Christmas Story Research Articles

Comparison of the Parody Technique in “A Painful Case” and “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story”

Comparison of the Parody Technique in “A Painful Case” and “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story”

A Christmas story about quantum teleportation

Quantum teleportation is a concept that fascinates and confuses many people, in particular, given that it combines quantum physics and the concept of teleportation. With quantum teleportation likely to play a key role in several communication technologies and the quantum internet in the future, it is imperative to create learning tools and approaches that can accurately and effectively communicate the concept. Recent research has indicated the importance of teachers enthusing students about the topic of quantum physics. Therefore, educators at both high school and early university level need to find engaging and perhaps unorthodox ways of teaching complex, yet interesting topics such as quantum teleportation. In this paper, we present a paradigm to teach the concept of quantum teleportation using the Christmas gift-bringer Santa Claus. Using the example of Santa Claus, we use an unusual context to explore the key aspects of quantum teleportation, and all without being overly abstract. In addition, we outline a worksheet designed for use in the classroom setting which is based on common naive conceptions from quantum physics. This worksheet will be evaluated as a classroom resource to teach quantum teleportation in a subsequent study.

The development of comparative Jewish hermeneutics of the Gospel of Matthew

The article examines the historical development of comparative Jewish hermeneutic studies of the Gospel of Matthew starting with the 17th century. The research pays special attention to the stages of formation, to obstacles and their overcoming, and to the nature of the development of comparative works. It introduces a comparison of two parallel traditions in these studies — Christian and Jewish. The main methodological approaches of Christian and Jewish scholars come from historical criticism and philology. They transcend religious boundaries and bring academicism to comparative studies. However, later historical criticism leads to a delay in the development of comparative Jewish studies due to the problems of anachronism, since rabbinic literature originates several hundred years after the New Testament, and therefore is not suitable for synchronous comparison. Another obstacle to the development of comparative analysis poses the philological principle of only one textual meaning. Jewish hermeneutics presupposes many meanings of the sacred text, which contradicts the principle of a single meaning. A revolutionary breakthrough in comparative Jewish hermeneutics occurs in the middle of the 20th century, thanks to the use of a literary approach that is not bound by the strict rules of historical criticism and the philological principle of a single meaning. Renee Bloch suggests the use of Rabbinic literature for the study of Christian and intertestamental literature, and even of the Bible itself, even though such a comparison is anachronistic. The cultural approach helps to see the uniqueness of the cultural contribution of the exegete and to overcome religious obstacles to comparative research. The article suggests a comparative Jewish hermeneutics of the Christmas story of the Gospel of Matthew.

“INNUMERABLE DEPTH OF BOOKS”. DUSHECHKINA E.V. “THE AUSTERE JOY OF CONTEMPLATION”: ARTICLES ON RUSSIAN CULTURE, COMPILED AND EDITED BY E.A. BELOUSOVA. MOSCOW, NOVOE LITERATURNOE OBOZRENIE, 2022. 808 P.

The collection analyzes medieval Russian literature in its most diverse manifestations (The Tale of Bygone Years, the translated Legend of the Indian Kingdom, the message of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to the Metropolitan, the future Patriarch Nikon, etc.), poetry of the 18th century (above all odes by Lomonosov and the poem by N.A. Lvov Russian 1791), Russian literature of the 19th century (Tyutchev, Leskov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov), works for children, children’s literature, the history of the New Year holiday in Russia, Russian anthroponymy, including literary. Research by E.V. Dushechkina is diverse, reflects the breadth of the author’s scientific interests, the desire to consider literary phenomena in a cultural context. Another distinctive feature of E.V. Dushechkina — invariable attention to ‘particulars’: to little-known works of the classics (for example, these are the stories by Leskov Waste Dancers and Offended before Christmas), to such marginal genres in comparison with ‘big’ literature as the Christmas story and the ‘dacha’ text. Among the grateful readers of this book, there will undoubtedly be philologists, and cultural historians, and school teachers, and students, and university professors.

Telling the Christmas story in words and music: the development of and contemporary missional value of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols within cathedrals

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the development of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, considers how in this context the Christmas story is told in word and music, and examines how this service contributes to the Church’s mission of proclaiming the story of faith today. It focuses on the initial development of the service in Truro 1880, its subsequent adaptation at King’s College, Cambridge, and how the tradition is reflected in and developed throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century, using examples from four Cathedrals in England: Coventry, Salisbury, Durham, and Truro. This paper shows how, with adaption and careful planning, this service can continue to be used as a missional tool to tell the story of faith in the twenty-first century.

BINARY OPPOSITIONS IN LEONID ANDREEV’S CHRISTMAS STORY “ANGELOCHEK”

The article analyzes the story “Angelochek” (“The Little Angel”), which has an important place in the creativе work of Leonid Andreev, and is included in the school curriculum, where its plot is considered within the framework of the established literary approach to the Christmas story. Most of the researchers note the changes that occurred to the boy after his meeting with the angel, and believe that the Christmas miracle did happen, positively affecting Sashka’s life. The authors of this work propose a different approach to the story: binary oppositions (living-inanimate, truth-lie, real-fake, friend-alien, man-beast, earth-sky, etc.) are revealed, reflecting the ambivalence of the writer’s view of the problem; onomastic units, which, being part of symbolic and autobiographical contexts, make it possible to clarify the intent of the work, are considered. The plot of the story is autobiographical (the angel, once removed by the future writer from the Christmas tree and placed on the stove, melts), but the main character is now a boy from a poor family who goes to celebrate the holiday to the rich patrons, the Svechnikovs. The space of the Svechnikov house is ambivalent: for the father it is a symbol of lost paradise, and for the son it is the habitat of devils, because the Christmas symbols filling the house are fake. Acquisition of humanity through the rebirth of the soul is the most significant theme of the story, realized through the “man-beast” opposition. Sashka’s family is inscribed in the zoomorphic code of the text of the story. Possessing the angel creates a feeling of “human happiness,” which results in the elimination of the animal element in the boy’s image. However, the memory of his father, who is part of the anti-house, brings Sashka’s animal appearance back. The “iving-inanimate” opposition sets the parameters of Sashka’s fate, for whom “non-life” is the only possible way out of the cycle of meaningless existence. The hope for the rebirth of the boy’s soul is illusory (the opposition is “real-fake”). By the end of the story, the motifs of gravity and immersion in the abyss are intensified: the personification of salvation — a melted angel with dragonfly wings — falls to the floor at the end of Christmas. A cockroach that is unable to fly now becomes the symbol of substitution. The illusory nature of hopes is confirmed by the chronotope of the story. Christmas breaks the cycle of existence and introduces the boy to the circle of eternity, but the striking of the clock brings the heroes back to earth and accelerates their biological time. The image of the “frozen water carrier” in the story’s finale is a symbol of the return of cyclicity to the child’s life and a sign that the revival did not take place.

Приемы нарушения литературно-культурного кода Рождества викторианской Англии в малой прозе Дж. К. Джерома (на материале произведения «Пирушка с привидениями»)

The study aims to identify the techniques of violating the literary and cultural code of Christmas in Victorian England in J. K. Jerome’s short prose. The work ‘Told After Supper’ was chosen as the research material. The study is novel in that it is the first to consider the chosen work through the lens of parodying traditional Christmas genres, as well as the cultural tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The paper identifies the key features of the genres of the Christmas story and ghost stories and analyses in detail how Jerome modifies them in his work. Considerable attention is paid to the kind of peculiarities of everyday life and personality traits of representatives of Victorian England that are parodied, as well as the way the comic effect is achieved in the text under consideration. As a result, it has been found that the main parodying techniques in ‘Told After Supper’ are the rationalisation of the miraculous, which destroys the atmosphere characteristic of Christmas genres, the absurdity arising from the multiple repetitions of plot devices, the hyperbolisation of the “narrator’s unreliability”, the projection of the conduct of the living on the world of ghosts and the explication of the social underside of British respectability.

Reception of the Christian Tradition in the Works of Marina Paley’s Prose

The author argues that Marina Paley, being an intellectual writer, tries to find out genre form for proper representation of her worldview and aesthetic values. Consequently Paley pays attention to the Christian literary tradition The purpose of writing the article was to study the writer’s embodiment of the author’s consciousness in the genre forms of the Yuletide/Christmas story (“An Enclave for two”) and parable (parable novel “Choir”). The objective of the article is to analyze the embodiment of the writer’s consciousness in the genre forms of the Yuletide/Christmas story and parable. The article reviews the characteristics and peculiarities of modern Yuletide/ Christmas story. Many contemporary Russian writers use this genre form to criticize the immorality and lack of spirituality of society. Marina Paley also interprets the motive of the miracle in her own way. The miracle is the result of personal efforts. However, there is no spiritual rebirth or revelation with the character, she remains true to her conviction. Th us, Christmas time also acts as a test of a person’s character. The Christmas motifs are also can be found in the play “The Immersion” that shows a sharply critical view of the social structure. In contrast to the story “An Enclave for Two”, the eff orts of the characters do not bring results, the Christmas miracle does not happen, and the Yuletide and Christmas elements in this play emphasize only the absurdity of the soulless reality. The interpretation of the parable genre allows the author, without descending to a moralizing text with an action guide, to create a work that encourages an analytical look at the nature of human relationships and Divine Providence. Keywords: Marina Paley, literary tradition, parable, Christmas story, Yuletide story, tragicomedy buff.

“ In Der Nakht Fun Nitl . . . ”: Christmas Folklore, Mythology and Stories in Yiddish

Abstract: A rich array of original Christmas folklore, mythology, and stories exists in Yiddish. In this paper, I present a framework for understanding the Yiddish literary response to Christmas in the context of a dark midwinter folklore that has evolved across cultures since antiquity. Among Christians, this midwinter folklore gave rise to the fundamental Christmas literary motif of the balance of cold and darkness with warmth and light, with the latter two often signifying comfort and goodwill. I argue that the fundamental Christmas literary motif employed in Yiddish is consistent with that of Christians, but key elements are distorted to reflect a distinctly Jewish perspective: Yiddish folklore inverts the figure of Jesus from being the Christian emblem of light into an emblem of midwinter darkness, and modern Yiddish literature adapts the motif of balancing darkness with light as a metaphor for balancing Old World and New World values. Whereas light characteristically prevails in the traditional Christmas story, the Yiddish Christmas story corrupts this optimism to express Jewish sentiments about Christianity and the non-Jewish world.

Тема Рождества в рассказе Н. П. Вагнера «Телепень»

The aim of the research is to reveal the specifics of the artistic embodiment of the Christmas theme in N. P. Wagner’s story “Telepen” (at the level of the work chronotope, the system of images and the plot-compositional organization of the narrative). The theme of Christmas, as well as the problem of the genre Christmas canon transformation in N. P. Wagner’s fabulous creative work has not become a subject of a special comprehensive research yet. The scientific novelty is determined by the fact that for the first time one of the least known N. P. Wagner’s works with the Christmas theme - the story “Telepen”, which is included in the collection of philosophical tales and parables “Tales of the Purring Cat” (1872) and has the subtitle “A Christmas Story from Bygone Times”, is subjected to a holistic analysis in the chosen aspect. The article deals with the origins and tradition of the Christmas story formation in the Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century, the canon of the Christmas story as a source for N. P. Wagner’s work plot and its transformation there. As a result of the study, the expansion of the traditional framework of the “Christmas theme” by N. P. Wagner has been determined; a complicated genre structure of the text has been ascertained combining the traditions of the Christmas prose, everyday anecdotal tales and Gogol’s motives.

Биографический и литературный контекст рассказа А. П. Чехова «Гусев»

The article is devoted to the analysis of biographical and literary contexts of A. P. Chekhov’s story “Gusev” (1890). The study describes the literary and biographical genealogy of the title character. The purpose of the work is to consider Alexander Chekhov, the writer’s elder brother, as a prototype that determines the profane component of Gusev’s image. The story is considered as a “literary gift” brought to Alexander Chekhov from Anton Pavlovich’s trip to Sakhalin. The significance of the genre originality of “Gusev” as a Christmas story is noted, bringing it closer to other similar works by Chekhov. The ambivalent nature of the title character is proved, which combines a dramatic beginning with a comic, travesty beginning. It is concluded that Gusev is an integral artistic image created by the creative activity of the author based on heterogeneous prototypes. The results of the study can be used in the practice of analyzing Chekhov’s prose, as well as in biographical works.

Modeling Competency-Based Tasks Using Case Study Method

The article substantiates the relevance of developing competency-based tasks in literature for the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standard for basic general education. As one of the options for the methodological implementation of the competency-based task, the case-study method is considered. Based on the analysis of pedagogical sources, the potential of using this method in the pedagogical practice of a literature teacher is substantiated. The result of the study is modeling the structure of lessons for the 8th grade, including the solution of a competency task (case) based on the analysis of the plot situation of the Christmas story of the modern writer for children A. A. Solonitsyn "Little Christmas tree is cold in winter". The proposed version of the competency-based task based on understanding the experience of characters in literature allows the teacher, firstly, to consolidate or develop the subject learning outcomes (knowledge of the features of the Christmas story genre), and secondly, to develop the skills of metasubject actions. It allows students to see the connection of the subject with life, social problems of modern society, to express personal qualities, values, and subjectivity when solving the case.

"Brecht and Rilke under one roof?" Reminiscence of R.M. Rilke's poem "Autumn Day" in "Mother Courage and Her Children"

The article is about the discovery of unknown and unexpected reminiscences ofthe works of the famous Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke in the works of BertoltBrecht. Despite the emphasis in numerous literary studies, especially in the GDR,on the ostentatious atheism and adherence to Brecht's ideas of Marxism, theauthor's works show traces of perhaps unconscious fascination with the ideasand images of the Christian religion, rooted in the writer's worldview. The articleanalyzes the play "Mother Courage and Her Children" and points to an allusion tothe famous poem by RM Rilke "Autumn Day", as well as the presence of modifiedmotifs from the Christmas story of R.M. Rilke. The influence of FriedrichNietzsche's work on Brecht's work is also depicted.

Children’s consumption culture development through Christmas myths: ethical implications

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore the functions of Christmas mythemes for children’s consumption culture development. In addition, the purpose of this study is to provide an insight on the development of Central European Children into customers and how mythemes are associated with the wishing behaviour.Design/methodology/approachLevi-Strauss’ (1955) structural analysis was used to uncover the mythemes of the Christmas story for Austrian children. These mythemes then informed a thematic analysis of 283 Austrian children’s Christmas letters. Campbell’s (1970) functions of myths were used to reflect on the findings.FindingsThe Christmas mythemes uncovered were found to encourage materialism by linking self-enhancement (good acquirement) with self-transcendent (good behaviour) values. The role of myths to relieve the tension between the incongruent values of collective/other-oriented and materialistic values is expanded upon. Such sanctification of selfish good acquisition is aided by the mythemes related especially to the Christkind and baby Jesus. Instead, marketers should use Christmas mythemes which emphasise family and collective/other-centred values.Originality/valueBy first uncovering the “mythemes” related to Christmas, the authors contribute to the academic understanding of Christmas, going beyond origin or single myth understandings and acknowledging the multifaceted components of Christmas. The second contribution is in exploring mytheme’s representation in children’s Christmas letters and reflecting on their functions. This differs from previous literature because it looks at one of the main cultural vehicles for Christmas socialisation and its intersection with the mythemes that feed children’s consumption culture formation. Through the authors’ presentation of a conceptual framework that links mytheme functions with proximal processes using a socioecological viewpoint, the authors demonstrate the guidance of mythemes in children’s development. The third contribution is a reflection on the potential ethical implications for children’s formation of their consumer culture based on the functions of the mythemes. Furthermore, the authors add to the existing body of research by investigating a Central European context.

Українська шкільна різдвяна драма ХVІІ-ХVІІІ ст. і ляльковий театр вертеп: проблема адаптації та інтерпретації музичного чинника

The article states that the Ukrainian baroque art has become differentiated into the high, middle and lower stylistic levels. There were certain connections between them, and new art genres appeared on the verges of these levels. The problem of the connection between distinct stylistic levels of the Ukrainian musical baroque has not yet attracted the attention of researchers. The study examines the links between the Ukrainian school Christmas drama of the XVIIth– XVIIIth centuries and the puppet Nativity play theatre. It is noted that for the first time a comparison of these two kinds of theatrical art is drawn in terms of the use of a musical factor in them. It is established that the first act of the Nativity play drama is related to the high style of Ukrainian Christmas school drama. This is revealed on the basis of analysing the dramatic functions of a Choir in both school drama and Nativity play drama. A choir in these spectacles took an active part in revealing the Christmas story, playing the role of a character. What they had in common was the genre of spiritual chant with the syllabic versification. Despite its association with the high style of school drama, the Nativity play drama was a quite new theatrical genre that belongs to the middle stylistic level. Focusing on the folk environment, authors of the Nativity play drama intelligibly conveyed to a wide audience the sacred plot. It is noted that in the second act of the Nativity scene were adapted interludes of school dramas, which represented the lower stylistic level of the Baroque. In this act, a funny line came to the fore, and a musical component is marked by influences of the Ukrainian musical folklore with a predominance of its dancing variety. The interaction of folklore with the lower version of the Baroque had a great potential for the further development of the Ukrainian national theatre. Due to the fact that music was an integral part of the puppet Nativity play drama and played an important dramatic function, this theatrical spectacle, like some school dramas, had the features of the drama with music genre. Thus, school drama and Nativity play drama created the foundation, on which in the XIXth century, the Ukrainian dramaturgy emerged, with a significant role of the musical factor in it, which was essentially a drama with music.

FABULA WHEEL AND PLOT MOVEMENT: HOW THE MOTIVIC COMPLEX WORKS IN A.P. CHEKHOV

The article considers the plot-forming potential of the invariant Chekhov pattern, which involves paired characters - the doctor and the investigator. Using the example of several texts ("Perpetuum mobile", "On Official Duty", "Drama on the hunt", "Investigator", "Ward No. 6"), we can see how this template works in different genre contexts (romantic novel, Christmas story, detective story) and how these contexts intersect with each other. Common to consider situational template are the motives of feeling and the vicious circle, which charged a mixed modality and intersect with the motive of theatricality, which, in turn, is associated with professional reflection, combining the figures of doctor, investigator and writer. Special attention is paid to the story "Drama on the Hunt", which is updated as a metatext, in which - against the background of the doubling of the character system - an additional semantic dimension of hunting as a narrative strategy is formed. The final texts of the group under consideration can be considered the stories "On Official Duty" and "Ward No. 6", in which a sense of duty and professional guilt is comprehended through an updated motivational complex.

The Ultimate Young Adult Christmas Romance: What Light by Jay Asher

What Light (2016) is a young adult novel that follows Sierra and the drama that accompanies her changing life. Jay Asher creates a romantic and idyllic setting full of corny, heart-warming holiday traditions and exciting young love. If you’re searching for a light-hearted and easy read during the Christmas season, look no further. I cannot imagine that anyone would challenge its presence in your classroom library, no more than they would challenge It’s A Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story.

CHURCH CALENDAR, GOSPEL AND LITURGICAL TEXT IN THE NOVEL THE RAW YOUTH AND A WRITER'S DIARY (1876) BY FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

F. M. Dostoevsky's novel The Raw Youth (1874-1875) and A Writer's Diary (1876) were created in the tradition of Christian calendar prose, which is aligned with sacred time. The two works are united by the idea of the religious transformation of personality, the salvation of the soul and unification around the Gospel Truth, the search for ideal foundations in the Russian people, and reflections on their purpose. Dostoevsky introduces Easter narratives into the novel and into A Writer's Diary in 1876: the story of Makar Dolgoruky about the merchant Skotoboinikov, the opera by Trishatov, the story The Peasant Marey. The plot and storyline motives of these works and the novel go back to the parable of the Prodigal Son and the Book of Job. They share the motives of suffering, redemption and resurrection. A Writer's Diary of 1876, which utilizes a system of references to the novel, starts from January and contains a reference to the celebration of the Nativity (the Christmas story The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree, quotes from a Christmas worship service), and ends in December, at the beginning of advent. A Writer's Diary contains an appeal to Christmas and Easter as the most significant dates of the church calendar and the writer's personal biographical time. In the chapter More on a simple but tricky case (December), Dostoevsky recalls how he survived the December 22 execution on the Semyonovsky parade ground and a revival on Christmas Eve; in the Easter story The Peasant Marey (February), he tells the story of how he acquired faith in the Russian people in penal servitude during Easter. The author's position in the novel The Raw Youth and A Writer's Diary of 1876 can’t be comprehended without referring to the gospel and liturgical text. The Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son and the Book of Job, which are referenced in the novel and A Writer's Diary, are read in church before and during Great Lent.

Belonging through Events? Exploring the Demographic Profile, Motivations, and Experiences of Those Attending the Afternoon Carol Services on Christmas Eve at Liverpool Cathedral

This study tests the strength of Bishop David Walker’s notion of belonging to God through the Anglican Church through participation in events, by exploring the demographic profile, motivations, and experiences of 1234 participants attending the two afternoon Carol Services on Christmas Eve 2019 at Liverpool Cathedral, alongside 564 participants who completed the same survey at the evening Holly Bough Service on the Fourth Sunday in Advent 2019. The data confirmed the importance of event-belonging for 76% of the participants who do not regularly attend church services but who return year on year to the Cathedral and often invite friends to join them. The data also affirmed the presence of newcomers (12%) alongside returnees. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the participants perceived beneficial impact on their personal wellbeing. For the participants, what drew them to the Cathedral and what made the experience so special was not simply the quality of the music (93%), but also the opportunity to remember the Christmas story (82%).

Black Women, Indigent Medical Care, and Academic Medical Politics, 1950–1965: The Case of Birmingham, Alabama

Black Women, Indigent Medical Care, and Academic Medical Politics, 1950–1965:The Case of Birmingham, Alabama Charlotte G. Borst (bio) A "Negro child" had been born "'like an animal'" on the front lawn of the city's University Hospital, the Birmingham News reported on December 14, 1958, in a front-page story that seemed a modern reenactment of the biblical Christmas story. The paper explained that the mother, who was not named, but whom I shall refer to as Mary, had been turned away from the academic medical center's hospital because it had imposed "rigid charity regulations" that provided few maternity beds for poor Black mothers. Indeed, these regulations were so strictly enforced that the hospital's staff was even barred from offering Mary aid as she labored and delivered her baby on the lawn.1 Although Alabama and the city of Birmingham historically had supported what historian Sam Bass Warner Jr. has identified as "the [End Page 467] American tradition of privatism," where the quest for private gain prevented the establishment and support of public amenities, the very public display of such a failure of the welfare system, and the obvious nature of Mary's humiliation and degradation at the feet of an academic medical center, elicited significant coverage in the state's newspapers.2 Most people would not have been surprised—in 1951, a Black woman named Emma Dangerfield had died in the waiting room of Birmingham's Jefferson Hospital (part of the University Hospital complex) after being denied entrance.3 As the provider of 95 percent of the area's total indigent medical care in the 1950s, University Hospital was locked in a fierce debate with both local and state officials over the lack of sufficient public funds for the support of the sick poor. Long before becoming part of the university's medical school, this county-owned facility had served white poor and paying patients, as well as Black indigent-care patients, who were housed in segregated wards. Black middle-class patients who could pay mostly received their care in other private but segregated hospitals in Birmingham. Indigent care for all patients was reimbursed through [End Page 468] county funding. But when the county sold the hospital to the University of Alabama in 1945 (in exchange for county indigent-care subsidies), the hospital's mission changed from serving members of the community to providing medical education as well as charity care.4 The reasons Mary was left on the lawn to labor reflected three intertwining changes in the South—not just in Birmingham or Alabama—in the post–World War II era. One was the role that medical schools and their associated hospitals played in the South's postwar strategies for economic development. The rise of and resistance to the expanding civil rights movement and its link to the racialized and gendered history of southern welfare policy were two other key fundamentals. These elements help explain Mary's story, and she provides a human face for the larger argument in this article: that it is only when we braid multiple historiographies together—the economic development fostered by hospitals and medical centers that followed a particular trajectory unique to the South's economic history; the very particular gendered racialization of welfare that was tied to the history of segregation; and the complicated and evolving history of massive white resistance—that we can understand why modern medical facilities in the postwar South succeeded in economic ways for some people but failed to bring health-care equity to women like Mary and her children.5 Even in the twenty-first century throughout the South, Black neonatal mortality is twice that of white infants.6 This story is particularly evident in Birmingham. At the end of World War II, challenged by the economic, social, and political upheaval of the war years, local political, business, and social [End Page 469] leaders tried to set a new agenda for the South. They understood that their region lagged behind much of the rest of the country economically, and their political rhetoric echoed a determination to catch up and establish the South as a favorable place for new industry.7 Attracting industry...