and saving of evidence—required in almost every major legal case these days. eDiscovery integrates with other litigation-support software to significantly decrease the time for corporations to accomplish these tasks. At the same time, it improves regulatory compliance and reduces disruption. The result is many millions of dollars in cost savings. In late 2017, Guidance Software was acquired by OpenText, an enterprise information management company that employs more than 10,000 people worldwide.
Sources: FBI website, www.fbi.gov, accessed January 15, 2018; Guidance Software website, https://www.guidancesoftware.com , accessed January 15, 2018; OpenText website, https://www.opentext.com , accessed January 15, 2018; “Casey Anthony: The Computer Forensics,” The State v Casey Anthony website , https://statevcasey.wordpress.com , July 18, 2011; Declan McCullagh, “Finding Treasures in Bin Laden Computers,” CBS News , https://www.cbsnews.com , May 6, 2011; Evan Narcisse, “ Who’s Cleaning Up the PSN Debacle for Sony?” Time, http://techland.time.com , May 4, 2011.
Critical Thinking Questions
- How is Guidance Software responding to and helping to manage changes in our technology-driven world?
- What other types of forensics software do you foresee a need for in the future? Do you think there are ethical issues in using forensics software, and why?
- What are the benefits and risks of Guidance Software being acquired by a larger company?
The Distributed Workforce
Insurance company Aetna shuttered 2.7 million square feet of office space, saving the company $78 million, while American Express estimates it saved between $10 to $15 million dollars per year by expanding its distributed workforce. Was this a sign that these company were in trouble? Far from it. Instead of maintaining expensive offices in multiple locations, they sent employees home to work and adopted a new model for employees: the distributed workforce. Employees have no permanent office space and work from home or on the road. The shift to virtual workers has been a huge success, and not only do companies save on their personnel and related costs, but they also have happier, more productive employees.
Aetna and American Express are not alone in recognizing the benefits of distributed workers, especially in companies that depend on knowledge workers. Work Design Collaborative LLC in Prescott, Arizona, estimates that about 12 percent of all workers in the United States fall into this category, and in urban areas the number could be as high as 15 percent. There are estimates that this trend could eventually reach 40 percent over the next decade, as long commutes, high gas costs, and better connecting tools and technologies make this an attractive option for many workers who like the flexibility of not working in an office. 23 Already, employees use the internet to conduct video-conferenced meetings and collaborate on teams that span the globe. On the downside, working from home can also mean being available 24/7—although most workers consider the trade-off well worth it.
According to recent statistics, close to four million U.S. workers work from home at least half of the time. Remote workers continue to be recruited by companies of all sizes, including Amazon, Dell, Salesforce, and others. 24 Intel has a successful virtual-work program that has been popular with working parents. “Technology allows working remotely to be completely invisible,” says Laura Dionne, the company’s director of supply-chain transformation. At Boeing, thousands of employees participate in the virtual-work program, and it has been a critical factor in attracting and retaining younger workers. Almost half of Sun Microsystems’ employees are “location-independent,” reducing real estate costs by $300 million. Additional benefits for Sun are higher productivity from these workers and the ability to hire the best talent. “Our people working these remote schedules are the happiest employees we have, and they have the lowest attrition rates,” says Bill MacGowan, senior vice president for human resources at Sun. “Would I rather settle on someone mediocre in the Bay Area, or get the best person in the country who is willing to work remotely?” 25
Grid and Cloud Computing Offer Powerful Solutions
How can smaller companies that occasionally need to perform difficult and large-scale computational tasks find a way to accomplish their projects? They can turn to grid or cloud computing , also called utility computing or peer-to-peer computing. Cloud and grid technology provides a way to divide the job into many smaller tasks and distribute them to a virtual supercomputer consisting of many small computers linked into a common network. Combining multiple desktop machines results in computing power that exceeds supercomputer speeds. A hardware and software infrastructure clusters and integrates computers and applications from multiple sources, harnessing unused power in existing PCs and networks. This structure distributes computational resources but maintains central control of the process. A central server acts as a team leader and traffic monitor. The controlling cluster server divides a task into subtasks, assigns the work to computers on the grid with surplus processing power, combines the results, and moves on to the next task until the job is finished. Exhibit 13.9 shows how typical grid and cloud setups work, and the differences between the two.
With utility computing, any company—large or small—can access the software and computer capacity on an as-needed basis. One of the big advantages of cloud computing is that companies can update their inventory in real time across their entire organization.  If you have one model of a Whirlpool washing machine in your Des Moines, Iowa, store, and a salesperson in your Chicago location can sell that model in Chicago, the sale can be accomplished pretty easily. They can finalize the sale, create the shipping instructions, and update the inventory record automatically—and the Chicago consumer’s needs will be met. 26
Amazon, Google, IBM, Salesforce.com, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise are among the companies providing as-needed cloud and grid services. Although cloud and grid computing appears similar to outsourcing or on-demand software from ASPs, it has two key differences:
- Pricing is set per-use, whereas outsourcing involves fixed-price contracts.
- Cloud and grid computing goes beyond hosted software and includes computer and networking equipment as well as services.
The cloud and grids provide a very cost-effective way to provide computing power for complex projects in areas such as weather research and financial and biomedical modeling. Because the computing infrastructure already exists—they tap into computer capacity that is otherwise unused—the cost is quite low. The increased interest in cloud and grid technology will continue to contribute to high growth.
CONCEPT CHECK
- How are companies and other organizations using digital forensics to obtain critical information?
- Why do companies find that productivity rises when they offer employees the option of joining the virtual workforce?
- What advantages do grid and cloud computing offer a company? What are some of the downsides to using this method?


8.7: Introduction to Dividing Fractions
Dividing fractions is one of the hardest ideas in elementary school mathematics. By now, you are used to the rule: to divide by a fraction, multiply by its reciprocal. (“invert and multiply”). But ask yourself: Why does this rule work? Does it really make sense to you? Can you explain why it makes sense to a third grader?
We are going to build up to the “invert and multiply” rule, but along the way, we’ll find some more meaningful ways to understand division of fractions. So please play along: pretend that you don’t already know the “invert and multiply” rule, and solve the problems in this chapter with other methods.
Groups of Equal Size
Remember the quotative model for division: \(18 \div 3\) means:
How many groups of 3 can I find in 18?
We start with 18 dots (or candy bars or molecules), and we make groups of 3 dots (or 3 whatevers). We ask: how many groups can we make?
18 dots, split into groups of 3 dots. Since there are 6 groups, we have 18 : 3 = 6.
This same idea applies when we divide fractions. For example, \(6 \div 23\) means:
How many groups of \(\frac{2}{3}\) can I find in 6?
Let’s draw a picture of 6 pies, and see how many groups of \(\frac{2}{3}\) we can find:
We found nine equal groups of size \(\frac{2}{3}\), so we conclude that \[6 \div \frac{2}{3} = 9 \ldotp \nonumber \]
Unfortunately, it’s not always quite so straightforward to find the equal groups. For example, \(\frac{3}{4} \div \frac{1}{3}\) asks the question:
How many groups of \(\frac{1}{3}\) can I find in \(\frac{3}{4}\)?
Let’s draw a picture of \(\frac{3}{4}\) of a pie, and see how many groups of \(\frac{1}{3}\) we can find:
The first pictures shows \(\frac{3}{4}\) of a pie. The second picture shows two equal groups of \(\frac{1}{3}\) inside of \(\frac{3}{4}\), but there’s a little bit left over. We conclude \(\frac{3}{4} \div \frac{1}{3} = 2 + \text{a tiny bit more} \ldotp\) But how much more? Can we figure it out exactly?
Here’s a method that will let you do the computation exactly. We’ll use rectangular pies, and divide them up into rows and columns based on the denominators of the numbers we’re dividing.
Start by drawing two identical rectangles, each with 4 rows (from the denominator of \(\frac{3}{4}\) and 3 columns (from the denominator of \(\frac{1}{3}\)).
Shade \(\frac{3}{4}\) of the first rectangle (this is exactly three rows), and shade \(\frac{1}{3}\) of the second rectangle (so that’s one column).
Now ask: how many copies of \(\frac{1}{3}\) can I find in \(\frac{3}{4}\)? Well, \(\frac{1}{3}\) is equal to four of the smaller squares. So we find groups equal to that:
In the picture of \(\frac{3}{4}\), we can find:
- two groups of four squares (two groups of \(\frac{1}{3}\)), and
- one square left over, which is \(\frac{1}{4}\) of the group we’re looking for.
We conclude: \[\frac{3}{4} \div \frac{1}{3} = 2 \frac{1}{4} \ldotp \nonumber \]
Use either method above to find the following quotients. Remember, pretend that you don’t know any method to divide fractions except finding equal-sized groups.
\[\frac{3}{4} \div \frac{1}{2} \qquad \frac{1}{3} \div \frac{1}{2} \qquad \frac{4}{9} \div \frac{1}{3} \qquad \frac{4}{5} \div \frac{1}{3} \qquad \frac{3}{5} \div \frac{3}{4} \qquad \frac{3}{2} \div \frac{1}{2} \qquad \frac{2}{3} \div \frac{1}{2} \nonumber \]
Common Denominator Method
Solve each of the following fraction division problems using the “groups of equal size” method: \(\frac{6}{4} \div \frac{3}{4}, \frac{6}{10} \div \frac{3}{10}, \frac{8}{9} \div \frac{4}{9}, \frac{6}{33} \div \frac{2}{33}, \frac{5}{4} \div \frac{2}{4}, \frac{5}{2} \div \frac{2}{2}, \frac{5}{10} \div \frac{2}{10}\) What do you notice?
This leads to our first fraction division method:
If two fractions have the same denominator, then when you divide them, you can just divide the numerators. In symbols, \[\frac{a}{d} \div \frac{b}{d} = \frac{a}{b} \ldotp \nonumber \]
- Use the common denominator method to find these quotients: \(\frac{1}{3} \div \frac{2}{3}, \frac{5}{8} \div \frac{3}{8}, \frac{3}{8} \div \frac{5}{8}, \frac{15}{33} \div \frac{1}{33}\)
- What if the fractions do not have a common denominator? Is the method useless, or can you find a way to make it work? Can you solve these problems? \(\frac{3}{5} \div \frac{3}{4}, \frac{3}{4} \div \frac{8}{7}, \frac{2}{3} \div \frac{1}{2},\frac{5}{8} \div \frac{1}{4} \ldotp\)
Missing Factor Method
We know that we can always turn a division problem into a “missing factor” multiplication problem. Can that help us compute fraction division? Sometimes!
For each division problem, rewrite it as a missing factor multiplication question. Then find the quotient using what you know about multiplying fractions.
\[\frac{9}{10} \div \frac{3}{5}, \qquad \frac{7}{8} \div \frac{1}{4}, \qquad \frac{6}{7} \div \frac{3}{7}, \qquad \frac{10}{9} \div \frac{2}{3}, \qquad \frac{25}{12} \div \frac{5}{6} \ldotp \nonumber \]
Unfortunately, the missing factor method doesn’t always work out so nicely. For example,
\[\frac{3}{4} \div \frac{1}{3} = \_\_ \nonumber \]
can be rewritten as
\[\frac{1}{3} \cdot \_\_ = \frac{3}{4} \ldotp \nonumber \]
There isn’t a nice ratio of whole numbers that obviously fills in the blank, but we’ll come back to this idea and resolve it soon.


8.13A: Energy Conservation and Autotrophy in Archaea
- Discuss archaea energy sources
Archaea exhibit a variety of chemical reactions in their metabolism and use many sources of energy. These reactions are classified into nutritional groups, depending on energy and carbon sources. Some archaea, called lithotrophs, obtain energy from inorganic compounds such as sulfur or ammonia. Other examples include nitrifiers, methanogens, and anaerobic methane oxidizers. In these reactions one compound passes electrons to another in a redox reaction, releasing energy to fuel the cell’s activities. One compound acts as an electron donor and one as an electron acceptor. The energy released generates adenosine triphosphate ( ATP ) through chemiosmosis in the same basic process that happens in the mitochondrion of eukaryotic cells.
Many basic metabolic pathways are shared between all forms of life. For example, archaea use a modified form of glycolysis (the Entner–Doudoroff pathway) and either a complete or partial citric acid cycle. These similarities to other organisms probably reflect both early origins in the history of life and their high level of efficiency.
Some Euryarchaeota are methanogens living in anaerobic environments such as swamps. This form of metabolism evolved early, and it is possible that the first free-living organism was a methanogen. A common reaction in methanogens involves the use of carbon dioxide as an electron acceptor to oxidize hydrogen. Methanogenesis uses a range of coenzymes that are unique to these archaea, such as coenzyme M and methanofuran. Other organic compounds such as alcohols, acetic acid, or formic acid are used as alternative electron acceptors by methanogens. These reactions are common in gut-dwelling archaea. Acetotrophic archaea also break down acetic acid into methane and carbon dioxide directly. These acetotrophs are archaea in the order Methanosarcinales, and are a major part of the communities of microorganisms that produce biogas.
Other archaea, called autotrophs, use CO 2 in the atmosphere as a source of carbon, in a process called carbon fixation. This process involves either a highly modified form of the Calvin cycle or a recently discovered metabolic pathway called the 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle. In addition, the Crenarchaeota use the reverse Krebs cycle while the Euryarchaeota use the reductive acetyl-CoA pathway. Carbon–fixation is powered by inorganic energy sources.
Phototrophic archaea use sunlight as a source of energy; however, oxygen–generating photosynthesis does not occur in any archaea. Instead, in archaea such as the Halobacteria, light-activated ion pumps generate ion gradients by pumping ions out of the cell across the plasma membrane. The energy stored in these electrochemical gradients is then converted into ATP by ATP synthase. This process is a form of photophosphorylation. The ability of these light-driven pumps to move ions across membranes depends on light-driven changes in the structure of a retinol cofactor buried in the center of the protein.
Besides these, archaeal energy sources are extremely diverse, and range from the oxidation of ammonia by the Nitrosopumilales to the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide or elemental sulfur by species of Sulfolobus, using either oxygen or metal ions as electron acceptors.
Key Points
- Lithotrophic archaea use non- organic sources to live.
- Phototrophic archaea use light in a non-photosynthetic fashion to drive ion pumps needed to survive.
- Archaeal energy sources are extremely diverse, including light, metallic ions, and even acidic (pH)-dependent sources.
Key Terms
- autotroph : Any organism that can synthesize its food from inorganic substances, using heat or light as a source of energy.
- calvin cycle : A series of biochemical reactions that take place in the stroma of chloroplasts in photosynthetic organisms.


11.4: Oratorio
Introduction
An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece—though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes presented in concert form. In an oratorio there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the text. Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church. Protestant composers took their stories from the Bible, while Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints, as well as to Biblical topics. Oratorios became extremely popular in early seventeenth-century Italy partly because of the success of opera and the Catholic Church’s prohibition of spectacles during Lent. Oratorios became the main choice of music during that period for opera audiences.
History
1600, Origins of the Oratorio
Although medieval plays such as the Ludus Danielis, and Renaissance dialogue motets such as those of the Oltremontani had characteristics of an oratorio, the first oratorio is usually seen as Emilio de Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo . Monteverdi composed Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda which can be considered as the first secularoratorio.
The origins of the oratorio can be found in sacred dialogues in Italy. These were settings of Biblical, Latin texts and musically were quite similar to motets. There was a strong narrative, dramatic emphasis and there were conversational exchanges between characters in the work. Giovanni Francesco Anerio’s Teatro harmonico spirituale (1619) is a set of fourteen dialogues, the longest of which is 20 minutes long and covers the conversion of St. Paul and is for four soloists: Historicus (narrator), tenor; St. Paul, tenor; Voice from Heaven, bass; and ananias, tenor. There is also a four-part chorus to represent any crowds in the drama. The music is often contrapuntal and madrigal-like. Philip Neri’s Congregazione dell’Oratorio featured the singing of spiritual laude. These became more and more popular and were eventually performed in specially built oratories (prayer halls) by professional musicians. Again, these were chiefly based on dramatic and narrative elements. Sacred opera provided another impetus for dialogues, and they greatly expanded in length (although never really beyond sixty minutes long). Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo is an example of one of these works, but technically it is not an oratorio because it features acting and dancing. It does, however contain music in the monodic style. The first oratorio to be called by that name is Pietro della Valle’s Oratorio della Purificazione , but due to its brevity (only twelve minutes long) and the fact that its other name was “dialogue,” we can see that there was much ambiguity in these names.
1650–1700
During the second half of the seventeenth century, there were trends toward the secularization of the religious oratorio. Evidence of this lies in its regular performance outside church halls in courts and public theaters. Whether religious or secular, the theme of an oratorio is meant to be weighty. It could include such topics as Creation, the life of Jesus, or the career of a classical hero or Biblical prophet. Other changes eventually took place as well, possibly because most composers of oratorios were also popular composers of operas. They began to publish the librettos of their oratorios as they did for their operas. Strong emphasis was soon placed on arias while the use of the choir diminished. Female singers became regularly employed, and replaced the male narrator with the use of recitatives.
By the mid-seventeenth century, two types had developed:
-
oratorio volgare
(in Italian)—representative examples include:
- Giacomo Carissimi’s Daniele
- Marco Marazzoli’s S Tomaso
- similar works written by Francesco Foggia and Luigi Rossi
Lasting about 30–60 minutes, oratorio volgares were performed in two sections, separated by a sermon; their music resembles that of contemporary operas and chamber cantatas.
- oratorio latino (in Latin)—first developed at the Oratorio del Santissimo Crocifisso, related to the church of San Marcello al Corso in Rome.
The most significant composer of oratorio latino was Giacomo Carissimi, whose Jephte is regarded as the first masterpiece of the genre. Like most other Latin oratorios of the period, it is in one section only.
The Late Baroque Oratorio
In the late baroque oratorios increasingly became “sacred opera.” In Rome and Naples Alessandro Scarlatti was the most noted composer. In Vienna the court poet Metastasio produced annually a series of oratorios for the court which were set by Caldara, Hasse and others. Metastasio’s best known oratorio libretto La passione di Gesù Cristo was set by at least thirty-five composers from 1730–90. In Germany the middle baroque oratorios moved from the early-baroque Historia style Christmas and Resurrection settings of Heinrich Schütz, to the Passions of J. S. Bach, oratorio-passions such as Der Tod Jesu set by Telemann and Carl Heinrich Graun. After Telemann came the galante oratorio style of C. P. E. Bach.
The Oratorio in Georgian Britain
The Georgian era saw a German-born monarch and German-born composer define the English oratorio. George Frideric Handel, most famous today for his Messiah , also wrote other oratorios based on themes from Greek and Roman mythology and Biblical topics. He is also credited with writing the first English language oratorio, Esther . Handel’s imitators included the Italian Lidarti who was employed by the Amsterdam Jewish community to compose a Hebrew version of Esther .
The Victorian Oratorio
Britain continued to look to Germany for its composers of oratorio. The Birmingham Festival commissioned various oratorios including Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah in 1846, later performed in German as Elias . German composer Georg Vierling is noted for modernizing the secular oratorio form.
John Stainer’s The Crucifixion (1887) became the stereotypical battle horse of massed amateur choral societies. Edward Elgar tried to revive the genre in the first years of the next century.
Twentieth-Century Oratorios
Oratorio returned haltingly to public attention with Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex in France (1927), Arthur Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher in Basel (1938), and Franz Schmidt’s The Book with Seven Seals ( Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln ) in Vienna (1938). Postwar oratorios include Vadim Salmanov’s Twelve , Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion , René Clemencic’s Kabbala , and Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos .
Oratorios by popular musicians include Léo Ferré’s La Chanson du mal-aimé (1954 and 1972), on eponymous Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem, and Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio (1991).
Twenty-First-Century Oratorios
When Dudley Buck composed his oratorio The Light of Asia in 1886, it became the first in the history of the genre to be based on the life of Buddha. Several late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century oratorios have since been based on Buddha’s life or have incorporated Buddhist texts. These include Somei Satoh’s 1987 Stabat Mater , Dinesh Subasinghe’s 2010 Karuna Nadee , and Jonathan Harvey’s 2011 Weltethos . The twenty-first century also saw a continuation of Christianity-based oratorios with John Adams’s El Niño . Other religions represented include Ilaiyaraaja’s Thiruvasakam (based on the texts of Hindu hymns to Shiva). Secular oratorios composed in the 21st century include Nathan Currier’s Gaian Variations (based on the Gaia hypothesis), Richard Einhorn’s The Origin (based on the writings of Charles Darwin), and Neil Hannon’s To Our Fathers in Distress .
Structure
Oratorios usually contain:
- An overture, for instruments alone
- Various arias, sung by the vocal soloists
- Recitative, usually employed to advance the plot
- Choruses, often monumental and meant to convey a sense of glory. Frequently the instruments for oratorio choruses include timpani and trumpets.
Contributors and Attributions
- Oratorio. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Oratorio . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Museos Vaticanos - Oratorio. Authored by : Enrique Domingo. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/edomingo/15798687939/ . License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives


26.3: The Second New Deal
Roosevelt won his second term in a landslide, but that did not mean he was immune to criticism. His critics came from both the left and the right, with conservatives deeply concerned over his expansion of government spending and power, and liberals angered that he had not done more to help those still struggling. Adding to Roosevelt’s challenges, the Supreme Court struck down several key elements of the First New Deal, angering Roosevelt and spurring him to try and stack the courts in his second term. Still, he entered his new term with the unequivocal support of the voting public, and he wasted no time beginning the second phase of his economic plan. While the First New Deal focused largely on stemming the immediate suffering of the American people, the Second New Deal put in place legislation that changed America’s social safety net for good.
CHALLENGES FROM CRITICS ON ALL SIDES
While many people supported Roosevelt, especially in the first few years of his presidency, the New Deal did receive significant criticism, both from conservatives who felt that it was a radical agenda to ruin the country’s model of free enterprise, and from liberals who felt that it did not provide enough help to those who needed it most (Figure 26.3.1).
Industrialists and wealthy Americans led the conservative criticism against the president. Whether attacking his character or simply stating that he was moving away from American values toward fascism and socialism, they sought to undermine his power and popularity. Most notably, the American Liberty League—comprised largely of conservative Democrats who lamented the excesses of several of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs—labeled the AAA as fascist and proclaimed later New Deal programs to be key threats to the very nature of democracy. Additional criticism came from the National Association of Manufacturers, which urged businessmen to outright ignore portions of the NRA that promoted collective bargaining, as well as subsequent labor protection legislation. In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt the most crushing blow to Roosevelt’s vision, striking down several key pieces of the New Deal as unconstitutional. They found that both the AAA and the NIRA overreached federal authority. The negation of some of his most ambitious economic recovery efforts frustrated Roosevelt greatly, but he was powerless to stop it at this juncture.
Meanwhile, others felt that Roosevelt had not done enough. Dr. Francis E. Townsend of California was one who felt that Roosevelt had failed to adequately address the country’s tremendous problems. Townsend, who was a retired dentist, proposed an expansive pension plan for the elderly. The Townsend Plan, as it was known, gained a great deal of popularity: It recommended paying every citizen over sixty who retired from work the sum of $200 per month, provided they spend it in thirty days. Another figure who gained national attention was Father Charles Coughlin. He was a “radio priest” from Michigan who, although he initially supported the New Deal, subsequently argued that Roosevelt stopped far too short in his defense of labor, monetary reform, and the nationalization of key industries. The president’s plan, he proclaimed, was inadequate. He created the National Union for Social Justice and used his weekly radio show to gain followers.
A more direct political threat to Roosevelt came from muckraker Upton Sinclair, who pursued the California governorship in 1934 through a campaign based upon criticism of the New Deal’s shortcomings. In his “End Poverty in California” program, Sinclair called for a progressive income tax, a pension program for the elderly, and state seizure of factories and farms where property taxes remained unpaid. The state would then offer jobs to the unemployed to work those farms and factories in a cooperative mode. Although Sinclair lost the election to his Republican opponent, he did draw local and national attention to several of his ideas.
The biggest threat to the president, however, came from corrupt but beloved Louisiana senator Huey “Kingfish” Long (Figure 26.3.2). His disapproval of Roosevelt came in part from his own ambitions for higher office; Long stated that the president was not doing enough to help people and proposed his own Share Our Wealth program. Under this plan, Long recommended the liquidation of all large personal fortunes in order to fund direct payments to less fortunate Americans. He foresaw giving $5,000 to every family, $2,500 to every worker, as well as a series of elderly pensions and education funds. Despite his questionable math, which numerous economists quickly pointed out rendered his program unworkable, by 1935, Long had a significant following of over four million people. If he had not been assassinated by the son-in-law of a local political rival, he may well have been a contender against Roosevelt for the 1936 presidential nomination.
AnswerING THE CHALLENGE
Roosevelt recognized that some of the criticisms of the New Deal were valid. Although he was still reeling from the Supreme Court’s invalidation of key statutes, he decided to face his re-election bid in 1936 by unveiling another wave of legislation that he dubbed the Second New Deal. In the first week of June 1935, Roosevelt called congressional leaders into the White House and gave them a list of “must-pass” legislation that he wanted before they adjourned for the summer. Whereas the policies of the first hundred days may have shored up public confidence and stopped the most drastic of the problems, the second hundred days changed the face of America for the next sixty years.
The Banking Act of 1935 was the most far-reaching revision of banking laws since the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1914. Previously, regional reserve banks, particularly the New York Reserve Bank—controlled by the powerful Morgan and Rockefeller families—had dominated policy-making at the Federal Reserve. Under the new system, there would be a seven-member board of governors to oversee regional banks. They would have control over reserve requirements, discount rates, board member selection, and more. Not surprisingly, this new board kept initial interest rates quite low, allowing the federal government to borrow billions of dollars of additional cash to fund major relief and recovery programs.
In 1935, Congress also passed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which authorized the single largest expenditure at that time in the country’s history: $4.8 billion. Almost one-third of those funds were invested in a new relief agency, theWorks Progress Administration (WPA). Harry Hopkins, formerly head of the CWA, took on the WPA and ran it until 1943. In that time, the program provided employment relief to over eight million Americans, or approximately 20 percent of the country’s workforce. The WPA funded the construction of more than 2,500 hospitals, 5,900 schools, 570,000 miles of road, and more. The WPA also created the Federal One Project, which employed approximately forty thousand artists in theater, art, music, and writing. They produced state murals, guidebooks, concerts, and drama performances all around the country (Figure 26.3.3). Additionally, the project funded the collection of oral histories, including those of former slaves, which provided a valuable addition to the nation’s understanding of slave life. Finally, the WPA also included the National Youth Administration (NYA), which provided work-study jobs to over 500,000 college students and four million high school students.
Browse the Born in Slavery collection to examine personal accounts of former slaves, recorded between 1936 and 1938, as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the WPA.
With the implementation of the Second New Deal, Roosevelt also created the country’s present-day social safety net. The Social Security Act established programs intended to help the most vulnerable: the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled, and the young. It included a pension fund for all retired people—except domestic workers and farmers, which therefore left many women and African Americans beyond the scope of its benefits—over the age of sixty-five, to be paid through a payroll tax on both employee and employer. Related to this act, Congress also passed a law on unemployment insurance, to be funded by a tax on employers, and programs for unwed mothers, as well as for those who were blind, deaf, or disabled. It is worth noting that some elements of these reforms were pulled from Roosevelt detractors Coughlin and Townsend; the popularity of their movements gave the president more leverage to push forward this type of legislation.
To the benefit of industrial workers, Roosevelt signed into law the Wagner Act, also known as the National Labor Relations Act. The protections previously afforded to workers under the NIRA were inadvertently lost when the Supreme Court struck down the original law due to larger regulatory concerns, leaving workers vulnerable. Roosevelt sought to salvage this important piece of labor legislation, doing so with the Wagner Act. The act created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to once again protect American workers’ right to unionize and bargain collectively, as well as to provide a federal vehicle for labor grievances to be heard. Although roundly criticized by the Republican Party and factory owners, the Wagner Act withstood several challenges and eventually received constitutional sanction by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1937. The law received the strong support of John L. Lewis and the Congress of Industrial Organizations who had long sought government protection of industrial unionism, from the time they split from the American Federation of Labor in 1935 over disputes on whether to organize workers along craft or industrial lines. Following passage of the law, Lewis began a widespread publicity campaign urging industrial workers to join “the president’s union.” The relationship was mutually beneficial to Roosevelt, who subsequently received the endorsement of Lewis’s United Mine Workers union in the 1936 presidential election, along with a sizeable $500,000 campaign contribution. The Wagner Act permanently established government-secured workers’ rights and protections from their employers, and it marked the beginning of labor’s political support for the Democratic Party.
The various programs that made up the Second New Deal are listed in the table below (Table 26.3.1).
| Table 26.3.1: Key Programs from the Second New Deal | ||
|---|---|---|
| New Deal Legislation | Years Enacted | Brief Description |
| Fair Labor Standards Act | 1938–today | Established minimum wage and forty-hour workweek |
| Farm Security Administration | 1935–today | Provides poor farmers with education and economic support programs |
| Federal Crop Insurance Corporation | 1938–today | Insures crops and livestock against loss of revenue |
| National Labor Relations Act | 1935–today | Recognized right of workers to unionize & collectively bargain |
| National Youth Administration | 1935–1939 (part of WPA) | Part-time employment for college and high school students |
| Rural Electrification Administration | 1935–today | Provides public utilities to rural areas |
| Social Security Act | 1935–today | Aid to retirees, unemployed, disabled |
| Surplus Commodities Program | 1936–today | Provides food to the poor (still exists in Food Stamps program) |
| Works Progress Administration | 1935–1943 | Jobs program (including artists and youth) |
THE FINAL PIECES
Roosevelt entered the 1936 presidential election on a wave of popularity, and he beat Republican opponent Alf Landon by a nearly unanimous Electoral College vote of 523 to 8. Believing it to be his moment of strongest public support, Roosevelt chose to exact a measure of revenge against the U.S. Supreme Court for challenging his programs and to pressure them against challenging his more recent Second New Deal provisions. To this end, Roosevelt created the informally named “Supreme Court Packing Plan” and tried to pack the court in his favor by expanding the number of justices and adding new ones who supported his views. His plan was to add one justice for every current justice over the age of seventy who refused to step down. This would have allowed him to add six more justices, expanding the bench from nine to fifteen. Opposition was quick and thorough from both the Supreme Court and Congress, as well as from his own party. The subsequent retirement of Justice Van Devanter from the court, as well as the sudden death of Senator Joe T. Robinson, who championed Roosevelt’s plan before the Senate, all but signaled Roosevelt’s defeat. However, although he never received the support to make these changes, Roosevelt appeared to succeed in politically intimidating the current justices into supporting his newer programs, and they upheld both the Wagner Act and the Social Security Act. Never again during his presidency would the Supreme Court strike down any significant elements of his New Deal.
Roosevelt was not as successful in addressing the nation’s growing deficit. When he entered the presidency in 1933, Roosevelt did so with traditionally held fiscal beliefs, including the importance of a balanced budget in order to maintain public confidence in federal government operations. However, the severe economic conditions of the depression quickly convinced the president of the importance of government spending to create jobs and relief for the American people. As he commented to a crowd in Pittsburgh in 1936, “To balance our budget in 1933 or 1934 or 1935 would have been a crime against the American people. To do so . . . we should have had to set our face against human suffering with callous indifference. When Americans suffered, we refused to pass by on the other side. Humanity came first.” However, after his successful re-election, Roosevelt anticipated that the economy would recover enough by late 1936 that he could curtail spending by 1937. This reduction in spending, he hoped, would curb the deficit. As the early months of 1937 unfolded, Roosevelt’s hopes seemed supported by the most recent economic snapshot of the country. Production, wages, and profits had all returned to pre-1929 levels, while unemployment was at its lowest rate in the decade, down from 25 percent to 14 percent. But no sooner did Roosevelt cut spending when a recession hit. Two million Americans were newly out of work as unemployment quickly rose by 5 percent and industrial production declined by a third. Breadlines began to build again, while banks prepared to close.
Historians continue to debate the causes of this recession within a depression. Some believe the fear of increased taxes forced factory owners to curtail planned expansion; others blame the Federal Reserve for tightening the nation’s money supply. Roosevelt, however, blamed the downturn on his decision to significantly curtail federal government spending in job relief programs such as the WPA. Several of his closest advisors, including Harry Hopkins, Henry Wallace, and others, urged him to adopt the new economic theory espoused by British economic John Maynard Keynes, who argued that deficit spending was necessary in advanced capitalist economies in order to maintain employment and stimulate consumer spending. Convinced of the necessity of such an approach, Roosevelt asked Congress in the spring of 1938 for additional emergency relief spending. Congress immediately authorized $33 billion for PWA and WPA work projects. Although World War II would provide the final impetus for lasting economic recovery, Roosevelt’s willingness to adapt in 1938 avoided another disaster.
Roosevelt signed the last substantial piece of New Deal legislation in the summer of 1938. The Fair Labor Standards Act established a federal minimum wage—at the time, forty cents per hour—a maximum workweek of forty hours (with an opportunity for four additional hours of work at overtime wages), and prohibited child labor for those under age sixteen. Roosevelt was unaware that the war would soon dominate his legacy, but this proved to be his last major piece of economic legislation in a presidency that changed the fabric of the country forever.
IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS
The legacy of the New Deal is in part seen in the vast increase in national power: The federal government accepted responsibility for the nation’s economic stability and prosperity. In retrospect, the majority of historians and economists judge it to have been a tremendous success. The New Deal not only established minimum standards for wages, working conditions, and overall welfare, it also allowed millions of Americans to hold onto their homes, farms, and savings. It laid the groundwork for an agenda of expanded federal government influence over the economy that continued through President Harry Truman’s “Fair Deal” in the 1950s and President Lyndon Johnson’s call for a “Great Society” in the 1960s. The New Deal state that embraced its responsibility for the citizens’ welfare and proved willing to use its power and resources to spread the nation’s prosperity lasted well into the 1980s, and many of its tenets persist today. Many would also agree that the postwar economic stability of the 1950s found its roots in the stabilizing influences introduced by social security, the job stability that union contracts provided, and federal housing mortgage programs introduced in the New Deal. The environment of the American West in particular, benefited from New Deal projects such as the Soil Conservation program.
Still, Roosevelt’s programs also had their critics. Following the conservative rise initiated by presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, and most often associated with the Ronald Reagan era of the 1980s, critics of the welfare state pointed to Roosevelt’s presidency as the start of a slippery slope towards entitlement and the destruction of the individualist spirit upon which the United States had presumably developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the growth of the GDP between 1934 and 1940 approached an average of 7.5 percent—higher than in any other peacetime period in U.S. history, critics of the New Deal point out that unemployment still hovered around 15 percent in 1940. While the New Deal resulted in some environmental improvements, it also inaugurated a number of massive infrastructural projects, such as the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, that came with grave environmental consequences. And other shortcomings of the New Deal were obvious and deliberate at the time.
African Americans under the New Deal
Critics point out that not all Americans benefited from the New Deal. African Americans in particular were left out, with overt discrimination in hiring practices within the federal job programs, such as the CCC, CWA, and WPA. The NRA was oftentimes criticized as the “Negro Run Around” or “Negroes Ruined Again” program. As well, the AAA left tenant farmers and sharecroppers, many of whom were black, with no support. Even Social Security originally excluded domestic workers, a primary source of employment for African American women. Facing such criticism early in his administration, Roosevelt undertook some efforts to ensure a measure of equality in hiring practices for the relief agencies, and opportunities began to present themselves by 1935. The WPA eventually employed 350,000 African Americans annually, accounting for nearly 15 percent of its workforce. By the close of the CCC in 1938, this program had employed over 300,000 African Americans, increasing the black percentage of its workforce from 3 percent at the outset to nearly 11 percent at its close. Likewise, in 1934, the PWA began to require that all government projects under its purview hire African Americans using a quota that reflected their percentage of the local population being served. Additionally, among several important WPA projects, the Federal One Project included a literacy program that eventually reached over one million African American children, helping them learn how to read and write.
On the issue of race relations themselves, Roosevelt has a mixed legacy. Within his White House, Roosevelt had a number of African American appointees, although most were in minor positions. Unofficially, Roosevelt relied upon advice from the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, also known as his “Black Cabinet.” This group included a young Harvard economist, Dr. Robert Weaver, who subsequently became the nation’s first black cabinet secretary in 1966, as President Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Aubrey Williams, the director of the NYA, hired more black administrators than any other federal agency, and appointed them to oversee projects throughout the country. One key figure in the NYA was Mary McLeod Bethune (Figure 26.3.4), a prominent African American educator tapped by Roosevelt to act as the director of the NYA’s Division of Negro Affairs. Bethune had been a spokesperson and an educator for years; with this role, she became one of the president’s foremost African American advisors. During his presidency, Roosevelt became the first to appoint a black federal judge, as well as the first commander-in-chief to promote an African American to brigadier general. Most notably, he became the first president to publicly speak against lynching as a “vile form of collective murder.”
Democracy is for me, and for twelve million black Americans, a goal towards which our nation is marching. It is a dream and an ideal in whose ultimate realization we have a deep and abiding faith. For me, it is based on Christianity, in which we confidently entrust our destiny as a people. Under God’s guidance in this great democracy, we are rising out of the darkness of slavery into the light of freedom. Here my race has been afforded [the] opportunity to advance from a people 80 percent illiterate to a people 80 percent literate; from abject poverty to the ownership and operation of a million farms and 750,000 homes; from total disfranchisement to participation in government; from the status of chattels to recognized contributors to the American culture.
When Mary McLeod Bethune spoke these words, she spoke on behalf of a race of American citizens for whom the Great Depression was much more than economic hardship. For African Americans, the Depression once again exposed the racism and inequality that gripped the nation economically, socially, and politically. Her work as a member of President Franklin Roosevelt’s unofficial “Black Cabinet” as well as the Director of the Division of Negro Affairs for the NYA, presented her an opportunity to advance African American causes on all fronts—but especially in the area of black literacy. As part of the larger WPA, she also influenced employment programs in the arts and public work sectors, and routinely had the president’s ear on matters related to racial justice.
Listen to this audio clip of Eleanor Roosevelt interviewing Mary McLeod Bethune. By listening to her talking to Bethune and offering up her support, it becomes clear how compelling the immensely popular first lady was when speaking about programs of close personal interest to her. How do you think this would have been received by Roosevelt’s supporters?
However, despite these efforts, Roosevelt also understood the precariousness of his political position. In order to maintain a coalition of Democrats to support his larger relief and recovery efforts, Roosevelt could not afford to alienate Southern Democrats who might easily bolt should he openly advocate for civil rights. While he spoke about the importance of anti-lynching legislation, he never formally pushed Congress to propose such a law. He did publicly support the abolition of the poll tax, which Congress eventually accomplished in 1941. Likewise, although agency directors adopted changes to ensure job opportunities for African Americans at the federal level, at the local level, few advancements were made, and African Americans remained at the back of the employment lines. Despite such failures, however, Roosevelt deserves credit for acknowledging the importance of race relations and civil rights. At the federal level, more than any of his predecessors since the Civil War, Roosevelt remained aware of the role that the federal government can play in initiating important discussions about civil rights, as well as encouraging the development of a new cadre of civil rights leaders.
Although unable to bring about sweeping civil rights reforms for African Americans in the early stages of his administration, Roosevelt was able to work with Congress to significantly improve the lives of Indians. In 1934, he signed into law the Indian Reorganization Act (sometimes referred to as the “Indian New Deal”). This law formally abandoned the assimilationist policies set forth in the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. Rather than forcing Indians to adapt to American culture, the new program encouraged them to develop forms of local self-government, as well as to preserve their artifacts and heritage. John Collier, the Commissioner on Indian Bureau Affairs from 1933 to 1945, championed this legislation and saw it as an opportunity to correct past injustices that land allotment and assimilation had wrought upon Indians. Although the re-establishment of communal tribal lands would prove to be difficult, Collier used this law to convince federal officials to return nearly two million acres of government-held land to various tribes in order to move the process along. Although subsequent legislation later circumscribed the degree to which tribes were allowed to self-govern on reservations, Collier’s work is still viewed as a significant step in improving race relations with Indians and preserving their heritage.
Women and the New Deal
For women, Roosevelt’s policies and practices had a similarly mixed effect. Wage discrimination in federal jobs programs was rampant, and relief policies encouraged women to remain home and leave jobs open for men. This belief was well in line with the gender norms of the day. Several federal relief programs specifically forbade husbands and wives’ both drawing jobs or relief from the same agency. The WPA became the first specific New Deal agency to openly hire women—specifically widows, single women, and the wives of disabled husbands. While they did not take part in construction projects, these women did undertake sewing projects to provide blankets and clothing to hospitals and relief agencies. Likewise, several women took part in the various Federal One art projects. Despite the obvious gender limitations, many women strongly supported Roosevelt’s New Deal, as much for its direct relief handouts for women as for its employment opportunities for men. One such woman was Mary (Molly) Dewson. A longtime activist in the women’s suffrage movement, Dewson worked for women’s rights and ultimately rose to be the Director of the Women’s Division of the Democratic Party. Dewson and Mary McLeod Bethune, the national champion of African American education and literacy who rose to the level of Director of the Division of Negro Affairs for the NYA, understood the limitations of the New Deal, but also the opportunities for advancement it presented during very trying times. Rather than lamenting what Roosevelt could not or would not do, they felt, and perhaps rightly so, that Roosevelt would do more than most to help women and African Americans achieve a piece of the new America he was building.
Among the few, but notable, women who directly impacted Roosevelt’s policies was Frances Perkins, who as Secretary of Labor was the first female member of any presidential cabinet, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was a strong and public advocate for social causes. Perkins, one of only two original Cabinet members to stay with Roosevelt for his entire presidency, was directly involved in the administration of the CCC, PWA, NRA, and the Social Security Act. Among several important measures, she took greatest pleasure in championing minimum wage statutes as well as the penultimate piece of New Deal legislation, the Fair Labor Standards Act. Roosevelt came to trust Perkins’ advice with few questions or concerns, and steadfastly supported her work through the end of his life (Figure 26_03_Perkins).
In her effort to get President Roosevelt re-elected in 1936, Dewson commented, “We don’t make the old-fashioned plea to the women that our nominee is charming, and all that. We appeal to the intelligence of the country’s women. Ours were economic issues and we found the women ready to listen.”
As head of the Women’s Division of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 1932, Molly Dewson proved to be an influential supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt and one of his key advisors regarding issues pertaining to women’s rights. Agreeing with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt that “Women must learn to play the games as men do,” Dewson worked diligently in her position with the DNC to ensure that women could serve as delegates and alternates to the national conventions. Her approach, and her realization that women were intelligent enough to make rational choices, greatly appealed to Roosevelt. Her methods were perhaps not too different from his own, as he spoke to the public through his fireside chats. Dewson’s impressive organizational skills on behalf of the party earned her the nickname “the little general” from President Roosevelt.
However, Eleanor Roosevelt, more so than any other individual, came to represent the strongest influence upon the president; and she used her unique position to champion several causes for women, African Americans, and the rural poor (Figure 26.3.6). She married Franklin Roosevelt, who was her fifth cousin, in 1905 and subsequently had six children, one of whom died at only seven months old. A strong supporter of her husband’s political ambitions, Eleanor campaigned by his side through the failed vice-presidential bid in 1920 and on his behalf after he was diagnosed with polio in 1921. When she discovered letters of her husband’s affair with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer, the marriage became less one of romance and more one of a political partnership that would continue—strained at times—until the president’s death in 1945.
Historians agree that the first lady used her presence in the White House, in addition to the leverage of her failed marriage and knowledge of her husband’s infidelities, to her advantage. She promoted several causes that the president himself would have had difficulty championing at the time. From newspaper and magazine articles she authored, to a busy travel schedule that saw her regularly cross the country, the first lady sought to remind Americans that their plight was foremost on the minds of all working in the White House. Eleanor was so active in her public appearances that, by 1940, she began holding regular press conferences to answer reporters’ questions. Among her first substantial projects was the creation of Arthurdale—a resettlement community for displaced coal miners in West Virginia. Although the planned community became less of an administration priority as the years progressed (eventually folding in 1940), for seven years, Eleanor remained committed to its success as a model of assistance for the rural poor.
Exposed to issues of racial segregation in the Arthurdale experiment, Eleanor subsequently supported many civil rights causes through the remainder of the Roosevelt presidency. When it further became clear that racial discrimination was rampant in the administration of virtually all New Deal job programs—especially in the southern states—she continued to pressure her husband for remedies. In 1934, she openly lobbied for passage of the federal anti-lynching bill that the president privately supported but could not politically endorse. Despite the subsequent failure of the Senate to pass such legislation, Eleanor succeeded in arranging a meeting between her husband and then-NAACP president Walter White to discuss anti-lynching and other pertinent calls for civil rights legislation.
White was only one of Eleanor’s African American guests to the White House. Breaking with precedent, and much to the disdain of many White House officials, the first lady routinely invited prominent African Americans to dine with her and the president. Most notably, when the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to permit internationally renowned black opera contralto Marian Anderson to sing in Constitution Hall, Eleanor resigned her membership in the DAR and arranged for Anderson to sing at a public concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, followed by her appearance at a state dinner at the White House in honor of the king and queen of England. With regard to race relations in particular, Eleanor Roosevelt was able to accomplish what her husband—for delicate political reasons—could not: become the administration’s face for civil rights.
Section Summary
Despite his popularity, Roosevelt had significant critics at the end of the First New Deal. Some on the right felt that he had moved the country in a dangerous direction towards socialism and fascism, whereas others on the left felt that he had not gone far enough to help the still-struggling American people. Reeling after the Supreme Court struck down two key pieces of New Deal legislation, the AAA and NIRA, Roosevelt pushed Congress to pass a new wave of bills to provide jobs, banking reforms, and a social safety net. The laws that emerged—the Banking Act, the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, and the Social Security Act—still define our country today.
Roosevelt won his second term in a landslide and continued to push for legislation that would help the economy. The jobs programs employed over eight million people and, while systematic discrimination hurt both women and African American workers, these programs were still successful in getting people back to work. The last major piece of New Deal legislation that Roosevelt passed was the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set a minimum wage, established a maximum-hour workweek, and forbade child labor. This law, as well as Social Security, still provides much of the social safety net in the United States today.
While critics and historians continue to debate whether the New Deal ushered in a permanent change to the political culture of the country, from one of individualism to the creation of a welfare state, none deny the fact that Roosevelt’s presidency expanded the role of the federal government in all people’s lives, generally for the better. Even if the most conservative of presidential successors would question this commitment, the notion of some level of government involvement in economic regulation and social welfare had largely been settled by 1941. Future debates would be about the extent and degree of that involvement.
Review Questions
Which of the following statements accurately describes Mary McLeod Bethune?
She was a prominent supporter of the Townsend Plan.
She was a key figure in the NYA.
She was Eleanor Roosevelt’s personal secretary.
She was a labor organizer.
B
The Social Security Act borrowed some ideas from which of the following?
the Townsend Plan
the Division of Negro Affairs
the Education Trust
the NIRA
A
What was the first New Deal agency to hire women openly?
the NRA
the WPA
the AAA
the TVA
B
What were the major goals and accomplishments of the Indian New Deal?
The Indian Reorganization Act, or Indian New Deal, of 1934 put an end to the policies set forth in the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. Rather than encouraging assimilation, the new act promoted Indians’ development of local self-government and the preservation of Indian artifacts and heritage. John Collier, the Commissioner on Indian Bureau Affairs, was able to use the law to push for federal officials’ return of nearly two million acres of government-held land to various tribes.
Critical Thinking Questions
To what extent was Franklin Roosevelt’s overwhelming victory in the 1932 presidential election a reflection of his own ideas for change? To what extent did it represent public discontent with Herbert Hoover’s lack of answers?
Whom did the New Deal help the least? What hardships did these individuals continue to suffer? Why were Roosevelt’s programs unsuccessful in the alleviation of their adversities?
Was Franklin Roosevelt successful at combatting the Great Depression? How did the New Deal affect future generations of Americans?
What were the key differences between the First New Deal and the Second New Deal? On the whole, what did each New Deal set out to accomplish?
What challenges did Roosevelt face in his work on behalf of African Americans? What impact did the New Deal have ultimately on race relations?
Glossary
- Social Security
- a series of programs designed to help the population’s most vulnerable—the unemployed, those over age sixty-five, unwed mothers, and the disabled—through various pension, insurance, and aid programs
- Supreme Court Packing Plan
- Roosevelt’s plan, after being reelected, to pack the Supreme Court with an additional six justices, one for every justice over seventy who refused to step down
- Works Progress Administration
- a program run by Harry Hopkins that provided jobs for over eight million Americans from its inception to its closure in 1943