Max weber free essay sample

1. Weber sought to develop a better understanding of the dynamics of social organization by focusing on how social control operates in different types of social contexts. To start, he distinguished power and authority: †¢Power is defined simply as the ability to get someone to do something despite resistance. There are many sources of power, which we will address when we talk about social control and leadership, but of primary interest here is the consideration that power is socially expensive. To work effectively, power depends upon observation and enforcement, both of which need to paid for. †¢Alternatively authority is simply defined as legitimate power. It is a socially recognized agreement process between a superordinate (i. e. , the administrator or leader) and a subordinate (i. e. , the employee or follower) that articulates a range of activities over which the leader can tell specific followers what to do. Its appeal lies in that it requires neither observation nor enforcement, and therefore is much more efficient and reliable. We will write a custom essay sample on Max weber or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 2. Weber distinguishes three types of authority: †¢Traditional authority is based in the person (the classic example is the King/Queen). The traditional authority is an ascribed status, (received through birthright), and it defines a social relationship between the lord and the vassal based on personal loyalty or fealty. In return for the fidelity of the vassal, the lord promises protection or other resources that the lord controls. The relationship is thus one of mutual obligation and is dependent upon the legitimate recognition of authority in the person of the lord. The system works well under conditions where organization is relatively small or where decision making is not under severe time constraints. Weber regards bureaucracy as an â€Å"ideal-type,† meaning not the best of form of organization, but rather a theoretical abstraction of social control. In a bureaucracy, authority is rationalized so that everyone is treated the same. Bureaucracy is described through six characteristics: †¢ 1. The organization of activities in each position is based on rules. These are consistent and universal. 2. Each position is specifies a â€Å"sphere of influence† which organizes related activities. These positions define a functionally related division-of-labor. 3. Organizational positions are organized into a hierarchical system which directs communication and control. This system allows the delegation of tasks into a hierarchy of organizational relationships. 4. The positions in each office may carry technical qualifications that require suitable training. Hiring and promotion is thus based on merit. 5. Each position is compartmentalized into a distinct office, organized by function, not by the person who does the job. 6. Administrative acts and decisions are formulated recorded in writing. These written rules become the files on which organizational activity is based. Under bureaucracy, a more efficient and rationally consistent organization emerges. But bureaucracies often do not work as well as they are designed. Under what conditions do bureaucracies work best? †¢Charismatic authority is often misidentified as a set of individually held attributes. Instead, Weber defines Charisma as a set of attributes that are socially prescribed as related to leadership positions (e. g. , a priest or cult leader). Followers or disciples may endow the charismatic leader with â€Å"supernatural† or exceptional powers that are not accessible to the ordinary person.

Marketing and Lego Essays

Marketing and Lego Essays Marketing and Lego Essay Marketing and Lego Essay Executive Summary Since LEGO Group’s (LEGO) inception in 1932, the world-famous toy maker overcame numerous challenging obstacles to become the leader in the building toy segment. By 2010, LEGO had witnessed all-time high annual sales of over US$3. 7 billion to become the fourth-largest toy manufacturer in the world. Upon analysis of LEGO’s strengths through Resource-Based View, LEGO holds few key competitive advantages attributed to their success: strong brand name and innovative culture. These traits are not imitable or easily substitutable. However, the competitive landscape has drastically increased in the building toy industry as analyzed with Porter’s Five Forces. Essentially, the deteriorating barriers to entry from loss of trademark protection, Disney’s acquisition of Marvel for greater control of entertainment licensing, and increased rivalry among existing firms from little product differentiation are the main drivers of high competition in the observed market. Therefore, in order to uphold the market leader position in the building toy market and ensure financial success in the years ahead, it is strongly believed that the combination of differentiation and first-mover strategy will best allow LEGO to capitalize on the opportunities available in this growing industry while mitigating the threats from the changes in the market. Although several viable alternatives are present in order to address the mentioned concerns, expanding to the adult market with specialized LEGO sets for hobby and professional purposes is the most suitable. By tapping into this huge demographic consisting of many previous LEGO users, LEGO will diversify its product lines, gain a new channel for revenue generation, protect its brand from competitors’ similar products and maintain high brand recognition from wider targets. Problem Statement The LEGO Group (LEGO) is facing new threats emerging in the toy industry from company acquisitions, intensifying competition in the building blocks segment and risk of brand dilution. Representing one of the fastest growing categories in the global toy sales of US$83. billion in 2010, building sets hold a great opportunity despite uncertainty if LEGO is to successfully develop a product expansion strategy that can maintain LEGO’s current market dominance, high brand value and achieve a financial success. Porter’s Five Forces (Appendix A) The threat of the existing toy companies expanding into the building blocks segment is fairly high due to the similar cost structure and operation requirements. LEGO’s biggest competitor MEGA Bloks proved that other companies could carve out a percentage of the building toy market. LEGO is dealing with two kinds of buyers: small retailers and larger chains. With more than two-thirds of LEGO’s revenue coming from the 200 large retailers, these buyers have fairly high bargaining power. The small stores do not have such bargaining power with LEGO considering their order sizes and revenue contribution. The bargaining power of the suppliers is assumed to be weak as the companies in this industry can freely select their suppliers. For instance, LEGO reduced 80% of its suppliers, showing the flexibility of choosing from wide range of suppliers and significant control over supply-related costs. On the other hand, the rivalry level in the industry and the building sets segment is high. The acquisition of Marvel by Disney placed a large amount of entertainment licensing under the control of Disney which indicates that licensing agreements that LEGO relies on to add values to its products will become more difficult to obtain. Lastly, the threat of substitutes for both toys and building blocks products is assumed to be high as parents will often encourage other activities for their children such as playing sports, exercising, or reading books instead of having them play inside. To conclude, it is strongly believed that the combination of differentiation and first-mover strategy will best allow LEGO to capitalize on the opportunities available in the growing industry while mitigating the threats from the changes in the market environment. SWOT Analysis (Appendix B) LEGO is a globally recognized brand with long history of producing creative and educational toys and has established significantly positive image to the consumers. Thus, LEGO can embrace its reputation and knowledge in the industry to further diversify its product offerings. LEGO has many loyal parent customers buying LEGO products for their children. It is important to understand that the consumers are not the buyers of the products. Once the active consumers of LEGO, the parents trust its products and LEGO is deeply rooted in their personal experience. However, new product lines that reflect the current popular children’s culture face the challenge of appealing to the children and answering strict demands of parents. Nonetheless, LEGO has weaknesses as well. Digital Design Program offering customized product offering with delivery can be assumed to be incurring extra costs since LEGO cannot leverage its economies of scale. LEGO’s loss of patent protection is also the weaknesses that other competitors exploit. As competitors introduce plastic brick products that are compatible with the LEGO brick designs, the consumers are misled into buying the products thinking that they are LEGO. As competition and licensing control intensify to threaten LEGO, the organization should avoid expensive/additional marketing and legal campaigns in the building blocks segment, and divert such resources to take advantage of the unexplored segments in the market. Value Chain Resource-Based View Analysis (Appendix C) While LEGO’s business activities create value and competitive advantages for the firm and its customers, they do so with varying degrees. First, among the primary activities, inbound and outbound logistics are assumed to be standard practices across the industry, contributing little towards competitive advantage. The operation systems offer LEGO a high level of competitiveness since LEGO’s corporate governance is rare and difficult for competitors to imitate. Lastly, marketing and sales strategy for LEGO are unique due to the exclusive nature of licensing agreement, its history and long-term effort of brand building. LEGO’s general and human capital management contribute to its competitive advantage by applying the expertise and knowledge accumulated over the decades, making it extremely difficult to imitate. Technology development and procurement activities at LEGO are assumed to be similar to the general and human capital management and they are relatively unique to LEGO due to its organizational culture history. In conclusion, LEGO’s management should continue creating added values in their products through the above activities, with significant focus on marketing and sales to further synergize with their strengths as indicated in SWOT analysis and operations systems, which include product designs, to expand their product lines into new market segments. Alternative 1: Expand product lines targeting girls As indicated in the SWOT analysis, the market coverage for girls in the building blocks is assumed to be fairly low at this point. LEGO can expand its product designs by obtaining the licensing agreements with entertainment companies that girls favor, as well as adopting new product designs for girls. For example, diversifying its Duplo product lines with themes, such as princesses from Disney cartoons that girls will prefer over boys, will allow LEGO to capture the potentially under-served market segment. By increasing their product lines with minimal design expansion, LEGO is effectively ‘creating’ a sub-segment within the industry and challenging other competitors, which are trying to compete in the traditional building sets segment. Essentially, LEGO is positioning itself as a segment leader once again and capturing a large portion of the end-users and customers. Nevertheless, there are several risks associated with the alternative: first is the market uncertainty. In other words, young girls may not be as interested as boys in building blocks products even with appealing themes. Therefore, thorough target segment research involving focus groups and interviews is recommended to mitigate this risk. Secondly, there is low barrier to entry in this sub category of end-users. The competitors are easily able to compete in this market segment, by designing similar products with themes that will be targeting girls instead of boys. This is possible because re-tooling of the equipment is not costly, as the machines are manufactured to be able to handle multiple designs. Lastly, the increased control over licensing agreement is another major concern: with the themes involving Disney characters, it will be very competitive to acquire licensing agreements, given the previous relationship Disney has with Mattel and Hasbro. Fortunately, this risk can be mitigated by creating themes that do not use the characters’ names or key features, thus avoiding any misjudgment or legal conflicts. Alternative 2: Expand product lines targeting adults/previous LEGO users Given LEGO’s long history of being in the toy business, it is correct to assume that the older generation, who are the parents of the children that LEGO targets, have had experience playing LEGO sets. This fact brings up two unique and strong bases for an inimitable business strategy: 1). By targeting the adults LEGO will increase the size of its potential market. Re-attracting the once loyal customers will not involve complicated new marketing strategies as they can be easily connected based on nostalgic elements. While the threat comes from commoditization of LEGO sets due to similar products being produced by LEGO’s competitors, the past user experience of playing with LEGO sets will never be able to be copied. 2). Furthermore, the distinction between children as consumers and parents as customers made it difficult for LEGO to align the interests and expectations of its two stakeholders. Product expansion into the adult market enables LEGO to focus only on the product development as adults will not necessarily look for traditional values (i. e. educational factors) that LEGO toys have. Fortunately, LEGO for adults will not be a pioneer project. Around the world, many LEGO fans have uploaded pictures of items creatively made by the fans themselves with LEGO pieces (APPENDIX D). LEGO for adults will reflect this on-going global trend and design specialized LEGO pieces for adult users. LEGO for adult users will be used for professional and hobby-related purposes. Engineers can use LEGO to design new bridges, buildings and landmarks while general hobbyists can build a new computer case, frame for pictures and small stools. While LEGO sets for children was considered a toy, LEGO for adults will be a whole new category allowing its users to create art, functional items and highly creative masterpieces to attach unique personal experience and irreplaceable values. Recommendation (Appendix D) Ultimately, it is recommended for LEGO management to undertake the second alternative, to redesign the existing LEGO pieces to be more functional and target the adults. Although other strategy is a viable option, in order to address the concern of competition from absence of patents, lack of product differentiation, and higher dependency on popular licensors, the aforementioned solution is the most suitable. By tapping into this huge demographic consisting of many previous LEGO users, LEGO will diversify its product lines, gain a new channel for revenue generation, protect its brand from competitors’ similar products and maintain high brand recognition from wider targets. LEGO building sets for adults will protect LEGO with a new patent and decades of established loyalty. The LEGO sets for adults will be sold online for two main reasons: 1). This new product line is in an unique product category that does not belong in either the traditional toy stores r the home hardware department. 2). Adults have the mean to purchase (i. e. credit cards) things sold online. Furthermore, the unclear future due to Disney’s purchase of Marvel will be neutralized with the concept of the LEGO sets for adults. While the association of popular pop culture in LEGO theme is important to appeal to children, adults will be more concerned with what they can make with the pieces. Therefore, these new LEGO pieces will be bigger, come in greater variety in shapes and allow more complicated technical flexibility and aesthetic brevity. Upon a glance, completed sets made with such pieces will fit well with other furniture and items in a typical household. LEGO can effectively leverage the current usage of LEGO sets by the professionals and hobbyists like the University of Cambridge and Nathan Sawaya to showcase how they use LEGO. Finally, it is highly likely that once the adults start purchasing and manipulating LEGO sets for their own use, they will opt to buy toys and the traditional LEGO sets from LEGO for their own children, establishing stronger and wider customer retention for many years to come.

The Snake Cult of False Prophet Alexander of Abonoteichus

The Snake Cult of False Prophet Alexander of Abonoteichus It turns out that modern America isnt the only place suffering from scary and bizarre cults. Meet Alexander of Abonoteichus, who used a hand puppet to create his own cult centered on a snake. Alexanders story comes to us from the Greek satirist Lucian, who weaves a fascinating tale of faith and scams. External sources corroborated the existence of a Glycon cult, and even one of Lucians more spurious claims - that Alexander slept with married ladies - seems to have been possible, if not terribly likely. Early Life Alexander hailed from Abonoteichus, a hot-spot in Paphlagonia on the Black Sea. But  the story of this  Alexander,  Lucian says, is no mean feat to tell; Lucian might as well be speaking of Alexander the Great! As Lucian quips, The one was as great in villainy as the other in heroism. As a youth, Alexander was a prostitute. One of his  clients was a snake oil salesman/doctor, a quack, one of those who advertise enchantments, miraculous incantations, charms for your love-affair. This guy recognized trained him in the ways of trickery and selling scams. There was a long tradition of wandering scholars/magicians in this part of the world at the time, as Lucian attests: Alexanders master once followed the famed mystic Apollonius of Tyana. Sadly for Alexander, his master died when he hit his teens, so he formed a partnership with a Byzantine writer of choral songs to go around the countryside practicing quackery and sorcery. Alexander and his partner Cocconas followed one of their best clients home to Pella in Macedon.   At Pella, Alexander got the idea for his greatest  scheme yet, one that allowed him to  become the Professor Marvel of the ancient Mediterranean.  He bought one of those pet snakes and, having realized that people who provided hope to their worshippers earned a  lot of money in tribute and offerings, decided to  found his own snake cult based around prophecy. Serpents had  long been associated with foreknowledge in ancient Greece, so that was a no-brainer. A False Prophet Is Born Alexander and Cocconas started in Chalcedon, where they went to the temple of Asclepius, a healing deity and son of prophecy god Apollo. In that sanctuary, they buried tablets that foretold the coming of Asclepius to Alexander’s hometown of Abonoteichus. Once people â€Å"discovered† these texts, every mystic headed straight there to build a temple to Asclepius.   Alexander went home dressed as a prophet descended from Perseus (even though everyone who knew him from home was aware his parents were Average Joes). In order to keep up the pretense of prophecy, Alexander chewed soapwort root to fake fits of madness. He also created a snake hand puppet made from linen that â€Å"would open and close its mouth by means of horsehairs, and a forked black tongue ... also controlled by horsehairs, would dart out.† Alexander even stashed an extra snake egg near the temple in Abonoteichus; muttering words in Hebrew and Phoenician – which seemed like magical gibberish to his listeners – he scooped up the snake and said Asclepius had arrived! Alexander then snuck in a tame snake he bought from Pella and swapped it out for the baby serpent, telling everyone it grew up super-fast, thanks to magic. He also put tubes into his snake puppet and had a friend speak through them to allow Asclepius to prophesize. As a result, his snake, Glycon, was turned into a god. To interpret prophecies, Alex told supplicants to write down their questions on scrolls and drop them off with him; he secretly read them after removing their wax seals with a hot needle, then prepped his answers before they returned. He banned others from sex with young boys, but allowed himself to molest choirboys who served him. This fraud set a high price for his prophecies and sent people abroad to stir up good PR for him. Word reached as far as Rome, from which rich but gullible Rutilianus came to visit; the false prophet even manipulated this guy into marrying Alexanders own daughter. This helped Alexander establish a spy network in Rome and create  mystery rites  for his cult,  like those of Demeter or Dionysus. So great was Alex’s influence that he convinced the emperor to change the name of Abonoteichus to Ionopolis (perhaps after another of Apollo’s mythical sons, Ion); the emperor also issued coins with Alexander on one side and the snake Glycon on the other! Alexander once prophesied he’d live until 150, then get struck by lightning, but his real death was less dramatic. Before he turned 70, one of his legs rotted all the way to his groin; only then did people notice he wore a wig to look young.

Tort Law Ph.D. Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tort Law Ph.D. - Case Study Example Prior to the regulations on electronic music equipment, which were introduced in 1990's the present music equipment was very sensitive to electro-magnetic interference. After 1990's it has to comply with specific standards that make it more immune to this sort of interference, that the problem experienced by Mr Morris would not be encountered with guitars produced according to these regulations. The interference is due to the sensitiveness of the recording equipment the foreseeing of nuisance by the Railways does not arise. It would arise if the interference were caused because of the sensitivity of the TI 21. "Railtrack could not reasonably have foreseen that these track circuits could have caused problems of electromagnetic interference at a distance of 60 to 70 meters." The court believed that playing the guitar with sensitive electric and electronic music instrument such as an amplifier is not an abnormal but an ordinary enjoyment of property, it is feature of modern life and it is material for many younger generation's pleasure and also a vital part of the modern music generation. The trial court believed the fact that electromagnetic interference was caused not only to the complaint alone but it caused to other users of such instrument also well before the track circuit was installed within that vicinity. And therefore concluded the second issue that nuisance of electromagnetic interference to the complainant was foreseeable. (Graham Sinclair (2005), Neighbors and the Law (Chapter 5.10) Findings of the Court of Appeal The court of appeal recognized the issue as a sensitive and since there is no settled law adjudicating the electromagnetic interference as nuisance. Therefore the court has elaborately discussed the issues taking the settled law nearest to issues in this case. The court has made the following findings: The court of appeal felt that only interference to the comforts of standard average man is actionable. Interference to abnormal and sensitive enjoyments of his property does not come within the ambit of the actionable nuisance. In this regard the court also felt that no

DNA sequence analysis, primer design, protein expression and Essay

DNA sequence analysis, primer design, protein expression and mutagenesis assessment - Essay Example RecA is a recombinant gene and when in the presence of single stranded DNA, can behave as a catalyst in the hydrolysis process of ATP. It can also function in ATP dependant reactions such as Duplex DNA’s uptake of single stranded DNA and homologous single stranded DNA’s ATP propelled hybridization. (NCBI, 2008). Its function is likened to the mechanism and composition of copper amine oxidase, in that it acts in microbes to make use of amine substrates considered to be unusual such as carbon or nitrogen. As mentioned previously, recA resides in the presence of single stranded DNA. Protein secretion can be said to have taken place in the presence of single sequencing. The protein recA is unique due to its function as a copper ligase and its modification which takes place after the translation process. Post translation, a residue of tyrosine 412 will yield cofactor TPQ. Lysine 83 is also a residue of the reaction. In the event that it is decided to undertake mutagenesis in order to mutate lysine 83 into alanine; we would quickly see that reaction outcomes would be quite different. When mutation (genetic alterations) take place, the chemistry involved with the organisms and molecules become different even if the change is slight. With quick-change mutagenesis, we are able to target site changes which act to alter specific protein outcomes due to changing amino acid sequences. Changing lysine 83 through mutagenesis to alanine may be desirable for more than one reason. In many instances, changing out lysine for alanine can in fact, delay certain entropic effects such as crystallization, such as in the case of e. Coli where crystallization formation can be essential for post mutation testing. Lysine production in genetically engineered bacteria, will tend to promote fermentative production of other amino acids. Replacing residue lysine 83 with alanine 83 however, may be a wise alteration as many organisms can’t survive in the absence of

Abraham Lincoln Essay -- Biography Biographies Bio

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a log cabin in Hardin Kentucky. His father Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter and farmer who was always very poor. Both of his parents were members of a Baptist congregation which had split from another church because of its views against slavery. This is where Abe first developed his own opposition to slavery. When Abe was nine the family moved to Spencer, Indiana, and his mother Nancy died from milk sickness. Milk sickness was a disease acquired by drinking the milk of cows which had grazed on poisonous white snakeroot. Soon after, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston who treated Abe like her own son. Abe had no formal schooling as a child so he ended up teaching himself. Abe loved to read so he spent most of his days out in the fields reading books. In 1831, Abe settled in the village of New Salem, Illinois. He began working in a mill and managing a store where he became popular amongst the members of the community. He impresse d residents with his character and earned the nickname "Honest Abe." In 1832 he was chosen captain of a volunteer company gathered for the Black Hawk War, but the company never saw battle. After, he returned to New Salem and became a partner in a grocery store that later failed. This left Abe in debt and forced him to work various jobs such as the village postmaster and rail splitting. Lincoln's early political career began in 1834 when he was elected to the state legislature where he served four consecutive years. During this time he became a member of the Whig party. In 1836, he received his attorney license and soon became law partners with John T. Stuart. Lincoln's career in law steadily increased because of his great abili... ...ccessful President. For example, despite enormous pressures, loss of life, battlefield setbacks, unprepared generals, and assassination threats, he stuck with this pro-Union policy throughout the whole Civil War. When I have my mind set on a goal, I strive to accomplish that goal. Whether it be with school work, at a job, or on the tennis court, I do anything I can to accomplish my goal. I do whatever I can to do my best and give 100 percent effort. Abraham Lincoln accomplished so much throughout his lifetime. He is remembered for his fearless acts in preserving the Union during the Civil War. He began the process to end slavery, and if it wasn't for him, we might very well still have slaves today in the United States. He is also remembered for his character, debates, letters, speeches, and determination that led him as one of our nations greatest Presidents.

Physiological Impacts of World War Two Essay

When a soldier enlists into the military forces they know they are going in to fight for their country and freedom for everyone. They spend months training and preparing for the war and what to come. They learn to fight, shoot, and kill enemies, but what they do not learn is how to cope with the after math of the war. Soldiers in war every year come home with many post traumatic effects from what they had witnessed. During world war two this was known as shell shock; however what can be concluded is that world war two impacted the soldiers emotionally and physiologically from the time they entered to post war. World War Two was one of the biggest struggles nations everywhere have ever seen. â€Å"It killed more people, costs more money, damaged more property, and affected more people†¦than any other war in history† (The History on the Net Group). People everywhere were in panic when the War started. With all the damage done during the war it can be imagined how the soldiers were traumatized by losing their fellow soldiers. â€Å"The number of people killed, wounded, or missing between September 1939 and September 1945 can never be calculated, but it is estimated that more than 55 million people perished† (The History on the Net Group). Soldiers were devastated by the tragedies that occurred at the time of war. However, before the war started there were a lot of causes that went into why everything ended up in war. World War Two began in September 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany following Germany’s invasion of Poland. The war was triggered by Germany’s invasion of Poland but the causes of the war are far beyond this fact. After World War One had occurred Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States of America wanted to make a treaty on his four point plan to bring peace to Europe. Other countries involved in this treaty did not have the same idea as President Wilson. George Clemenceau wanted revenged. He wanted to make sure Germany would never be able to start a war again. When Germany received this treaty they were very surprised with the terms. The terms included, war guilt clause, which meant Germany accepted all the blame for  World War One. Reparations, Germany had to pay millions in damage from the war. Disarmament, Germany could not have tanks or air force and land was taken away from them and given to other countries. The Germans were not happy with this treaty and thought of it as very harsh. However the Germans took responsibility and continued on in hope to get revenge later. In 1919, to help keep the world safe for democracy the League of Nations was set up. League of Nations would intend that if there were disagreements between countries they would negotiate rather than fight. The failure of the League of Nation can be summarized by points such as, not all countries joining in such as Germany as a punishment and Russia because of the spread of communism. The League of Nations had no power or any army. Countries were hesitant to get involved with an aggressive country and taking direct action against them. These things led to the fall of the League of Nations. People were angry because they did not want to cut off resources with other countries, even if they were aggressive because during the late 1920’s depression hit most of them. â€Å"The depression destroyed the market for imported silk from Japan, which had provided the country with two fifths of its export income’’ (The History on the Net Group). Economic problems played a fundamental part in the cause of World War 2. Germany, one of the poor countries became crippled in power and vulnerable. When Adolf Hitler came into power he immediately began placing blame on other countries and making Germany at the top of resources again. All these aspects lead to the start of World War two in Europe. As the war in Europe continued President Franklin D. Roosevelt told America he did not want to get involved. He thought it was better to stay neutral in this matter and let them handle their own battle. The United States decided to eventually join the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, however the issues had started years before Pearl Harbor was attacked. It starts with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, China. The Japanese invade Manchuria on September 18th, 1931. China was in the middle of a depression, so the Japanese had the upper hand. When Russia found this out they were enraged meaning America was as well, being alliances with Russia. Also, â€Å"the Japanese invading China violated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 which renounced war as national policy† (Ketchum). The United states told Japan  if they don’t get out of China, they would stop trading oil with them. Japan stayed in China so the U.S stopped trading oil. Japan disliked this and held a grudge on America for years. Besides this, The US was already trading with other countries through the Lend-Lease Act, a document allowing the US to lend countries like Britain war materials in exchange for money. Germany was also angry that America was helping their enemies. As a result the Nazi’s decide to sink the U.S supply ships to help keep them from sending resources to other countries. However, President Roosevelt did not want to enter war until the attack of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii occurred. This pushed the United States into the war officially on December 8, 1941. Right after we entered the war Hitler declared war on the United States. Followed by a United States declaration of war against Germany, and then the United States was fully involved in the war. America did not want to go to war but when America was targeted they decided to counter attack, however they did not plan on going to war with Germany but once they did it lead to one of the biggest and bloodiest wars of all time in history. My grandfather, Edward Weil was lucky and un lucky enough to be able to experience World War 2. As a veteran of war he tells me all his stories about what the war was like. â€Å"The war was a very hard time.† He tells me, â€Å"it was rough but it also brought the nation closer together and America’s pride shined.† When I asked my grandfather why he joined the war he has told me about the attack of pearl harbor and how everyone had to stand for the pledge of allegiance out of respect and when he put his hand to his heart a navy officer came up to him and told him, â€Å"You would look very good in a uniform.† It really made my grandfather look at what he wanted to do and how he wanted to protect his nation. At the same time joining the war also impacted him in a negative way. During the war my grandfather was nervous but knew this was what he wanted to do. He saw the Japanese bomb his mother ship and his sailors being killed and put on the edge of the deck to take back and bury. These experiences get scarred into soldiers minds forever. They cannot escape what they saw and those horrific actions done to one another. My grandfather was only 17 years old when he entered war. He wanted freedom and security for the American people. However, as a young teenage boy still the war affected his emotions and to this day it is still  a very sentimental and emotional topic to him. During my interview with my grandfather as I talked about what he wished he could change about the war, he started to tear up and told me about all the people lost to the war and his friends. His ship pulled next to another ship while it was burning and the people were asking for help and they tried to save as many people as they could. My grandfather even lost his left hearing due to the war. He is very proud to show his metals from the war and how he helped our nation. My grandfather is very proud to be a world war to veteran.