TiMi Studio Group

# TiMi Studio Group

## Abstract

TiMi Studio Group (Chinese: 天美工作室群; pinyin: Tiānměi Gōngzuò Shìqún), a subsidiary of Tencent Games, is a video game development studio group headquartered in Shenzhen, China and offices in Singapore, Montréal, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chengdu, and Shanghai. TiMi generated an estimated revenue of $10 billion USD in 2020. Reportedly, TiMi is the largest video game operator and developer in the world by revenue. Founded in 2008 as Jade Studio, TiMi comprises several development divisions with different areas of expertise and develops games in different genres for PC, mobile, and Nintendo Switch, including Honor of Kings, Arena of Valor, Call of Duty: Mobile, Speed Drifters, and Pokémon Unite.

## History

### 2008–2013: Origins as Jade Studio

TiMi began in 2008 as Jade Studio in Shenzhen, China. The studio debuted into the Chinese PC gaming market with QQ Speed (known as GKART and Speed Drifters in Western markets), China's most successful racing game. As of July 2, 2019, Speed Drifters has 700 million registered users, with 200 million registered as mobile players. Following Speed Drifters, the studio released its own massive multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG) titled The Legend of Dragon in 2010 and first-person shooter (FPS) Assault Fire in 2012. In 2013, the studio released their final PC game which is a third-person shooter (TPS) titled Age of Gunslingers before they made their debut into mobile gaming with the release of WeChat exclusive games such as We Match and We Run.

### 2014–2016: Formation of TiMi Studio Group and Chinese success

In 2014, Jade Studio merged with Wolong Studio from Chengdu and Tianmeiyiyou Studio from Shanghai to form TiMi Studio Group. Following the merge, in 2015, the group's development division TiMi-L1 debuted into mobile gaming with the massive Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game, Honor of Kings. As of July 2019, Honor of Kings is the most profitable mobile game globally of the first half of 2019, earning more than $728 million.

In 2016, the division introduced the King Pro League (KPL); an official competitive esport for Honor of Kings. The KPL marked the division’ and studio group' first entry into esports, providing a $12 million prize pool.

### 2016–2020: Worldwide growth, Arena of Valor, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Pokémon UNITE

Following the success of Honor of Kings, in 2016, the group's development division TiMi-J6 released Arena of Valor. The MOBA game was launched for mobile and Nintendo Switch in over 50 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and South America, expanding the group's reach worldwide, with more than 13 million monthly active users reported in May 2019. The game became a part of the esports demonstration event at the 2018 Asian Games and 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

On 19 March 2019, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California, Activision announced that they were partnering with TiMi Studio Group to develop their upcoming title, Call of Duty: Mobile. The game was developed by the TiMi-J3 division and released worldwide on 1 October 2019. As of 4 October 2019, the game has surpassed 35 million downloads and over $2 million in revenue. In December 2019, the game received an award for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards.

In July 2019, it was announced that the studio group and The Pokémon Company are developing a new Pokémon game, which was revealed on 24 June 2020, called Pokémon UNITE, a Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game for mobile and Nintendo Switch.

### 2020–present: Team Kaiju, Code: J, Records

In May 2020, the studio group announced ex- 343 Industries and Ubisoft developer Scott Warner as Studio Head in North America. Scott Warner will lead TiMi's Team Kaiju (stylized as TEAM KAIJU), which was revealed on 15 October 2021. The subsidiary is working on one unnamed first-person-shooter (FPS) game for the PC and console market.

On 27 June 2020, the studio group and SNK announced a new unnamed mobile game, Code: J, for the classic arcade franchise Metal Slug.

In November 2020, the studio group announced that Honor of Kings set a record of 100 million average daily active users worldwide.

in July 2021, the group established a new division located in Canada, Montréal. The division's classification is TiMi-F1 and the development focus is an AAA open-world game.

In May 2021, the studio group announced a strategic partnership with Xbox Game Studios.

In June 2022, TiMi L1 Studio, a development division of the group, announced a strategic partnership with Level Infinite on publishing Honor of Kings world-wide, where Level Infinite will take over the publishing, eSports, but TiMi the operations and community. The five versus five video game in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre will adapt on areas where TiMi J6 Studio's Arena of Valor have a shared eSports with in Honor of Kings World Championship (KCC), under TiMi eSports, but did not reach the expected player base.

In August 2022, Nicolas 'Sparth' Bouvier announced that he had joined Team Kaiju as the Senior Art Director. Previously Sparth had been with the Halo franchise for 14 years, serving as the Art Director for most of that tenure.

In December 2023, TiMi Studio Group shut down Team Kaiju, including discontinuing their unannounced game. The team members were moved to other development divisions, and some left the group.

Honor of Kings was launched worldwide on June 20th, 2024, following pre-releases in Brazil and Turkey as well as countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.


# List of Michelin-starred restaurants in Iceland

## Abstract

This article contains a list of Michelin-starred restaurants in Iceland

As of the 2024 guide, there are 3 restaurants in Iceland with a Michelin-star rating, a rating system used by the Michelin Guide to grade restaurants based on their quality.


Saliha Dilaşub Sultan

# Saliha Dilaşub Sultan

## Abstract

Saliha Dilaşub Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: آشوب سلطان; " the devout one " and " queen bee's heart ", died 4 December 1689), also known as Aşub Sultan or Aşube Sultan, was a consort of Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim and Valide Sultan to their son Suleiman II.

## Origin

As per custom she came to the Ottoman Imperial harem via the Ottoman slave trade and her origin is unconfirmed, though her origin is said to have been Serbian, and her original name Katarina.

## Consort

She became the first concubine of Ibrahim after his rise at the throne and on 15 April 1642, gave birth to her only certain son, Şehzade Suleiman (the future Suleiman II) and she became the second Haseki after Turhan Sultan, mother of Mehmed, Ibrahim's first son. During Ibrahim's reign her stipend consisted of 1,300 aspers a day. He also gifted the incomes of Bolu Sanjak to her. She was described as a simple-hearted woman of lively and cheerful character.

## After the death of Ibrahim

After the deposition and death of Sultan Ibrahim in 1648, his eldest son, Mehmed IV, born by Turhan Sultan and only three months older than Suleiman, ascended the throne, after which Saliha Dilaşub settled in the Old Palace. This brought her thirty-nine years of imprisonment in the Old Palace.

In 1651, the conflict Turhan Sultan and Kösem Sultan, mother of Ibrahim, could have changed her fortune in that she could become the Valide Sultan herself. Kösem was planning to kill her daughter-in-law and dethrone Mehmed with the help of some high officers in the yeniçeri corps, and to place Şehzade Suleiman on the throne, because Kösem thought that he and his mother were more controllable. However, Meleki Hatun warned Turhan, who managed to strangle her mother-in-law with the help of the eunuchs in the Harem in 1651. Saliha Dilaşub herself was spared from execution since she was not suspected in plotting against Turhan and Mehmed.

In 1672–1673, she created an endowment at Istanbul.

In 1687, Mehmed was deposed and the throne was overtaken by Suleiman, and Dilaşub became the next valide sultan.

In July 1688, she followed her son to Edirne, reuniting with him after 39 years of separation, in which she was only allowed to see him twice a year on the occasion of festive celebrations. Her son honored her with a splendid settlement procession and the awarding of a large number of precious jewels, including a pair of pearl and diamond earrings.

## Death

She died in the Edirne Palace on 4 December 1689, having been ill and bedridden for a year. She was buried in the mausoleum of Suleiman the Magnificent in Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul.

## Issue

Together with Ibrahim, Saliha Dilaşub had a son:

- Suleiman II (Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, 15 April 1642 - Edirne Palace, Edirne, 22 June 1691, buried in Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul). Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

It is not known for sure if she had other children, but, if Saliha Dilaşub was indeed Ibrahim's first concubine, she was probably at least the mother of his eldest daughter as well:

- Safiye Sultan (Istanbul, 1640 - ?). She married Baki Bey, son of the Grand Vizier Hezarpare Ahmed Paşah by his first wife.

## In popular culture

- In the 2010 Turkish historical film Mahpeyker: Kösem Sultan, Saliha Dilaşub Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Gökcan Gökmen.

- In the 2015 Turkish historical non-fiction TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, Saliha Dilaşub Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Ece Güzel.

## Sources


The Nightmare (2015 German film)

# The Nightmare (2015 German film)

## Abstract

The Nightmare (German: Der Nachtmahr) is a 2015 German psychological horror - drama film directed by Achim Bornhak. The title and themes are inspired by the otherwise unrelated painting The Nightmare by Swiss painter Henry Fuseli. Rock musician Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) has a cameo as an English poetry teacher.

## Plot

The film opens with a warning about its intense usage of strobe lights and disorienting sound profiles.

During a hot summer in Berlin the 17-year old Tina and her friends travel to a late-evening party at a public swimming pool. One of the girls tells Tina about a misshapen embryo shown to students during biology class. She takes a photograph of Tina with her smartphone to morph her into the picture. Later someone else also shows her someone getting run over by a car in a video on his smartphone. During the party Tina notices a bizarre creature in the forest and is so frightened that she wants to go home. Once back at the car she notices her necklace is missing and spots pieces of it on the street. As she gets out the car and cobbles it back together a car passes by and smacks her down.

A few moments later Tina wakes up, apparently not hurt fatally. A feeling of déjà-vu strikes her, as scenes similar to what happened before take place again, including her getting in the car and noticing her necklace is gone.

At home Tina notices the strange creature from before raiding the kitchen fridge. She warns her parents and later security personnel to check whether there was an intruder in the home, but none of them find any evidence and don't seem to be able to see the creature. Tina talks with her therapist, and he advises her to approach and touch the creature. She follows his advice and discovers it seems to be real. Not only that, but they seem to have a strange physical sensory connection: whenever it hurts itself - or is hurt by others - Tina also experiences pain.

Tina starts to like the creature and brings food to her room to feed it. At a certain moment her parents hear the creature's noise, open her bedroom door and to their horror notice she is sleeping next to it on her bed. They take her away and try to catch it with help from police officers and animal control specialists. As the creature is tranquilized, Tina also collapses in a coma. The creature is brought to a hospital for further investigation.

Tina wakes up and confronts her parents about the creature, but they have no idea what she is talking about. Back in school Tina is mocked and alienated by her former friends who all heard what happened and assume she is losing her mind. Despite the fact that they planned to throw a birthday party for her, she is not invited by them and her parents want to keep her at home, since her mental condition is so bad. She celebrates her 18th birthday at home with her parents but discovers they plan to send her to a mental hospital. Angry, she sneaks out that night, steals her parents' car, saves the creature from the hospital, and goes to the party.

At the party she meets her friends and the boy she had an eye on the entire time. They kiss for the first time, but then other people notice the creature. As others try to harm it she goes over and defends him, but her parents - who also arrived at the scene - throw a stone sculpture at it.

The final scene shows Tina waking up in the back of the moving car, while the creature is behind the wheel. She feels comforted and together they drive away.

## Cast

- Carolyn Genzkow - Tina

- Sina Tkotsch - Barbara

- Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht - Adam

- Arnd Klawitter - Tina's father

- Julika Jenkins - Tina's mother

- Aram Arami - Rashid

- Michael Epp - police officer Schonrath

- Kim Gordon - English teacher

## Awards

The picture won the Youth Jury Prize and Oecumenical Jury Prize at the Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival (2016) and the award for Best Foreign Picture at the 12th Fantaspoa Festival in Brazil, in 2016.

## Recognition

Jay Bauman of the website RedLetterMedia liked the film on his Twitter account and named it "a really good mood piece. Loved the driving soundtrack and uneasy, wide angle lens camera work."


Theoharis Trasha

# Theoharis Trasha

## Abstract

Theoharis Trasha (born April 21, 1985, in Elbasan) is an Albanian weightlifter, who with his younger brother Gert Trasha competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where he finished 12th.


Samuel Eliot Morison

# Samuel Eliot Morison

## Abstract

Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and taught history at the university for 40 years. He won Pulitzer Prizes for Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), a biography of Christopher Columbus, and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959). In 1942, he was commissioned to write a history of United States naval operations in World War II, which was published in 15 volumes between 1947 and 1962. Morison wrote the popular Oxford History of the American People (1965), and co-authored the classic textbook The Growth of the American Republic (1930) with Henry Steele Commager.

Over the course of his career, Morison received eleven honorary doctoral degrees, and garnered numerous literary prizes, military honors, and national awards from both foreign countries and the United States, including two Pulitzer Prizes, two Bancroft Prizes, the Balzan Prize, the Legion of Merit, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

## Early life (1887–1912)

Samuel Eliot Morison was born July 9, 1887, in Boston, Massachusetts, to John Holmes Morison (1856–1911) and Emily Marshall (Eliot) Morison (1857–1925). He was named for his maternal grandfather Samuel Eliot —a historian, educator, and public-minded citizen of Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. The Eliot family, which produced generations of prominent American intellectuals, descended from Andrew Eliot, who moved to Boston in the 1660s from the English village of East Coker. The most famous of this Andrew Eliot's direct descendants was poet T.S. Eliot, who titled the second of his Four Quartets " East Coker ".

Morison attended Noble and Greenough School (1897–1901) and St. Paul's (1901–1903) prior to entering Harvard University, where he was a member of the Phoenix S K Club. At the age of fourteen, he learned to sail, and soon after learned horsemanship—both skills would serve him well in his later historical writings. He earned both a Bachelor of Arts and Master's degree from Harvard in 1908. After studying at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques (1908–1909), Morison returned to Harvard.

## Scholar and historian (1913–1941)

Morison originally intended to major in mathematics until Albert Bushnell Hart talked him into researching some papers of an ancestor stored in his wine cellar. His Harvard dissertation was the basis for his first book The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765–1848 (1913), which sold 700 copies. After earning his Ph.D. at Harvard, Morison became an instructor in history at the University of California, Berkeley in 1912. In 1915 he returned to Harvard and took a position as an instructor. During World War I he served as a private in the US Army. He also served as the American Delegate on the Baltic Commission of the Paris Peace Conference until June 17, 1919.

In 1922–1925 Morison taught at Oxford University as the first Harmsworth Professor of American History. In 1925 he returned to Harvard, where he was appointed a full professor. One of several subjects that fascinated Morison was the history of New England. As early as 1921 he published The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860. In the 1930s Morison published a series of books on the history of Harvard University and New England, including Builders of the Bay Colony: A Gallery of Our Intellectual Ancestors (1930), The Founding of Harvard College (1935), Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (1936), Three Centuries of Harvard: 1636–1936 (1936), and The Puritan Pronaos (1936). In later years, he returned to the subject of New England history, writing The Ropemakers of Plymouth (1950) and The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth (1956) and editing the definitive work, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647 (1952).

Returning to Harvard in 1925, it is noteworthy that Morison was the last professor to arrive there on horseback. He was chosen to speak at the 300th Anniversary celebration of Harvard in 1936 and a recording of his speech is included as part of the "Harvard Voices" collection.

In 1938 Morison was elected as an honorary member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati.

In 1940, Morison published Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century, a book that presaged his succeeding publications on the explorer, Christopher Columbus. In 1941, Morison was named Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard. For Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), Morison combined his personal interest in sailing with his scholarship by actually sailing to the various places that Columbus explored. The Harvard Columbus Expedition, led by Morison and including his wife and Captain John W. McElroy, Herbert F. Hossmer, Jr., Richard S. Colley, Dr. Clifton W. Anderson, Kenneth R. Spear and Richard Spear, left on 28 August 1939 aboard the 147 foot ketch Capitana for the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal from which they sailed on the 45 foot ketch Mary Otis to retrace Columbus' route using manuscripts and records of his voyages reaching Trinidad by way of Cadiz, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. After following the coast of South and Central America the expedition returned to Trinidad on 15 December 1939. The expedition returned to New York on 2 February 1940 aboard the United Fruit liner Veragua. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1943.

## Naval war service (1942–1952)

In 1942, Morison met with his friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt and offered to write a history of United States Navy operations during the war from an insider's perspective by taking part in operations and documenting them. The President and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox agreed to the proposal. On May 5, 1942, Morison was commissioned a lieutenant commander in the US Naval Reserve, and was called at once to active duty. Gregory Pfitzer explained his procedures:

He gained berths on patrol boats, destroyers, and heavy cruisers; participated in planning sessions for invasions; witnessed sea battles; narrowly escaped death at the hands of a kamikaze pilot; and conducted post-operational interviews with commanders in the Pacific theater.

Morison worked with a team of researchers to prepare the History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, published in 15 volumes between 1947 and 1962, documenting everything from strategy and tactics to technology and the exploits of individuals. British military historian Sir John Keegan called it the best to come out of that conflict. Issued as The Rising Sun in the Pacific in 1948, Volume 3 won the Bancroft Prize in 1949.

Morison was promoted to the rank of captain on December 15, 1945. On August 1, 1951, he was transferred to the Honorary Retired List of the Naval Reserve and was promoted to rear admiral on the basis of combat awards.

In History as a Literary Art: An Appeal to Young Historians (1946), Morison argued that vivid writing springs from the synergy of experience and research:

American historians, in their eagerness to present facts and their laudable concern to tell the truth, have neglected the literary aspects of their craft. They have forgotten that there is an art of writing history.

## Later years (1953–1976)

In 1955, Morison retired from Harvard University. He devoted the rest of his life to writing. In quick succession, Morison wrote Christopher Columbus, Mariner (1955), Freedom in Contemporary Society (1956), The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth, 1620–1692 (1956), Nathaniel Holmes Morison (1957), William Hickling Prescott (1958), Strategy and Compromise (1958), and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959), which earned Morison his second Pulitzer Prize.

In the early 1960s, Morison's focus returned to his New England youth, writing The Story of Mount Desert Island, Maine (1960), One Boy's Boston, 1887–1901 (1962), Introduction to Whaler Out of New Bedford (1962), and A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts (1963). In 1963, The Two-Ocean War was published, a one-volume abridged history of the United States Navy in World War II.

In 1964, Morison received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon B. Johnson. In presenting the distinguished historian with the highest civilian award in the United States, Johnson noted:

Scholar and sailor, this amphibious historian has combined a life of action and literary craftsmanship to lead two generations of Americans on countless voyages of discovery.

Morison's later years were devoted to books on exploration, such as The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It, written jointly with Mauricio Obregón (1964), Spring Tides (1965), The European Discovery of America (1971–1974), and Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (1972). His research for the latter book included sailing many of the routes taken by Champlain, and tracing others by airplane.

Morison's first marriage to Elizabeth S. Greene produced four children—one of whom, Emily Morison Beck, became editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Elizabeth died August 20, 1945. In 1949, Morison married Baltimore widow Priscilla Barton. Priscilla died February 22, 1973.

## Death and legacy

Morison died of a stroke on May 15, 1976. His ashes are buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Northeast Harbor, Maine.

During his life Morison had received two Pulitzer Prizes, two Bancroft Prizes, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ' Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1961), and numerous honorary degrees, military awards, and honors from foreign nations.

On July 19, 1979, the frigate USS Samuel Eliot Morison was launched, honoring Morison and his contributions to the United States Navy. Morison's legacy is also sustained by the United States Naval History and Heritage Command's Samuel Eliot Morison Naval History Scholarship. Boston's Commonwealth Avenue Mall features a bronze statue depicting Morison in sailor's oilskin.

Morison's last known public appearance was on April 8, 1976, when he served as the ribbon cutter to open the USS Constitution Museum. "The Museum's research library and an annual award given by the Museum for scholarship in history are both named in his honor." The museum gives the annual Samuel Eliot Morison Award to a person whose public service has enhanced the image of the USS Constitution, and who reflects the best of Samuel Eliot Morison: artful scholarship, patriotic pride, and eclectic interest in the sea and things maritime.

In 1976, the American Heritage magazine initiated an award named in honor of Morison called the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, honoring an American author whose work shows "that good history is literature as well as high scholarship." It lasted two years.

Since 1982, the Naval Order of the United States gives an honor in Morison's name, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, for significant works about the US Navy.

In 1985, the Society for Military History established the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize, recognizing an author's body of contributions in the field of military history.

## Criticism

### Slavery

Morison was criticized by some African-American scholars for his treatment of American slavery in early editions of his book The Growth of the American Republic, which he co-wrote with Henry Steele Commager and later with Commager's student William E. Leuchtenburg. The book originated as Morison's two-volume Oxford History of the United States (Oxford University Press, 1927). First published in 1930, the first two editions of the textbook, according to these critics, echoed the thesis of American Negro Slavery (1918) by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. This view, sometimes called the Phillips school of slavery historiography, was considered an authoritative interpretation of the history of American slavery during the first half of the twentieth century, despite the intense criticism by some African-American scholars for its alleged racist underpinnings. Phillips's theories remained authoritative, considered by many white scholars to be ground-breaking and progressive when first proposed. In 1944, the NAACP began its criticism of The Growth of the American Republic.

In 1950, despite denying any racist intent (he noted his daughter's marriage to the son of Joel Elias Spingarn, the second president of the NAACP), Morison reluctantly agreed to most of the demanded changes. Morison refused to eliminate references to slaves who were loyal and devoted to their masters because they were treated well and to some positive "civilizing" effects of the American system of slavery. Morison also refused to remove references to stereotypes of African Americans that he believed were vital in accurately depicting the racist nature of American culture in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, an era during which even the most enlightened progressive thinkers routinely explained many aspects of human behavior as a result of innate racial or ethnic characteristics. In the 1962 edition of the textbook, Morison removed additional content that his critics had found to be offensive.

### Battle of Savo Island

In his semi-official account of the Battle of Savo Island, a disastrous defeat for the US Navy during World War II, Morison partly blamed the defeat on the failure of an Australian aircrew to inform the Americans of the approaching Japanese forces. Morison appears to have based that story on inaccurate information that has since been refuted. On October 21, 2014, the US Navy issued a letter of apology to the last surviving member of the RAAF Hudson crew, which had sighted and duly reported the approach of the Japanese Naval Task Force. The letter states that "RAdm. Morison's criticism was unwarranted."

## Honors and awards

Award ribbons

Other honors

- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1915)

- Member of the American Philosophical Society (1937)

- Honorary Member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (1938)

- Vuelo Panamericano Medal (Republic of Cuba) (1943)

Honorary degrees

- Trinity College, Hartford (1935)

- Amherst College (1936)

- Harvard University (1936)

- Union College (1939)

- Columbia University (1942)

- Yale University (1949)

- Williams College (1950)

- University of Oxford (1951)

- Bucknell University (1960)

- Boston College (1961)

- College of the Holy Cross (1962)

Literary prizes

- Loubat Prize (1938) for The Founding of Harvard College (1935) and Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (1936)

- Pulitzer Prize (1943) for Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942)

- Bancroft Prize (1949) for The Rising Sun in the Pacific (1948)

- Pulitzer Prize (1960) for John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959)

- American Academy of Arts and Sciences Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1961)

- American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1962)

- Balzan Prize (1962) for History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (1963)

- Bancroft Prize (1972) for The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages (1971)

Memorial A statue of Morison sits on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston. On the base is engraved his advice to young writers: "Dream dreams and write them, aye, but live them first".

## Works

Books by Morison (alphabetical):

- Admiral of the Ocean Sea. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942.

- American Contributions to the Strategy of World War II. London: Oxford University Press, 1958.

- The Ancient Classics in a Modern Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939.

- Builders of the Bay Colony. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930.

- By Land and By Sea. New York: Knopf, 1953.

- The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964. (with Mauricio Obregon)

- Christopher Columbus, Mariner. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1955.

- The Class Lives of Samuel Eliot and Nathaniel Homes Morison, Harvard 1839. Boston: Privately printed, 1926.

- The Conservative American Revolution. Washington, DC: Society of the Cincinnati, 1976.

- Doctor Morison's Farewell to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Boston: Merrymount Press, 1939.

- The European Discovery of America. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971–1974.

- The Events of the Year MDCCCCXXXV. Boston: Merrymount Press, 1936.

- The Founding of Harvard College. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935.

- Francis Parkman. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1973.

- Freedom in Contemporary Society. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956.

- The Growth of the American Republic 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1930.

- Harrison Gray Otis, 1765–1848: The Urbane Federalist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.

- Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936.

- Harvard Guide to American History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963. (with Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Frederick Merk, Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr., and Paul Herman Buck)

- Historical Background for the Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary in 1930. Boston: Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary, Inc., 1928, 1930.

- Historical Markers Erected by Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission. Texts of Inscriptions As Revised By Samuel Eliot Morison. Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1930.

- History As A Literary Art. Boston: Old South Association, 1946.

- A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts. Boston: Special Commission on Revision of the Constitution, 1963.

- A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1917.

- History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. 15 vols. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1947–1962.

- An Hour of American History: From Columbus to Coolidge. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1929.

- Introduction to Whaler Out of New Bedford. New Bedford: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1962.

- John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1959.

- The Journals and other Documents Relating to the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Edited and Translated by Samuel Eliot Morison with illustrations by Lima de Freitas. New York: First Editions Club; Heritage Press, 1963. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1990.

- Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.

- Life in Washington a Century and a Half Ago. Washington, DC: Cosmos Club, 1968.

- The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921.

- Nathaniel Homes Morison. Baltimore: Peabody Institute, 1957.

- A New and Fresh English Translation of the Letter of Columbus Announcing the Discovery of America. Madrid: Graficas Yagues, 1959.

- Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647. Editor. New York: Knopf, 1952.

- Old Bruin: Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, 1796–1858. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967.

- One Boy's Boston, 1887–1901. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

- The Oxford History of the American People. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.

- Oxford History of the United States. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927.

- The Pilgrim Fathers: Their Significance in History. Boston: Merrymount Press, 1937.

- Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1940.

- A Prologue to American History: An Inaugural Lecture. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.

- The Proprietors of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Peterborough: Historical Society, 1930.

- The Puritan Pronaos. New York: New York University Press, 1936.

- Ropemakers of Plymouth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.

- Sailor Historian: The Best of Samuel Eliot Morison. Edited by Emily Morison Beck. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.

- Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972.

- The Scholar in American: Past, Present, and Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.

- The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939.

- Sources and Documents Illustrating the American Revolution, 1764–1788, and the Formation of the Federal Constitution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.

- Spring Tides. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.

- The Story of Mount Desert Island, Maine. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960.

- The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth, 1620–1692. New York: Knopf, 1956.

- Strategy and Compromise. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1958.

- These Forty Years. Boston: Privately printed, 1948. (Address to the 40th Reunion, Harvard Class of 1908)

- Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936.

- The Two-Ocean War. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963.

- Vistas of History. New York: Knopf, 1964.

- William Hickling Prescott. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1958.

- The Young Man Washington. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1932.


Farmers' suicides in the United States

# Farmers' suicides in the United States

## Abstract

Farmers' suicides in the United States refers to the instances of American farmers taking their own lives, largely since the 1980s, partly due to their falling into debt, but as a larger mental-health crisis among U.S. agriculture workers. In the Midwest alone, over 1,500 farmers have taken their own lives since the 1980s. It mirrors a crisis happening globally: in Australia, a farmer dies by suicide every four days; in the United Kingdom, one farmer a week takes their own life, in France it is one every two days. More than 270,000 farmers have died by suicide since 1995 in India.

Farmers are among the most likely to die by suicide, in comparison to other occupations, according to a study published in January 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Researchers at the University of Iowa found that farmers, and others in the agricultural trade, had the highest suicide rate of all occupations from 1992 to 2010, the years covered in a 2017 study. The rate was 3.5 times that of the general population. This echoed a study conducted the previous year by the CDC and another undertaken by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA).

Most family farmers seem to agree on what led to their plight: government policy. In the years after the New Deal, they say, the United States set a price floor for farmers, essentially ensuring they received a minimum wage for the crops they produced. But the government began rolling back this policy in the 1970s, and now the global market largely determines the price they get for their crops. Big farms can make do with lower prices for crops by increasing their scale; a few cents per gallon of cow's milk adds up if you have thousands of cows. — Time, November 27, 2019

As of April 2023, the suicide rate within the farming community exceeds that of the general population by three and a half times.

## Background

In 1980, president Jimmy Carter implemented a grain embargo against the Soviet Union as the "New" Cold War began. "My net worth dropped $20,000 overnight", said Iowan farmer Wendell Tuttle in 2013.

In 1985, after Ronald Reagan had been president for four years, the Farm Credit System (FCS) lost $2.7 billion – the largest one-year loss of any financial institution in U.S. history. That same year, 40-year-old farmer Dean Hagedorn walked into a bank in Spencer, Iowa, with a check for $94,000, the proceeds of that year's corn crop from his farm of 560 acres (230 ha). He planned to use three-quarters to keep his bank loan payments up to date, and to parcel the remainder out to other creditors, but the bank kept the entire amount.

"There's a silent atrophy creeping across the heartland ", said Joan Blundall, a mental-health counselor in rural Iowa, in 1987. "And I don't think anyone knows yet where we are headed." As of 2019, farm debt was at $416 billion, an all-time high, and median farm income was projected to be −$1,644. Over half of all farmers have lost money every year since 2013, and farm loan delinquencies are increasing.

According to the National Rural Health Association (NRHA), farmers' suicide rate is three and a half times greater than that observed in the broader population. From 2000 to 2018, there was a 34% increase in the suicide rate in urban areas compared to 48% in rural areas. In March 2023, the association, which has a membership of 21,000 including rural hospitals and clinics, submitted a letter to House and Senate agricultural committees calling on them to respond to what the NRHA's chief executive officer called "a deep-seated and longstanding problem." The association requested a tailored national crisis line to respond to farmers, along with funding increase for the stress assistance network.

## Causes of farmers' suicides

Several causes of the farmers' suicides have been pinpointed:

- Farmers experienced a loss of pride in being able to either keep their farm, or run it to its full potential. Some farmers expect to reach certain milestones, such as passing the farm on to the next generation or expanding their facility.

- Prices for commodities such as corn, soybeans, milk and meat had shrunk by around half between 2012 and 2020.

- Farm debt had increased by around a third since 2007, rising to levels last experienced in the 1980s. Interest rates rose from single digits to 21.5% in 1981. A $28-billion federal-aid provision, rolled out by the Trump administration over two years, did not provide enough to recoup income lost during the China–United States trade war.

- Physical isolation can make it hard for farmers to get assistance for their mental-health problems.

- Farmers often own guns, thus providing "an immediate means to act on deadly impulses".

- The consolidation of rural schools resulted in farm children having to ride on the bus for hours each day.

- Inclement weather, including the Midwestern floods and the droughts of 1983 and 1988, prevented farmers from utilizing almost 20,000,000 acres (8,100,000 ha) in just 2019.

- Soybean exports to China dropped 75% from 2017 to 2018.

A study published in 2021 found that food producers have higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide risk (with self-blame being the only variable that had a significant association with this risk).

In Oklahoma, specifically, Eric Ramírez-Ferrero (who grew up in Enid) found that "large numbers of people could not keep up with technological progress and have had their expectations of a comfortable life frustrated."

Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of the Farm Service Agency, said: "Our producers are constantly expected to do more with less, innovate and improve, raise a family, preserve a legacy—and let's not forget feeding and clothing the world while we're at it."

Financial pressures are exacerbated by international trade, pandemics that decimate livestock, and other global forces, as well as weather-related natural forces. Farmers perceive mental illness, such as depression, as a weakness to be overcome with hard work, and avoid seeking treatment.

## Localities affected

### Midwest

More than 900 farmers took their own lives in five upper Midwestern states during the 1980s farm crisis, described as "the worst agricultural economic crisis since the Great Depression ". Between 2014 and 2018, over 450 more committed suicide, although the actual total is believed to be higher because not every state provided suicide data for each year, some redacted portions of the data, and some reported the deaths as agricultural accidents. 75 farmers committed suicide across six Midwestern states in 2017. That total increased by one the following year. Of those 76 farmers, eighteen lived in Missouri and Kansas, fifteen in Wisconsin, thirteen in Illinois and twelve in North Dakota.

#### Iowa

47-year-old Philip Fetter, of Chelsea, took his own life on July 25, 1982, leaving his wife of 24 years, Norma, to care for ten children on her own, and to cope with overwhelming debt. Their farm and house were sold back to the Federal Land Bank at a substantial loss. Norma survived her husband by 37 years. She died in 2019, aged 85.

On July 31, 1984, 56-year-old Kenneth Meisgeier hanged himself in the machine shed on his farm in Arlington after declaring bankruptcy. He was found by his son. Meisgeier belonged to the most at-risk group of farmers, who were over 50 and could not see a way forward.

On April 3, 1985, Daniel Cutler, of Sioux City, shot himself at an abandoned farmstead on his way back home to his wife, Karen, after visiting family. Cutler, 38, left a message hinting at where his suicide note could be found. "The opening statement of the suicide note was 'The farm killed me,'" Karen (now Heidman) said. Cutler became deeply indebted and the value of his farmland had depreciated significantly.

On December 9, 1985, Dale Burr, 63, of Lone Tree fatally shot himself, in the presence of a police officer, after killing his wife Emily, 64; John Hughes, 46, a bank president; and a neighboring farmer, Richard Goody. 38. At the time of his death, Burr was in debt more than $500,000. He left a note beside his wife's body that said, "I'm sorry. I can't take the problems anymore." The news shocked the entire state, including Governor Terry Branstad, who knew the banker's family. Burr had been pressured by his bank, Hills Bank and Trust Company, to sell his livestock and machinery to pay some of his debt. He had been in a dispute with Goody regarding farming 80 acres (32 ha) of land.

Herman "Charlie" Behrens, of Sibley, tried to keep his family's 124-year farming tradition alive, but ultimately had to admit defeat. "I only had about $19,000 in loans", he said in 1987. "The same banker I dealt with all my life, he comes out one day and says the value of my machinery is $5,000 below the value of my loan. I said, 'You know me. I'm Charlie. I never missed a payment in all my years.' Then he points to the top line of my loan where it says payable on demand. They'd call up at 7:30 in the morning. 'You got any money yet, Charlie?' they'd ask. And then they'd call back at 8:30 at night. I didn't know people could get that way. But, you see, they were scared, too, with all the problems around. And they figured they'd better get something out of some of us while they could. There were a lot of heart attacks around these parts. And then Jean fell sick." She died in 1986.

On May 11, 2011, Matt Peters left a suicide note for his wife, Ginnie, on the desk in his workshop in Perry. He killed himself in his truck the following day.

Barb Kalbach, a corn and soybean farmer in Dexter, says that on the square mile of land where she lives, five different families used to grow corn, beans, hay, cattle and pigs. Since around 2005, the other four families have given up and moved out of town. Kalbach also now has to travel 75 miles to buy chemicals, and there is no longer a local farm equipment repair business. "All the thousands of farmers that have left the land — all the businesses have gone with them."

#### Kansas

John Blaske, of Onaga, said in 2017: "In the last 25 to 30 years, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about suicide." He lost his house in a fire on Thanksgiving Day in 1982 which left him and his wife homeless. The farm crisis intensified around the same time, and their bank raised their interest rate from 7% to 18%. Blaske filed for bankruptcy and lost 265 acres (107 ha).

In 2017, suicide was the eighth-highest cause of death in Kansas. This ranked at 13th nationally for suicides.

#### Minnesota

Larry Ruhland, 56, of Watkins, died in 2006. He killed himself on the farm he operated with his wife, Barbara. "I didn't put it together, because I didn't even think of the fact that Larry was under as much stress as he was under," she said. Barbara reached out to Ted Matthews, director of MN Rural Mental Health in Hutchinson. "He was a real, real guy who understood farmers and understood farm life and respected it but, at the same time, wanted you to understand how it could really suck you in and drain you completely dry", continued Ruhland. She rues the fact that her husband and Matthews did not meet.

Meg Moynihan runs a dairy farm with her husband around ten miles west of New Prague. Her husband struggled with depression and anxiety, but recovered. Moynihan realized the importance of mental health and, in 2021, wrote a grant proposal that resulted in that year's United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) award.

In 2023, Minnesota clergy began training to prevent farmers' suicides. Around eighty pastors enrolled in a month-long suicide-prevention program.

#### Ohio

Rural areas of Ohio have some of the highest rates of suicide state-wide, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

Three farmers from the close-knit community of Georgetown committed suicide between mid-2015 and 2017.

Several initiatives have been launched to combat the problem, including the "Ohio's Got Your Back" campaign.

#### Wisconsin

In Fremont, the Rieckmann family has been raising cattle for nearly two centuries. John Rieckmann and his wife, Mary, purchased a dairy farm from John's father, on land that had been in the family for three generations. As of 2019, the farm was $300,000 in debt, and it was making only $16 for every 100 pounds of milk sold, a 40% decrease from 2013. In January 2019, Wisconsin had 8,110 milk-cow herds, according to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection — 691 down on the previous year.

Randy Roecker, a dairy farmer in Loganville, was losing $30,000 a month in 2019. He inherited his grandparents' farm, which they started around ninety years earlier. In 2008, when milk prices went down significantly, Roecker said: "I would get in the truck, and I would drive out on our back 40-acre field and sit in the truck and just cry. I never thought depression would happen to me. But this financial struggle and feeling that you're losing this legacy that your grandfather started and it just really played a lot with my mind."

Roecker's neighbor, 57-year-old Leon A. Statz, committed suicide in October 2018 after financial struggles forced him to sell the fifty Holstein dairy cows he had on his 200-acre (81 ha) farm, instead moving into grain and beef farming. The relative uncertainty of their new venture caused Statz endless anxiety, even though the farm was actually prospering. Statz, who had inherited the family farm from his parents, began a part-time role as a meat cutter in a local grocery store, his wife later saying it was to punish himself because he thought he was a failure. Statz attempted suicide four months after the sale of the cows. He said goodbye to his children over the telephone, then swallowed a handful of pills while locking himself in a shed with farm equipment running inside it. His suicide note read: "I wish I never sold (our, my) cows! I'm a dairy farmer. I want my old life back, but I can't get it anymore. Every thing I do fails. I didn't plan ahead for this... I really screwed up!"

Leon's wife, Brenda, heard the tractor equipment running and shut them down, despite her husband's attempts to prevent her doing so. She opened the shed's door, to let air pass through, and called the police and Rev. Donald Glanzer Jr., the pastor of their church, St. Peter's Lutherhan in Loganville. Statz was hospitalized for three days.

Shortly before he died, Statz explained to his wife how he felt:

Like you're in the bottom of this hole, this pit, and you can see the top and you're climbing, climbing, and struggling your way to the top. And just when you get to the top, it goes higher, and you keep climbing, and pretty soon you get tired and you can't climb anymore.

Ethan Statz found his father's body in the shed for the farm's heifers on October 8, 2018. In 2023, Statz's wife, his sons and his daughter-in-law were running the farm. "Whether he's here or not, somebody still had to get up the next day and feed the cows. Somebody had to get up and do the chores. The crops still had to be harvested that year. There's so much that has to do you didn't have time to just stop," Brenda said.

As a direct result of the incident, Roecker and Statz set up Farmer Angel Network, a support group for local families in the farming industry. In April 2023, the New York Times reported on Statz's widow and mother to three children. Rain had been falling in the Driftless Area for weeks, which caused their fields to flood and delayed their harvest. "A note in the pocket of his work pants described how depression had robbed him of the hope and pride he had in running a third-generation dairy farm," wrote Elizabeth Williamson. Brenda was involved in the formation of the Farmer Angel Network.

Emily Harris, a farmer in Monroe, is blunt with her perspective: "Just stop complaining about farming and quit. You can't make any money. Just be done." She and Brandi Harris shut down their 40-cow dairy in May 2019 after becoming several hundred thousand dollars in debt. They sold their cows but kept their barn, their house and about 90 acres (36 ha) of farmland.

In 2023, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported that suicides in rural areas of the state continued to climb.

### Colorado

As reported in 2021, drought conditions in western Colorado over two decades also led to suicides amongst its farmers.

### Montana

Montana saw drought conditions from mid-2020 and throughout 2021. On top of that, an invasion of grasshoppers destroyed rangeland and crops. In August 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture put the quality of the state's spring wheat crop was 67%, "poor to very poor", with just 16% being "good". This led to mental-health concerns in the farming communities.

### New York

After decreasing demand for dairy, as customers turned to milk alternatives, a spike in suicides occurred in the state of New York around 2015, resulting in the closure of several hundreds of farms. Dairy sales accounted for about half of total farm sales annually. New York was the third-largest milk-producing state in the U.S. in 2018, according to a New York Times article, over 500 dairy farms around the state closed between 2012 and 2017. The population of dairy cows, however, was on the increase. After a local farmer took his life in January 2018, Agri-Mark, a large co-operative that was one of his customers, sent its 550 members in the state a list of suicide and mental-health hotline numbers. "It's not unusual to get woken up in the middle of the night by a farmer who is potentially suicidal", said Hal McCabe, outreach director for FarmNet.

Fred Morgan, of Eaton, was talked out of suicide by his wife, Judy. The family had become unable to repay six bank loans and debts to various entities. They declared bankruptcy, restructured their finances, and switched to producing organic milk. They were able to sell at $43 per hundredweight, which is about three times the average price for conventional milk. Switching to an organic operation is costly, however; for farmers in debt, it is not an option.

In January 2010, Dean Pierson, a 59-year-old dairy farmer in Copake shot all 51 of his milking cows before turning the gun on himself. He had left suicide notes on cow tag cards, saying he was "overwhelmed" by financial and personal issues.

### Oklahoma

Between 1983 and 1989, a study revealed that 160 Oklahoman farmers took their own lives – an average of 26 for each of the six years. 43 of the 160 cases occurred in the one-year period between 1988 and 1989. Self-inflicted gunshots to the head or chest were the most common method of suicide.

The existing agricultural crisis line in the state, AG-Link, increased its services and expanded its team, allowing them to respond anywhere in the state. In the build-up to 1988, the team made an average of 120 annual intervention calls. By 1990, it averaged 175.

I hear Mr. Melrose say that he is in financial trouble.

"I'm one of those farmers your project is about, Eric."

As he continued to talk, I listened intently, though my eyes followed a gaggle of geese across the sky until it was nearly out of sight. On this farm, only thirty miles from where I grew up, I knew not to make a spectacle of my acknowledgment of his situation, of his pain. This I had learned. — Eric Ramírez-Ferrero, Troubled Fields: Men, Emotions, and the Crisis in American Farming (2005)

### Pennsylvania

Brenda Cochran has been a farmer in Westfield since 1975, along with her husband, Joseph. She said she knows of nine suicides related to low milk prices between 2017 and 2019. "It's very, very bleak for us, and many farmers I know are in the same boat. It would take a miracle to sustain us for five years."

A member of Farm Women United, Cochran once had 300 cows; as of 2019 she had around 80.

### Utah

In 2021, drought conditions in Moroni led to Wade and Tina Eliason suffering crop loss valued at over $300,000. Their 700-acre (280 ha) farm received 20% of the normal level of rainfall, which is not a lot, given that Utah is the second-driest state in the country behind Nevada. State agriculture officials estimate crop yields are down by 20% across the 18,400 farms in Utah. Water allotments were reduced by up to 75%, the deciding factors being how much moisture river drainages received and what kind of water right was in place (known as "first in time, first in right"). Wade Eliason said his talks with fellow farmers and ranchers has, on occasion, touched on the risk of suicide.

Newton farmer ValJay Rigby is a dry farmer, which means he is completely reliant on nature to water his crops. He dry farms 1,300 acres (530 ha) and has access to irrigation water on another 300 acres (120 ha) on his Cache County land.

### Kentucky

Between 2004 and 2017, over 100 Kentucky farmers died by suicide. In 2020, Joe Moore, who runs a 475-acre (192 ha) farm, in Glasgow, went to visit his neighbor who was concerned about the lack of rainfall that summer and being able to grow enough hay to feed his cattle. Moore tried to reassure him, but three days later a state trooper visited his door to inform him that his neighbor had gone missing. They found his body several hours later. He had taken his own life.

## Gender

In a six-year study undertaken in Oklahoma, of the 160 farmer deaths by suicide, only three were females. This ratio is reflected nationwide.

## Assistance

Crisis hotlines, such as Iowa Rural Concern, began to appear nationwide during the 1980s.

In 1985, Kaye Hagedorn got her husband, Dean, in touch with a counselor, who told the farmer something shocking: he wasn't alone; countless other farmers were in trouble too. "And I learned", he said, "that I may have made some mistakes, but I wasn't a failure."

Calls to a hotline operated by Farm Aid nearly doubled, resulting in a drop in suicide rates. "Every state that had a telephone hotline reduced the number of farming-related suicides", says Mike Rosmann, an Iowan farmer-turned-psychologist. Rosmann received an average of seven calls per week in the spring of 2019 from distressed farmers. Conversely, mental-health care is often regarded as a "luxury" or an "unnecessary expense."

An organization called Sowing Seeds of Hope (SSOH), formed in Wisconsin, connected uninsured and underinsured farmers in seven Midwestern states to behavioral-health services. It ran for fourteen years, fielding approximately 500,000 calls from farmers, as well as training over 10,000 behavioral-health professionals in rural communities and providing subsidized behavioral-health resources to over 100,000 families in the farming industry. It became the blueprint for a nationwide program called the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). Although the program was approved as part of the 2008 United States farm bill, it was not funded.

Many American farmers live in rural areas far removed from their nearest mental-health practitioner. Urban counties in the United States average ten psychiatrists per 100,000 people, whereas those in rural areas have around three for the same number of people. "I would really give about anything to go and talk to people", said John Blaske. "If any one person thinks they are the only one in this boat, they are badly mistaken. It's like Noah's Ark. It's running over."

In 2019, John Hanson, who runs an assistance hotline in Nebraska, says that he has received calls late at night from desperate farmers, "including one sitting in his kitchen with a loaded shotgun and the lights out."

In the state of New York, NY FarmNet, a farm support group, set up suicide-prevention training after a downturn in its farmers' fortunes.

It is not just the heads of the families who have been affected. High-school students in Oklahoma revealed that there was an unwritten rule prohibiting talk of their family's financial situation outside the home. This resulted in loneliness and depression, with the assumption that their situation was unique. Their parents' stress also affected them directly, often leaving them feeling like a burden. Effects of their situations were displayed by some with disruption of the classroom, while others endured "almost catatonic depression". They did want to talk; they wanted to talk to each other about their experiences.

One young woman described her intense feeling of relief and almost joy when she finally decided to tell her best friend about her family's financial trouble. She discovered that her friend's family was in the same predicament. Talking, she said, helped her feel less alone. — Eric Ramírez-Ferrero, Troubled Fields: Men, Emotions, and the Crisis in American Farming (2005)

As the 52nd executive order signed since his taking office in January 2021, president Joe Biden wanted farmers to have the right to repair equipment and to access to retail markets. The order looked to broaden competition in several agricultural areas:

- a review of the Packers and Stockyards Act (including protection for whistleblowers regarding infringements of the act)

- more funds for meat processing

- transparency in food labeling and contracts

The National Farmers Union (NFU) called these anti- concentration amendments a "monumental" step. "After suffering corporate abuse for so many years, it is reassuring that farmers may finally get a level playing field", NFU president Rob Larew said. "It will go a long way towards building the resilient, equitable food system that farmers and consumers deserve."

As of August 2021, if a farmer wants to sue a company for anti-competitive behavior under the act, they would need to prove the malpractice hurt not only them but the entire industry.

That creates a very high bar that the Obama rules would have lowered, but the Trump administration withdrew the rules, leaving groups like the Organization for Competitive Markets disappointed. — Bloomberg.com, July 9, 2021

"This time seems to be different", Christopher Leonard, author of The Meat Racket, said, referring to the attempt Barack Obama made during his terms in office, albeit with the same Agriculture Secretary (Tom Vilsack). "There is a groundswell of support for antitrust reforms on both the left and right in Congress. If a program like this could ever get implemented, it seems like now is the best time in the past 20 years."

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents over one million workers in the food, healthcare and pharmacy industries, said the order was a "strong step to support American workers".

President of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), Zippy Duvall, said that the group would study the order's details and would work with the administration "to ensure changes are consistent with our grassroots policy, and farmers and ranchers are provided greater flexibility to remain competitive in our growing economy."

In addition, the USDA announced a plan to invest around $500 million to increase the capacity of meat-processing, with the aim of giving farmers, ranchers and consumers more choices. It also said that over $150 million will be given to existing smaller processing facilities to assist them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August 2021, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig joined forces with Iowa State University to provide funding to build an outreach program. This included a $500,000 grant to increase mental-health support to Iowan farmers. For direct assistance, Farm Family Wellness is open 24/7, while IowaCrisisChat.org offers live communication with trained health professionals daily between 9 A.M. and 2 A.M.

Two months later, U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall announced $500,000 USDA Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network grant to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, with the aim of connecting farmers, ranchers and others in agriculture-centric occupations to mental-health resources.

Also in 2021, Michigan State University introduced a Health & Farm Stress Extension Educator. Remington Rice will provide outreach throughout Michigan but particularly in Antrim County, Benzie County, Grand Traverse County, Kalkaska County, Leelanau County and Manistee County. Rice is the fifth generation of a farming family in Benzie County.

In 2021, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture distributed funds to eleven local project partners via the department's "Bend, Don't Break" scheme.

Also in 2021, Frank King, a self-described "mental-health" comedian who has written for Jay Leno 's Tonight Show, spoke to farmers and ranchers during the Montana Farm Bureau Federation convention, drawing on his personal story of depression and suicide (his grandmother and aunt killed themselves). In 2010, King filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and lost everything. He began making plans to take his own life, including looking over his $1-million life insurance policy. "I was worth more dead than alive", he said. King has given TED Talks on how to recognize signs of suicide and intervention methods.

The North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center, based in Illinois, offers assistance to farmers in twelve Midwestern states. As part of its five-year study, North Central found that almost 60% of the parents in a survey of 122 farm families had at least mild symptoms of anxiety or depression. This statistic was mirrored in their children, as was the level of the depression.

Raising Hope is a partnership between the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, plus various state universities. The Kentucky General Assembly has appropriated $500,000 to the support group annually.

Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin (D) is seeking $10 million in the 2023 farm bill, to support an Agricultural Department stress-assistance network. It is the same total authorized in the 2018 bill. It is hoped that Congress will increase the network's funding to $15 million annually via the farm bill, as well as making it permanent. A telephone number, separate from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, specifically for agricultural workers, is also being requested.


Stefan Mross

# Stefan Mross

## Abstract

Stefan Mross (born November 26, 1975) is a German trumpeter, singer,and television presenter. He is one of the most famous German folk musicians.

## Early life and education

Stefan Mross was born on November 26, 1975 in Traunstein, Upper Bavaria.

Mross completed his secondary education in his hometown. He took the entrance exam to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, but then concentrated on his musical career.

## Career

Since 2005, Mross has hosted the ARD (SWR) show Immer wieder sonntags live from Europa-Park in Rust. On August 10, 2014, Mross collapsed during a live broadcast of the show after eating a very hot currywurst and had to stop presenting. He was represented by Guido Cantz for the rest of the broadcast.

## Personal life

Mross was married to Stefanie Hertel from 2006 to 2012 and has a daughter with her in 2001. Three months after the couple announced their separation, Karl Moik claimed on December 6, 2011 on the ZDF show Markus Lanz that the partnership between his former Mross and Hertel had been arranged for the media.

Mross was married to production assistant Susanne Schmidt from 2013 to 2016. The marriage produced a daughter in 2013 and a son in 2015. The couple lived in Unterwössen, a municipality in the Traunstein district of Upper Bavaria, until their separation in autumn 2016.

Since December 2016, he has been in a relationship with singer Anna-Carina Woitschack, whom he met on his show Immer wieder sonntags in the summer of 2016. In the show Das Adventsfest der 100.000 Lichter he proposed to her on November 30, 2019. On June 6, 2020, the two got married live on television in the music show Schlagerlovestory.2020 with presenter Florian Silbereisen as witnesses. The couple lived in Windorf near Passau. In November 2022, they announced their separation. Mross has been in a relationship with Eva Luginger since March 2023.


2024 Canadian Premier League season

# 2024 Canadian Premier League season

## Abstract

The 2024 Canadian Premier League season is the sixth season of the Canadian Premier League, the top level of Canadian soccer. Forge FC are the defending champions, having beaten Cavalry FC in the 2023 final.

## Team and rule changes

The same eight teams that competed in the 2023 season are competing in the 2024 season. The CPL's total player compensation budget was increased by $87,500 to a total of $1,112,500 (or $1,212,500 for teams maximizing the U21 salary incentive).

York United was bought by a new ownership group from Mexico, Game Plan Sports Group.

## Teams

## Regular season

### Format

The regular season is being played as a quadruple round-robin, with each team playing the other seven teams twice at home and twice away between April and October. The regular season winner (the team ranked first after all 28 games) will qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup and the top five teams will qualify for the playoffs; the top two will get a bye to the semifinals.

### Results

## Playoffs

The 2024 season will use the Page playoff system. The team who finished first in the regular-season table would play the team who finished second, and the winner would host the final. The fourth- and fifth-placed teams would play in a play-in round, and the winner of this game would then play the third-placed team in a quarter-final. The quarter-final winner would play the loser of the game between the first and second-placed teams for the other spot in the final.

In playoffs, if the scores are equal when normal playing time expires, extra time will be played for two periods of 15 minutes each. This will be followed, if required, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.

### Bracket

## Statistical leaders

## Attendance

## Awards

### Team of the Week

The Gatorade Team of the Week was selected by the CPL's Kristian Jack and OneSoccer 's Oliver Platt.

## Player transfers

According to FIFA 's worldwide registration periods calendar, the Canadian Soccer Association 's (CSA's) 2024 pre-season transfer window opened on January 31 and closed on April 23; the mid-season transfer window would open on July 18 and close on August 14. However, the CPL later announced that its mid-season transfer window would instead open on July 5 and close on August 2, contradicting FIFA's published dates. This discrepancy was resolved on July 11 when the CSA announced that the mid-season transfer window would open on July 12 and close on August 8 as a compromise between the CPL's and Major League Soccer 's interests.

### U Sports Draft

The 2024 CPL–U Sports Draft took place on December 14, 2023. Each team made two picks in the draft, for a total of 16 selections.


John Bigelow

# John Bigelow

## Abstract

John Bigelow Sr. (November 25, 1817 – December 19, 1911) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and historian who edited the complete works of Benjamin Franklin and the first autobiography of Franklin taken from Franklin's previously lost original manuscript. He played a central role in the founding of the New York Public Library in 1895.

## Early life

Born in Malden-on-Hudson, New York, he graduated in 1835 from Union College, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Society and the Philomathean Society and was admitted to the bar in 1838. From 1849 to 1861, he was one of the editors and co-owners of the New York Evening Post.

## Political and literary career

Bigelow began his political career as a reform Democrat, working with William Cullen Bryant in New York. In 1848, his antislavery convictions led him to leave the party, and he joined the Free Soil Party. In 1856, he led other former Democrats into the newly formed Republican Party and wrote a campaign biography of John C. Frémont, who won the Republican presidential nomination that year. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him American consul in Paris, and Bigelow progressed to Chargé d'Affaires and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Napoleon III. In this capacity, working together with Charles Francis Adams, the United States minister to the United Kingdom, Bigelow helped to block the attempts to have France and the United Kingdom intervene in the American Civil War in favor of the Confederacy and thereby played a material role in the Union victory. Bigelow also negotiated with Emperor Napoleon III over withdrawing France's troops from Mexico, which were supporting Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. Historian Don H. Doyle writes, "Bigelow was one of Seward 's most brilliant appointees, and he soon became a pioneering master of the arts of public diplomacy in Europe". On March 15, 1865, Lincoln appointed Bigelow ambassador to France. After leaving this position, he went to Germany, where he lived for three years, through the period of the Franco-Prussian War, and he became a friend of Otto von Bismarck.

After the war's conclusion, he returned to New York, where he assisted his old friend Samuel J. Tilden in opposing the corruption that flourished in New York City under William Magear Tweed. Because of the universal respect in which Bigelow was held in New York, he was offered nominations by both political parties for state office in 1872. Under the influence of Tilden, Bigelow decided to rejoin the Democratic party, accepted its nomination, and was elected Secretary of State of New York, a position he held until 1876. When the Democrats nominated Tilden for President in 1876, he served as Tilden's campaign manager, and in that capacity advised Tilden in the famous dispute over the result of the presidential election. Tilden died almost a decade after the dispute was decided in favor of his rival, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Bigelow then acted as one of Tilden's estate trust executors. He carried out Tilden's wishes, over several years, to develop, design, and establish the New York Public Library and served as its first president from May 27, 1895, until his death on December 19, 1911.

He was a staunch proponent of the development of the Panama Canal. He was a friend of Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who brought Panama's declaration of Independence to Bigelow's home. Panama 's first proposed flag, made there by Mrs. Bunau Varilla, was rejected by the Panamanians, who made their own.

Bigelow's writing career, begun with Bryant on the New York Evening Post, included several books. He was one of the first Americans to visit Haiti with an open mind, and published The Wisdom of the Haitians, which, before the Civil War, was one of the few American works to take a positive view of Haitian independence.

Bigelow published an edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin in 1868, the first publication taken from Franklin's original, and nearly complete, manuscript, which had been lost sometime after Franklin's death. After haggling over the price, he finally agreed to pay the original asking price of 25,000 franks and purchased the manuscript from William Temple Franklin, Benjamin's Franklin's grandson. Since the manuscript ended at age 51, in 1757, Bigelow re-worked it, incorporating Franklin's extensive correspondence, into the three-volume The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself, first published in 1874.

In 1895 Bigelow published the two-volume The Life of Samuel J. Tilden.

## Personal life

On June 11, 1850, Bigelow married Jane Tunis Poultney and they had nine children. They included:

- John Bigelow Jr. (May 12, 1854 – February 29, 1936) graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1877. He served in the United States Army in Texas with the Buffalo Soldiers, taught at West Point, served again in the West, and fought and was seriously wounded in Cuba. He retired in October 1904. From 1905 to 1910, he was a professor at M.I.T. During World War I, he was recalled to active duty and served in Washington. He traveled and wrote until his death in 1936.

- Poultney Bigelow (1855-1954) was a lawyer and a noted journalist and editor.

- Flora Bigelow, who first married Charles S. Dodge, with whom she had a daughter, Lucie Bigelow Rosen, and a son, John Bigelow Dodge. Flora and Charles divorced, and Flora married The Hon. Lionel Guest (1880–1935), son of Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne (1835–1914).

- In 1854 he had a life-changing experience he wrote about in the book The Bible That Was Lost and is Found.

### Legacy

On August 8, 2001, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani signed a bill adding the name "John Bigelow Plaza" to the intersection of 41st Street and Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, directly in front of the New York Public Library Main Branch. His estate at Highland Falls, New York, known as The Squirrels, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

## Sources

- Bigelow, John, The Life of Samuel J. Tilden (2 vols., 1895; edited and revised by Nikki Oldaker 2009). ISBN 978-0-9786698-1-2 Samuel Tilden.net

- Mr. Lincoln and Friends: John Bigelow

- Retrospections of an Active Life. 3 volumes. New York: Baker & Taylor Co., 1909.

- Bigelow Genealogy at fp.enter.net

- Bigelow and Union College, in NYT on May 18, 1913

- Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

- John Bigelow Papers, The New York Public Library.

- The Correspondence of John Bigelow, Union College Archived 2015-10-29 at the Wayback Machine


Ok Taec-yeon

# Ok Taec-yeon

## Abstract

Ok Taec-yeon (Korean: 옥택연; born December 27, 1988), known mononymously as Taecyeon, is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, actor and entrepreneur. He is the rapper of the South Korean boy band 2PM.

In 2010, Ok debuted as an actor in the Korean drama Cinderella's Stepsister and since then has starred in television series Dream High (2011), Who Are You? (2013), Wonderful Days (2014), Assembly (2015), Let's Fight, Ghost (2016), Save Me (2017), The Game: Towards Zero (2020), Secret Royal Inspector & Joy (2021) and Vincenzo (2021) and Heartbeat (2023), as well as the movies Marriage Blue (2013) and House of the Disappeared (2017).

## Early life and education

Ok Taecyeon was born in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea, but emigrated at the age of 10, with his parents and older sister Jihyen to Boston, Massachusetts,. His sister Jihyen persuaded him to participate in a JYP Entertainment audition, whose promotion she had noticed on the Internet. After his reluctant agreement to participate, both headed for New York City on his 17th birthday. A week later he was chosen for the final 35 and got the call to go to South Korea to go further in the competition. At first Ok applied to become a model, but the judges suggested he try dancing and singing. Eventually, he was named one of the dozen finalists (including his future members, Lee Junho and Hwang Chan-sung) to compete in the show Superstar Survival but was the first contestant to leave the show.

Ok lived in Massachusetts for seven years, attending Bedford High School where he was a member of the Chess Club, Jazz Band, JV Soccer Team, and National Honor Society, before returning to pursue his career in Korea. Ok transferred to Young Dong High School in Seoul and then studied Business Administration at Dankook University and attended Korea University Graduate School of International Studies.

He is fluent in English, Korean, and Japanese. Ok is also familiar with the use of the Busan dialect, which he used in the KBS2 drama Wonderful Days.

## Music career

### Debut with 2PM

In 2008 he took part in Mnet 's Hot Blood Men which follows the extreme training of 13 trainees in order to become a member of the boy band One Day. One Day spawned two boy bands, 2AM and 2PM, the latter of which Ok became a member. Six months after Hot Blood was aired on TV 2PM debuted with their first single "10 Points out of 10 Points" from their first EP Hottest Time of the Day, but it wasn't until their second EP 2:00PM Time For Change that their success in the Korean music industry skyrocketed.

### Solo career

Ok was featured in Baek Ji-young 's 2009 hit song "My Ear's Candy". Baek revealed that she asked Ok to feature on the song after having listened to his rap on 2PM's single "10 Points out of 10 Points".

In 2012, Ok teamed up with his fellow Dankook University alumni students to produce a digital album titled Blue Bears with Taecyeon. The album was performed live at Dankook University for the matriculation ceremony. The title song “Wings” featured penned rap lyrics written by Ok. The second song, a remake of Lee Gwangjo's “A Night Like Tonight" was also included in the performance, with an original rap written by Ok himself. The album went on sale in February 2012, with all proceeds donated back the University.

Ok released his first solo Japanese album Taecyeon Special: Winter Hitori in 2017. As part of the solo project, he successfully held his first solo concert, "Taecyeon (From 2PM) Premium Concert" at the Tokyo Dome City Hall in Japan on January 2–3.

In July 2018, it was announced that Ok had signed an exclusive contract with 51K, an agency founded by actor So Ji-sub, following the end of his contract with JYP Entertainment. His former agency reported that he will remain a member of 2PM despite the move.

## Acting and hosting career

He formerly hosted SBS' music show Inkigayo with Wooyoung and was a permanent cast member on Family Outing 2 before it was cancelled.

In 2010 he made his acting debut in KBS drama series Cinderella's Sister alongside Moon Geun-young and Chun Jung-myung. He then starred in high school drama Dream High, which received high domestic ratings as well as international popularity.

In September 2011, FujiTV announced that Ok was going to become a regular on their Sunday drama Boku to Star no 99 Nichi, along with Japanese actor Nishijima Hidetoshi and South Korean actress Kim Tae-hee. This is his first regular role in a Japanese drama.

In February 2013, it was announced that Ok would form an on-screen couple with Taiwanese actress Emma Wu, in the Global Edition of the reality show We Got Married. The same year, he made his film debut in romantic comedy Marriage Blue. He composed two songs for the soundtrack of the film.

In 2014, he starred in KBS' weekend drama Wonderful Days, playing a tough-fisted bodyguard. The same year, he joined tvN's cooking variety show Three Meals a Day directed by Na PD. He later rejoined for a second season in 2015. Ok was praised for his hardworking image and easygoing personality on the show.

In 2015, Ok was cast in KBS' political drama Assembly. He plays an aspiring police officer who studies at the library to pass his entrance exams by day and works as an official's chauffeur by night.

In 2016, he starred in horror comedy Hey Ghost, Let's Fight with Kim So-hyun, and featured in web-drama 7 First Kisses by Lotte Duty Free.

In 2017, he starred in mystery thriller House of the Disappeared with veteran actress Kim Yunjin. He then starred in OCN's thriller drama Save Me alongside Seo Ye-ji.

In 2020, he starred in the mystery drama The Game: Towards Zero, reuniting with Lee Yeon-hee with whom he starred in the 2013 film Marriage Blue. It was his first acting role since his military discharge.

In 2021, he starred in the tvN drama Vincenzo as the main antagonist. It was his first major antagonistic role since his debut in acting. In the same year, Ok also starred in the historical drama Secret Royal Inspector & Joy, which premiered on both tvN and iQiyi in November 2021.

In 2022, he played the role of Lim Jun-young, a Joseon spy who sneaks into the Japanese army camp in the war action film Hansan: Rising Dragon, the second instalment of Kim Han-min 's Yi Sun-sin trilogy.

## Military enlistment

On December 9, 2010, a JYP spokesperson revealed that “Taec-yeon would like to give up his American permanent residence visa and recently, on December 1, he received his official confirmation for his permanent residence cancellation.”

Ok had a physical examination for drafting but received a physical body status sufficient only for enlistment as public service personnel, due to his poor vision and a dislocated shoulder back in 2008. In 2012 and 2013, he underwent surgery to correct the disk as well as to remove pins in his upper arm from a serious break in 2013. He was cleared for active duty in December 2013 but delayed his enlistment due to a busy workload.

On September 4, 2017, Ok enlisted as an active-duty soldier and began his mandatory military service. On October 18, he completed his basic military training and was placed at 9th Infantry Division in Gyeonggi Province as a military instruction assistant.

In February 2018, Ok participated in various 2018 Winter Olympics events as one of the volunteers under the command of the Ministry of National Defense (South Korea). He hosted many cultural shows and concerts and performed as a member of 2PM at the Olympic Headliner Show.

On June 20, 2018, then-Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon recognized and praised Ok's efforts to enlist in active duty during his congratulatory speech at the 15th Exemplary Military Servicemen Awards, where Ok was hosting.

On October 1, 2018, Ok led the future combat system demonstration in the 70th Armed Forces Day Celebration. The demonstration introduced the Warrior Platform program, which includes new and improved combat gear and equipment. One of the event officials stated, " Corporal Ok Taec-yeon gave up his American residency; he set a great example, as he received surgery for the discs in his back and accepted active duty despite the fact that he had previously approved for alternative service. He's currently faithfully continuing his military duties. We actively recommended him to participate in the Armed Forces Day event as we believed it would be meaningful for him."

Moreover, Ok ranked 1st on real-time search engines as he also led the final salute to President Moon Jae-in.

In February 2019, Ok received an early promotion as a Sergeant for his exceptional conduct while serving as a military instruction assistant at the 9th Armed Forces Division in Gyeonggi Province.

Due to his superb records, exemplary character, and great performance, Ok was appointed as a 'Special Class Warrior' by his division commander and was awarded a 'Model Soldier' by the Ministry of National Defense. He also earned the nickname " Captain Korea " from people online, because of his physique that mirrored the famous Marvel superhero, Captain America. The nickname has been used as headlines to describe the actor on many news portals and broadcasts. In one interview, Ok expressed the pressure of having the nickname, "It was a nickname that brought a lot of pressure but it also made me want to work that much harder. I'll continue to work hard to fit that nickname."

Ok finished his military service on May 16, 2019.

## Other activities

### OKCAT

In 2013, Ok hosted a 30-minute press conference on ustream to introduce "Okcat", a green-coloured cat character to the public. Previously, Okcat emoticons have been released on the chat application KakaoTalk. During the conference, Ok told the history of his development of the character and released his sketches to the public. The "Okcat" shop was opened on the same day and featured a line of products with the image of the Okcat.

## Filmography

## Discography


Derek Penslar

# Derek Penslar

## Abstract

Derek Jonathan Penslar, FRSC (born 1958) is an American-Canadian comparative historian with interests in the relationship between modern Israel and diaspora Jewish societies, global nationalist movements, European colonialism, and post-colonial states.

He was raised in Los Angeles, attended Stanford University for his undergraduate degree. He took his PhD in history at the University of California at Berkeley, where his advisors were Richard Webster, Amos Funkenstein and Gerald Feldman. Penslar taught at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1987 to 1998, when he moved to Toronto to assume the Samuel J. Zacks Chair in Jewish History at the University of Toronto. In 2011, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

From 2012 to 2016, he was the inaugural holder of the Stanley Lewis Chair of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford in England. He was a member of the Department of Politics and International Relations and the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies and a fellow of St Anne's College, where he continues to be an honorary fellow. In 2016, he moved to Harvard University, where he is William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History and a resident faculty member at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. Penslar serves as director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University.

On January 19, 2024, Penslar was appointed by Harvard's Interim President, Alan Garber, to co-chair Harvard's Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism. Critics including Bill Ackman and Lawrence Summers objected because he was among the 2,898 Jewish "scholars, clergy, and other public figures" who signed an open letter against Benjamin Netanyahu 's efforts at judicial reforms in August 2023, which included the passage: "Israel’s long-standing occupation has yielded a regime of apartheid." Especially after Congresswoman Elise Stefanik thus attacked Penslar for “despicable antisemitic views,” Jewish students and colleagues questioned the basis of these accusations and responded by stressing his reputation as a knowledgeable and balanced scholar; these responses included a statement by the American Academy of Jewish Research; a letter signed by 200 scholars of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies from Israel, North American, and Europe; and a letter from current and former students of Penslar “arguing that ‘his measured and thorough analysis of Jewish history and Zionism’ makes him uniquely positioned to effectively lead Harvard’s efforts against antisemitism.” One Op-Ed described him as “a deeply committed Jew and outstanding scholar who is widely known and respected for his judicious, kindly and unfailingly balanced nature," speculating that the case was attracting so much media attention because of fears that “what they are attacking is not just an eminent scholar, but more broadly, the American university as the site of expertise and critical thinking.”

## Books

- Zionism and Technocracy: The Engineering of Jewish Settlement in Palestine, 1870-1918 (1991, Hebrew version 2001)

- In Search of Jewish Community: Jewish Identities in Germany and Austria, 1918-1933 (co-edited with Michael Brenner, 1998)

- Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe (2001)

- Orientalism and the Jews (co-edited with Ivan Kalmar, 2004)

- Contemporary Antisemitism: Canada and the World (co-edited with Michael Marrus and Janice Gross Stein, 2005)

- Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective (2006)

- Israël face à son passé, with Shlomo Sand, Avi Shlaïm, Les éditions arkhê, 2010

- The Origins of Israel 1882-1948: A Documentary History (co-edited with Eran Kaplan, 2011)

- Jews and the Military: A History (2013)

- Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader (2020)

- Zionism: An Emotional State (2023), National Jewish Book Award Finalist

- Unacknowledged Kinships: Postcolonial Studies and the Historiography of Zionism (co-edited with Stefan Vogt and Arieh Saposnik, 2023)