title: Steve Spurrier

text: Finally, Spurrier returned to Duke University as the Blue Devils' new head coach and offensive coordinator in 1987. Spurrier proceeded to raise the Blue Devils to levels of success that the program had not realized in over twenty-five years. His offenses broke numerous school and conference records for scoring, passing yards, and total yards, many of which had been set during his tenure as Duke's offensive coordinator. His 1989 Duke squad was the most successful, winning Duke's first Atlantic Coast Conference championship since 1962 (and most recent to date), and appearing in their first bowl game since 1960.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In what would become a recurring trend at most of his coaching stops, Spurrier's teams regularly beat their biggest rivals while he brashly "needled" them with jokes and "zingers" that were amusing to his fans but infuriating to opponents. Spurrier's Duke squads went 3–0 against archrival North Carolina, including a 41–0 victory in Chapel Hill that clinched a share of the 1989 ACC title. At Spurrier's suggestion, that win was followed by a joyful team picture taken in front of the Kenan Memorial Stadium scoreboard, a photo that still rankles some Tar Heel supporters.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In December 1989, Spurrier accepted an offer to return to the University of Florida as the Gators' "head ball coach." He had privately expressed interest in the job in early October, when Florida coach Galen Hall was fired mid-season for his alleged involvement in an NCAA rules violation and prominent Gator boosters reached out to Spurrier. However, he delayed any further discussion at that time to concentrate on coaching Duke. After the Blue Devils clinched the ACC championship in their last regular season game, Spurrier met with University of Florida president Robert Bryan and athletic director Bill Arnsparger, and he agreed in principle to return to Florida on December 12.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier asked to delay an official announcement until both Florida and Duke had played in their respective bowl games. As rumors swirled, however, Spurrier broke the news to his Duke team on December 27, the night before they played in the 1989 All-American Bowl. They played poorly and lost, and Spurrier later decided that he should have waited to tell his team until after the game, and that when it came to coaching jobs, "it's best to make your decision and move on quickly". Spurrier was officially announced as Florida's new football coach on December 31, 1989.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: During his introductory press conference on New Year's Eve 1989, Spurrier said that he wanted to immediately change several things, including bringing back blue jerseys (Florida had switched from traditional blue to orange in 1979 under Charley Pell), bringing back natural grass to Florida Field (artificial turf had been installed in the early 1970s), and putting Miami back on the schedule (the schools' annual series had ended after the 1987 game). He stressed the need to beat traditional rivals Auburn, Georgia, and Florida State, against whom Florida had gone 0-9 over the previous three seasons. Finally, he worked to convince Gator players and fans alike that it was possible to win championships at Florida, which had still never won an officially recognized conference title in 83 years of football. To that effect, he put together a booklet called "The Gator Mentality", in which is collected coaching tips and theories that he used himself along with inspirational quotes he shared with his players.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier inherited a team under NCAA investigation for the second time in five years. He successfully steered the program away from the previous scandals and led the Gators to the best record in the SEC in his first year, though they were declared ineligible for the league title due to NCAA probation handed down during the season. Building on the success of Spurrier's first year, Florida finally captured their first officially recognized SEC title in 1991. Under Spurrier, the Gators represented the SEC East in the first five SEC Championship Games, winning four of them. The 1996 team captured the Gators' first-ever National Championship with a 52–20 win over Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, avenging the Gators' sole regular-season loss in which Florida State upset Florida 24–21 in Tallahassee.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier's finest moment as a coach may have been the Gators' 1997 game against the previously undefeated and national title game-bound Florida State Seminoles. Spurrier used a two-quarterback offense, rotating quarterbacks Doug Johnson and Noah Brindise in and out of the game, confusing the Florida State defense and its veteran coordinator, Mickey Andrews, and giving Spurrier more time to counsel his quarterbacks on the sidelines without having to use time-outs. Florida upset the heavily favored Seminoles 32–29.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Significantly, Spurrier is credited with changing the way the SEC played football. Spurrier employed a pass-oriented offense (known in the sports media as the "Fun 'n' Gun") in contrast to the ball-control, rush-oriented offenses that were traditionally played in the SEC. His innovative offensive schemes forced many coaches in the SEC to change their offensive and defensive play-calling.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: While his offensive style used a more wide-open passing game than the SEC was accustomed to, Spurrier was also able to utilize a constant group of talented running backs. Many of them would later go on to have success at the NFL level, including Errict Rhett, Fred Taylor, Terry Jackson, and Earnest Graham.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier and his Gators accomplished a number of memorable feats during his twelve seasons in Gainesville (1990–2001), including:


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier is also credited with creating the nickname "The Swamp" for Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the Gators' home field. In the early 1990s, he said, ". . . a swamp is where Gators live. We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous. Only Gators get out alive." Soon after becoming head coach, he insisted that the artificial turf then in use at the stadium be replaced with natural grass, and the "Swamp" remains a natural surface field today. During Spurrier's tenure, the Gators built up one of the most formidable home-field advantages in the nation; they would not lose a home SEC game until 1994, and would only suffer two more home losses to conference opponents during his 12-year run. Largely due to the formidable home-field advantage Spurrier built, he is by far the winningest coach in Florida history as his 122 wins are 52 more than runner-up Graves.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier was known for his gamesmanship while coaching Florida, doing such things as giving much-derided Georgia coach Ray Goff the nickname of "Ray Goof." His rivalry with the Tennessee Volunteers and their coach Phillip Fulmer became highly publicized, as Spurrier would gig the Volunteers after the Gators' wins over Tennessee, saying that "you can't spell 'Citrus' without 'UT,'" a reference to the Citrus Bowl, which has the contractual right to select the second-place SEC football team. He also said of Peyton Manning, Tennessee's quarterback, "I know why Peyton came back for his senior year: he wanted to be a three-time Citrus Bowl MVP!"


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Other memorable one-liners from Steve Spurrier included nicknaming rival Florida State University, "Free Shoes University", for the Seminoles' NCAA troubles with recruiting violations.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: On January 4, 2002, Spurrier abruptly resigned as head coach, stating, "I simply believe that twelve years as head coach at a major university in the SEC is long enough."


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Before Spurrier returned to coach his Gamecocks against the Gators in 2006 and 2008, his most recent visits to Gainesville were on September 2, 2006, to take part in the Gators' celebration of the 10-year anniversary of their 1996 championship season, and on September 30, 2006, when he was one of the first four inductees into the Gator Football Ring of Honor, alongside Danny Wuerffel, Emmitt Smith, and Jack Youngblood. At both appearances, Spurrier received standing ovations from the crowd.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier retains a deep affection and loyalty for his alma mater, and sometimes still accidentally says "we" when referring to the University of Florida. The feeling is mutual; he remains very much in the good graces of Gator fans for building their program into a perennial national power. When he was inducted into the Gators' "Ring of Honor", Spurrier humbly announced to the sell-out crowd at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium: "I'd just like to thank coach Ray Graves for bringing the skinny kid from Tennessee to the University of Florida." Additionally, in 2016, the university added his name to the playing surface at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium; it is now Steve Spurrier-Florida Field.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier has not let his affection for the University of Florida get in the way of a budding Florida-South Carolina rivalry, however. In 2005, his Gamecocks upset the Gators 30–22 in Columbia, costing the Gators a shot at the SEC championship. And in November 2010, he coached South Carolina to a 36–14 victory in Gainesville (their first ever on Florida Field) in a game that decided the SEC Eastern Division title.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Ten days after Spurrier resigned his position at the University of Florida, he became head coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins. Spurrier's five-year, $25 million contract with the Redskins was the most lucrative coaching contract in the history of the NFL at the time.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: A fast start to the 2002 season raised hopes for Spurrier's potential success. The Redskins led off the preseason in Japan, where they beat the San Francisco 49ers 38–7 in the American Bowl. The team threw for over 400 yards and was accused of running up the score, a charge frequently leveled against Spurrier at Florida. The Redskins went 4–1 in the preseason (including a 40–10 win in Tampa against Spurrier's last professional team, the Buccaneers) and won the first game of the regular season 31–23, with Shane Matthews throwing for 327 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Arizona Cardinals. However, subsequent opponents were able to slow Spurrier's offense, mainly by using disguised blitzes to disrupt the passing game. By the end of the season, the Redskins were ranked 25th (out of 32 teams) in scoring offense and finished with a 7–9 record. It was only Spurrier's second losing campaign in 18 years as a head coach, the first being his first year at Duke.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In 2003, the Redskins started 2–0 but finished 5–11, with several close losses coming down to the 4th quarter. The offense was a bit improved, but the departure of defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis to become the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals saw the defense fade from 5th in scoring defense during the previous season to 24th in 2003. The team as a whole faded late in the season, and were outscored 85–31 over their last three games. Spurrier resigned on December 30, 2003, choosing to walk away from $15 million still owed to him over the remaining three years of his contract. In a statement released by the team, Spurrier said "I apologize to Redskins fans that we did not reach a level of success that we had all hoped... It's a long grind and I feel (that) after 20 years as a head coach there are other things I need to do. I simply believe this is the right time for me to move on because this team needs new leadership."


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier's disappointing tenure as an NFL head coach has been heavily scrutinized and analysed. During his first season in Washington, Spurrier brought in several of his former stars from Florida, including quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel and Shane Matthews, leading to criticism that he played favorites. Also criticized was his decision to bring along most of his coaching staff from Florida even though they had little or no experience coaching professional football (the exception being Marvin Lewis, who was a veteran NFL coach).


title: Steve Spurrier

text: As the 2002 season progressed, an increasing number of philosophical, strategic, and player personnel differences began to cause a rift between Spurrier and the Washington front office, including team owner Daniel Snyder. Snyder pushed for the drafting of Tulane quarterback Patrick Ramsey in the 2002 NFL Draft, and though Spurrier said that he would not play Ramsey very much during his rookie season, the coach was pressured to use him by team officials, and Ramsey was starting by game 4. The quarterback position continued to be a source of friction, particularly when, over Spurrier's objections, the front office decided to release Wuerffel before the start of Spurrier's second season. Spurrier later said that he "knew it was over" when he "wasn't allowed to pick the backup quarterback".


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier spoke about his NFL coaching experience during SEC Media Days in 2014. "When I left Florida after 12 years, I thought I was going to coach in the NFL five or six years and retire to the beach, and play golf a bunch, and travel around, this, that and the other. But that was a bad plan. It was. Later you found out that was not a real good idea. But that's the way I was thinking back then.". After retiring from coaching, Spurrier further reflected on his NFL stint in several interviews. In a 2016 appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show, Spurrier reflected that the Redskins might not have been the best choice for his jump to the NFL. "I went to the team that offered the most money instead of the best situation", he said. And in 2015, he told David Feherty that, "The owner and the personnel guys, they picked the team. I couldn’t even pick the quarterback the second year. So I knew it wasn’t going to work, but that's ok. I probably didn’t do a very good job, and the situation wasn’t what I was looking for, so it was time to move on." In an interview with "The Washington Post" in 2019, Spurrier said of his time in Washington that "I did a lousy job. The GM did a lousy job. He happened to be the owner, so who needed to go?"


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Throughout the 2004 football season, various sources openly speculated about Spurrier returning to coach in the college ranks once again, preferably for a program located in the southeastern United States and even more preferably, somewhere in his beloved Southeastern Conference. The University of Florida was in the process of taking applications for a new coach after Spurrier's successor at Florida, Ron Zook, was fired following the 2004 season. The timing seemed perfect for Spurrier's return to the Gators and Spurrier initially said that he wanted to be considered for his old job, but later removed his name from consideration stating that "12 years at Florida was probably long enough." Soon afterwards, rumors began circulating that South Carolina Gamecocks' Athletic Director, Mike McGee, was actively pursuing Spurrier and that Spurrier was considering the Gamecocks' offer. Again, the timing was perfect and on November 22, South Carolina coach Lou Holtz announced his retirement and, during his final press conference, hinted that Spurrier might replace him. The next day, months of rumors were put to rest as Spurrier was introduced as South Carolina's new head coach. Spurrier had signed a seven-year deal that paid him $1.25 million per year and the Steve Spurrier era began for the Gamecocks.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In 2005, his first season as the Gamecocks' new head coach, Spurrier led his South Carolina Gamecocks with newfound humility. The Gamecocks, who were not expected to have a winning season by most pundits, rattled off a five-game SEC winning streak for the first time in their fourteen-year SEC history. Included among those victories were historic wins at Tennessee (16–15) – the program's first win in Knoxville – and against then 12th-ranked Florida (30–22), who South Carolina had not beaten since 1939. The Associated Press named Spurrier the SEC Coach of the Year, and the Gamecocks finished the 2005 season with a 7–5 record and a trip to the Independence Bowl.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Two days prior to South Carolina's 2006 season opener, Spurrier announced that he would kick off the athletics department's capital campaign with a $250,000 donation over five years. Spurrier's Gamecocks opened the 2006 season with a 15–0 win over Mississippi State in Starkville, where he was 0–2 while coaching the Florida Gators. With the victory, he reached 150 wins for his college coaching career. On September 30, Spurrier was inducted into the Gator Football Ring of Honor in a pre-game ceremony in Gainesville. Later in the season on November 11, Spurrier returned to "The Swamp" to face off against his former Gators team, which was then ranked sixth in the BCS rankings. Trailing 17–16, the Gamecocks had a chance to win with a 48-yard field goal attempt on the last play of the game. However, Ryan Succop's kick was blocked as time expired in a repeat of an earlier blocked extra-point attempt.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In the final game of the 2006 regular season, Spurrier led the Gamecocks to victory over in-state rival Clemson at Death Valley. Trailing 28–14 in the third quarter, South Carolina scored seventeen unanswered points to lead 31–28. With only seconds remaining, Clemson's field goal attempt missed wide left and the Gamecocks celebrated their first victory over Clemson in five years.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: On December 2, 2006, amid speculation he was a candidate for head coaching jobs at Miami and Alabama, Spurrier received a contract extension through 2012 and a raise from $1.25 million to $1.75 million annually. Spurrier and the Gamecocks went on to defeat the Houston Cougars in the Liberty Bowl on December 29, and finished the season 8–5. All five of the Gamecocks' 2006 losses were to ranked opponents. Spurrier became the first head coach in Gamecock football history to take a team to a bowl game in each of his first two seasons.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: The 2007 football season, got off to a quick start winning at SEC rival Georgia early in the season as well as Louisiana-Lafayette and South Carolina State, and climbed into the top 10 in the national rankings. South Carolina stumbled down the stretch dropping the final five games, including a home loss in the season finale to arch-rival Clemson. The 6-6 (3-5 SEC) season record marked the first non-winning college season for Spurrier since his first season at Duke in 1987.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier won his 100th SEC game on October 11, 2008, coaching the Gamecocks to a 24–17 victory over Kentucky. In his ten seasons as the Gamecocks' head coach, Spurrier has beaten each of South Carolina's traditional SEC Eastern Division rivals at least five times. Against their annual SEC Eastern Division opponents, his ten teams have posted an 8–2 record against Kentucky, 8–2 against Vanderbilt, 5–5 against Tennessee, 5–5 against Georgia, 5–5 against Florida, and 2–1 against Missouri who began competing in the SEC in 2012. Against South Carolina's major in-state rival, Clemson, Spurrier's Gamecocks have gone 6–4. While Spurrier's teams at South Carolina have shown flashes of his old "Fun 'n' Gun" offense, they have mostly relied on stout defense to win upsets. The Gamecocks have been bowl eligible every year Spurrier has been their head coach, a feat no other Carolina coach has accomplished. Also, the Gamecocks have been ranked in the AP Poll Top 25 at some point during the season in nine out of Spurrier's ten years at South Carolina


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In 2009, Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks upset #4 Ole Miss 16-10 in Columbia, their first victory over a Top 5 team.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier's Gamecocks won the SEC Eastern Division championship for the first time in school history in 2010, clinching the title with a convincing 36–14 victory at "The Swamp" over the Florida Gators. It was a season of firsts for South Carolina, including their first win at Florida, first win over a No. 1 ranked team (Alabama), and first time sweeping the November "Orange Crush" portion of their schedule with wins over Tennessee, Florida and Clemson. Following a 9–3 regular season and an appearance in the SEC championship game, Spurrier was named SEC Coach of the Year by his fellow coaches in the conference.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: The Gamecocks had another strong season in 2011, beating every opponent in the division. However, losses to Arkansas and Auburn cost them a return appearance in the SEC title game. With a 34–13 rout of Clemson, the Gamecocks won 10 games for only the second time in their 119-year football history. In the 2012 Capital One Bowl, the Gamecocks dispatched Nebraska 30-13 to win their school-record 11th game. They also finished eighth in the AP Poll and ninth in the Coaches' Poll—their first top-ten finishes in a major media poll in school history.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In 2012 Spurrier led the Gamecocks to their second-consecutive regular season with double-digit wins—something no Gamecock team had ever achieved. The 2012 regular season culminated with the annual season-ending game against Clemson at Clemson's Memorial Stadium. Spurrier and his Gamecocks emerged with a fourth consecutive double-digit victory over the Tigers. That win was also Spurrier's 65th win with the Gamecocks, vaulting him past Rex Enright to become the winningest coach in South Carolina's history. Spurrier led the Gamecocks to a thrilling 33–28 victory in the 2013 Outback Bowl against the winningest program in college football, the Michigan Wolverines. The victory elevated the Gamecocks to an 11–2 record for the 2nd consecutive season. Additionally, by finishing 8th in the Associated Press poll and 7th in the Coaches poll, South Carolina finished in Top 10 of both polls for the second year in a row.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: During the 2013 season, Spurrier led his Gamecocks to a third consecutive 11–2 record. Only two other programs (Alabama and Oregon) have won 11 or more games each of the last three seasons (2011–13). During the season, the Gamecocks defeated three teams that finished ranked in the Top 10 in the final AP Poll (Missouri, University of Central Florida, and Clemson). The Gamecocks were the only team to accomplish this feat. They also became the first and only team to defeat two teams that won BCS bowl games. Following their 34–24 win over Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl, the Gamecocks were ranked 4th in the final AP Poll, setting a record for the program. This also marked the third straight year that the Gamecocks finished with a Top 10 ranking in the final AP Poll. While defeating Clemson, again, the Gamecocks ran their winning streak over their archrival to five games, which is the longest winning streak in the rivalry, for either team, since 1940. The 31–17 score marked the 5th straight double-digit margin of victory over their ACC foe. Also, for the 5th straight year, the Gamecocks defense held the Tigers to 17 points or less. They would go on to defeat Wisconsin in the Capital One bowl 34-24 and would finish the year ranked #4, their highest finish ever in a season.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: The 2014 Gamecocks endured a disappointing season, going 7-6 overall and 3-5 against SEC opponents, and finishing in fifth place in their division. With 4 losses and only 2 wins by the middle of the 2015 season, Spurrier announced to his team and staff on October 12, 2015, that he had resigned as head coach. He publicly confirmed his intentions at a press conference the following day. Spurrier reiterated that he was not officially retiring, but added he would probably never coach again.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: A popular tradition, started during the Sparky Woods era at USC, occurs on the last Saturday of July when the University of South Carolina athletics department hosts the annual "Steve Spurrier Ladies Football Clinic." Only female fans are invited to attend the clinic where football coaches and players discuss the X's and O's with fans who want to understand the game better. All attendees get a tour of the football facilities, and finish the day running onto the football field through the players' tunnel accompanied by artificial smoke and theme music in the same way the team does during the season. The event was hosted by Spurrier and his wife Jerri.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In April 2018, Spurrier was named the head coach of the Orlando Apollos of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), a new spring football league that was slated to begin play in February 2019. Spurrier was the first coach or player to sign with the AAF, as he thought the four to five month per year commitment made the new league a "perfect job" for him to get back into coaching, giving him an opportunity to finish his career on another winning note – "It's a mulligan in life," he explained.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: The AAF did not finish the season due to league-wide financial difficulties. The Apollos led the standings with a 7–1 record when the league shut down, leading Spurrier to claim that they should be named the first and only AAF "regular season champions".


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In July 2016, Spurrier returned to the University of Florida to serve as an ambassador and consultant for the athletic program. On September 3, 2016 the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was renamed to "Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium" in honor of Spurrier's achievements at the university. On June 7, 2016, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley inducted Spurrier into the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor of the South Carolina government.On July 22, 2021, Steve Spurrier was inducted into the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Since retiring from coaching, Spurrier has been a frequent contributor to sports talk shows on TV, radio, and podcasts, including his own show on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, co-hosting shows on WRUF radio in Gainesville, and appearing on many other shows.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: In 2021, Spurrier opened Spurrier's Gridiron Grill in the Celebration Point entertainment complex in Gainesville. The establishment is a sports bar / restaurant that features large displays of memorabilia from throughout Spurrier's playing and coaching career, including his Heisman Trophy.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: Spurrier married his college sweetheart, the former Jerri Starr, on September 14, 1966, during his senior year at the University of Florida. They have four children —Lisa, Amy, Steve, Jr., and Scott, as well as 14 grandchildren. Spurrier's oldest son, Steve Jr., has been an assistant football coach for several years, including stints as a receivers coach on his father's staffs in Washington and South Carolina. After his father retired in 2015, Steve Jr. joined Bob Stoops's staff at Oklahoma. Spurrier's youngest son, Scott, played wide receiver for the Gamecocks through the 2009 season. Scott eventually joined his father as tight ends coach of the Orlando Apollos.


title: Steve Spurrier

text: While he was a University of Florida student, Spurrier was a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity (Alpha Omega chapter), and was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame, the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, and Florida Blue Key leadership honorary. As a coach, he was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa at the University of Florida in 1991.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: USS "Alabama" (BB-60) is a retired battleship. She was the fourth and final member of the of fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to guns, but Congressional refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of . A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships. Overcrowding was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: After entering service, "Alabama" was briefly deployed to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to the Soviet Union. In 1943, she was transferred to the Pacific for operations against Japan; the first of these was the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign that began in November that year. While operating in the Pacific, she served primarily as an escort for the fast carrier task force to protect the aircraft carriers from surface and air attacks. She also frequently bombarded Japanese positions in support of amphibious assaults. She took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign in June–September and the Philippines campaign in October–December. After a refit in early 1945, she returned to the fleet for operations during the Battle of Okinawa and the series of attacks on the Japanese mainland in July and August, including several bombardments of coastal industrial targets.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" assisted in Operation Magic Carpet after the war, carrying some 700 men home from the former war zone. She was decommissioned in 1947 and assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet, where she remained until 1962 when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. A campaign to save the ship from the breakers' yard succeeded in raising the necessary funds, and "Alabama" was preserved as a museum ship in Mobile Bay, Alabama.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: The was ordered in the context of global naval rearmament during the breakdown of the Washington treaty system that had controlled battleships construction during the 1920s and early 1930s. Under the Washington and London treaties, so-called treaty battleships were limited to a standard displacement of and a main battery of guns. In 1936, following Japan's decision to abandon the treaty system, the United States Navy decided to invoke the "escalator clause" in the Second London treaty that allowed displacements to rise to and armament to increase to guns. Congressional objections to increasing the size of the new ships forced the design staff to keep displacement as close to 35,000 LT as possible while incorporating the larger guns and armor sufficient to defeat guns of the same caliber.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" is long overall and has a beam of and a draft of . She displaced as designed and up to at full combat load. The ship was powered by four General Electric steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Rated at , the turbines were intended to give a top speed of . The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of . She carried three Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes for aerial reconnaissance, which were launched by a pair of aircraft catapults on her fantail. Her peace time crew numbered 1,793 officers and enlisted men, but during the war the crew swelled to 2,500.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: The ship was armed with a main battery of nine 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 guns in three triple-gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward, with the third aft. The secondary battery consisted of twenty 5-inch /38 caliber dual-purpose guns mounted in twin turrets clustered amidships, five turrets on either side. As designed, the ship was equipped with an anti-aircraft battery of twelve guns and twelve .50-caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns, but she was completed with a battery of six quadruple Bofors guns in place of the 1.1 in guns and thirty-five Oerlikon autocannon in single mounts instead of the .50-cal. guns.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: The main armored belt is thick, while the main armored deck is up to thick. The main battery gun turrets have thick faces, and they are mounted atop barbettes that are thick. The conning tower has thick sides.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" received a series of modifications through her wartime career, consisting primarily of additions to anti-aircraft battery and various types of radar sets. The first addition was the installation of SC air search radar in 1941, fitted in the foremast, which was later replaced with an SK type set. At the same time, an SG surface search radar was installed on the forward superstructure; a second SG set was added to the main mast after experiences during the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942. In 1943, she received a Mark 3 fire-control radar, mounted on her conning tower to assist in the direction of her main battery guns. The Mark 3 was quickly replaced with more modern Mark 8 fire-control radar, and Mark 4 radars for the secondary battery guns. She later received Mark 12/22 sets in place of the Mark 4s. "Alabama" also received a TDY jammer. In 1945, her traditional spotting scopes were replaced with Mark 27 microwave radar sets.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: The ship's light anti-aircraft battery was gradually expanded. Four more 40 mm quadruple mounts were allocated to the ship in late 1942, but by the time she underwent her refit in November 1943, the allotted armament had been increased to twelve quadruple mounts. Two more were to be added to the forecastle in 1945, but experience with other ships demonstrated these to be excessively wet in most sea conditions and thus unusable, so they were never installed aboard "Alabama". In May 1943, she had another eight 20 mm guns installed, bringing the total to fifty-three of the guns. By 1945, the ship's 20 mm battery had grown to fifty-six guns, all in single mounts. She was slated to have these exchanged for forty twin mounts, but the work was not done before the war ended and she was removed from service.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: The keel for "Alabama" was laid down on 1 February 1940 at the Norfolk Navy Yard. She was launched on 16 February 1942; "Crane Ship No. 1" (ex-) assisted with the installation of the ship's heavy armor and armament. She was commissioned just six months later on 16 August. Fitting-out work then commenced, and on 11 November she began her shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake Bay. She then began initial training to prepare the ship's crew for wartime service, first out of Casco Bay, Maine. On 11 January 1943, "Alabama" returned to Chesapeake Bay for further training before moving to Norfolk. She was then assigned to Task Group (TG) 22.2 and sent back to Casco Bay on 13 February for tactical training.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama"s first deployment came in April with the temporary assignment to the British Home Fleet to reinforce the Allied naval forces available to escort the Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union. At the time, the British had sent several capital ships to the Mediterranean Sea to support the Allied invasion of Sicily, stripping away forces necessary to counter German naval strength in Norway, most significantly the battleship . Accordingly, "Alabama" and her sister ship got underway on 2 April as part of Task Force (TF) 22. Screened by five destroyers, the two battleships steamed to the Orkney Islands by way of Little Placentia Sound and Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland, arriving in the main British naval base at Scapa Flow on 19 May. There, they were organized as TF 61, Home Fleet, and the ships began thorough training to familiarize the American ships with their British counterparts for joint operations. TF 61 was commanded by Rear Admiral Olaf M. Hustvedt; over the course of the next three months, they frequently operated with the battleships and .


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama", "South Dakota", and several British units covered an operation to reinforce the island of Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean in early June. The following month, "Alabama" took part in Operation Governor, a demonstration to distract German attention during the Sicily invasion. The Allies also hoped to lure out "Tirpitz" to sink her, but the Germans took no notice of the ships and remained in port. On 1 August, "Alabama" and "South Dakota" were detached to return to the United States; they departed immediately and arrived in Norfolk on 9 August, where "Alabama" underwent an overhaul in preparation for operations against Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater. "Alabama" emerged from the shipyard on 20 August and began the voyage to the Pacific by way of the Panama Canal, which she transited on 25 August. She reached Efate in the New Hebrides on 14 September.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: On arriving in the south Pacific, "Alabama" embarked on an extensive training program that lasted for a month and a half to prepare the battleship to operate with the fast carrier task force. She then steamed to Fiji on 7 November before departing four days later to support the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, which began with the invasion of Tarawa on 20 November. "Alabama" escorted the aircraft carriers while they struck Japanese airfields on nearby islands in the Marshalls to neutralize their ability to interfere with the landing. She then supported the landing on Betio in the Tarawa Atoll on 20 November, followed by the landing at Makin. "Alabama" twice engaged Japanese aircraft that approached the fleet on the night of 26 November.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" and five other fast battleships bombarded Nauru on 8 December, which the Japanese used as a source of phosphate. The destroyer , which had been hit by Japanese artillery fire, came alongside "Alabama" and transferred three wounded men to the battleship. The ships then escorted the carriers and back to Efate, which they reached on 12 December. "Alabama" got underway on 5 January 1944 for Pearl Harbor, arriving on 12 January for maintenance that included replacing one of her propellers. She arrived in Funafuti in the Ellice Islands on 21 January, where she joined the fleet for the next operation in the campaign. She was assigned to Task Group (TG) 58.2, which sortied on 25 January to begin Operation Flintlock, the invasion of Kwajalein. "Alabama", "South Dakota", and the battleship shelled the island of Roi-Namur over the course of 29 and 30 January, targeting defensive positions, airfields, and other facilities. For the remainder of the campaign, she patrolled to the north of Kwajalein to guard against a possible Japanese counterattack that did not materialize.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: Over the next two months, the fast carrier task force embarked on a series of raids on Japanese-held islands in the central Pacific to prepare for the next major offensive. The ships of TG 58.2 sortied on 12 February to participate in Operation Hailstone, a major raid on the island of Truk, which had been the primary staging area for the Japanese fleet in the central Pacific. "Alabama" escorted the carriers that struck the island over the course of 16–17 February, inflicting heavy damage to the Japanese forces and infrastructure there. The fleet then continued on to raid Japanese bases on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. During a Japanese air attack on the fleet on 21 February, "Alabama"s No. 9 5-inch turret accidentally fired into the No. 5 mount, killing five and wounding eleven men. That day, "Alabama" took part in a sweep to the southeast of Saipan to search for Japanese vessels that might be in the area. Having found none, the fleet steamed to Majuro to replenish fuel and ammunition. While there, she served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher, the commander of the fast carrier task force, from 3 to 8 March.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" and the rest of the fleet departed Majuro on 22 March to attack the next set of targets: Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai in the Caroline Islands. By this time, "Alabama" had been transferred to TG 58.3 as part of the screen for the carrier . While en route to the Carolines, the ships came under attack from a group of Japanese aircraft on the night of 29 March and "Alabama" shot one of them down and assisted with another. The next day, the carriers began their raids and "Alabama" stood by, engaging Japanese aircraft as they attacked the fleet. She helped to drive off a lone Japanese aircraft late that day before it could close to attack. The fleet then returned to Majuro for replenishment before departing on 13 April; "Alabama" now escorted the veteran carrier for a series of strikes along the coast of western New Guinea in support of Army operations in the New Guinea campaign. The final action in the series of raids saw the fleet return to the Carolines to strike Pohnpei, which "Alabama" and five other battleships bombarded on 1 May. The group then returned once again to Eniwetok on 4 May to begin preparations for the invasion of the Marianas.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" sortied with the rest of TF 58 in early June, now as part of TG 58.7; the fleet had arrived off the initial target, Saipan, by 12 June. The next day, "Alabama" took part in a preparatory bombardment of the island intended to weaken Japanese defenses so that minesweepers could begin to clear approaches to the landing beach. "Alabama"s gunners were not as experienced with shore bombardment as other dedicated bombardment ships, and her shooting was not particularly effective. She thereafter screened the carriers as they struck Japanese positions around the island, and ground troops landed on the island on 15 June. The landing was a breach of Japan's inner defensive perimeter that triggered the Japanese fleet to launch a major counter-thrust with the 1st Mobile Fleet, the main carrier strike force.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: The Japanese fleet arrived on 19 June, leading to the Battle of the Philippine Sea. "Alabama" was the first vessel to pick up the incoming Japanese aircraft on her radar, away, at 10:06. The battleship quickly corroborated the report, and 40 minutes later the Japanese aircraft arrived over the fleet. A total of seven waves hit the American fleet, though only three of them hit TG 58.7. Of those, "Alabama" was able to engage Japanese aircraft in two of the attacks. During one of the attacks, a pair of aircraft penetrated the Combat Air Patrols and attacked "South Dakota", and "Alabama" was among the vessels that fired on them. About an hour after that attack, two torpedo bombers attempted to attack "South Dakota" again, but "Alabama" helped to drive them off with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire. During this latter attack, a single dive bomber was able to use the gunners' distraction with the torpedo bombers to approach "Alabama", but the pilot nevertheless missed with his bombs and caused no damage. Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, the TG 58.7 commander, commended "Alabama"s radar operators for their prompt detection of the Japanese aircraft, which allowed the American carriers to launch their fighters with enough time to intercept the attackers away from the fleet.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" remained on station, escorting the carriers while they raided Saipan, Guam, Tinian, and Rota throughout the campaign. She was then detached from the fleet to Eniwetok in the Marshalls for periodic maintenance. The ship then became the flagship of Rear Admiral Edward Hanson, the commander of Battleship Division (BatDiv) 9, and left the island on 14 July in company with "Bunker Hill". The next stage in the campaign, the invasion of Guam, began on 21 July and "Alabama" performed her role of carrier escort during operations there for the next three weeks. On 11 August, she left to return to Eniwetok before embarking on the next assault on 30 August, code-named Operation Stalemate II; this consisted of a series of landings on Pelelieu, Ulithi, and Yap. By this time, the fast carrier task force had been transferred from Fifth Fleet to Third Fleet and accordingly renumbered as TF 38, so "Alabama" was now part of TG 38.3. She escorted the carriers while they launched a series of strikes on the islands from 6 to 8 September to prepare for the amphibious assaults.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: After the strikes in the Carolines, the fast carrier task force left the area to begin initial raids in the Philippines, with the first strikes occurring from 12 to 14 September. Aircraft from the carriers hit Japanese bases on the islands of Cebu, Leyte, Bohol, and Negros. Another series of strikes, concentrated around the capital of Manila, followed on 21 and 22 September, and in the central Philippines on the 24th. "Alabama" returned to Saipan on 28 September before proceeding to Ulithi, which was by now a major staging area for the US fleet, on 1 October. Five days later, the fast carrier task force sortied to begin a major raid on the island of Formosa (Taiwan) and other islands to neutralize the airfields there in advance of the invasion of the Philippines. "Alabama" continued to escort the carriers as part of TG 38.3, providing heavy anti-aircraft support. On 14 October, the fleet turned south to begin raids on Luzon in the Philippines and "Alabama" engaged aircraft that attempted to attack the fleet. The ship's gunners claimed to have destroyed three Japanese aircraft and damaged another.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: "Alabama" supported the landing at Leyte on 15 October before returning to the carrier screen to escort them for another series of air strikes on islands throughout the Philippines on 21 October, by now having been transferred to TG 38.4. The landings on Leyte led to the activation of Operation Shō-Gō 1, the Japanese navy's planned riposte to an Allied landing in the Philippines. The plan was a complicated operation with three separate fleets: the 1st Mobile Fleet, now labeled the Northern Force under Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa, the Center Force under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, and the Southern Force under Vice Admiral Shōji Nishimura. Ozawa's carriers, by now depleted of most of their aircraft, were to serve as a decoy for Kurita's and Nishimura's battleships, which were to use the distraction to attack the invasion fleet directly.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: Kurita's ships were detected in the San Bernardino Strait on 24 October, and in the ensuing Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, American carrier aircraft sank the powerful battleship , causing Kurita to temporarily reverse course. This convinced Admiral William F. Halsey, the commander of Third Fleet, to send the fast carrier task force to destroy the 1st Mobile Fleet, which had by then been detected. "Alabama" steamed north with the carriers, and on the way Halsey established TF 34, consisting of "Alabama" and five other fast battleships, seven cruisers, and eighteen destroyers, commanded by Vice Admiral Willis Lee. TF 34 was arrayed ahead of the carriers, serving as their screen. On the morning of 25 October, Mitscher began his first attack on the Northern Force, initiating the Battle off Cape Engaño; over the course of six strikes on the Japanese fleet, the Americans sank all four carriers and damaged two old battleships that had been converted into hybrid carriers. Unknown to Halsey and Mitscher, Kurita had resumed his approach through the San Bernardino Strait late on 24 October and passed into Leyte Gulf the next morning. While Mitscher was occupied with the decoy Northern Force, Kurita moved in to attack the invasion fleet; in the Battle off Samar, he was held off by a group of escort carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts, TU 77.4.3, known as Taffy 3. Frantic calls for help later that morning led Halsey to detach Lee's battleships to head south and intervene.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: However, Halsey waited more than an hour after receiving orders from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, to detach TF 34; still steaming north during this interval, the delay added two hours to the battleships' voyage south. A need to refuel destroyers further slowed TF 34's progress south. Heavy resistance from Taffy 3 threw Kurita's battleships and cruisers into disarray and led him to break off the attack before "Alabama" and the rest of TF 34 could arrive. Halsey detached "Iowa" and as TG 34.5 to pursue Kurita through the San Bernardino Strait while Lee took the rest of his ships further southwest to try to cut off his escape, but both groups arrived too late. The historian H. P. Wilmott speculated that had Halsey detached TF 34 promptly and not delayed the battleships by refueling the destroyers, the ships could have easily arrived in the strait ahead of Center Force and, owing to the marked superiority of their radar-directed main guns, destroyed Kurita's ships.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: Having failed to intercept the retiring Japanese fleet, "Alabama" and the rest of TF 34 returned to their positions screening the carriers. On 30 October, the fleet withdrew to Ulithi to replenish ammunition and fuel. On 3 November, the fleet departed for another series of raids on Japanese airfields and other facilities on Luzon as the amphibious force prepared for its next landing on the island of Mindoro in the western Philippines. Over the next few weeks, "Alabama" cruised with the carriers, protecting them from Japanese aircraft, while the carriers struck targets on Luzon and the Visayas in the central Philippines. The fleet returned to Ulithi once again on 24 November and through early December "Alabama" was occupied with routine maintenance and training exercises with other vessels in the fleet. During this period, the fleet was reorganized and "Alabama" was assigned to TG 38.1. The fleet sortied again on 10 December for more strikes on Luzon that lasted from 14 to 16 December; the carriers massed so many aircraft that they could keep Japanese airfields constantly suppressed to prevent them from interfering with the passage of the Mindoro invasion fleet.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: On 17 December, the fleet withdrew to refuel at sea, but late in the day, Typhoon Cobra swept through the area, battering the fleet. The storm conditions—"Alabama" recorded wind gusts as high as and heavy seas that caused her to roll up to thirty degrees—sank three destroyers and inflicted serious damage to several other vessels, though "Alabama" emerged with only minor damage to her superstructure, and both of her Kingfishers were wrecked. The fleet returned to Ulithi on 24 December and "Alabama" was detached for an overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She entered the dry-dock there on 18 January 1945 for work that lasted until 25 February, at which point she was floated out of the dry-dock for further repairs, which were completed on 17 March. The ship then began a series of sea trials and training exercises along the coast of California before departing on 4 April for Pearl Harbor. She arrived there on 10 April, spent a week on additional training exercises, and then proceeded on to Ulithi, arriving there on 28 April.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: At Ulithi, "Alabama" re-joined the fast carrier task force, which had by this point reverted to Fifth Fleet. The fast carrier task force got underway on 9 May to support the forces fighting in the Battle of Okinawa, who had gone ashore on 1 April. The Japanese had massed significant reserves of aircraft for kamikaze strikes against the invasion fleet. During one such attack on 14 May, while approximately 120 miles southeast of the Japanese home island of Kyushu, "Alabama" shot down two Japanese aircraft and helped to destroy two others, but one kamikaze nevertheless penetrated the fleet's anti-aircraft defenses and struck "Enterprise". The operations off Okinawa continued for the next two weeks and on 4–5 June, the fleet was hit by another typhoon and "Alabama"—part of TG 38.1 at this time—again suffered only superficial damage, though many other vessels in the group were badly damaged. The fleet resumed its normal operations in support of the Okinawa fight on 7 June, including air strikes on Japanese airfields on Kyushu the next day that "Alabama" supported. With an escort of five destroyers on 9 June, "Alabama", , and steamed to shell Japanese facilities on the island of Minami Daito Jima; they repeated the attack the next day. The fleet thereafter returned to Leyte Gulf to being preparations for a series of attacks on the Japanese Home Islands.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: Third Fleet resumed control of the carrier fleet for these operations, which began on 1 July when the fleet sortied from Leyte Gulf. The carriers conducted wide-ranging attacks on various military and industrial targets throughout Japan, particularly concentrating on the area around Tokyo. On the night of 17–18 July, "Alabama", four other American battleships, the British battleship , and a pair of cruisers bombarded six industrial facilities northeast of Tokyo. On 9 August, "Alabama" shelled targets at Kamaishi in company with two battleships and six American and British cruisers. The same day, "Alabama" transferred a medical party to the destroyer , which took them to the destroyer , which had been hit by a kamikaze and needed medical assistance. When she received word of the Japanese surrender on 15 August, "Alabama" was still at sea off the coast of Japan. She contributed sailors and marines to the initial occupation force, and she cruised with the carriers while they used their aircraft to search for prisoner of war camps.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: On 5 September, "Alabama" steamed into Tokyo Bay, where she re-embarked crew-members who had gone ashore. She remained there until 20 September, when she got underway for Okinawa, where she took on 700 men, most of whom were Seabees, to carry them back to the United States as part of Operation Magic Carpet. The ship arrived in San Francisco on 15 October and remained there for the Navy Day celebrations held there on 27 October, where she hosted some 9,000 visitors. Two days later, she steamed to San Pedro, California, where she lay until 27 February 1946, when she got underway for an overhaul at Puget Sound to prepare her for deactivation.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: She was decommissioned on 9 January 1947 at the Naval Station in Seattle and assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet, stationed in Bremerton, Washington. Plans were drawn up during the period she was in reserve to modernize "Alabama" and the other ships of her class should they be needed for future active service. In March 1954, a program to equip the four ships with secondary batteries consisting of ten twin guns were proposed, but the plan came to nothing. Another plan to convert the ship into a guided missile battleship arose in 1956–1957, but the cost of the conversion proved to be prohibitive. She would have had all three main battery turrets removed and replaced with a twin RIM-8 Talos missile launcher forward, two RIM-24 Tartar launchers aft, anti-submarine weapons, and equipment to handle helicopters. The cost of the project amounted to $120 million.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: On 1 June 1962, "Alabama" was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register for disposal; with the ship slated to be broken up, the state of Alabama passed a bill to establish the "USS Alabama Battleship Commission" with a view toward preserving the battleship as a museum ship. Governor George Wallace signed the law on 12 September 1963, and the commission set about raising funds to acquire the ship; ultimately around $800,000 was raised, of which an eighth came from children in the state, the rest coming primarily from corporate donations.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: On 16 June 1964, the Navy awarded the ship to her namesake state, with a provision that the Navy would retain the ability to recall the ship to service in the event of an emergency. "Alabama" was formally handed over on 7 July during a ceremony in Seattle, and she was then towed to Mobile, Alabama to be restored as a museum, by way of the Panama Canal. On the way to the canal, one of the tugboats accidentally sank. Her screws were removed for the voyage to avoid any damage. The carrier , a veteran of the fast carrier task force and still in service, escorted the ship while she was towed through the Gulf of Mexico. "Alabama" arrived in Mobile on 14 September having traveled some , the longest tow of a vessel that was not an active warship. The channel in Mobile Bay to her permanent berth had not yet been completed, and she had to wait until the end of the month before dredging work was finished. Once the ship was moored in her berth, work began to prepare the ship for visitors, including sandblasting painted surfaces, applying primer, and then re-painting the entire ship. The museum was opened on 9 January 1965.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: In the early 1980s, when the Navy reactivated the four s, parts were cannibalized from "Alabama" and the other preserved battleships, including "Massachusetts" and "North Carolina", to restore the "Iowa"s to service. Engine room components that were no longer available in the Navy's inventory accounted for most of the material removed from the ships. The ship was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986. During her career as a museum ship, "Alabama" has been used as a set for several movies including "Under Siege" in 1992 and "" in 2016.


title: USS Alabama (BB-60)

text: In the early 2000s, the museum raised funds to complete major repairs to "Alabama", including removing 2.7 million gallons of water contaminated with fuel oil from the ship. This involved erecting a cofferdam around the ship and pumping it dry, which also allowed workers to repair the ship's hull. At the same time, the submarine , another component of the museum, was moved from the water to a display on land so her hull could be repaired. "Alabama" was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, taking on water and a list to port; repairs were effected by Volkert, Inc.


title: Social structure

text: In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles, with different functions, meanings, or purposes. Examples of social structure include family, religion, law, economy, and class. It contrasts with "social system", which refers to the parent structure in which these various structures are embedded. Thus, social structures significantly influence larger systems, such as economic systems, legal systems, political systems, cultural systems, etc. Social structure can also be said to be the framework upon which a society is established. It determines the norms and patterns of relations between the various institutions of the society.


title: Social structure

text: Since the 1920s, the term has been in general use in social science, especially as a variable whose sub-components needed to be distinguished in relationship to other sociological variables, as well as in academic literature, as result of the rising influence of structuralism. The concept of "social stratification", for instance, uses the idea of "social structure" to explain that most societies are separated into different "strata" (levels), guided (if only partially) by the underlying structures in the social system. It is also important in the modern study of organizations, as an organization's structure may determine its flexibility, capacity to change, etc. In this sense, structure is an important issue for management.


title: Social structure

text: On the "macro" scale, social structure pertains to the system of socioeconomic stratification (most notably the class structure), social institutions, or other patterned relations between large social groups. On the "meso" scale, it concerns the structure of social networks between individuals or organizations. On the "micro" scale, "social structure" includes the ways in which 'norms' shape the behavior of individuals within the social system. These scales are not always kept separate. For example, John Levi Martin has theorized that certain macro-scale structures are the emergent properties of micro-scale cultural institutions (i.e., "structure" resembles that used by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss). Likewise, in ethnography, a recent study describes how indigenous social structure in the Republic of Panama changed macro social structures and impeded a planned Panama Canal expansion. Marxist sociology has also historically mixed different meanings of social structure, though doing so by simply treating the cultural aspects of social structure as phenomenal of its economic ones.


title: Social structure

text: Social norms are believed to influence social structure through relations between the majority and the minority. As those who align with the majority are considered 'normal', and those who align with the minority are considered 'abnormal', majority-minority relations create a hierarchical stratification within social structures that favors the majority in all aspects of society.


title: Social structure

text: The early study of social structures has considerably informed the study of institutions, culture and agency, social interaction, and history.


title: Social structure

text: Alexis de Tocqueville was supposedly the first to use the term "social structure". Later, Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber would all contribute to structural concepts in sociology. The latter, for example, investigated and analyzed the institutions of modern society: market, bureaucracy (private enterprise and public administration), and politics (e.g. democracy).


title: Social structure

text: One of the earliest and most comprehensive accounts of social structure was provided by Karl Marx, who related political, cultural, and religious life to the mode of production (an underlying economic structure). Marx argued that the economic base substantially determined the cultural and political superstructure of a society. Subsequent Marxist accounts, such as that of Louis Althusser, proposed a more complex relationship that asserted the relative autonomy of cultural and political institutions, and a general determination by economic factors only "in the last instance."


title: Social structure

text: In 1905, German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies published his study "The Present Problems of Social Structure", in which argues that only the "constitution" of a multitude into a unity creates a "social structure", basing his approach on his concept of social will.


title: Social structure

text: Émile Durkheim, drawing on the analogies between biological and social systems popularized by Herbert Spencer and others, introduced the idea that diverse social institutions and practices played a role in assuring the functional integration of society through assimilation of diverse parts into a unified and self-reproducing whole. In this context, Durkheim distinguished two forms of structural relationship: mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. The former describes structures that unite similar parts through a shared culture, while the latter describes differentiated parts united through social exchange and material interdependence.


title: Social structure

text: As did Marx and Weber, Georg Simmel, more generally, developed a wide-ranging approach that provided observations and insights into domination and subordination; competition; division of labor; formation of parties; representation; inner solidarity and external exclusiveness; and many similar features of the state, religious communities, economic associations, art schools, and of family and kinship networks. However diverse the interests that give rise to these associations, the forms in which interests are realized may yet be identical.


title: Social structure

text: The notion of social structure was extensively developed in the 20th century with key contributions from structuralist perspectives drawing on theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss, as well as feminist, marxist, functionalist (e.g. those developed by Talcott Parsons and followers), and a variety of other analytic perspectives. Some follow Marx in trying to identify the basic dimensions of society that explain the other dimensions, most emphasizing either economic production or political power. Others follow Lévi-Strauss in seeking logical order in cultural structures. Still others, notably Peter Blau, follow Simmel in attempting to base a formal theory of social structure on numerical patterns in relationships—analyzing, for example, the ways in which factors like group size shape intergroup relations.


title: Social structure

text: The notion of social structure is intimately related to a variety of central topics in social science, including the relation of structure and agency. The most influential attempts to combine the concept of social structure with agency are Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration and Pierre Bourdieu's practice theory. Giddens emphasizes the duality of structure and agency, in the sense that structures and agency cannot be conceived apart from one another. This permits him to argue that structures are neither independent of actors nor determining of their behavior, but rather sets of rules and competencies on which actors draw, and which, in the aggregate, they reproduce. Giddens's analysis, in this respect, closely parallels Jacques Derrida's deconstruction of the binaries that underlie classic sociological and anthropological reasoning (notably the universalizing tendencies of Lévi-Strauss's structuralism). Bourdieu's practice theory also seeks a more subtle account of social structure as embedded in, rather than determinative of, individual behavior.


title: Social structure

text: Other recent work by Margaret Archer (morphogenesis theory), Tom R. Burns and Helena Flam (actor-system dynamics theory and social rule system theory), and Immanuel Wallerstein (World Systems Theory) provide elaborations and applications of the sociological classics in structural sociology.


title: Social structure

text: Social rule system theory reduces the structures of (3) to particular rule system arrangements, i.e. the types of basic structures of (1 and 2). It shares with role theory, organizational and institutional sociology, and network analysis the concern with structural properties and developments and at the same time provides detailed conceptual tools needed to generate interesting, fruitful propositions and models and analyses.


title: Social structure

text: Some believe that social structure is naturally developed, caused by larger systemic needs (e.g. the need for labour, management, professional, and military classes), or by conflicts between groups (e.g. competition among political parties or elites and masses). Others believe that this structuring is not a result of natural processes, but of social construction. The mismatch between institutions’ cultural ideal of independence and the interdependent norms common among working-class individuals can reduce their opportunity to succeed. In this sense, it may be created by the power of elites who seek to retain their power, or by economic systems that place emphasis upon competition or cooperation.


title: Social structure

text: Ethnography has contributed to understandings about social structure by revealing local practices and customs that differ from Western practices of hierarchy and economic power in its construction.


title: Social structure

text: The most thorough account of the evolution of social structure is perhaps provided by structure and agency accounts that allow for a sophisticated analysis of the co-evolution of social structure and human agency, where socialized agents with a degree of autonomy take action in social systems where their action is on the one hand mediated by existing institutional structure and expectations but may, on the other hand, influence or transform that institutional structure. In terms of agents of socialization, social structures are slightly influenced by individuals but individuals are more greatly influenced by them. Some examples of these agents of socialization are the workplace, family, religion, and school. The way these agents of socialization influence your individualism varies on each one however, they all play a big role in your self-identity development.


title: Social structure

text: The notion of social structure may mask systematic biases, as it involves many identifiable sub-variables (e.g. gender). Some argue that men and women who have otherwise equal qualifications receive different treatment in the workplace because of their gender, which would be termed a "social structural" bias, but other variables (such as time on the job or hours worked) might be masked. Modern social structural analysis takes this into account through multivariate analysis and other techniques, but the analytic problem of how to combine various aspects of social life into a whole remains.


title: Social structure

text: Social structures coerce our individuality and social groups by shaping the actions, thoughts, and beliefs of every individual human being. In terms of agents of socialization, social structures are slightly influenced by individuals but individuals are more greatly influenced by them. Some examples of these agents of socialization are the workplace, family, religion, and school. The way these agents of socialization influence your individualism varies on each one however, they all play a big role in your self-identity development. Agents of socialization can also affect how you see yourself individually or as part of a collective. Our identities are constructed through social influences that we encounter in our daily lives. The way you are raised to view your individuality can hinder your ability to succeed by capping your abilities or it could become an obstacle in certain environments in which individuality is embraced like colleges or friend groups.


title: South Los Angeles

text: South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown.


title: South Los Angeles

text: It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a 16-square-mile rectangle with two prongs at the south end.” In 2003, the Los Angeles City Council renamed this area "South Los Angeles".


title: South Los Angeles

text: The name South Los Angeles can also refer to a larger 51-square mile region that includes areas within the city limits of Los Angeles as well as five unincorporated areas in the southern portion of the County of Los Angeles.


title: South Los Angeles

text: The City of Los Angeles delineates the South Los Angeles Community Plan area as an area of 15.5 square miles. Adjacent communities include West Adams, Baldwin Hills, and Leimert Park to the west, and Southeast Los Angeles (the 26-neighborhood area east of the Harbor Freeway) on the east.


title: South Los Angeles

text: According to the "Los Angeles Times Mapping Project", the South Los Angeles region comprises 51 square miles, consisting of 25 neighborhoods within the City of Los Angeles as well as three unincorporated neighborhoods in the County of Los Angeles.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Google Maps delineates a similar area to the "Los Angeles Times Mapping Project" with notable differences on the western border. On the northwest, it omits a section of Los Angeles west of La Brea Avenue. On the southwest, it includes a section of the City of Inglewood north of Century Boulevard.


title: South Los Angeles

text: According to the Mapping L.A. survey of the "Los Angeles Times", the South Los Angeles region consists of the following neighborhoods:


title: South Los Angeles

text: In 1880, the University of Southern California, and in 1920, the Doheny Campus of Mount St. Mary's University, were founded in South Los Angeles. The 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games took place near the USC campus at neighboring Exposition Park, where the Los Angeles Coliseum is located.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Until the 1920s, the South Los Angeles neighborhood of West Adams was one of the most desirable areas of the City. As the wealthy were building stately mansions in West Adams and Jefferson Park, the White working class was establishing itself in Crenshaw and Hyde Park. Affluent blacks gradually moved into West Adams and Jefferson Park. As construction along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor gradually increased in the 1920s, the development of the city was drawn west of downtown and away from South Los Angeles.


title: South Los Angeles

text: In the eastern side of South Los Angeles (which the city calls the "Southeastern CPA") roughly east of the Harbor Freeway, the area grew southward in the late 1800s along the ever longer streetcar routes. Areas north of Slauson Boulevard were mostly built out by the late 1910s, while south of Slauson land was mostly undeveloped, much used by Chinese and Japanese Americans growing produce. In 1903, the farmers were bought out and Ascot Park racetrack was built, which turned into a "den of gambling and drinking". In the late 1910s the park was razed and freed up land for quick build-up of residential and industrial buildings in the 1920s.


title: South Los Angeles

text: "By 1940, approximately 70 percent of the black population of Los Angeles was confined to the Central Avenue corridor"; the area of modest bungalows and low-rise commercial buildings along Central Avenue emerged as the heart of the black community in southern California. Originally, the city's black community was concentrated around what is now Little Tokyo, but began moving south after 1900. It had one of the first jazz scenes in the western U.S., with trombonist Kid Ory a prominent resident. Under racially restrictive covenants, blacks were allowed to own property only within the "Slauson Box" (the area bounded by Main, Slauson, Alameda, and Washington) and in Watts, as well as in small enclaves elsewhere in the city. The working- and middle-class blacks who poured into Los Angeles during the Great Depression and in search of jobs during World War II found themselves penned into what was becoming a severely overcrowded neighborhood. During the war, blacks faced such dire housing shortages that the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles built the virtually all-black and Latino Pueblo Del Rio project, designed by Richard Neutra.


title: South Los Angeles

text: During this time, African Americans remained a minority alongside whites, Asians, and Hispanics; but by the 1930s those groups moved out of the area, African Americans continued to move in, and eastern South LA became majority black. Whites in previously established communities south of Slauson, east of Alameda and west of San Pedro streets persecuted blacks moving beyond established "lines", and thus blacks became effectively restricted to the area in between.


title: South Los Angeles

text: When the Supreme Court banned the legal enforcement of race-oriented restrictive covenants in 1948's "Shelley v. Kraemer", blacks began to move into areas outside the increasingly overcrowded Slauson-Alameda-Washington-Main settlement area. For a time in the early 1950s, southern Los Angeles became the site of significant racial violence, with whites bombing, firing into, and burning crosses on the lawns of homes purchased by black families south of Slauson. In an escalation of behavior that began in the 1920s, white gangs in nearby cities such as South Gate and Huntington Park routinely accosted blacks who traveled through white areas. The black mutual protection clubs that formed in response to these assaults became the basis of the region's street gangs.


title: South Los Angeles

text: As in most urban areas, 1950s freeway construction radically altered the geography of southern Los Angeles. Freeway routes tended to reinforce traditional segregation lines.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Beginning in the 1970s, the rapid decline of the area's manufacturing base resulted in a loss of the jobs that had allowed skilled union workers to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle. Downtown Los Angeles' service sector, which had long been dominated by unionized African Americans earning relatively fair wages, replaced most black workers with newly arrived Mexican and Central American immigrants.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Widespread unemployment, poverty and street crime contributed to the rise of street gangs in South Central, such as the Crips and the Bloods. The gangs became even more powerful with money coming in from drugs, especially the crack cocaine trade that was dominated by gangs in the 1980s.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Leaders of the black community regret the branding of a large, predominantly black sector of the city as South-Central, saying it amounts to a subtle form of racial stereotyping.


title: South Los Angeles

text: He added that they believed such "distinctive neighborhoods" as Leimert Park, Lafayette Square and the Crenshaw District were "well-removed" from South Central.


title: South Los Angeles

text: By the early 2010s, the crime rate of South Los Angeles had declined significantly. Redevelopment, improved police patrol, community-based peace programs, gang intervention work, and youth development organizations lowered the murder and crime rates to levels that had not been seen since the 1940s and 1950s. Nevertheless, South Los Angeles was still known for its at the time. After leading the nation in homicides again in 2002, the City Council of Los Angeles voted to change the name "South Central Los Angeles" to "South Los Angeles" on all city documents in 2003, a move supporters said would "help erase a stigma that has dogged the southern part of the city."


title: South Los Angeles

text: On August 11, 2014, just two days after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a resident of South L.A., Ezell Ford, described as "a mentally ill 25-year-old man," was fatally shot by two Los Angeles police officers (see Shooting of Ezell Ford). Since then, a number of protests focused on events in Ferguson have taken place in South Los Angeles.


title: South Los Angeles

text: After the 2008 economic recession, housing prices in South Los Angeles recovered significantly, and by 2018, many had come to see South Los Angeles as a prime target for gentrification amid rising real estate values. Residents and activists are against market-rate housing as they have concerns that these projects will encourage landlords to sell, redevelop their properties or jack up rents. Under California law, cities can't reject residential projects based on these criticisms if the project complies with applicable planning and zoning rules. The construction of the K Line light rail through the neighborhood has stimulated the building of denser multistory projects, especially around the new stations. The NFL Stadium in Inglewood also encourages gentrification according to activists.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Real estate values in South Los Angeles were further bolstered by news that Los Angeles will host the 2028 Olympics, with many of the games to be hosted on or near the USC campus.


title: South Los Angeles

text: By the end of the 1980s, South Los Angeles had an increasing number of Hispanics and Latinos, mostly in the northeastern section of the region.


title: South Los Angeles

text: According to scholars, "Between 1970 and 1990 the South LA area went from 80% African American and 9% Latino to 50.3% African American and 44% Latino." This massive and rapid residential demographic change occurred as resources in the area were shrinking due to global economic restructuring described above and due to the federal government's decrease in funding of urban anti-poverty and jobs programs, and other vital social services like healthcare. The socio-economic context described here increased the perception and the reality of competition amongst Asians, African Americans, and Latinos in South LA. The results from the 2000 census which show continuing demographic change coupled with recent economic trends indicating a deterioration of conditions in South LA suggest that such competition will not soon ease."


title: South Los Angeles

text: In the 2014 census, the area of South Los Angeles had a population of 271,040. 50.0% of the residents were Hispanic or Latino, 39.7% were African American.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Many African Americans from South Los Angeles have moved to Palmdale and Lancaster in the Antelope Valley.


title: South Los Angeles

text: South Los Angeles is home to the University of Southern California, a private research university in the University Park neighborhood. It is California's oldest private research university.


title: South Los Angeles

text: Almost all of the South Los Angeles Area is served by the Los Angeles Unified School District. There are some schools not within the LAUSD that also serve the South Los Angeles Area, such as independent private schools or charter schools.


title: South Los Angeles

text: The following are some of the schools under the LAUSD which fall within the boundaries of the South Los Angeles region.


title: South Los Angeles

text: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the South Health Center in Watts, Los Angeles, serving South Los Angeles.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: The American is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Violante Placido, Irina Björklund, and Paolo Bonacelli. Based on the 1990 novel "A Very Private Gentleman" by Martin Booth, it was loosely adapted to screenplay by Rowan Joffé. The film was released on September 1, 2010. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $67 million worldwide.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: Jack, a gunsmith and contract killer, and his lover, Ingrid, are relaxing in Sweden. As they walk in the wilderness outside their cabin, Jack becomes alarmed by a trail of footprints in the snow and pulls Ingrid towards shelter. Sniper gunshots ring out. Ingrid sees Jack pull a gun from his pocket and shoot the sniper. Knowing his identity is in jeopardy, and with little hesitation, Jack kills Ingrid before locating and killing another armed man. He flees to Rome and contacts his handler, Pavel, who insists that Jack cannot stay in Rome. Pavel sends him to Castelvecchio, a small town in the mountains of Abruzzo. Jack becomes nervous, and disposing of the cell phone Pavel gave him, goes to nearby Castel del Monte instead—where he uses the name Edward.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: While in Abruzzo, Jack contacts Pavel, who sets him up with another job. He meets Mathilde, an assassin who wants him to build her a custom sniper rifle. He also begins patronizing a prostitute, Clara, and they begin a relationship. Jack borrows tools from the priest's friend and builds a silencer. Jack continues to notice he's being followed by a man. He meets with Mathilde to test the weapon. She is impressed by the craftsmanship but asks him to make a few more adjustments. Later, Jack kills the man following him; an assassin from Sweden.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: Jack is tormented by dreams of the events in Sweden and regrets killing Ingrid. His friendship and conversations with a local priest, Father Benedetto, encourage him to question his life choices. Both Mathilde and Clara notice Jack's association with butterflies, Mathilde by his expertise in endangered butterflies, and Clara by his prominent tattoo. When Father Benedetto tells Jack he senses he lives in a special kind of hell, "a place without love", Jack starts to let himself feel love for Clara and envisions a life with her.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: Jack talks to Pavel, asking how the Swedes have found him. In his growing fear, he even suspects Clara when he discovers a small pistol in her purse. He questions Clara about the gun and is satisfied with her explanation (to defend herself, since newspapers have reported murdered prostitutes).


title: The American (2010 film)

text: Jack agrees to deliver the weapon to Mathilde as his last job, but at the last moment, he re-opens the briefcase. At the drop-off, Jack becomes suspicious that Mathilde plans to kill him. Before anything can happen, a bus load of school children arrives. Mathilde gives Jack his payment—a thick envelope full of cash—and the two separate. As Mathilde drives away, Pavel contacts her and asks if she has killed Jack. She tells him she has not, but says she is following him and will kill him.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: Clara meets Jack at a religious procession in town. Jack asks her to go away with him and she agrees. Mathilde tries to shoot Jack from a nearby rooftop but the rifle backfires in her face, confirming Jack's suspicion and his last-minute decision to sabotage the rifle. Seeing Mathilde fall from the roof, Jack gives Clara the envelope full of cash and tells her to go to a river where they had picnicked before and wait for him. He runs to Mathilde, who is dying on the pavement, and discovers that she also works for Pavel.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: As Jack goes to meet Clara, he hears Pavel behind him. They exchange gunfire and Pavel drops dead. As Jack drives to meet Clara at the river, he feels his abdomen and realizes he has been shot. Jack arrives at the picnic spot and as he sees Clara, he collapses. Clara screams and runs to the car. A white butterfly flits skyward from Jack's car.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: Filming began in September 2009 and took place in Castel del Monte, Sulmona, Castelvecchio Calvisio, Calascio and Campo Imperatore in the Province of L'Aquila (Abruzzo); in Rome, and in Östersund, Jämtland and other locations. As the Clooney character drives from Rome to Castel del Monte, there is an impressively long drive through the 4600-meter long San Domenico Tunnel (Galleria San Domenico) that is between the exits of Pescina and Cocullo on the A25 highway that connects Rome to Torano and Pescara. The car driven by Jack in the movie is a Fiat Tempra with Pescara licence plates.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: The film's "most romantic moment", according to director Anton Corbijn—when Jack takes Clara to a restaurant of her choice, their "actual date"—was filmed at a restaurant in Pacentro, near Sulmona. The comic-acting waiter in this restaurant scene was directed to stand in front of a two-bulb lamp fixture so that he appeared to have "devil's horns". Photographs on the restaurant's walls are reportedly all of the lovers of Gabriele d'Annunzio. Clara orders Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine for the dinner, and Corbijn said the film's company enjoyed many of the fine wines of the region during the months of production there.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: The film score was written and composed by German singer-songwriter (and longtime friend of Corbijn) Herbert Grönemeyer. A 1967 song called "Window of My Eyes" by the Dutch blues band Cuby & the Blizzards is played over the ending credits. The aria "Un bel dì vedremo" ("One fine day we'll see") from Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" can be heard in the background of one scene, and "Tu vuò fà l'americano" in another. In another scene, the Italian song "La bambola" by Patty Pravo plays.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968), with Henry Fonda facing off as a villain in a gunfight, is playing on television on the back wall of a modest restaurant where Jack has been eating. In the DVD commentary, Corbijn notes this homage and says the American Western—and more specifically the Italian-American Spaghetti Westerns by Leone and others—were explicit models for "The American". Corbijn also notes the Ennio Morricone scores made famous in "Once Upon a Time in the West", "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (1966), and other films. Speaking of the narrow, labyrinthine streets of the Italian hill towns where much of the action of "The American" occurs, Corbijn says he was thinking, in filming, of the streets of Venice and the way they appeared in Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now" (1973).


title: The American (2010 film)

text: Large segments of the dialogue between Jack and Clara are taken verbatim from Graham Greene's novel "The Honorary Consul" (1973).


title: The American (2010 film)

text: The first official poster was released on June 17, 2010. The first trailer was attached to "Robin Hood" and the second official trailer on June 19, 2010, and was attached to "Jonah Hex", "Grown Ups", "Inception" and "The Other Guys".


title: The American (2010 film)

text: "The American" grossed $35.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $32.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total $67.9 million, against a production budget of $20 million.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: The film debuted to $13.2 million, including a total of $16.7 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend, topping the box office. It fell 57% to $5.7 million in its second weekend, finishing third, and another 53% to $2.7 million in its third weekend.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating 66% based on 224 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus states: "As beautifully shot as it is emotionally restrained, "The American" is an unusually divisive spy thriller—and one that rests on an unusually subdued performance from George Clooney." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D−" on an A+ to F scale. The score was attributed to disappointment after the film was marketed as being action-packed instead of focusing on suspense and drama.


title: The American (2010 film)

text: "Rolling Stone"'s Peter Travers gave the film two-and-a-half stars, writing that director Anton Corbijn "holds his film to a steady, often glacial pace", and that the result is of "startling austerity". Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, writing, "Here is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama, an impenetrable character to equal Alain Delon's in "Le Samouraï", by Jean-Pierre Melville." Leonard Maltin called it a "slowly paced, European-style mood piece, short on dialogue and action and long on atmosphere".


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: The Little House on the Prairie books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the American Midwest (Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Missouri) between 1870 and 1894. Eight of the novels were completed by Wilder, and published by Harper & Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s, during her lifetime. The name "Little House" appears in the first and third novels in the series, while the third is identically titled "Little House on the Prairie". The second novel, meanwhile, was about her husband's childhood.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: The first draft of a ninth novel was published posthumously in 1971 and is commonly included in the series. A tenth book, the non-fiction "On the Way Home", is Laura Ingalls Wilder's diary of the years after 1894, when she, her husband and their daughter moved from DeSmet, South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, where they settled permanently. It was also published posthumously, in 1962, and includes commentary by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: The "Little House" books have been adapted for stage or screen more than once, most successfully as the American television series "Little House on the Prairie", which ran from 1974 to 1983. As well as an anime and many spin-off books, there are cookbooks and various other licensed products representative of the books.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: The first book of the "Little House" series, "Little House in the Big Woods", was published in 1932. This first book did well when it was first published. The "Little House" books were reissued by Ursula Nordstrom to be illustrated by Garth Williams.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: Before writing the "Little House" series Laura Ingalls Wilder was a columnist in a farm journal. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was the motivator behind Wilder's writing and publishing of the first book. Since the first book, there have been around 60 million "Little House" books sold. There are 9 books that fall under the "Little House" books umbrella.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: Rose Wilder Lane had a heavy hand in the editing of the books, though Laura Ingalls Wilder's voice is still strong. Lane's level of influence is disputed, but views that align with hers are very visible within the books. Regardless, Rose Wilder Lane was a large part in the publishing and form of the books. Lane also had a hand in giving the rights to Roger Lea MacBride, who then led to the creation of the television show entitled "Little House on the Prairie".


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: "Time" ranks the "Little House" series as 22 out of 100 of the "100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time." They are considered classics of American children's literature and remain widely read. In a 2012 survey published by "School Library Journal", a monthly with primarily U.S. audience, "Little House in the Big Woods" was ranked number 19 among all-time best children's novels, and two of its sequels were ranked among the top 100. Five of the "Little House" book have been Honor Books for the Newbery Medal. In 1938, "On the Banks of Plum Creek", was an Honor Book; in 1940 "By the Shores of Silver Lake" was as well. Later in 1941, "The Long Winter", became an Honor Book, and the two later Honor Books were "The Little Town on the Prairie", in 1942, and "Those Happy Golden Years" in 1944. In addition to this, the American Library Association stated that "The Long Winter", the seventh book in the series, was a "resource for teaching about pioneer history."


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: The "Little House" books include people from ethnic minorities, including a heroic black doctor who saves the protagonist's family. However, there have been criticisms of the "Little House" books because of portrayals of Native Americans. Much of the criticism relates to some of the characters expressing negative stereotypes as well as a view of them as less than human. There has also been criticism of the ignorance present in the books of the illegality of the Ingalls' occupation of land they did not have the right to occupy.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: An incident concerning Wilder's depiction of Native Americans occurred in 1998, when an eight-year-old girl read "Little House on the Prairie" in her elementary school class. In the book, a minor character says "The only good Indian is a dead Indian," to which Pa replies that "he didn't know about that. He figured that Indians would be as peacable as anybody else if they were let alone." The girl's mother, Waziyatawin Angela Cavender Wilson, a member of the Wahpetunwan Dakota nation, challenged the school on its use of the book in the classroom. This was one of many statements and actions that prompted the American Library Association to investigate and ultimately change the name of the Wilder Award to the Children's Literature Legacy Award. This award is given to books that have made a large impact on children's literature in America.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: Laura Ingalls Wilder's work is autobiographical fiction and Wilder employed artistic licence, including creating composite characters based on multiple real individuals and presenting a subjective view of her family's experiences. It has been criticized regarding the history of the government's involvement in homesteading, and its effect upon Native American people, including her family's occupation of land which was still recognized by the United States government as the Osage Nation's territory.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: While Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the "Little House" books, it was Rose Wilder Lane who edited them and it was Lane who had the rights after Wilder's death. Rose was an "outspoken antigovernment polemicist and is called one of the grandmothers of the libertarian movement." Lane's views were supported by her mother. Despite her mother's support of her political views, Lane went against her mother and what was written in her will by leaving the rights of the "Little House" books to Roger Lea MacBride after her own death. Roger Lea MacBride has strong connections to politics, being a once libertarian presidential candidate, and a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus. He gained the rights to the books not only from Lane's will but also through a legal battle with the library that Wilder wrote in her will should gain the rights after Lane's death. It was MacBride who allowed the television show to be made and who talked about Laura's books, and through the rights he made a great deal of money.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: Another political issue raised by the practice of homesteading as described in the "Little House" books is John Locke's Labor Theory of Property, which is the idea that if someone improves the land with their own labor that they then have rights to that land.


title: Little House on the Prairie

text: Anti-governmental political views, such as those held by Rose Wilder Lane, have been attributed to the "Little House" books. In her article, ""Little House on the Prairie" and the Truth About the American West", historian Patricia Nelson Limerick connects Wilder's apparent and Lane's outright distaste for the government as a way to blame the government for their father's failure at homesteading. The books show the Wilder family to be entrepreneurs and show a form of hero worship of Laura Ingalls Wilder's parents. In ""Little House on the Prairie" and the Myth of Self Reliance", Julie Tharp and Jeff Kleiman say that the idea of the settlers' self-reliance, which they consider to be a myth, has contributed to conservative rhetoric, and that the "Little House" books are full of this myth.