title: Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)

text: "For information on later organisations using the name Irish Republican Army, see the table below. For a genealogy of organisations using the name "IRA" after 1922, see List of organisations known as the Irish Republican Army".


title: Chris Murphy

text: Christopher Scott Murphy (born August 3, 1973) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Connecticut since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, representing from 2007 to 2013. Before being elected to Congress, Murphy was a member of both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly, serving two terms each in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1999–2003) and the Connecticut Senate (2003–2007).


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012 after long-time incumbent Joe Lieberman announced in January 2011 that he would retire from politics rather than seeking a fifth term in office. He defeated former Connecticut secretary of state Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary, and subsequently defeated Republican candidate Linda McMahon for the open seat in the general election. Aged 39 at the time, Murphy was the youngest senator of the 113th Congress.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy was born on August 3, 1973, in White Plains, New York, to Catherine A. (née Lewczyk) and Scott L. Murphy. He is of Irish and Polish descent. Murphy's father is a corporate litigator who served as the managing partner of Shipman & Goodwin, a Hartford law firm, and his mother is a retired ESL teacher from the Hanmer Elementary School in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Murphy has two younger siblings, a sister, Susannah, and a brother, Ben.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy is a graduate of Wethersfield High School. He received his B.A. degree from his father's alma mater, Williams College, and his J.D. degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law. As an undergraduate exchange student, Murphy also studied at the University of Oxford, where he was a member of Exeter College. On May 19, 2013, Murphy received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of New Haven.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In 1996, Murphy was campaign manager for Charlotte Koskoff's unsuccessful campaign for the House against Nancy Johnson; a decade later, Murphy himself would unseat Johnson. From 1997 to 1998, Murphy worked for Connecticut State Senate Majority Leader George Jepsen. Murphy was first elected to office in 1997, when he won a seat on the Planning and Zoning Commission in Southington.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In 1998, at age 25, Murphy challenged 14-year incumbent Republican State Representative Angelo Fusco. Murphy was endorsed by the six largest labor unions in the state. The CT Employees Independent Union endorsed Murphy, the first time the union endorsed Fusco's opponent. Fusco described himself as a union member, an environmentalist, and a moderate. Murphy defeated Fusco 55%-45%. In 2000, he won re-election to a second term, defeating Barbara Morelli 68%-32%.


title: Chris Murphy

text: As early as March 1999, he criticized U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Johnson's vote for impeaching President Bill Clinton. In 2001, he was a co-sponsor of a bill to eliminate child poverty. He proposed legislation that would give free tuition to students of the state's community-technical colleges. He proposed legislation that would ban smoking in state colleges and universities. He co-sponsored a bill that would create an earned income tax credit.


title: Chris Murphy

text: He was a supporter of rights for LGBT people as early as 2002. During his tenure, he served on the Judiciary Committee.


title: Chris Murphy

text: After two terms in the Connecticut House, Murphy decided to run for a seat in the Connecticut State Senate at the age of 29. The open 16th district had been held by a Republican for more than a decade. He defeated Republican State Representative Ann Dandrow, 53%-47%. In 2004, he won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican Christopher O'Brien, 60%-37%.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In 2003, he joined the Clean Car Alliance and supported California-like environmental standards on auto manufacturers.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In 2005, Murphy authored legislation establishing the new Office of Child Protection, to "better coordinate advocacy for abused and neglected children". Murphy also wrote Public Act 05-149, an act permitting stem-cell research while prohibiting human cloning.


title: Chris Murphy

text: The act, signed into law by Governor Jodi Rell, made Connecticut the third state in the nation to permit taxpayer-subsidized stem-cell research.


title: Chris Murphy

text: During his tenure in the State Senate, Murphy was one of the first ten co-sponsors of a civil union bill that passed the General Assembly in 2005. On his Senate campaign website, Murphy summarized his stance, ""Let me be clear and simple: LGBT rights are human rights. Marriage equality and nondiscrimination in the military, workplace, classroom and healthcare system, based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, are civil rights that must be protected under law."" During his tenure he served as Chairman of the Public Health Committee.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy chose not to run for re-election to the State Senate, targeting instead the U.S. House seat held by 12-term incumbent Republican Nancy Johnson. In order to challenge Johnson, Murphy moved from Southington to Cheshire. Murphy was elected in 2006 with 56% of the vote, defeating Johnson by a margin of about 22,000 votes; among incumbents, only John Hostettler lost by a larger margin that year.


title: Chris Murphy

text: He carried 35 of the district's 41 cities and towns, including several that had reliably supported Johnson for decades. He defeated Johnson by a significant margin in her hometown of New Britain, which she had represented for over 30 years in both the state senate and in Congress. He was re-elected again in 2008 and 2010, with 60% and 54% of the vote, respectively.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has received high scores from liberal groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and various labor unions; and low scores from conservative groups as the Club for Growth, American Conservative Union, and FreedomWorks.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In August 2008, Murphy sent a letter to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressing support for increased oil drilling as part of a bipartisan energy bill.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy supports reform of federal supportive housing programs, which assist low-income people with severe disabilities. In 2008, the House of Representatives passed the "Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act", which Murphy authored to modernize and streamline Section 811, which governs federal supportive housing grants.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; however, in February 2011, Murphy voted to extend provisions of the Patriot Act.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In 2009, Murphy helped draft HR 3200, the House health-care reform bill. Murphy defended his role in supporting the bill at a contentious town hall meeting in Simsbury in August 2009.


title: Chris Murphy

text: A longtime supporter of health insurance reform, Murphy is a strong proponent of the public option, which entails the creation of an independent, government-sponsored health insurance plan to compete with private companies. Murphy has argued that such a plan would not require government financing and would help to introduce competition into monopolized health insurance markets and help bring down costs.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In May 2007, Murphy organized a group of freshmen House members to support the creation of an independent, non-partisan ethics panel to review complaints filed against members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has been credited with helping to shape the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which was passed into law by the House in March 2008.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy sponsored a bill that would subject Supreme Court Justices to the same ethical code that applies to other federal judges and suggested in 2011 the possibility of an investigation to decide whether Justice Clarence Thomas had committed ethical violations that would justify removing him from office. The matter in question was Thomas's connection to Harlan Crow and other supporters of the Republican Party. Murphy circulated a draft letter to other members of Congress asking the House Judiciary Committee leadership to hold a hearing on the Supreme Court Transparency and Disclosure Act, which would end the Supreme Court's immunity to judicial ethics laws.


title: Chris Murphy

text: As a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Murphy was highly critical of for-profit government contractors operating in Iraq, which functioned with little government oversight and scrutiny. He introduced and successfully passed into law the "Government Funding Transparency Act of 2008", which required private companies that do the majority of their businesses with the federal government to publicly disclose their top executives' salaries.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Two home invasions occurred in Murphy's district in 2007 and 2008; the latter in Cheshire being especially brutal, with the rape and murder of a mother and her two young daughters. In response, Murphy proposed making home invasion a federal crime.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has been a proponent of the proposed New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Commuter Rail Line, an effort to use existing railroad tracks owned by Amtrak to provide daily commuter service on par with Southwestern Connecticut's Metro-North service into New York. In 2008, Murphy successfully added an amendment to rail legislation making it easier for Amtrak and the state of Connecticut to cooperate on the rail project. The line began operation in June 2018.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy proposed reforms of the nation's 'missing-persons' databases, introducing "Billy's Law" in 2009 to improve coordination of law-enforcement efforts to locate missing persons. The legislation was named in honor of Billy Smolinski, Jr., a one-time resident of Murphy's district who disappeared in 2004.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy announced on January 20, 2011, that he would run for the Senate seat held by Joe Lieberman, who was retiring in the face of a very low approval rate. It was announced in mid-July that a group spearheaded by a state Capitol lobbyist was forming a Super PAC for his campaign, hoping to raise $1 million to combat a possible opponent.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy defeated former Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican candidate Linda McMahon in the general election. After McMahon's negative ads left Murphy "on the defensive virtually nonstop" and struggling to respond, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent additional staff and money to Murphy to help with his campaign, saying they are "100 percent behind [him]." Among the issues raised was Chase Home Finance sued for foreclosure against Murphy, whose campaign initially responded by claiming that Murphy had missed "a couple of mortgage payments." Murphy claimed that he did not know he was in default until legal proceedings started. Murphy received a loan at the rate of 4.99% from Webster Bank in 2008 to consolidate his previous mortgages. At the time of this loan, Murphy was serving on the House Financial Services Committee. Murphy's opponent McMahon accused him of receiving what she called "special interest loans," and called on Murphy to release his financial records. Bank officials and outside experts claim there was nothing improper about the loans made to Murphy.


title: Chris Murphy

text: On November 6, Murphy defeated McMahon with 55% of the vote, winning every county except Litchfield County. At the time, it was the most expensive political race in Connecticut history, and one of the most expensive Senate races in 2012.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy took office as the junior United States senator for Connecticut on January 3, 2013. In the Senate, Murphy has worked on issues funding for transportation and infrastructure, the preservation of Long Island Sound, growing small farms and promoting Connecticut manufacturing.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In 2016, Murphy walked 126 miles across the state of Connecticut, listening to constituents and holding daily town hall meetings. Murphy repeated the walk in 2017, covering 106 miles and holding five town hall meetings.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In early 2020, Murphy met with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference. They discussed U.S. nationals being detained in Iran, Iran's involvement in the Yemeni Civil War, and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. In a post on Medium.com, Murphy wrote: "I have no delusions about Iran — they are our adversary, responsible for the killing of thousands of Americans and unacceptable levels of support for terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East. But I think it’s dangerous to not talk to your enemies. Discussions and negotiations are a way to ease tensions and reduce the chances for crisis."


title: Chris Murphy

text: In the wake of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, Murphy called for the removal of Donald Trump from office. Murphy also stated that he will lead an investigation into the security breaches and law enforcement response during the attack.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Commenting on the day of the fall of Kabul, Murphy said, "Our priority now needs to be evacuating American personnel and as many of our Afghan partners as humanly possible. I firmly believe that President Biden made the right decision by standing by the Trump administration's decision to bring our troops home and end the longest war in our nation's history."


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has been a leading supporter of the Affordable Care Act in the Senate and has opposed Republican attempts to repeal the law, consistently speaking on the floor about the positive impact it has had on his constituents.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In April 2017, Murphy was one of five Democratic senators to sign a letter to Former President Trump that warned failure "to take immediate action to oppose the lawsuit or direct House Republicans to forgo this effort will increase instability in the insurance market, as insurers may choose not to participate in the marketplace in 2018" and that they remained concerned that his administration "has still not provided certainty to insurers and consumers that you will protect the cost-sharing subsidies provided under the law."


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy called the American Health Care Act of 2017 "an intellectual and moral dumpster fire," that will cause 24 million Americans to lose their health care coverage.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has introduced two pieces of legislation, the American Jobs Matter Act and the 21st Century Buy American Act to close loopholes in the existing Buy American laws and encourage the U.S. government to purchase American-made goods.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In May 2018, Murphy was one of twelve senators to sign a letter to Chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority Colleen Kiko urging the FLRA to end efforts to close its Boston regional office until Congress debated the matter, furthering that the FLRA closing down its seven regional offices would cause staff to be placed farther away from the federal employees they protect the rights of.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has spoken out against outsourcing. However, Murphy voted against Bernie Sanders' proposed motion to United States Innovation and Competition Act concerning semiconductor manufacturers. The motion was to help possible unionizing efforts amongst employees of the manufacturers the act would supply federal funding to, as well as preventing those companies from outsourcing jobs overseas.


title: Chris Murphy

text: On August 5, 2015, Murphy introduced the bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act of 2015 with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana. The legislation, aimed at overhauling the mental health system, would build treatment capacity, promote integrated care models, expand the mental health workforce and encourage the enforcement of existing mental health parity laws.


title: Chris Murphy

text: The bill was informed by listening sessions that Senator Murphy conducted across the state of Connecticut. The bill was widely supported by the mental health community, with organizations including the American Psychiatric Association, Mental Health America and the National Council for Behavioral Health applauding its introduction.


title: Chris Murphy

text: On March 16, 2016, the Mental Health Reform Act was passed unanimously by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. On December 7, 2016, the Senate passed Mental Health Reform as a part of the 21st Century Cures Act. The bill also provided $1 billion in funding to address the opioid crisis and funding for NIH Cancer Moonshot initiative. The bill was signed into law by President Obama on December 13, 2016.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has an F rating with the National Rifle Association and a 100% rating with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.


title: Chris Murphy

text: The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred in Newtown, Connecticut, within Murphy's House district near the end of his term. In the aftermath of the shooting, he became a leading voice in the movement to prevent gun violence, supporting numerous policies including universal background checks and ending the ban on gun violence research at the CDC. Murphy supported the bipartisan Manchin-Toomey background checks proposal, which would have strengthened and expanded the existing background check system and established a National Commission on Mass Violence to study in-depth all the causes of mass violence.


title: Chris Murphy

text: When the proposal failed to meet the 60 vote threshold for advancement, Murphy stated, "This is a day when the Republican filibuster stood in the way of 90% of Americans."


title: Chris Murphy

text: In his first month in office, he criticized the National Rifle Association and Apple Inc. for a video game involving shooting with guns that was labeled appropriate for children as young as four.


title: Chris Murphy

text: On June 24, 2015, Murphy said, "Since Sandy Hook there has been a school shooting, on average, every week"; "The Washington Post" described this statement as misleading. On June 15–16, 2016, Murphy staged a filibuster regarding gun control following the Orlando nightclub shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at the time. The filibuster entered the list of the top 10 longest filibusters in U.S. history.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In the wake of the Orlando shooting, Murphy said "This phenomenon of near-constant mass shootings happens only in America – nowhere else" and "this epidemic will continue without end if Congress continues to sit on its hands and do nothing – again."


title: Chris Murphy

text: Following the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting, Murphy and fellow U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the bipartisan Fix NICS Act to ensure criminal records are submitted to the federal background check system.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Following the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Murphy made an impassioned call for action in the Senate stating that "this happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else. As a parent it scares me to death that this body doesn't take seriously the safety of my children, and it seems like a lot of parents in South Florida will be asking the same question today. We pray for families, for the victims. We hope for the best."


title: Chris Murphy

text: In March 2018, Murphy was one of ten senators to sign a letter to Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Lamar Alexander and ranking Democrat Patty Murray requesting they schedule a hearing on the causes and remedies of mass shootings in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In September 2020, Murphy published a book on gun control, "The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy."


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy is one of the first members of Congress to come out in opposition to US support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, which was launched in 2015. In a speech on January 29, 2016, he recommended that the US stop supporting this military campaign and suspend military sales to Saudi Arabia until the US receives assurances that the war will not distract from Saudi efforts against al-Qaeda and ISIS and Saudi Arabia lessens its worldwide support of Wahhabism. Murphy is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the ranking Democratic member of the subcommittee on the Middle East and Counter-terrorism. In the edition of June 8, 2015 of "Foreign Affairs", Murphy co-authored "Principles for a Progressive Foreign Policy," proposing a framework for a Democratic foreign policy strategy.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In November 2017, Murphy accused the United States of complicity in the war crimes committed in Yemen by the Saudi-led military coalition and in Yemen's humanitarian crisis, saying: "Thousands and thousands inside Yemen today are dying...This horror is caused in part by our decision to facilitate a bombing campaign that is murdering children and to endorse a Saudi strategy inside Yemen that is deliberately using disease and starvation and the withdrawal of humanitarian support as a tactic." In October 2018, Murphy wrote that if the reports of Jamal Khashoggi's murder are true, "it should represent a fundamental break" in Saudi Arabia–United States relations. Murphy, along with Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee, advanced a vote to co-sponsor a resolution that would require the President to "withdraw troops in or "affecting" Yemen within 30 days unless they are fighting al Qaeda." In February 2019, Murphy was one of seven senators to reintroduce legislation requiring sanctions on Saudi officials involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and seeking to address support for the Yemen civil war through prohibiting some weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and U.S. military refueling of Saudi coalition planes.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy is renowned as one of the most vociferous critics of Russia in the Senate. Among his positions on US-Russian relations, Murphy holds that Russia will remain a permanent, persistent threat to the United States and its security interests, regardless of the incumbent regime in the country. At an event at the Atlantic Council in 2019, Murphy professed the need for NATO allies to understand that the country has been always “far behind Russia in understanding our vulnerabilities." At the same event, Murphy echoed the sentiments of Lithuanian and Georgian foreign ministers that Russia's imperialist nature will always put it at odds with the United States, and that little will change until Russia as a "captive state of aggregate territories" changes its nature.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In March 2016, Murphy authored the bipartisan bill the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, along with Republican Senator Rob Portman. Congressman Adam Kinzinger introduced the U.S. House version of the bill. After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, worries grew that Russian propaganda spread and organized by the Russian government swayed the outcome of the election, and representatives in the U.S. Congress took action to safeguard the National security of the United States by advancing legislation to monitor incoming propaganda from external threats. On November 30, 2016, legislators approved a measure within the National Defense Authorization Act to ask the U.S. State Department to take action against foreign propaganda through an interagency panel. The legislation authorized funding of $160 million over a two-year-period. The initiative was developed through the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In September 2016, in advance of a UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Murphy signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In July 2017, Murphy voted in favor of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed sanctions on Iran together with Russia and North Korea.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In December 2017, Murphy criticized Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying that it "It needs to be done at the right time and in the right manner."


title: Chris Murphy

text: In December 2018, President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Murphy said in a statement: "I support withdrawing troops, but we must also rejoin a diplomatic process that the Trump administration has left to other powers, and we need a surge in humanitarian relief. That's the only way we can protect the Syrian people against a Turkish incursion or regime reprisals.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In April 2019, Murphy was one of thirty-four senators to sign a letter to President Trump encouraging him "to listen to members of your own Administration and reverse a decision that will damage our national security and aggravate conditions inside Central America", asserting that Trump had "consistently expressed a flawed understanding of U.S. foreign assistance" since becoming president and that he was "personally undermining efforts to promote U.S. national security and economic prosperity" through preventing the use of Fiscal Year 2018 national security funding. The senators argued that foreign assistance to Central American countries created less migration to the U.S., citing the funding's helping to improve conditions in those countries.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In January 2020, Murphy wrote to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, urging the FBI to "investigate the allegations" that Saudi Arabia "illegally compromised and stole personal data" from Jeff Bezos, the owner of "The Washington Post", as part of a possible effort to "influence, if not silence, the Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia".


title: Chris Murphy

text: In May 2020, Murphy voiced his opposition to Israel's plan to annex parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy has a "B" rating from NORML for his voting history regarding cannabis-related causes. In 2016, he voted in favor of the Daines/Merkley Amendment to enable Veterans Administration doctors to discuss the benefits of medical marijuana with their patients. He also voted in favor of Mikulski Medical Marijuana Amendment, which protects users in states with medical marijuana laws from federal interference.


title: Chris Murphy

text: In July 2019, Murphy and fifteen other Senate Democrats introduced the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act which mandated that ICE agents get approval from a supervisor ahead of engaging in enforcement actions at sensitive locations with the exception of special circumstances and that agents should be required to report annually regarding enforcement actions in those locations.


title: Chris Murphy

text: After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned "Roe v. Wade" in June 2022, Murphy called the justices that supported the decision "politicians" and that "The Constitution to them is just a fun tool to help them impose their political views on the entire country. The implausible inconsistency of the guns and abortion rulings is both sickening and revealing."


title: Chris Murphy

text: Murphy and his wife Catherine (née Holahan) married in August 2007. They have two sons. Raised as a Congregationalist, Murphy identifies as "Protestant/unaffiliated" but said in 2015 that he was "not a regular churchgoer these days, in part, because of kids. In part because of a busy schedule."


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In the United States, life imprisonment is amongst the most severe punishments provided by law, depending on the state, and second only to the death penalty. According to a 2013 study, 1 of every 20,000 inhabitants of the U.S. were imprisoned for life . Many U.S. states can release a convict on parole after a decade or more has passed, but in California, people sentenced to life imprisonment can normally apply for parole after seven years.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: The laws in the United States categorize life sentences as "determinate life sentences" or "indeterminate life sentences," the latter indicating the possibility of an abridged sentence, usually through the process of parole. For example, sentences of "15 years to life," "25 years to life," or "life with mercy" are called "indeterminate life sentences", while a sentence of "life without the possibility of parole" or "life without mercy" is called a "determinate life sentence". The potential for parole is not assured but discretionary, making it an indeterminate sentence. Even if a sentence explicitly denies the possibility of parole, government officials may have the power to grant an amnesty to reprieve, or to commute a sentence to time served.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In the 1861, reformation became favored over penitence in American penology, with the role of prisons seen as reforming prisoners, who were imprisoned until reform was achieved. The concepts of parole and indeterminate sentencing were regarded as forward-looking in the 1870s. The initial concept of parole came from the idea that prisoners began their path to rehabilitation during their sentence, and their successful rehabilitation could be recognizable by a parole board. The importance was placed on eradicating crime and having prisoners deemed ready to enter society as soon as possible. However, the ideals were not as successful as had been hoped. Crime was not eradicated, reformatories had the same problems as prisons on politicization and underfunding, and indeterminate sentencing became undermined by prisoners, who quickly found that it was possible to "beat the system" by pretense to get a better chance of winning parole. Many were soon back in custody. Similarly, prison authorities could twist it to their advantage by using those granted parole or probation to spy on and actively help to imprison other people, or sometimes by selectively denying parole. However, the biggest cause of the reformatories' failure to live up to expectations was that despite the enthusiasm of reformers and Zebulon Brockway's call for an end to vengeance in criminal justice, those within the prison environment, both inmates and guards alike, continued to conceive of prison as a place of retribution.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In 1954 (November 28), Master Sergeant Maurice L. Schick was convicted by military court-martial of the murder of nine-year-old Susan Rothschild at Camp Zama in Japan (Tokyo). The soldier admitted the killing stating he had a sudden "uncontrollable urge to kill something quickly and quietly” and had chosen his victim "just because she was there."


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Schick was sentenced to death. Six years later, the case was forwarded to President Dwight Eisenhower for final review. He exercised his right of executive clemency to commute Schick's death sentence to confinement with hard labor for the term of his natural life, with the express condition that he "shall never have any rights, privileges, claims or benefits arising under the parole and suspension or remission of sentence laws of the United States."


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In 1971, Schick began a legal challenge against his whole life sentence. The appeal eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974. It examined the constitutional basis of the punishment: life imprisonment without parole. Had Schick been given an ordinary life sentence, he would have been eligible for parole in 1969.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Although Schick's sentence was given only cursory mention, the court concluded a whole life sentence was constitutional. Schick, together with only five other federal prisoners who were still ineligible for parole at the time, was made eligible for parole by a separate pardon from President Gerald Ford in 1976 or 1977, and he may have died a free man in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2004.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Despite the "Schick" opinion's lack of thorough analysis on life imprisonment without a chance of parole, an imposing amount of precedent has developed based upon it. After "Furman v. Georgia", the constitutionality of the death penalty in question as life imprisonment without parole received increased attention from lawmakers and judges, as an alternative to the death penalty.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Such penalties predate "Schick". One early American case was "Ex parte Wells" (1856); Wells was convicted of murder in 1851 and sentenced to be hanged. On the day of his execution, President Millard Fillmore gave him a conditional pardon commuting his sentence to "imprisonment for life in the penitentiary at Washington." Wells appealed the conditions of his pardon, but the sentence was upheld with no discussion by the majority of the purpose of the substituted punishment.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: A few countries worldwide have allowed for minors to be given lifetime sentences that have no provision for eventual release. Countries that allow life imprisonment without a possibility of parole for juveniles include Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Israel, Nigeria, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and the United States. Of these, only the U.S. currently has minors serving such sentences. The University of San Francisco School of Law’s Center for Law & Global Justice conducted international research on the use of the sentence of life without parole for juveniles, and has found no cases outside the U.S. in which the sentence is actually imposed on juveniles. As of 2009, Human Rights Watch has calculated that there are 2,589 youth offenders serving life without parole in the U.S.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In the U.S, juvenile offenders started to get life without parole sentences more frequently in the 1990s due to John J. DiIulio Jr’s. Teenage Superpredator Theory.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In 2010, in the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sentencing minors to automatic sentences of life without a chance of parole for crimes other than those involving a homicide (generally, first-degree murder, and usually with aggravating factors or accompanying felonies) violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments", in the case of "Graham v. Florida". In finding that the U.S. Constitution prohibits as cruel and unusual punishment a life without parole sentence for a juvenile in a non-homicide case, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that "the overwhelming weight of international opinion against" juvenile life without a chance of parole "provide[s] respected and significant confirmation for our own conclusions". In 2012, in the Case of "Miller v. Alabama", the Court considered whether to ban the automatic use of it completely as a sentence for minors. The Court had already judged the death penalty unconstitutional for minors in 2005. In June 2012, the Court ruled that it could never be automatically used as a sentence for a minor (under 18), although the Court left room for it as a sentence that can eventually be given (for now) in certain first-degree murder cases once the judge has taken mitigating circumstances and other factors into account.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: The U.S. practice of sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment without a possibility of parole violates international standards of justice, as well as treaties to which the U.S. is a party. Each state must ensure that its criminal punishments comply with the United States' international treaty obligations:


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: The United Nations General Assembly has called upon governments to: "abolish by law, as soon as possible...life imprisonment without possibility of release for those below the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the offense".


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: International standards of justice hold that a juvenile life imprisonment without a possibility of parole is not warranted under any circumstances because juvenile offenders lack the experience, education, intelligence and mental development of adults and must be given a reasonable opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: By April 2021, 25 states and the District of Columbia have completely banned life without parole sentences for all juvenile offenders while five states have not banned the sentence but do not have any juvenile offenders serving life without parole.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Although sentences vary for each state, life imprisonment is generally mandatory for first-degree murder, particularly if it is done during the commission of another felony (the felony murder rule), or there are other aggravating circumstances present (such as rapes before such murders or for murder of any law enforcement official or other public servant) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including states without the death penalty, and as one or the only alternative sentence in states that have the death penalty and in federal and military courts. Life imprisonment is also a mandatory punishment in Idaho for aircraft hijacking, in New York State for terrorism, in Florida for capital sexual battery (sexual abuse of a child under 12 that causes injury to the child) and in Georgia for a second conviction for armed robbery, kidnapping, or rape and other serious violent felonies under Georgia's seven-deadly-sins law. Life imprisonment is a possibility for aggravated mayhem and torture in California. Life imprisonment is mandatory for kidnapping in Nebraska. Other specifics about life sentences in the United States continue to vary widely by individual states.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In addition, the sentence of life imprisonment may also be given for "drug kingpins" and "habitual criminals." It has been applied in every state except Alaska, as well as in the federal courts. In Alaska, the maximum term of imprisonment is for 99 years, but that is almost always considered to be a practical life sentence as a sentence of 99 years' imprisonment, especially without parole, generally lasts beyond a normal lifespan.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Over 200,000 people, or about 1 in 7 prisoners in the United States, were serving life or virtual life sentences in 2019. Over 50,000 are serving life without a chance of parole. In 1993, the "Times" survey found, about 20 percent of all lifers had no chance of parole. By 2004, that had risen to 28 percent.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: As a result, the U.S. is now housing by far the world's largest and most permanent population of prisoners who are guaranteed to die behind bars. At the Louisiana State Penitentiary, for instance, more than 3,000 of the 5,100 prisoners are serving life with a chance of parole, and most of the remaining 2,100 are serving sentences so long that they cannot be completed in a typical lifetime. About 150 inmates have died there in the time period between the years of 2000 and 2005. The United States holds 40% of the world’s prisoners with life sentences, more than in any other country.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Under the federal criminal code, however, with respect to offenses committed after December 1, 1987, parole has been abolished for all sentences handed down by the federal system, including life sentences. A life sentence from a federal court will therefore result in imprisonment for the life of the defendant unless a pardon or reprieve is granted by the President or if, upon appeal, the conviction is quashed.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: In the states of Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota, all life sentences are issued without the possibility of parole.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Over 3,200 people nationwide are serving life terms without a chance of parole for nonviolent offenses. Of those prisoners, 80 percent are behind bars for drug-related convictions: 65 percent are African-American, 18 percent are Latino, and 16 percent are white. The ACLU has called the statistics proof of "extreme racial disparities." Some of the crimes that led to life sentences include stealing gas from a truck and shoplifting but only for those with a pattern of habitual criminal offenses. A large number of those imprisoned for life had no prior criminal history but were given the sentence because of the aggravated nature of their crimes.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Under some controversial sentencing guidelines known as "three-strikes laws," existing both at state and federal level, a person who is convicted of an offense and who has one or two other previous serious convictions is to serve a mandatory or discretionary life sentence in prison, with or without parole depending on the jurisdiction. Notably, a broad range of crimes ranging from petty theft to murder could served as the trigger for a mandatory or discretionary life sentence in California from 1994 to 2012. Notably, the U.S. Supreme Court has on several occasions upheld lengthy sentences for petty theft including life with the possibility of parole and 50 years to life and stated that neither sentence conflicted with the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These court decisions have been the subject of considerable controversy.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: Increased use of the life imprisonment sentence, especially life without parole, came in response to debates on capital punishment. In fact, many politicians, especially in the Democratic Party, expressed their emphasis on replacing the death penalty with life without parole. Additionally, seeking the death penalty is more costly to the state and taxpayer than seeking life without parole.


title: Life imprisonment in the United States

text: A common argument against life without parole is that it is equally as immoral as the death penalty, as it still sentences one to die in prison. Certain organizations and campaigns have been founded with a goal to work against life imprisonment and improve the rate of release. For example, the #DropLWOP campaign is dedicated to dropping the life without parole sentence and providing an automatic commutation and chance to see a parole board for all prisoners serving life sentences.


title: Flannel

text: Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, bed sheets, and sleepwear.


title: Flannel

text: Flannel may be brushed to create extra softness or remain unbrushed. Brushing is a mechanical process wherein a fine metal brush rubs the fabric to raise fine fibres from the loosely spun yarns to form a nap on one or both sides. If the flannel is not napped, it gains its softness through the loosely spun yarn in its woven form.


title: Flannel

text: The term "flannel shirt" is often mistakenly used to refer to any shirt with a plaid or tartan pattern. However, 'flannel' refers simply to the fabric, and not all flannel shirts are plaid.


title: Flannel

text: The origin of the word is uncertain, but a Welsh origin has been suggested as fabric similar to flannel can be traced back to Wales, where it was well known as early as the 16th century. The fabric was called <nowiki>"Welsh cotton"</nowiki>, and despite its name, it was a coarse woolen material with a fluffed surface similar to flannel.


title: Flannel

text: The French term "flanelle" was used in the late 17th century, and the German "Flanell" was used in the early 18th century.


title: Flannel

text: Flannel has been made since the 17th century, gradually replacing the older Welsh plains, some of which were finished as "cottons" or friezes, coarse woolen cloth that was the local textile product. In the 19th century, flannel was made particularly in towns such as Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Hay on Wye, and Llanidloes. The expansion of its production is closely associated with the spread of carding mills, which prepared the wool for spinning, this being the first aspect of the production of woollen cloth to be mechanised (apart from fulling). The marketing of these Welsh woollen clothes was largely controlled by the Drapers Company of Shrewsbury.


title: Flannel

text: At one time Welsh, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Irish flannels differed slightly in character due largely to the grade of raw wool used in the several localities, some being softer and finer than others. While nowadays, the colour of flannel is determined by dyes, originally this was achieved through mixing white, blue, brown and black wools in varying proportions. Lighter shades were achieved by bleaching with sulphur dioxide.


title: Flannel

text: During the 1950s Irish designer Sybil Connolly, inspired by Aran Island and traditional Irish peasant skirts, designed a 'Red Flannel' skirt using red flannel wool.


title: Flannel

text: Originally flannel was made of fine, short staple wool, but by the 20th-century mixtures of silk and cotton had become common. It was at this time that flannel trousers became popular in sports, especially cricket, in which it was used extensively until the late 1970s.


title: Flannel

text: The roots of mainstream use of flannels in the U.S. can be traced back to The Gardenias at the University of Buffalo in the mid-1980s. The 'no class-lotta style' fashion trend eventually made its way across the country to Seattle. The use of flannel plaid shirts was at its peak in the 1990s with popular grunge bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam using them as one of the trademarks of their shaggy look. However, few of the mass-produced plaid shirts available at the time were actually made out of flannel. The association between flannel and plaid has led to the use of flannel as a mistaken synonym for plaid.


title: Flannel

text: Flannelette typically refers to a napped cotton fabric imitating the texture of flannel. The weft is generally coarser than the warp. The flannel-like appearance is created by creating a nap from the weft; scratching it and raising it up. Flannelette can either have long or short nap, and can be napped on one or two sides. It comes in many colours, both solid and patterned.


title: Flannel

text: Flannel, flannelette, and cotton flannel can be woven in either a twill weave or plain weave. The weave is often hidden by napping on one or both sides. After weaving, it is napped once, then bleached, dyed, or otherwise treated, and then napped a second time.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia () is the largest country in the world, covering over 17,125,192 km2 (6,612,074 sq mi), and encompassing more than one-eighth of Earth's inhabited land area. Russia extends across eleven time zones, and has the most borders of any country in the world, with sixteen sovereign nations.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia is a transcontinental country stretching vastly over two continents, Europe and Asia. It spans the northernmost edge of Eurasia, and has the world's fourth-longest coastline, at . Russia, alongside Canada, is one of the world's only two countries with a coast along three oceans,(however connection to the Atlantic ocean is extremely remote, while USA and Canada both have large coast lines on three oceans) due to which it has links with over thirteen marginal seas. It lies between latitudes 41° and 82° N, and longitudes 19° E and 169° W. Russia is larger than three continents of the world, and has the same surface area as Pluto.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Kaliningrad Oblast, westernmost part of Russia along the Baltic Sea, is about apart from its easternmost part, Big Diomede Island in the Bering Strait. This distance spans about , to Nome, Alaska. From north to south, the country ranges from the northern tip of the Russian Arctic islands at Franz Josef Land to the southern tip of the Republic of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea, spanning about of extremely varied, often inhospitable terrain.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Extending for , the Russian border is the world's longest. Along the 20,139-kilometre land frontier, Russia has boundaries with 14 countries: Poland and Lithuania (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Approximately two-thirds of the frontier is bounded by seawater. Virtually all of the lengthy northern coast is well above the Arctic Circle; except for the port of Murmansk—which receives currents that are somewhat warmer than would be expected at that latitude, due to the effects of the Gulf Stream—that coast is locked in ice much of the year. Thirteen seas and parts of two oceans—the Arctic and Pacific—wash Russian shores. It is separated by close sea, making it a maritime boundary. It also shares one with Japan.


title: Geography of Russia

text: With a few changes of status, most of the Soviet Union's administrative and territorial divisions of the Russian Republic were retained in constituting the Russian Federation. As of 2014, there were eighty-five administrative territorial divisions (called federal subjects): twenty-two republics, nine krais (territories), forty-six oblasts (provinces), one autonomous oblast, four autonomous okrugs, and three cities with federal status, namely the cities of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Sevastopol.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The republics include a wide variety of peoples, including northern Europeans, Tatars, Caucasus peoples, and indigenous Siberians. The largest federal subjects are in Siberia. Located in east-central Siberia, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) is the largest federal subject in the country (and the largest country subdivision in the world), twice the size of Alaska. Second in size is Krasnoyarsk Krai, located west of Sakha in Siberia. Kaliningrad Oblast, which is a noncontiguous constituent entity of Russia, is the smallest oblast. The Republic of Ingushetia is both the smallest republic and the smallest federal subject of Russia except for the three federal cities. The two most populous federal subjects, Moscow Oblast (with Moscow) and Krasnodar Krai, are in European Russia.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia had a population of 142.8 million according to the 2010 census, which rose to 146.2 million as of 2021 following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. It is the most populous country in Europe, and the ninth-most populous country in the world; with a population density of 9 inhabitants per square kilometre (23 per square mile).


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia is one of the world's most urbanized countries, with roughly 75% of its total population living in urban areas. Moscow, the capital and largest city, has a population estimated at 12.4 million residents within the city limits, while over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 20 million residents in the metropolitan area. Moscow is among the world's largest cities, being the most populous city entirely within Europe, the most populous urban area in Europe, the most populous metropolitan area in Europe, and also the largest city by land area on the European continent. Saint Petersburg, the cultural capital, is the second-largest city, with a population of roughly 5.4 million inhabitants. Other major urban areas are Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Chelyabinsk.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Geographers traditionally divide the vast territory of Russia into five natural zones: the tundra zone; the Taiga, or forest, zone; the steppe, or plains, zone; the arid zone; and the mountain zone. Most of Russia consists of two plains (the East European Plain and the West Siberian Plain), three lowlands (the North Siberian, the Central Yakutian and the East Siberian), two plateaus (the Central Siberian Plateau and the Lena Plateau), and two systems of mountainous areas (the East Siberian Mountains in far northeastern Siberia and the South Siberian Mountains along the southern border).


title: Geography of Russia

text: The East European Plain encompasses most of European Russia. The West Siberian Plain, which is the world's largest, extends east from the Urals to the Yenisei River. Because the terrain and vegetation are relatively uniform in each of the natural zones, Russia presents an illusion of uniformity. Nevertheless, Russian territory contains all the major vegetation zones of the world except a tropical rain forest.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The Russian Arctic stretches for close to west to east, from Karelia and the Kola Peninsula to Nenetsia, the Gulf of Ob, the Taymyr Peninsula and the Chukchi Peninsula (Kolyma, Anadyr River, Cape Dezhnev). Russian islands and archipelagos in the Arctic Sea include Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands.


title: Geography of Russia

text: About 10 percent of Russia is tundra—a treeless, marshy plain. The tundra is Russia's northernmost zone, stretching from the Finnish border in the west to the Bering Strait in the east, then running south along the Pacific coast to the northern Kamchatka Peninsula. The zone is known for its herds of wild reindeer, for so-called white nights (dusk at midnight, dawn shortly thereafter) in summer, and for days of total darkness in winter. The long, harsh winters and lack of sunshine allow only mosses, lichens, and dwarf willows and shrubs to sprout low above the barren permafrost. Although several powerful Siberian rivers traverse this zone as they flow northward to the Arctic Ocean, partial and intermittent thawing hamper drainage of the numerous lakes, ponds, and swamps of the tundra. Frost weathering is the most important physical process here, gradually shaping a landscape that was severely modified by glaciation in the last ice age. Less than one percent of Russia's population lives in this zone. The fishing and port industries of the northwestern Kola Peninsula and the huge oil and gas fields of northwestern Siberia are the largest employers in the tundra. With a population of 180,000, the industrial frontier city of Norilsk is second in population to Murmansk among Russia's settlements above the Arctic Circle. From here you can also see the auroras (northern lights).


title: Geography of Russia

text: Taiga, the most extensive natural area of Russia, stretches from the western borders of Russia to the Pacific. It occupies the territory of the Eastern Europe and West Siberian plains to the north of ° N and most of the territory east of Yenisei River taiga forests reach the southern borders of Russia in Siberia taiga only accounts for over 60% of Russia. In the north–south direction the eastern taiga is divided (east of the Yenisei River), with a continental climate, and west, with a milder climate, in general, the climate zone is moist, moderately warm (cool in the north) in the summer and harsh winter, there is a steady snow cover in the winter. In the latitudinal direction, the taiga is divided into three subzones - northern, middle and southern taiga. In the western taiga dense spruce and fir forests on wetlands alternate with pine forests, shrubs, and meadows on the lighter soils. Such vegetation is typical of the eastern taiga, but it plays an important role not fir and larch. Coniferous forest, however, does not form a continuous array and sparse areas of birch, alder, willow (mainly in river valleys), the wetlands - marshes. Within the taiga are widespread fur-bearing animals - sable, marten, ermine, moose, brown bear, Wolverine, wolf, and muskrat.


title: Geography of Russia

text: In the taiga is dominated by podzolic and cryogenic taiga soils, characterized by clearly defined horizontal structure (only in the southern taiga there is sod-podzolic soil). Formed in a leaching regime and in poor humus. Groundwater is normally found in the forest close to the surface, washing calcium from the upper layers, resulting in the top layer of soil of the taiga being discolored and oxidized. Few areas of the taiga, suitable for farming, are located mainly in the European part of Russia. Large areas are occupied by sphagnum marshes (here is dominated by podzolic-boggy soil). To enrich the soil for agricultural purposes lime and other fertilizers should be used.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russian Taiga has the world's largest reserves of coniferous wood, but from year to year - as a result of intensive logging - they decrease. Development of hunting, farming (mainly in river valleys).


title: Geography of Russia

text: The mixed and deciduous forest belt is triangular, widest along the western border and narrower towards the Ural Mountains. The main trees are Oak and Spruce, but many other growths of vegetation such as ash, aspen, birch, hornbeam, maple, and pine reside there. Separating the taiga from the wooded steppe is a narrow belt of birch and aspen woodland located east of the Urals as far as the Altay Mountains. Much of the forested zone has been cleared for agriculture, especially in European Russia. Wildlife is more scarce as a result of this, but the roe deer, wolf, fox, and squirrel are very common.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The steppe has long been depicted as the typical Russian landscape. It is a broad band of treeless, grassy plains, interrupted by mountain ranges, extending from Hungary across Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan before ending in Manchuria. In a country of extremes, the steppe zone provides the most favorable conditions for human settlement and agriculture because of its moderate temperatures and normally adequate levels of sunshine and moisture. Even here, however, agricultural yields are sometimes adversely affected by unpredictable levels of precipitation and occasional catastrophic droughts. The soil is very dry.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia's mountain ranges are located principally along its continental dip (the Ural Mountains), along the southwestern border (the Caucasus), along the border with Mongolia (the eastern and western Sayan Mountains and the western extremity of the Altay Mountains), and in eastern Siberia (a complex system of ranges in the northeastern corner of the country and forming the spine of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and lesser mountains extending along the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan). Russia has nine major mountain ranges. In general, the eastern half of the country is much more mountainous than the western half, the interior of which is dominated by low plains. The traditional dividing line between the east and the west is the Yenisei River valley. In delineating the western edge of the Central Siberian Plateau from the West Siberian Plain, the Yenisey runs from near the Mongolian border northward into the Arctic Ocean west of the Taymyr Peninsula.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The Ural Mountains form the natural boundary between Europe and Asia; the range extends about from the Arctic Ocean to the northern border of Kazakhstan. Several low passes provide major transportation routes through the Urals eastward from Europe. The highest


title: Geography of Russia

text: To the east of the Urals is the West Siberian Plain, stretching about 1,900 kilometers from west to east and about 2,400 kilometers from north to south. With more than half its territory below 200 meters in elevation, the plain contains some of the world's largest swamps and floodplains. The plain is largely flat and featureless. The only slightly elevated areas are the Siberian Uvaly across the central part and the Ob Plateau in the south. There are steppe areas in the southern part reaching into Kazakhstan, such as the Ishim Steppe with the Kamyshlov Log trench. Most of the plain's population lives in the drier section south of 77 north latitude.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The region directly east of the West Siberian Plain is the Central Siberian Plateau, which extends eastward from the Yenisei River valley to the Lena River valley. The region is divided into several plateaus, with elevations ranging between 320 and 740 meters; the highest elevation is about 1,800 meters, in the northern Putoran Mountains. The plain is bounded on the south by the Primorsky Range and the Baikal Mountains, and on the north by the North Siberian Lowland, an extension of the West Siberian Plain extending into the Taymyr Peninsula on the Arctic Ocean.


title: Geography of Russia

text: In the mountain system west of Lake Baikal in south-central Siberia, the highest elevations are 3,300 meters in the Western Sayan, 3,200 meters in the Eastern Sayan, and 4,500 meters at Belukha Mountain in the Altay Mountains. The Eastern Sayan reach nearly to the southern shore of Lake Baikal; at the lake, there is an elevation difference of more than 4,500 meters between the nearest mountain, 2,840 meters high, and the deepest part of the lake, which is 1,700 meters below sea level. The mountain systems east of Lake Baikal are lower, forming a complex of minor ranges and valleys that reaches from the lake to the Pacific coast. The maximum height of the Stanovoy Range, which runs west to east from northern Lake Baikal to the Sea of Okhotsk, is 2,550 meters. To the south of that range is southeastern Siberia, whose mountains reach 800 meters. Across the Strait of Tartary from that region is Sakhalin Island, Russia's largest island, where the highest elevation is about 1,700 meters. The small Moneron Island, the site of the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, is found to its west.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Truly alpine terrain appears in the southern mountain ranges. Between the Black and Caspian seas, the Caucasus Mountains rise to impressive heights, forming a boundary between Europe and Asia. One of the peaks, Mount Elbrus, is the highest point in Europe, at 5,642 meters. The geological structure of the Caucasus extends to the northwest as the Crimean and Carpathian Mountains and southeastward into Central Asia as the Tian Shan and Pamirs. The Caucasus Mountains create an imposing natural barrier between Russia and its neighbors to the southwest, Georgia and Azerbaijan.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Northeastern Siberia, north of the Stanovoy Range, is an extremely mountainous region. The long Kamchatka Peninsula, which juts southward into the Sea of Okhotsk, includes many volcanic peaks, some of which are still active. The highest is the 4,750-meter Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the highest point in the Russian Far East. The volcanic chain continues from the southern tip of Kamchatka southward through the Kuril Islands chain and into Japan. Kamchatka also is one of Russia's two centers of seismic activity (the other is the Caucasus). In 1995, a major earthquake largely destroyed the oil-processing town of Neftegorsk. Also located in this region is the very large Beyenchime-Salaatin crater.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia, home to over 100,000 rivers, is divided into twenty watershed districts. It has one of the world's largest surface water resources, with its lakes containing approximately one-quarter of the world's liquid fresh water. Russia is second only to Brazil by total renewable water resources.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Forty of Russia's rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers are east of the Ural Mountains, including the three major rivers that drain Siberia as they flow northward to the Arctic Ocean: the Irtysh-Ob system (totaling 5,380 kilometers), the Yenisey (5,075 kilometers), and the Lena (4,294 kilometers), they are among the world's longest rivers. The basins of those river systems cover about eight million square kilometers, discharging nearly 50,000 cubic meters of water per second into the Arctic Ocean. The northward flow of these rivers means that source areas thaw before the areas downstream, creating vast swamps such as the 48,000-square-kilometer Vasyugan Swamp in the center of the West Siberian Plain. The same is true of other river systems, including the Pechora and the Northern Dvina in western Russia, and the Kolyma and the Indigirka in Siberia. Approximately 10 percent of Russian territory is classified as swampland.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia's inland bodies of water are chiefly a legacy of extensive glaciation. Ladoga and Onega in northwestern Russia are two of the largest lakes in Europe. However, Lake Baikal is the largest and most prominent among Russia's fresh water bodies, is the world's deepest, purest, oldest and most capacious fresh water lake, containing over one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. Numerous smaller lakes dot northern Russia and Siberian plains. The largest of these are lakes Belozero, Topozero, Vygozero, and Ilmen in the country's northwest and Lake Chany in southwestern Siberia.


title: Geography of Russia

text: A number of other rivers drain Siberia from eastern mountain ranges into the Pacific Ocean. The Amur River and its main tributary, the Ussuri, form a long stretch of the winding boundary between Russia and China. The Amur system drains most of southeastern Siberia. Three basins drain European Russia. The Dnieper, which flows mainly through Belarus and Ukraine, has its headwaters in the hills west of Moscow. The 1,860-kilometer Don, which is the fifth-longest river in Europe, originates in the Central Russian Upland south of Moscow and then flows into the Sea of Azov at Rostov-on-Don. The Volga, widely seen as Russia's national river due to its historical and cultural importance, is the longest river in Europe, it rises in the Valdai Hills west of Moscow and meandering southeastward for 3,510 kilometers before emptying into the Caspian Sea. Altogether, the Volga system drains about 1.4 million square kilometers. Linked by several canals, western Russia's rivers long have been a vital transportation system; the Volga remains the country's most commercial river, and carries about two-thirds of Russia's inland water traffic.


title: Geography of Russia

text: One billion acres of land is arable in Russia, but only about 0.1 percent is permanent agriculture. The landscapes of region have extremely varied environments because of the following:


title: Geography of Russia

text: The workforce involved in agriculture workforce was reported to be about 9.4% of the population in 2016.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The main export of Russia is grain, which is about 6% of the world trade. Other exported products include fish and oil with 3%, meals with 2%, and meat which accounts for less than 1%.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The sheer size of Russia and the remoteness of many areas from the sea result in the dominance of the humid continental climate, which is prevalent in all parts of the country except for the tundra and the extreme southwest. Mountains in the south and east obstruct the flow of warm air masses from the Indian and Pacific oceans, while the plain of the west and north makes the country open to Arctic and Atlantic influences.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Most of Northwest Russia and Siberia has a subarctic climate, with extremely severe winters in the inner regions of Northeast Siberia (mostly Sakha, where the Northern Pole of Cold is located with the record low temperature of ), and more moderate winters elsewhere. Russia's vast stretch of land along the Arctic Ocean and the Russian Arctic islands have a polar climate.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The coastal part of Krasnodar Krai on the Black Sea, most notably Sochi, and some coastal and interior strips of the North Caucasus possess a humid subtropical climate with mild and wet winters. In many regions of East Siberia and the Russian Far East, winter is dry compared to summer; while other parts of the country experience more even precipitation across seasons. Winter precipitation in most parts of the country usually falls as snow. The westernmost parts of Kaliningrad Oblast on the Vistula Spit, and some parts in the south of Krasnodar Krai and the North Caucasus have an oceanic climate. The region along the Lower Volga and Caspian Sea coast, as well as some southernmost silvers of Siberia, possess a semi-arid climate.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Throughout much of the territory, there are only two distinct seasons—winter and summer—as spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low and extremely high temperatures. The coldest month is January (February on the coastline); the warmest is usually July. Great ranges of temperature are typical. In winter, temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers can be quite hot, even in Siberia.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Kaliningrad forms the westernmost part of Russia, having no land connection to the rest of the country. It is bounded by Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea, is claimed and de facto administered by the Russian Federation since Russia annexed it in March 2014. It is recognized as a territory of Ukraine by most of the international community.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia holds the greatest reserves of mineral resources of any country in the world. Though they are abundant, they are in remote areas with extreme climates, making them expensive to mine. The country is the most abundant in mineral fuels. It may hold as much as half of the world's coal reserves and even larger reserves of petroleum. Deposits of coal are scattered throughout the region, but the largest are located in central and eastern Siberia. The most developed fields lie in western Siberia, in the northeastern European region, in the area around Moscow, and in the Urals. The major petroleum deposits are located in western Siberia and in the Volga-Urals. Smaller deposits are found throughout the country. Natural gas, a resource of which Russia holds around forty percent of the world's reserves, can be found along Siberia's Arctic coast, in the North Caucasus, and in northwestern Russia. Major iron-ore deposits are located south of Moscow, near the Ukrainian border in the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly; this area contains vast deposits of iron ore that have caused a deviation in the Earth's magnetic field. There are smaller deposits in other parts of the country. The Ural mountains hold small deposits of manganese. nickel, tungsten, cobalt, molybdenum and other iron alloying elements occur in adequate quantities.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Russia also contains most of the nonferrous metals. Aluminium ores are scarce and are found primarily in the Ural region, northwestern European Russia, and south-central Siberia. Copper is more abundant and major reserves are located in the Urals, the Norilsk area near the mouth of the Yenisey in eastern Siberia, and the Kola Peninsula. Another vast deposit located east of Lake Baikal only became exploited when the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railroad was finished in 1989.


title: Geography of Russia

text: The North Caucasus, far eastern Russia, and the western edge of the Kuznetsk Basin in southern Siberia contain an abundance of lead and zinc ores. These are commonly found along with copper, gold, silver, and a large amount of other rare metals. The country has one of the largest gold reserves in the world; mostly in Siberia and the Urals. Mercury deposits can be found in the central and southern Urals and in south-central Siberia.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Raw materials are abundant as well, including potassium and magnesium salt deposits in the Kama River region of the western Urals. Russia also contains one of the world's largest deposits of apatite found in the central Kola Peninsula. Rock salt is located in the southwestern Urals and the southwest of Lake Baikal. Surface deposits of salt are found in salt lakes along the lower Volga Valley. Sulfur can be found in the Urals and the middle Volga Valley.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Eight percent of the land is used for arable farming, four percent—for permanent pastures, forty-six percent of the land is forests and woodland, and forty-two percent is used for other purposes.


title: Geography of Russia

text: A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 1,002 km² of tidal flats in Russia, making it the 33rd ranked country in terms of tidal flat area.


title: Geography of Russia

text: Volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands and volcanoes and earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula are other natural hazards.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a key part of the movement and attracted hundreds of converts to new Protestant denominations. The Methodist Church used circuit riders to reach people in frontier locations. The Second Great Awakening led to a period of antebellum social reform and an emphasis on salvation by institutions. The outpouring of religious fervor and revival began in Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1790s and early 1800s among the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Historians named the Second Great Awakening in the context of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1750s and of the Third Great Awakening of the late 1850s to early 1900s. The First Awakening was part of a much larger Romantic religious movement that was sweeping across England, Scotland, and Germany.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: New religious movements emerged during the Second Great Awakening, such as Adventism, Dispensationalism, and the Latter Day Saint movement.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Like the First Great Awakening a half century earlier, the Second Great Awakening in North America reflected Romanticism characterized by enthusiasm, emotion, and an appeal to the supernatural. It rejected the skepticism, deism, Unitarianism, and rationalism left over from the American Enlightenment, about the same time that similar movements flourished in Europe. Pietism was sweeping Germanic countries and evangelicalism was waxing strong in England.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The Second Great Awakening occurred in several episodes and over different denominations; however, the revivals were very similar. As the most effective form of evangelizing during this period, revival meetings cut across geographical boundaries. The movement quickly spread throughout Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and southern Ohio, as well as other regions of the United States and Canada. Each denomination had assets that allowed it to thrive on the frontier. The Methodists had an efficient organization that depended on itinerant ministers, known as circuit riders, who sought out people in remote frontier locations. The circuit riders came from among the common people, which helped them establish rapport with the frontier families they hoped to convert.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Postmillennialist theology dominated American Protestantism in the first half of the 19th century. Postmillennialists believed that Christ will return to earth after the "Millennium", which could entail either a literal 1,000 years or a figurative "long period" of peace and happiness. Christians thus had a duty to purify society in preparation for that return. This duty extended beyond American borders to include Christian Restorationism. George Fredrickson argues that Postmillennial theology "was an impetus to the promotion of Progressive reforms, as historians have frequently pointed out." During the Second Great Awakening of the 1830s, some diviners expected the Millennium to arrive in a few years. By the late 1840s, however, the great day had receded to the distant future, and postmillennialism became a more passive religious dimension of the wider middle-class pursuit of reform and progress.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Beginning in the 1820s, Western New York State experienced a series of popular religious revivals that would later earn this region the nickname "the burned-over district," which implied the area was set ablaze with spiritual fervor. This term, however, was not used by contemporaries in the first half of the nineteenth century, as it originates from Charles Grandison Finney's "Autobiography of Charles G Finney" (1876), in which he writes, "I found that region of country what, in the western phrase, would be called, a 'burnt district.' There had been, a few years previously, a wild excitement passing through that region, which they called a revival of religion, but which turned out to be spurious." During this period, a number of nonconformist, folk religion, and evangelical sects flourished in the region.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The extent to which religious fervor actually affected the region was reassessed in last quarter of the twentieth century. Linda K. Pritchard used statistical data to show that compared to the rest of New York State, the Ohio River Valley in the lower Midwest, and the country as a whole, the religiosity of the Burned-over District was typical rather than exceptional. More recent works, however, have argued that these revivals in Western New York had a unique and lasting impact upon the religious and social life of the entire nation.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: On the American frontier, evangelical denominations, especially Methodists and Baptists, sent missionary preachers and exhorters to meet the people in the backcountry in an effort to support the growth of church membership and the formation of new congregations. Another key component of the revivalists' techniques was the camp meeting. These outdoor religious gatherings originated from field meetings and the Scottish Presbyterians' "Holy Fairs", which were brought to America in the mid-eighteenth century from Ireland, Scotland, and Britain's border counties. Most of the Scots-Irish immigrants before the American Revolutionary War settled in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and down the spine of the Appalachian Mountains in present-day Maryland and Virginia, where Presbyterian emigrants and Baptists held large outdoor gatherings in the years prior to the war. The Presbyterians and Methodists sponsored similar gatherings on a regular basis after the Revolution.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The denominations that encouraged the revivals were based on an interpretation of man's spiritual equality before God, which led them to recruit members and preachers from a wide range of classes and all races. Baptists and Methodist revivals were successful in some parts of the Tidewater South, where an increasing number of common planters, plain folk, and slaves were converted.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: In the newly settled frontier regions, the revival was implemented through camp meetings. These often provided the first encounter for some settlers with organized religion, and they were important as social venues. The camp meeting was a religious service of several days' length with preachers. Settlers in thinly populated areas gathered at the camp meeting for fellowship as well as worship. The sheer exhilaration of participating in a religious revival with crowds of hundreds and perhaps thousands of people inspired the dancing, shouting, and singing associated with these events. The revivals also followed an arc of great emotional power, with an emphasis on the individual's sins and need to turn to Christ, and a sense of restoring personal salvation. This differed from the Calvinists' belief in predestination as outlined in the Westminster Confession of Faith, which emphasized the inability of men to save themselves and decreed that the only way to be saved was by God's electing grace. Upon their return home, most converts joined or created small local churches, which grew rapidly.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The Revival of 1800 in Logan County, Kentucky, began as a traditional Presbyterian sacramental occasion. The first informal camp meeting began in June, when people began camping on the grounds of the Red River Meeting House. Subsequent meetings followed at the nearby Gasper River and Muddy River congregations. All three of these congregations were under the ministry of James McGready. A year later, in August 1801, an even larger sacrament occasion that is generally considered to be America's first camp meeting was held at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky, under Barton W. Stone (1772–1844) with numerous Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist ministers participating in the services. The six-day gathering attracting perhaps as many as 20,000 people, although the exact number of attendees was not formally recorded. Due to the efforts of such leaders as Stone and Alexander Campbell (1788–1866), the camp meeting revival spread religious enthusiasm and became a major mode of church expansion, especially for the Methodists and Baptists. Presbyterians and Methodists initially worked together to host the early camp meetings, but the Presbyterians eventually became less involved because of the noise and often raucous activities that occurred during the protracted sessions.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: As a result of the Revival of 1800, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church emerged in Kentucky and became a strong support of the revivalist movement. Cane Ridge was also instrumental in fostering what became known as the Restoration Movement, which consisted of non-denominational churches committed to what they viewed as the original, fundamental Christianity of the New Testament. Churches with roots in this movement include the Churches of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada. The congregations of these denomination were committed to individuals' achieving a personal relationship with Christ.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The Methodist circuit riders and local Baptist preachers made enormous gains in increasing church membership. To a lesser extent the Presbyterians also gained members, particularly with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in sparsely settled areas. As a result, the numerical strength of the Baptists and Methodists rose relative to that of the denominations dominant in the colonial period—the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists. Among the new denominations that grew from the religious ferment of the Second Great Awakening are the Churches of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The converts during the Second Great Awakening were predominantly female. A 1932 source estimated at least three female converts to every two male converts between 1798 and 1826. Young people (those under 25) also converted in greater numbers, and were the first to convert.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The Advent Movement emerged in the 1830s and 1840s in North America, and was preached by ministers such as William Miller, whose followers became known as Millerites. The name refers to belief in the soon Second Advent of Jesus (popularly known as the Second coming) and resulted in several major religious denominations, including Seventh-day Adventists and Advent Christians.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Though its roots are in the First Great Awakening and earlier, a re-emphasis on Wesleyan teachings on sanctification emerged during the Second Great Awakening, leading to a distinction between Mainline Methodism and Holiness churches.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The idea of restoring a "primitive" form of Christianity grew in popularity in the U.S. after the American Revolution. This desire to restore a purer form of Christianity without an elaborate hierarchy contributed to the development of many groups during the Second Great Awakening, including the Latter Day Saints, Baptists and Shakers. Several factors made the restoration sentiment particularly appealing during this time period:


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The Restoration Movement began during, and was greatly influenced by, the Second Great Awakening. While the leaders of one of the two primary groups making up this movement, Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell, resisted what they saw as the spiritual manipulation of the camp meetings, the revivals contributed to the development of the other major branch, led by Barton W. Stone. The Southern phase of the Awakening "was an important matrix of Barton Stone's reform movement" and shaped the evangelistic techniques used by both Stone and the Campbells.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Efforts to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems presaged the Social Gospel of the late 19th century. Converts were taught that to achieve salvation they needed not just to repent personal sin but also work for the moral perfection of society, which meant eradicating sin in all its forms. Thus, evangelical converts were leading figures in a variety of 19th century reform movements.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Congregationalists set up missionary societies to evangelize the western territory of the northern tier. Members of these groups acted as apostles for the faith, and also as educators and exponents of northeastern urban culture. The Second Great Awakening served as an "organizing process" that created "a religious and educational infrastructure" across the western frontier that encompassed social networks, a religious journalism that provided mass communication, and church-related colleges. Publication and education societies promoted Christian education; most notable among them was the American Bible Society, founded in 1816. Women made up a large part of these voluntary societies. The Female Missionary Society and the Maternal Association, both active in Utica, NY, were highly organized and financially sophisticated women's organizations responsible for many of the evangelical converts of the New York frontier.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: There were also societies that broadened their focus from traditional religious concerns to larger societal ones. These organizations were primarily sponsored by affluent women. They did not stem entirely from the Second Great Awakening, but the revivalist doctrine and the expectation that one's conversion would lead to personal action accelerated the role of women's social benevolence work. Social activism influenced abolition groups and supporters of the Temperance movement. They began efforts to reform prisons and care for the handicapped and mentally ill. They believed in the perfectibility of people and were highly moralistic in their endeavors.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Baptists and Methodists in the South preached to slaveholders and slaves alike. Conversions and congregations started with the First Great Awakening, resulting in Baptist and Methodist preachers being authorized among slaves and free African Americans more than a decade before 1800. "Black Harry" Hosier, an illiterate freedman who drove Francis Asbury on his circuits, proved to be able to memorize large passages of the Bible verbatim and became a cross-over success, as popular among white audiences as the black ones Asbury had originally intended for him to minister. His sermon at Thomas Chapel in Chapeltown, Delaware, in 1784 was the first to be delivered by a black preacher directly to a white congregation.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Despite being called the "greatest orator in America" by Benjamin Rush and one of the best in the world by Bishop Thomas Coke, Hosier was repeatedly passed over for ordination and permitted no vote during his attendance at the Christmas Conference that formally established American Methodism. Richard Allen, the other black attendee, was ordained by the Methodists in 1799, but his congregation of free African Americans in Philadelphia left the church there because of its discrimination. They founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Philadelphia. After first submitting to oversight by the established Methodist bishops, several AME congregations finally left to form the first independent African-American denomination in the United States in 1816. Soon after, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) was founded as another denomination in New York City.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Early Baptist congregations were formed by slaves and free African Americans in South Carolina and Virginia. Especially in the Baptist Church, African Americans were welcomed as members and as preachers. By the early 19th century, independent African-American congregations numbered in the several hundreds in some cities of the South, such as Charleston, South Carolina, and Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. With the growth in congregations and churches, Baptist associations formed in Virginia, for instance, as well as Kentucky and other states.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The revival also inspired slaves to demand freedom. In 1800, out of African-American revival meetings in Virginia, a plan for slave rebellion was devised by Gabriel Prosser, although the rebellion was discovered and crushed before it started. Despite white attempts to control independent African-American congregations, especially after the Nat Turner uprising of 1831, a number of African-American congregations managed to maintain their separation as independent congregations in Baptist associations. State legislatures passed laws requiring them always to have a white man present at their worship meetings.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Women, who made up the majority of converts during the Awakening, played a crucial role in its development and focus. It is not clear why women converted in larger numbers than men. Various scholarly theories attribute the discrepancy to a reaction to the perceived sinfulness of youthful frivolity, an inherent greater sense of religiosity in women, a communal reaction to economic insecurity, or an assertion of the self in the face of patriarchal rule. Husbands, especially in the South, sometimes disapproved of their wives' conversion, forcing women to choose between submission to God or their spouses. Church membership and religious activity gave women peer support and place for meaningful activity outside the home, providing many women with communal identity and shared experiences.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Despite the predominance of women in the movement, they were not formally indoctrinated or given leading ministerial positions. However, women took other public roles; for example, relaying testimonials about their conversion experience, or assisting sinners (both male and female) through the conversion process. Leaders such as Charles Finney saw women's public prayer as a crucial aspect in preparing a community for revival and improving their efficacy in conversion. Women also took crucial roles in the conversion and religious upbringing of children. During the period of revival, mothers were seen as the moral and spiritual foundation of the family, and were thus tasked with instructing children in matters of religion and ethics.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The greatest change in women's roles stemmed from participation in newly formalized missionary and reform societies. Women's prayer groups were an early and socially acceptable form of women's organization. In the 1830s, female moral reform societies rapidly spread across the North making it the first predominantly female social movement. Through women's positions in these organizations, women gained influence outside of the private sphere.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Changing demographics of gender also affected religious doctrine. In an effort to give sermons that would resonate with the congregation, ministers stressed Christ's humility and forgiveness, in what the historian Barbara Welter calls a "feminization" of Christianity.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Revivals and perfectionist hopes of improving individuals and society continued to increase from 1840 to 1865 across all major denominations, especially in urban areas. Evangelists often directly addressed issues such as slavery, greed, and poverty, laying the groundwork for later reform movements. The influence of the Awakening continued in the form of more secular movements. In the midst of shifts in theology and church polity, American Christians began progressive movements to reform society during this period. Known commonly as , this phenomenon included reforms against the consumption of alcohol, for women's rights and abolition of slavery, and a multitude of other issues faced by society.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: The religious enthusiasm of the Second Great Awakening was echoed by the new political enthusiasm of the Second Party System. More active participation in politics by more segments of the population brought religious and moral issues into the political sphere. The spirit of evangelical humanitarian reforms was carried on in the antebellum Whig party.


title: Second Great Awakening

text: Historians stress the common understanding among participants of reform as being a part of God's plan. As a result, local churches saw their roles in society in purifying the world through the individuals to whom they could bring salvation, and through changes in the law and the creation of institutions. Interest in transforming the world was applied to mainstream political action, as temperance activists, antislavery advocates, and proponents of other variations of reform sought to implement their beliefs into national politics. While Protestant religion had previously played an important role on the American political scene, the Second Great Awakening strengthened the role it would play.


title: Simulation video game

text: Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such as training, analysis, prediction, or entertainment. Usually there are no strictly defined goals in the game, and the player is allowed to control a character or environment freely. Well-known examples are war games, business games, and role play simulation. From three basic types of strategic, planning, and learning exercises: games, simulations, and case studies, a number of hybrids may be considered, including simulation games that are used as case studies. Comparisons of the merits of simulation games versus other teaching techniques have been carried out by many researchers and a number of comprehensive reviews have been published.


title: Simulation video game

text: Construction and management simulation (CMS) is a type of simulation game in which players build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources. Strategy games sometimes incorporate CMS aspects into their game economy, as players must manage resources while expanding their projects. Pure CMS games differ from strategy games in that "the player's goal is not to defeat an enemy, but to build something within the context of an ongoing process." Games in this category are sometimes also called "management games".


title: Simulation video game

text: Life simulation games (or artificial life games) are a subgenre of simulation video games in which the player lives or controls one or more artificial lifeforms. A life simulation game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem". Social simulation games are one of its subgenres.


title: Simulation video game

text: Some video games simulate the playing of sports. Most sports have been recreated by video games, including team sports, athletics and extreme sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such as the "Madden NFL" series), whilst others emphasize strategy and organization (such as "Football Manager"). Some, such as "Arch Rivals", satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been popular throughout the history of video games, and is competitive, just like real-world sports. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, and are updated continuously to reflect real-world changes.


title: Simulation video game

text: Because Simulation games make learning a matter of direct experience, they may relieve the tedium associated with more conventional modes of instruction, as they demand increased participation rather than merely reading about or discussing concepts and ideas (like discrimination, culture, stratification, and norms). Students will experience them by actually <nowiki>"living" the experiences. Therefore, the use of simulation games may increase students'</nowiki> motivation and interest in learning.