Philosophy essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Philosophy - Essay Example For instance, in the case of drug possession, long prison sentences are justified by deterrence theory to the extent that such sentences actually do prevent people from using drugs who otherwise would not use those drugs. That last part is important because deterrence is undermined unless it prevents what would happen if the deterrence was not implemented. Deterrence is, by definition, the removal of a cause to prevent an effect. So, considering these long prison sentences for drug possession, it is certainly possible some people are deterred simply because of the potential cost of being caught with illegal substances. In most cases, however, when someone refuses to take illegal drugs, it is not because they were deterred by drug laws and long prison sentences. Rather, it is because of other reasons not related to being caught. Being caught is not necessarily a big concern for most users of illegal drugs anyway. Therefore, it seems it is once again up to the utilitarian to decide whe ther US drug laws and long prison sentences are justified by their effects (the results of strict controls on drugs) in reality. 2. John Rawls’ so-called end-state (or distributive justice) theory of justice stands in contrast to Robert Nozick’s entitlement (or process) theory of justice. The former proposes that all persons in the â€Å"original position† (the state of nature) should agree that all social primary goods, like opportunity and income, are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all these goods is to the advantage of the least favored. For Rawls and the end-state theory, justice is â€Å"fairness†, especially when the proposed redistribution would improve social inequality. Nozick’s entitlement theory proposes that a distribution is just if it comes about by ethical acquisition from the state of nature or through fair allocation.

Poverty in modern life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 188

Poverty in modern life - Essay Example There are many reasons for this problem and many solutions. The main cause of this problem is social stratification, where the poor people are condemned to their poverty. The rich continue enriching themselves by using their power and authority while the poor continue being poor. Income inequality caused by social stratification, political issues and poor economic policies lead to increased poverty among the minority members of the society. In addition, this problem happens due to lack of information about microfinance and banking in the society. Information asymmetry leads to inadequate information by the members of the society which could be used to make appropriate financial and economic decisions in order to come out of poverty. Lastly, this issue is caused by governments’ inability to implement public policies effectively. There are three primary solutions to this issue. The first solution is the government should establish effective systems of financial and economic empo werment. A country that has people that are development conscious can least find itself in situations of war and other forms of violence. Therefore, governments should create favorable policies that enhance business growth and peaceful co-existence among all people. In my opinion, economic empowerment is the only way that people can understand ways of identifying and providing solutions to social needs. Secondly, the government should create regulations to control financial markets so that they provide financial services effectively to all members of the society. For instance, the government should direct banks to lower their lending rates to small and medium businesses to allow them to invest and provide financial and economic security to members of the public.  

Julius Caesar - Ethos, Pathos, Logos Essay Example for Free

Julius Caesar Ethos, Pathos, Logos Essay During Julius Caesar, in one of the most famous scenes Shakespeare wrote, Antony influences the audience, soon turning the mourning crowd into a rioting mob. Antony persuades the Romans in his speech through Ethos, Logos, Pathos. Antony’s speech undermines the conspirators even while it appears deferential to them. Antony uses Ethos to catch the audience’s attention. He states â€Å"For Brutus is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men† (Act 3, 81-82). Antony never directly calls the conspirators, including Brutus, traitors; he is mainly calling them honorable in a sarcastic manner that the crowd is able to understand. This is the irony in what he is saying. Later in the scene he goes back to into a sarcastic tone and states â€Å"O masters, if I were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong— who, you all know, are honorable men. I will not do them wrong. I rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, than I will wrong such honorable men†(Act 3,120-126). Antony is making fun of righting the â€Å"honorable men. † Antony reassures the crowd he is â€Å"not to disprove what Brutus spoke† but to tell them what he does know. He is using logos, logic. Antony had â€Å"thrice presented [Caesar] a kingly crown† he refused it each time. He then asks â€Å"Was this ambition? †(Act 3, 95-96). He makes the crowds think whether Brutus’ motives where true or just out of jealousy. â€Å"You all loved him once, and not without reason. Then what reason holds you back from mourning him now? †(Act 3,101-102). In this line he is asking the audience why should they applaud Brutus for killing Caesar. They had loved and admired Caesar at some point so why should they not mourn him now. Towards the end of Antony’s speech he begins using pathos causing the crowd to feel sympathy for Caesars and his wrongful death. He mentions that for the audience to bear with him. His â€Å"heart is in the coffin there with Caesar† (Act 3,104-106) he then takes a minute to recollect himself. The audience begins to -realize how â€Å"Caesar has had great wrong† (Act 3,109) By how Antony weeps for Caesar makes the Romans realize what all the conspirators did was terribly wrong, because Antony, although he is a party animal he is still a noble man. In the end Antony had the better advantage when it came to using Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Antony, proving himself a noble man, got the Romans to see the wrong deed and caused them to seek revenge.

Influence of the Modernist Ideal City

Influence of the Modernist Ideal City The influence of the modernist ideal city, on urban design and master planning Introduction This essay will focus on the influence of Modernist Ideal City movement. At first showing that understanding of social, political and economic background is necessary, along with contemporary technological influences. Secondly, the purpose, principles and results of the movement will be illustrated. Then using the case study-Brasilia demonstrates the influence of the modernist ideal city. Finally, a critical view of historic and future of the movement will be provided. Background At the age of Early 20th, in most of western countries, the industrial revolution was dropping towards the end. With the development of technology and the increase of the social wealth, the population of 1800 1880 1910 Pars 647,000 2,200,000 3,000,000 London 800,000 3,800,000 7,200,000 Berlin 182,000 1,840,000 3,400,000 New York 60,000 2,800,000 4,500,000 Europe dramatically raised (figure 1). The contemporary cities could not stand the pressure of the population boom. A series of problem appeared, chaos, overcrowding, low efficiency, serious pollution, high density, narrow streets and lack of sunlight all threaten peoples life quality especially for lower class people. (Greed 1996, 70) Social conflict liked a time bomb hanging on the sky of the city. As Le Corbusier saidif we cannot suit to the situation of the new trend, the cities cannot meet the requirements of modern lifestyle (Corbusier 1987, 84). At this time, after the World War 1 (WW1), the Europe returned to peace. A great rebuilding process began buildings, and whole cities needed to be rebuilt. At this time, technology was vital to speed up this usually slow process. Express train and car speeded up the travel; telephone and radio reduce the commuting time and skyscrapers increased the city density. On the other hand, the modernist principles already were put forward. Both the real situation backed up and influenced by the theory basic gave people the opportunity to rethink the city of tomorrow. Finally,urban utopias emerged as the time requires, and Le Corbusier’s modernist ideal city is one of the most crucial parts (Hall 2011, 11-18, 28). The form of the modernist ideal city aimed to improve health of citizens, reduce commuting times, create more open space and get more sunlight, this way le Corbusier wanted to solve the social conflict (Greed 1996, 101-102). In 1914, Le Corbusier stated the Dom-ino House (figure 2). It is made of reinforce concrete and it reject the traditional load bearing wall. The frame structure frees the internal space which can be divided freely. low-cost, convenient, uniformity and standardisation all those figures show why He believed the Dom-ino system can meet the people’s requirements after WW1 (Frampton 2001, 21-22). In 1922, Le Corbusier published a blueprint of a contemporary city with 3,000,000 residents. And it was the first time for Le Corbusier to describe a whole ideal city. He searched a pure mechanism order. In his eyes, humanity would lost from chaos but revive from the pure order. In order to express the order, pure forms was used by le Corbusier. All the elements of city such as houses, roads, industries, offices even human were classified by function (Corbusier 1987, 15). The whole city was planned by clear hierarchy of class; people were divided into three parts, citizens, suburban dwellers and the mixed sort people. Roughly 400,000 to 600,000 citizens who were treated as urban elites lived in the 24 60-storey skyscrapers in the city centre. In Corbusier’s opinion these skyscrapers were vertical streets, which contain shops, hotels, etc. Furthermore, they only covered about 15% area of the entire city, which dramatically increase the density. At the same time, considered the environment pollution and human needs, the rest 85% of ground should be free for green lands. The working class (about 2,000,000) was planned to live in the garden city, which was influence by the garden city movement (Corbusier 1987, 163-176). On the other hand, fast traffic played an important role in the city. He (Corbusier 1987, 191) pointed out â€Å"that the city which can achieve speed will achieves success-and this is an obvious truth.† The whole city was connected by transportation system. And planner used symmetrical grid of streets to replace traditional â€Å"corridor street†. Two great arterial highways ran north and south, and east and west intersecting at the exact centre of the city (Corbusier 1987, 163-176). In general, the whole city worked as a huge machine. In 1932, Le Corbusier showed a more daring blueprint-The Radiant City that was more authoritarian and more libertarian than the Plan Voisin. The principle of design is existenzminimum (Corbusier 1976, 6-7). Every building would be strictly designed on the human scale. Furthermore, the radiant city has no class divisions. All of the people live in high-rise apartment blocks â€Å"Unità ©s†. Each block intended for 2,700 people and included individual service and public facilities such as shops, restaurant, swimming pools and gymnasiums (Corbusier 1967, 162). In order to avoid waste of space, the size of the apartment was decided by the family’s needs not class. Buildings raised on pilotis free the ground land and would be benefit to fast traffic and green land. Symmetrical grid of highway connected the whole anti-street city (Frampton 2001, 51). Same as the Dom-ino house, the radiant city from a single room to an entire city applies low cost and mass production techniqu es. In addition, these blocks only covered about 12% land. The rest area 100% ground area plus 12% top area of buildings were made up the green city. South facing glass wall, roof terraces and big open space made the city more radiant (Corbusier 1976, 44, 163). At the following years, Four Unità © d’Habitations were built in UK including Park Hill, Sheffield, Alton West, Roehampton, Barbican, London, and South Acton Estate, London. In general, the modernist ideal city could be described an order city; a functional city; a machine city; a high-rise city; a green city; a radiant city and a fast-traffic city. Case study There is no other cities can completely show Corbusier’s ideas liked Brasilia, although he wasn’t involved in the design (Hall 2002, 230).From 1956 to 1960, in order to narrow the gap between rich and poor and strengthen the development of interior area, a new capital-Brasilia that was designed by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyerhas been built. (Epstein 1973, 9) Brasilia as a totally new capital, without historical context, embodies a symbol of the modern movement (Hall 2002, 232). It means that costa got the best chance to seek to a pure order liked Corbusier. This order can be shown that the whole plan was axisymmetric and was divided different area by its function and residential area, working area and leisure area was linked by fast traffic (Evenson 1973, 146-153). In details dragonfly, bird, airplane, body and fuselage always are used to describe and plan the Brasilia. Roughly 10 kilometres monumental axis link east and west. From east to west, respectively, were gov ernmental buildings, uniform office blocks and train station. The uniformrectangle residential districtthat included shops, apartments etc. were located at both sides of the wind shape north-south axis. And the connection of the two axes was called rodoviaria that was designed as a centre of commerce, culture and entertainment. In addition, artificial lakes were surrounded north, east and south, zoo and serial small factories were near to train station (Issitt 2014). In general we can say, under the influence of modernist ideal city, Brasilia is an order, functional, green jet very motorised city. However,same as the theory of modernist ideal city, critics of Brasilia never stop from the first day of it built. With the development of city, a great deal of problems emerges. In fact, people are not willing to live in Brasilia. In 2000, the population of Brasilia was above stunning 2,000,000 citizens which was 4 times more than origin plan. Yet about 75% lived in outside of planning area, which, implement low density of population. Because of Brasilia being so motorised, and extensively large, it is almost impossible to travel the city by foot. In addition due to the rigid functional zone, human behaviour was strongly ruled (Evenson 1973, 118). Conclusion In my opinion, the modernist ideal city movement was the product of era. And the design of Brasilia was a great experiment, which successfully proved that the theory of modernist ideal city cannot totally suit to a real world. The fact proved that the modernist ideal city is good-looking but not practical. Personally, Le Corbusier was contradictory, he rationally planned the whole city but perceptually wanted to destroy the original city; he rationally ruled behaviours of human but perceptually thought that everyone has the same requirements; he rationally treated house as a machine but perceptually treated human as a machine too. Furthermore, the most controversial point is that the modernist ideal city is an autocratic city that does not leave any space to other possibilities. It is a unique answer for le Corbusier (Marshall 2009, 38). However, no one can ignore the worldwide influence of the movement especially in post-war time, we can still find the shadow of Le Corbusier in many modern cities such as London, Canberra, shanghai, etc. With time goes by, various movements of urban deign emerged. People, nowadays, reach a consensus that we need to find a balance point between economy, environment and social well-being and build a sustainable city. References Clara H. Greed, Introducing town planning (Harlow: Longman, 1996), 70. David G. Epstein, Brasilia, Plan and Reality (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), 9. Kenneth Frampton, Le Corbusier (London: Thames Hudson, 2001), 21-22, 51. Le Corbusier, The city of to-morrow and its planning (New York: Dover, 1987), 15, 84, 163-176, 191. Le Corbusier, The radiant city: elements of a doctrine of urbanism to be used as the basis of our machine-age civilization (New York: Orion Press, 1967), 6-7, 44, 162-163. Micah L. Issitt, â€Å"Brasà ­lia, Brazil,† Salem Press Encyclopedia, January, 2014. Norma Evenson, Two Brazilian capitals: architecture and urbanism in Rio de Janeiro and Brasà ­lia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973), 118, 146-153. Peter Hall, Cities of tomorrow: an intellectual history of urban planning and design in the twentieth century (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 230, 232. Peter Hall, Urban and regional planning (London: Routledge, 2011), 11-18, 28. Stephen Marshall, Cities, Design Evolution (Routledge, 2009), 38.

The Concept of Love in Ovids Metamorphoses :: Ovid Metamorphoses Essays

The Concept of Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the concept of love seems to vary from character to character. In one case, a god in the form of a man desperately seeks a particular woman and refuses to relent until he has her. In another instance, a female goddess cares deeply for a man and goes to great lengths to protect him from danger. In yet another case, both who are arranged to be married seem indifferent about the matter. This anti-epic certainly does not follow the adventurous theme of the epic. There is no protagonist hero to focus on unless you visualize the god's prey as the hero in his/her escape. The assembled writings seem to be more of a recording of the misdeeds of the gods. It appears that Ovid wanted to write about the desires of gods and people instead of a great adventure. Ovid's work ridicules the concept of marriage and harmony between the sexes. It paints men and women as individual creatures who have little desire of joining with the opposite sex. The male gods are impelled by Cupid's power to chase certain female characters. Of course, the female characters are not interested and choose to evade capture so that they may continue with their individual desires. When the female god Venus falls for a human male and lays with him, she goes to great lengths to protect him from the wild animals. She specifically tells him to be bold "when you approach the timid animals, those who are quick to flee: but do not be audacious when you face courageous beasts" (Ovid 936). The man Adonis chose not to heed the god's warning and went on to hunt a wild boar with the aid of his hounds. The boar that Venus despised killed the human that she lusted after. This is another example of individual wants taking precedence over the joined couple. Pygmalion was so much of an individualist that he created his own mate from ivory. The Concept of Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses :: Ovid Metamorphoses Essays The Concept of Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the concept of love seems to vary from character to character. In one case, a god in the form of a man desperately seeks a particular woman and refuses to relent until he has her. In another instance, a female goddess cares deeply for a man and goes to great lengths to protect him from danger. In yet another case, both who are arranged to be married seem indifferent about the matter. This anti-epic certainly does not follow the adventurous theme of the epic. There is no protagonist hero to focus on unless you visualize the god's prey as the hero in his/her escape. The assembled writings seem to be more of a recording of the misdeeds of the gods. It appears that Ovid wanted to write about the desires of gods and people instead of a great adventure. Ovid's work ridicules the concept of marriage and harmony between the sexes. It paints men and women as individual creatures who have little desire of joining with the opposite sex. The male gods are impelled by Cupid's power to chase certain female characters. Of course, the female characters are not interested and choose to evade capture so that they may continue with their individual desires. When the female god Venus falls for a human male and lays with him, she goes to great lengths to protect him from the wild animals. She specifically tells him to be bold "when you approach the timid animals, those who are quick to flee: but do not be audacious when you face courageous beasts" (Ovid 936). The man Adonis chose not to heed the god's warning and went on to hunt a wild boar with the aid of his hounds. The boar that Venus despised killed the human that she lusted after. This is another example of individual wants taking precedence over the joined couple. Pygmalion was so much of an individualist that he created his own mate from ivory.

Crime And Punishment :: essays research papers

In the novel Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky portrays the main character, Raskolnikov, in a complex and unique fashion. He could have been portrayed as the good guy, bad guy, or just your average man on the street, but Raskolnikov is displayed with more than one persona. "It would have been much easier for Raskolnikov to explain his weekness, but it was more pleasant for him to consider himself a strong man" (Chizhevsky 164). Raskolnikov’s dream reveals that his personality is complex and double sided. His range of actions and emotions are more of a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde type character. On the outside, he appears to be in control of his raging homicidal tendencies, but he is full of turmoil on the inside. Raskolnikov’s dream presents these different personas Dostoevsky has given him. His dream also gives the reader a good, inside look into Raskolnikov’s interior conflicts (Chizhevky 191). In the beginning of his dream, Raskolnikov is out in the street . He seems to be wandering around aimlessly, with no recollection of what he is supposed to be doing or why he is there. Meanwhile, everyone else in the dream is carrying on like nothing is wrong. Before delving into the significance of this scene, the reader must note how important control is to him. He is an extremely proud man, and needs to be in control of himself and everything around him at all times (Magill 222). In his view, everything in his life should revolve around him. The beginning of the dream represents the loss of this control in his life. It seems that no matter what he says or does, the world will continue to spin, and the people on it continue to go about their everyday business. He can almost be compared to the young teenage girl that he finds wandering in the street due to the fact that any actions that this young girl takes makes no difference on the outside world (Chizhevsky 201). It is as though he has been psychologically raped by the murders he has committ ed, but at this point he is still unaware that he is no longer in control of his situation. No matter how he wants to feel or act, he cannot help his instinctual habits and desires (Mikhailovski 121). For instance, his health starts to fail him and he has this compulsive desire to reveal himself to the authorities and public by turning himself in.

Most Important Turning Point in WW2 Essay

There’s always a discussion or argument as to what the most important turning point in the war was. This is a very difficult question to answer because every important part of the war happened because of another important part of the war. But is there just one main turning point in the war or could there be multiple? The Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain took place between August and September 1940. After the success of Blitzkrieg, the evacuation of Dunkirk and the surrender of France, Britain, on the Western front, was by herself. The Battle of Britain was the closest British Civilians actually got to see any of the fighting in WW2. In July 1940 through to October 1940 a few thousand young men, ably backed by the British Public and the men and women of the RAF ground staff held off the mightiest Air Force assembled up to that point in time. The German Luftwaffe. On September 15th came the last major engagement of the battle. On that day, the Luftwaffe lost 60 planes while the RAF lost 28. The overall casualties amounted to Germany losing 1,100 planes whereas Britain had lost just over half that amount (650). On September 17th, Hitler cancelled the invasion of Britain. The invasion would not have been possible if the Royal Navy had been able to attack the barges; and, with the RAF in existence the Germans could not hope to attack the Royal Navy. So, no invasion took place. If Britain had lost the Battle of Britain then Britain would have almost certainly been invaded and probably conquered like the other European countries. But Britain did not lose the Battle of Britain and, so, Britain was not conquered. The continued existence of Great Britain as a fighting nation meant that†¦ Germany needed many men to garrison Western Europe rather than attack Russia because the resistance movements in the occupied countries had support from Britain. When Japan and Germany declared war on America, America, being the biggest industrial power at the time, was able to use Britain as a massive base to store all the aircraft they needed to bomb Germany. The majority of Germany`s artillery was kept back in Europe and Germany on anti-aircraft duties because of these huge bombing raids. These drains on Germany’s resources meant they were not able to conquer Russia in the quick manner needed. This led to the eventual meat  grinder of the Eastern front which swallowed so much of their army and air force. How much difference would those guns, men and ammunition have made at Stalingrad? The Battle of Britain boosted British morale through the roof. This was shown in the famous â€Å"never was so much owned by so many to so few.† Speech by Winston Churchill. The British also kicked the Axis out of Africa, forcing Hitler to send much needed supplies and men to assist the failing Afrika Korps. All of this would not have happened if the British had lost the Battle of Britain. The Enigma Code The German military used the Enigma cipher machine during WW2 to keep their communications secret. The machine was available commercially during the 1920s, but the military potential of the device was quickly realised and the German army, navy and air force all used a more developed model of the machine to encipher their messages believing that it would make these communications unsolvable to the enemy. The Enigma machine is an electro-mechanical device that relies on a series of rotating ‘wheels’ or ‘rotors’ to scramble plaintext messages into jumbled cipher text. The machine’s variable elements can be set in many billions of combinations, and each one will make a completely different cipher text message. If you know how the machine has been set up, you can type the cipher text back in and it will unscramble the message. If you don’t know the Enigma setting, the message remains indecipherable. The German authorities believed in the absolute security of the Enigma. However, with the help of Polish mathematicians who had managed to secure a machine before the outbreak of WW2, British code breakers stationed at Bletchley Park managed to exploit weaknesses in the machine and how it was used and were able to crack the Enigma code. Breaking the Enigma ciphers gave the Allies a key advantage, which, according to historians, shortened the war by two years thus saving many lives. In one specific case the team behind the Enigma code were able to inform the British 8th Army at El Alamein of an incoming attack from the Afrika corps. Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most major and decisive battles of World War 2 where the Axis fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad. The battle took place between August 23, 1942 and February 2,  1943 and was fought with close-quarters combat and lack of regard for civilian casualties. It is among the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare with almost two million casualties. The German attack, led by General Paulus, to capture Stalingrad began in late summer 1942, and was supported by severe Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. The German offensive eventually became reduced to building-to-building fighting. Despite controlling nearly the entire city at times, the Germans were unable to shake off the last soviets clinging to their City. Both sides fought vigorously over the city and Stalin ordered his troops, â€Å"Not a step back.† The Battle for Stalingrad was rife with sniping on both sides; however the Russians us ed a tactic no other country did during the war. This tactic was the employing of female snipers on the field, which they did to great effect. By doing this, the Russian Army was able to fill their ranks further as well as raise morale of troops and civilians by reporting on the lethal effectiveness of the Soviet fighting woman. Morale was one of the most vital things a soldier could have. Without morale a soldier became ineffective and the worst thing for morale was an enemy Sniper. The presence of a sniper was usually revealed to enemy troops by a single shot, followed by the death of one of their comrades. This presented a problem to the remaining troops. Not only were they under fire from an enemy, but they could not see where this enemy was nor could they predict who would be the next victim. Additionally, if the sniper left, there was no way for the opposing men to know unless one of them left cover, and therefore risking his life. The strain of being constantly in danger was increased by the inability of the troops to strike back at the sniper, as well as their anger at the death of their fellow soldiers. During the Battle of Stalingrad, the Russian snipers, particularly Vassili Zaitsev, proved to cause so much damage to German morale and such a boost to the Russians that German High Command sent in their best sniper, a Major Koning, to hunt down and kill Zaitsev. Unfortunately for the Germans, this plan backfired, and Zaitsev killed Koning, further lifting Russian morale and dropping German fighting spirit to a new low. On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack at the weaker Romanian and Hungarian forces protecting the German flanks. After heavy fighting, the Axis army was cut off and surrounded inside Stalingrad. Adolf Hitler’s resolute belief in  no surrender led to more loss of life. Eventually, the failure to save the German Forces and lack of supplies led to the surrender. By February 1943, Axis resistance in Stalingrad had stopped and nearly 125,000 remaining troops of the 6th Army had surrendered, the others were killed. Only 6,000 soldiers made it back home. The battle lasted 5 months, 1 week, and 3 days. It was Germany’s first major defeat. However by the end of the battle 99% of the buildings in Stalingrad were reduced to piles of rubble. â€Å"The siege of September 13, 1942 to January 31, 1943 will inspire forever the hearts of all free people. Their glorious victory stemmed the tide of invasion and marked the turning point in the war of the Allied nations against the forces of aggression.† Franklin D Roosevelt, congratulating Joseph Stalin on the soviet Victory at Stalingrad. This shows that not only did Stalingrad spread morale throughout the U.S.S.R but throughout Allied troops around the world. For the U.S.S.R Stalingrad was it. A desperate last stand against the Axis and total inhalation. Not only were there vital oil sources to the South-East but it was a battle between Stalin and Hitler themselves (considering it was Stalin’s city). After the Battle of Stalingrad Germ an forces never recovered to their earlier strength and so gave up their campaign on the USSR. It was the beginning of the end and retreat for the Axis powers in Russia. El Alamein Between 1940 and 1942, the desert war went back and forth over the north coast of Africa. After initial British success, the Afrika Korps (the German army) made a determined advance, gradually beating the British 8th Army back as far as a small town called El Alamein near the Egyptian border. At the end of the First Battle of El Alamein, the Allies suffered about 13,250 wounded, captured, missing, and killed, while the Axis suffered 17,000. The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The battle lasted from 23 October to 5 November 1942. Germany had: 30,542 casualties, 500 tanks, 254 guns, 84 aircraft. And British and other Commonwealth forces had: 13,560 casualties, 332- 500 tanks, 111 guns, 97 aircraft. After the two battles the world was convinced that the Axis powers, particularly Germany, were not invincible as this was their second major military defeat. A quarter of a million Italian and German soldiers su rrendered at El Alamein which was nearly twice the  amount that surrendered at Stalingrad four months earlier. This destroyed Italian moral completely because not only were they crushed at El Alamein, their country became the new frontline, and for Germany It was another momentous disaster. The Battle of El Alamein not only allowed total free access to the Suez Canal for Allied shipping, which was of special importance now that the war had taken on a global nature, but it also stopped the Germans from threatening the Middle-Eastern oil fields, a major supplier of Allied oil reserves. The victory, coupled with joint Allied landings in French Algiers, also finally spelled the elimination of an Axis presence in North Africa and ended the Italian dreams of a ‘new Roman Empire’. There were also strategic implications: the defeat in North Africa began the series of events that led the invasion of mainland Italy and the toppling of the Italian dictator Mussolini. This brought the Italians onto the Allies’ side and left Germany at a strategic disadvantage across the whole of the M editerranean. The North African campaign also drew German troops away from the massive battles that were taking place in the U.S.S.R. I have not included D-Day as one of the most important turning points in the war because I believe that the fact that D-Day happened means that the tide had already turned. For the Western Front the tide turned at the Battle of Britain because if Britain had been taken then: America wouldn’t have an Allied country close to Germany, the Allies wouldn’t have been able to win in North Africa and D-Day wouldn’t of been able to happen in the first place. I have also not included Pearl Harbour as a Turning point because I feel Japan only attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbour so they could destroy some of their vital ships and resources. I think they did this because they knew that war was going to break out between Japan and America at some point and so decided to jump the gun and get the upper hand. This would mean that Pearl Harbour was significant point in the war rather than a turning point. In conclusion I would say that there wasn’t a turning point as such but four main turning points that led do the downfall of Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan. These being: The Battle of Britain, The breaking of the Enigma Code, Stalingrad and El Alamein. This is because the three battles were last chance stands against the mighty German Army, and defeat would have meant loss of highly important resources, land, men and morale. Additionally if the Enigma code had not been broken the war might have raged  on for another two or three years and many more millions could have died. Bibliography http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/features/9942741/stalingrad-dates-legacy.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ww2_summary_01.shtml http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/defeat/catastrophe-stalingrad.htm http://bbrown.umwblogs.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_was_so_much_owed_by_so_many_to_so_few http://stalingrad3.weebly.com/index.html http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battleofbritain.htm http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/machines.rhtm