BBE THIINKOON

Ex CIA Agent: Every Terrorist Attack In US Was A False Flag Attack

In the following video Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the business model of the war on terror.

Max interviews open source advocate and former CIA agent , Robert David Steele, about false flag attacks.

Whistleblower David Steele, a former Marine and CIA clandestine services case officer says that most terrorists are false flag terrorists, or were created by our own security services.

Apart from documents that have outlined supposed terrorist threats, like Al-Qaeda, and their connection to US intelligence agencies, like the CIA, there are a number of whistleblowers that have come out adding more fuel to the fire. Because not many are even aware of these documents, letting people know about a truth that can be hard for people to accept, let alone ponder the possibility is very important. It’s just one aspect of the veil that’s been blinding the masses for quite some time now.

David Steele, a 20-year Marine Corps intelligence officer, and the second-highest-ranking civilian in the U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence. He is a former CIA clandestine services case officer, and this is what he had to say:

“Most terrorists are false flag terrorists, or are created by our own security services. In the United States, every single terrorist incident we have had has been a false flag, or has been an informant pushed on by the FBI. In fact, we now have citizens taking out restraining orders against FBI informants that are trying to incite terrorism. We’ve become a lunatic asylum.”

What Is A “False Flag Attack?”

A great example of a false flag attack is 9/11, something that many people believe to be a creation of US intelligence agencies, or some entity above the government (one that controls what Eisenhower called “the military industrial complex”). The idea is that these so called terrorist attacks are created by this group, in order to justify the infiltration of other countries, and to justify a heightened state of “national security.” As a result, in the eyes of the citizenry, war and mass murder are justified, when the intentions behind these actions are something the citizenry has no idea about. This is why we see a false sense of patriotism programmed into many people, especially in the United States. Men and women join this massive military machine with good hearts, thinking that they are serving their country and fighting terrorism, when they are doing the complete opposite. They are only participating in a fabricated war based on lies and misinformation.

“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al-Qaeda, and any informed intelligence officer knows this. But, there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an intensified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive TV watchers to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the United States.” – Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook

Today, we might be seeing the same thing with ISIS. Although there are no verified documents like there are when it comes to Al-Qaeda, given what that information shows us, combined with Wikileaks documents and statements from insiders, we could be looking at the same thing.

5 Scientists Died Mysteriously After Making These Major Discoveries

COMMENTS

Okay, say you’re the leader of a country and a few scientists discover something that could change the world. You could bribe the researchers to keep their mouths shut, but wouldn’t it be easier just to kill them?

I’m not saying that this happens a lot, but there has definitely been some shadiness afoot over the years. Let’s take a look at five eyebrow-raising cases of scientists dying after making important discoveries.

1. GEC-MARCONI SCIENTISTS

Back in the ’80s, Ronald Reagan introduced an ambitious defense program called Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed Star Wars), which was designed to shoot lasers at incoming missiles from space should the Russians attack. Between 1982 and 1990, 25 British scientists who worked for GEC-Marconi, the British wing of the program, mysteriously died. Some believe that they were killed by Soviet spies, and others believe that their own government had a hand in it.

2. DR DAVID KELLY

In 2003, biological warfare expert David Kelly anonymously leaked that the British government had falsified information regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. When Prime Minister Tony Blairfound out it was Kelly, a parliamentary committee was formed to question him. He was found dead in the woods, a mile away from his home. The police said it was a suicide, but because a judge ruled that the evidence had to be sealed for 70 years, we won’t know what truly happened for a long time.

3. DON WILEY

Don Wiley was a leading expert in chemical weaponry, most notably anthrax. During the 2001 anthrax epidemic, Wiley’s car was found on a bridge with the keys still in the ignition. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Another anthrax scientist named Vladimir Pasechnik also died around the same time.

4. RODNEY MARKS

Australian astrophysicist Rodney Marks died mysteriously at the South Pole research station while working on an observatory. His body was held by the government and security contractor Raytheon for unknown reasons. It was later revealed that Marks died of methanol poisoning.

5. POLAR SCIENTISTS

Three different researchers working on the same project died in 2013 while studying the effects of global warming, leading another scientist on the team named Peter Wadham to believe that they were assassinated by oil industry leaders or the United States government.

There aren’t many facts available to back up these theories, but that’s partly because people in power have taken pains to keep them under wraps. Does anyone else feel like there’s something fishy going on here?

New Study Finds ‘Unicorns’ Existed On Earth Around 26,000 Years Ago

According to a new study, ‘Unicorns’ lived in parts of Kazakhstan until 26,000 years ago, meaning that human might have even coexisted with the mysterious animals in the distant past.

While the ancient unicorns might not have been as pretty as we depict them today, it seems that the animals ancient mankind encountered in parts of Siberia could have ignited the mythical tales about Unicorns.

The bizarre animals lived alongside humans some 26,000 years ago, proving that there might be truth behind the legendary myth(sort of). The so-called Siberian Unicorn was not as pretty as humans might have imagined the animal in mythological tales, but it proves the creature roamed the Earth fairly ‘recently’.

Referred to by researchers as Elasmotheriusm sibiricum, the ‘Siberian Unicorn’ is believed to have died out in Siberia some 350,000 years ago, but the discovery of a new fossil proves that this mysterious animal was present on Earth much longer than previously thought, living in parts of Kazakhstan until 26,000 years ago. The Siberian ‘Unicorn’ was in fact a giant-sized ancient Rhino, from which ancient man might have developed tales of Unicorns we read about today.

The discovery points that the animal –which would have grown to the size of mammoths weighing some five tons– sought refuge in western Siberia, where they most likely coexisted with human species.

Researchers maintain that humans spread across parts of Asia some 50,000 years ago and moved to parts of what is today Siberia some 35,000 years ago.

According to Dr. Andrei Shpanski, a palaeontologist at the Tomsk State University: ‘Most likely, the south of Western Siberia was a refúgium, where this rhino persevered the longest in comparison with the rest of its range.’

‘There is another possibility that it could migrate and dwell for a while in the more southern areas.’

A painting of Elasmotherium sibiricum by Heinrich Harder. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Scientists discovered fossilized remains of the giant animals skull near the village of Kozhamazhar in the Pavlodar Priirtysh region of north east Kazakhstan. Interestingly, the remains of the ‘Siberian Unicorn’ were discovered alongside fossils of prehistoric bison and mammoths.

According to researchers, based on the discovered fossils, the animal would have reached around 4.6 meters in length, while growing to a height of around 2 meters. Scholars believe the Siberian Unicorns was, in fact, a variant of an ancient rhino, which grew much larger than  the woolly rhinos that were believed to live around the same time. Although researchers did not recover the actual ‘horn’ of the ‘Siberian Unicorn’, studies of the skull show that a bony lump is thought to have supported a keratin horn. Scientists suggest that the animal had long legs which allowed the animal to gallop much like a modern-day horse, rather than the lumbering trot seen in modern rhinos around the world.

Dr. Shpanski and his colleagues used radio carbon dating to determine the animal was around 26,038 years old – making it remarkably young.

Dr. Shpanski said: ‘Most likely, it was a very large male of very large individual age.

‘The dimensions of this rhino are the biggest of those described in the literature, and the proportions are typical.’

Elon Musk to take mankind WELL BEYOND MARS

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is changing the boundaries of space travel. The head of ‘futuristic’ space company SpaceX wants to take mankind well beyond Mars.Their goal? Interplanetary travel and deep space transport. According to Musk, it is imperative to go beyond the red planet.

The head of Space X has given us a little hint as to what his plans are on twitter as Mr. Musk tweeted:

‘Turns out MCT [Mars Colonial Transporter] can go well beyond Mars, so will need a new name…’

The company has renamed its Spacecraft from Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) to Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). The founder of SpaceX and Tesla motors has the company’s goals well beyond Mars, suggesting their spacecraft could be the ultimate transportation device that will take humans into deep space.

According to Mr. Musk, the transportation system that at first was created to take humans and materials to Mars has a far greater potential and could help our civilization become a spacefaring civilization by taking astronauts into deep space.

While Mus has remained extremely secretive about SpaceX’s plans, analytics expect he will let the world know more about their plans during the International Astronautical Congress, due to take place in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In the past, Musk has commented about his desire to take mankind to Mars ( transporting over a million Earthlings to the red planet) and beyond, in order to prevent the extinction of the human race.

According to a lengthy article published in the blog Wait But Why, under the title How (and Why) SpaceX Will Colonize Mars, the site editor, Tim Urban, had the opportunity to sit down Elon Musk and talk about SpaceX and their goals concerning Mars.

Elon Musk revealed his concern about the future of the planet and mankind, in general, saying that space colonization will be the only safe alternative in order for our species to survive the future.

Speaking about his futuristic plans, Musk stated the following:

‘This is going to be mind blowing. I’m so tempted to talk more about the details of it. But I have to restrain myself.

‘It’s dangerous and probably people will die – and they’ll know that.

‘And then they’ll pave the way, and ultimately it will be very safe to go to Mars, and it will very comfortable. But that will be many years in the future.’ 

With the discovery of Proxima B, we have realized that there are probably thousands of habitable planets which we could travel to -given we develop the necessary technology.

In fact, Mars may be just one possible destination for mankind within our solar system.

As to WHY we need to leave Earth ASAP, Musk indicated that there are too many dangers when it comes to Earth.

In fact, if we look back at the distant history of planet Earth, we realize that our planet has been continuously bombarded by space rocks.

According to researchers, these cosmic collisions turned our planet in what we see today, a thriving Oasis in somewhere in a ‘cosmic desert’ we call the universe.

Are you ready to leave Earth?

800,000 year old footprints in the UK suggest history needs to be rewritten

According to a group of archaeologists, a series of footprints discovered in the United Kingdom over year ago are evidence of human beings living on Earth much earlier than what mainstream scholars suggest. The mysterious footprints are believed to have been left by a group of adults and children nearly a million years ago.

The incredible footprints were actually recorded for the first time two years ago in Norfolk, England. “At first we weren’t sure what we were seeing, but as we removed any remaining beach sand and sponged off the seawater, it was clear that the hollows resembled prints, perhaps human footprints,” said Dr Nick Ashton of the British Museum.

With the aid of a technique called photogrammetry (which is the use of photography in surveying and mapping ascertain measurements between objects), researchers were able to record the surface where the footprints were found before the sea eroded them away. Posterior analysis demonstrated that the elongated hollows identified on the surface were in face those of ancient human beings which walked across the region 800,000 years ago.

Experts were able to confirm that the prints belonged to a group of up to five individuals.

“In some cases we could accurately measure the length and width of the footprints and estimate the height of the individuals who made them. In most populations today and in the past foot length is approximately 15 percent of height,” explained co-author Dr Isabelle De Groote of Liverpool John Moores University.

“We can therefore estimate that the heights varied from about 0.9 m to over 1.7 m. This height range suggests a mix of adults and children with the largest print possibly being a male.”

According to statements, several sites in the vicinity have yielded stone tools and fossil bones which date back 800,000 years and the latest discovery of the mysterious footprints is believed to be from the same deposits.

“Although we knew that the sediments were old, we had to be certain that the hollows were also ancient and hadn’t been created recently,” said co-author Dr Simon Lewis from Queen Mary University of London.

“There are no known erosional processes that create that pattern. In addition, the sediments are too compacted for the hollows to have been made recently.”

But just how did researchers come up with an age of 800,000 years? Well, the age of the site is based on the geological position located beneath the glacial deposits that make up the cliffs, and are also associated with extinct animals. At the site, experts have found the remains of plants, beetles, shells and other species which has allowed them to accurately reconstruct the ancient landscape of the site. During that period in history, Britain was linked by land to Europe

NASA gathers Scientists, historians, philosophers and theologians to prepare mankind for Extraterrestrial contact

With the numerous discoveries made in the last couple of months, the possibility of life elsewhere in the cosmos is something being considered not only by space agencies around the world but by numerous governments as well. Not long ago astronomers gathered in front of Congress (US) and discuss extraterrestrial life. Citing the sheer size of the universe, astronomers emphasized that there are trillions of stars out there in the cosmos and it is very likely that one out of five stars harbors an Earth-like planet, for life to exist as we know it. But that doesn’t meant that life elsewhere needs the same conditions as life on Earth needs in order to survive. Maybe somewhere out there life needs magma and nitrogen to survive.

“The number of habitable worlds in our galaxy is certainly in the tens of billions, minimum, and we haven’t even talked about the moons. And the number of galaxies we can see, other than our own, is about 100 billion.” – Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at California’s SETI Institute.

Alien life could be somewhere out there, and it is very likely that very soon we will find evidence of that.

Is NASA preparing the world for Alien Contact?

IT is very interesting to learn that NASA decided to team up with the Library of Congress and gather scientists, historians, philosophers and theologians from all around the world top discuss how to prepare mankind for contact with beings not from Earth. The idea that life exists elsewhere in the universe could be both exciting and dangerous for society. Imagine waking up one day, turning on the news and hearing that NASA has just found irrefutable proof of Aliens on another planet and that they have already made contact. What would that mean for you, your family, your community, city country and the entire planet? How much would things change?

Lets not forget the latest news about potential alien life from NASA. As you are reading through this article, astronomers from SETI are looking for confirmation about Alien life near the star where NASA spotted Giant ‘Alien-like’ Megastructures.

Tabetha Boyajian, a postdoc at Yale, told The Atlantic: “We’d never seen anything like this star. It was really weird. We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft, but everything checked out.”

According to Jason Wright, an astronomer at the Pennsylvania State University: “These structures, or better said mega-structures, could be the product of a highly advanced alien civilization.”

“We’re looking at all scenarios about finding life. If you find microbes, that’s one thing. If you find intelligence, it’s another. And if they communicate, it’s something else, and depending on what they say, it’s something else! The idea is not to wait until we make a discovery, but to try and prepare the public for what the implications might be when such a discovery is made. I think the reason that NASA is backing this is because of all the recent activity in the discovery of exoplanets and the advances in astrobiology in general. People just consider it much more likely now that we’re going to find something — probably microbes first and maybe intelligence later. The driving force behind this is from a scientific point of view that it seems much more likely now that we are going to find life at some point in the future.” – Astronomer, symposium organizer and former chief NASA historian, Steven J. Dick. (source)

We found it particularly interesting the commentary of Brother Guy Consolamgo, president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation who stated: “I believe [alien life exists], but I have no evidence. I would be really excited and it would make my understanding of my religion deeper and richer in ways that I can’t even predict yet, which is why it would be so exciting.” (source)

Finding life elsewhere in the cosmos isn’t a questions of possibility but rather a question of time and Brother Guy Consolmagno shares this view as he urges the public not to be surprised when scientists confirm the existence of Alien life elsewhere in the cosmos as this is something that is going to happen inevitably.

But is religion, faith and alien life something compatible? According to Brother Consolmagno, he wouldn’t mind baptizing alien beings in the future. In the last couple of years the Vatican has changed their views about Alien life drastically. Just imagine if someone would have said something like “Aliens’ 100 years ago? Things have changed and religion has become much more flexible. WE know that the universe is huge, Earth isn’t at its center and our planet isn’t flat, the next big discovery? Alien life.

But it seems that a lot of people from around the world, Astronauts and government officials already know that life exists elsewhere in the universe and it isn’t a surprise. For example… “Yes there have been crashed craft, and bodies recovered. We are not alone in the universe, they have been coming here for a long time.” (source) (source) – Apollo 14 Astronaut, Air Force Captain, and Founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Dr. Edgar Mitchell

Dr. Edgar Mitchell isn’t the only one to talk about Alien life, as there are a lot of other people who share Mitchell’s point of view. “In my opinion I think they were worried that it would panic the public so they started telling lies about it. And then I think they had to tell another lie to cover their first lie, now they don’t know how to get out of it. Now it’s going to be so embarrassing to admit that all these administrations have told so many untruths, it would be embarrassing getting out of it. There are a number of extraterrestrial vehicles out there cruising around.” (source) – Gordon Cooper, Former NASA astronaut, aeronautical engineer and test pilot.

Cooper and Mitchell aren’t the only NASA astronauts to talk about Extraterrestrial life as Dr Brian O’Leary also opened up about Alien life in the universe stating the following:

“There is abundant evidence that we are being contacted, that civilizations have been visiting us for a very long time. That their appearance is bizarre from any type of traditional materialistic western point of view. That these visitors use the technologies of consciousness, they use toroids, they use co-rotating magnetic disks for their propulsion systems, that seems to be a common denominator of the UFO phenomenon.” – Dr Brian O’leary, Former NASA Astronaut and Princeton Physics Professor (source)

And as I’ve said before that governmental officials have talked about alien life to the public, Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Defense Minister had a lot to say about ET:

“Decades ago, visitors from other planets warned us about the direction we were heading and offered to help. Instead, some of us interpreted their visits as a threat, and decided to shoot first and ask questions after. It is ironic that the US should be fighting monstrously expensive wars, allegedly to bring democracy to those countries, when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy when trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on black projects which both congress and the commander-in-chief have been kept deliberately in the dark.” –
Paul Hellyer, Former Canadian Defense Minister (source)

But if you think that Hellyer was the only one to talk about aliens you are wrong. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency said the following:

“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.” Former head of CIA, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 1960 (source)

ये हैं विश्‍व के दस सबसे जहरीले जीव

1- ब्‍लू लाइन ऑक्टोपस
ब्‍लू लाइन नाम के इस ऑक्टोपस का आकार टेबल टेनिस की बॉल के जितना छोटा होता है। दिखने मे यह बड़ा ही सुंदर होता है। इसे आसानी से आप मुट्ठी में पकड़ सकते हैं पर आप की ये चाहत आप की जान भी ले सकती है। ब्लू रिंग्ड ऑक्टोपस ज्यादातर ऑस्ट्रेलिया, जापान, इंडोनेशिया, फिलीपींस और पापुआ न्यू गिनी में पाए जाते हैं। इसका जहर पहले आंखों और फिर श्वसन तंत्र को नाकाम कर देता है।

2- बॉक्स जेलीफिश
पानी मे पाई जाने वाली बॉक्स जेलीफिश को दुनिया का सबसे विषैला जीवों मे से एक माना गया है। एशिया और ऑस्ट्रेलिया के समुद्र में पाई जाने वाली बॉक्स जेलीफिश पारदर्शी होती है। इसे पानी में देखना मुश्किल होता है। बॉक्स जेलीफिश नेमाटोसाट्स पैदा करती है। इसके शरीर में पहुंचने से सबसे पहले दिल काम करना बंद कर देता है और धड़कन रुक जाती है। यह जहर तुरंत दिल पर हमला करता है।

3- बनाना स्‍पाइडर
इस मकड़ी को बनाना स्पाइडर कहते है। इसे लोग आम मकड़ी समझने की भूल कर जाते हैं। बनाना स्पाइडर में सेरोटोनिन नाम का जहर होता है। यह सीधे तंत्रिका तंत्र पर हमला करता है। इसके शरीर में पहुंचने के बाद दिमाग काम करना बंद कर देता है। जिससे आदमी की मृत्यु हो जाती है।

4- डार्ट फ्राग
मध्य और दक्षिण अमेरिका में पाया जाने वाला यह मेंढक अपने रंग से शिकार को आकर्षित करता है। देखने में यह जितना सुंदर है उतना ही घातक भी है। शिकारियों से बचने के लिए इसकी त्वचा में घातक जहर होता है। जिसका सीधा असर तंत्रिका तंत्र पर होता है। इसके जहर ये दिमाग तक सूचनाओं का आदान प्रदान बंद हो जाता है। इसके संपर्क में आने वाले जीवों के जिंदा बचने की संभावना बहुत कम होती है।

5- स्‍टेलकर स्‍कॉर्पियन
मध्य पूर्व एशिया और उत्तरी अफ्रीका में धानी रंग और चमक वाला यह बिच्छू मिलता है। देखने में भले ही यह मामूली लगे लेकिन इसका जहर जानलेवा होता है। इसका डंक तेज दर्द पैदा करता है। कुछ ही मिनटों के दम घुटने से व्यक्ति की तुरंत मौत हो जाती है।

महिला ने 46 साल बाद दिया एक पथरीले बच्चे को जन्म

एक बार सोचकर देखो...एक महिला 46 साल से अपने गर्भ में बच्चा रखे हुए थी। जब उस बच्चे को बाहर निकाला गया तो वो पत्थर का बन गया था। आखिर इस महिला ने ऐसा क्यों किया इसके पीछे भी बड़ी ही रोचक कहानी है।

जीवन और मृत्यु प्रकृति का नियम है और अगर इस नियम को तोड़ा जाए तो परिणाम भयंकर होते हैं ऐसे कई उदाहरण देखने को मिले हैं। ऐसा ही कुछ इस मामले में भी देखने को मिला है। एक महिला 9 महीने नहीं 9 साल भी नहीं बल्कि पूरे 46 साल तक अपने गर्भ में बच्चे को रखी रही।

ये चौंका देने वाला मामला मोरक्को के एक छोटे से गांव का है और जो महिला 46 साल तक अपने गर्भ में बच्चे को रखे रही उसका नाम है जेहरा अबोउतालिब। जब इस महिला ने गर्भ धारण किया था तब वो 26 साल की थी।

दरअसल जब इस महिला ने गर्भ धारण किया था तो इसको लेबर पेन हुआ उसके बाद तुरंत हॉस्पिटल ले जाया गया। अस्पताल पहुंचने के बाद डॉक्टर्स ने बोला कि हालत नाजुक है इसलिए ऑपरेशन करना पड़ेगा। लेकिन जेहरा ऑपरेशन के लिए बिल्कुल तैयार नहीं थी। जेहरा को अपनी जान का खतरा लगा और मौका पाते ही वो अस्पताल से भाग गई।

पेट में हो रहे दर्द को इस महिला ने लगातार सहा और आखिरकार जेहरा का बच्चा उसके गर्भ में ही मर गया। इतना ही नहीं बच्चे को बाहर भी नहीं आने दिया। उसके बाद सबकुछ नॉर्मल चलता रहा और दिन गुजरते गए लेकिन जब वो 75 साल की हुई तो उनके पेट में एक बार फिर दर्द हुआ तो उन्होंने डॉक्टर से सलाह ली और चेकअप कराए।

चेकअप कराने के बाद जो रिपोर्ट सामने आई उसने सभी को चौंका दिया। 46 साल बाद अब वो बच्चा पत्थर का बन चुका था। जिस ऑपरेशन से डरकर वो अस्पताल से 46 साल पहले भाग गई थी उसे वही ऑपरेशन दोबारा कराना पड़ा। ऑपरेशन के बाद जब गर्भ को बाहर निकाला गया तो वो बच्चा पत्थर का बन चुका था साथ ही साथ सड़ भी चुका था।

आप जानते हैं चीन की दीवार को किसने और क्यों बनवाया था?

दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी दीवार जिसे Great Wall of China भी कहते हैं। यह अपनी बेजोड़ लंबाई की वजह से तो यह दुनिया भर में प्रसिद्ध है ही लेकिन इसके अलावा भी इस दीवार से जुड़ी बहुत सारी दिलचस्प कहानियां चाइना में खूूूब प्रचलित हैं। यहां पर बड़ी संख्या में निर्मित दुर्गम दर्रें भी बेमिसाल है। यूनेस्को की वर्ल्ड हेरिटेज साइट्स में शुमार इस ग्रेट वॉल को देखने के लिए हर साल बहुत बड़ी संख्या में सैलानी पहुंचते हैं।

किसने और क्यों बनवाई ये विशाल दीवार?

यह विशाल किलेनुमा दीवार मिट्टी और पत्थरों से बनी है, जिसे 5वीं शताब्दी ईसा पूर्व से लेकर 16वीं शताब्दी तक चीन के विभिन्न शासकों के द्वारा बनवाया गया। इसे बनवाने के पीछे का मकसद उत्तरी हमलावरों से अपनी रक्षा करना था।

इसकी विशालता का अंदाजा आप इस बात से लगा सकते हैं कि इसे अंतरिक्ष से भी इसे आसानी से देखा जा सकता है। यह दीवार 6400 किलोमीटर के क्षेत्र में फैली हुई है, जिसका विस्तार पूर्व में शानहाइगुआन से पश्चिम में लोप नुर तक है और कुल लंबाई लगभग 4160 मील है। हालांकि हाल के सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार, यह दीवार अपनी सभी शाखाओं सहित 8,851.8 कि.मी. (5,500.3 मील) तक फैली है।

8वीं शताब्दी में कुई, यान और जाहो राज्यों ने तीर एवं तलवारों के हमलों से बचने के लिए मिट्टी और कंकड के सांचे में दबा कर बनाई गई ईटों से दीवार का निर्माण किया गया। ईसा से 221 वर्ष पूर्व चीन किन (Qin) साम्राज्य के अनतर्गत आ गया। इस साम्राज्य ने सभी छोटे राज्यों को एक करके एक अखंड चीन की रचना की।

इसके बाद किन साम्राज्य के शासकों ने सारी दीवारों को मिलाकर एक कर दिया जो चीन की उत्तरी सीमा बनी। 5वीं शताब्दी से बहुत बाद तक ढेरों दीवारें बनीं, जिन्हें मिलाकर चीन की दीवार कहा गया। 220-226 ई.पू. में चीन के प्रथम सम्राट किन शी हुआंग द्वारा बनवाई गई दीवार सभी दीवारों में सबसे ज्यादा प्रसिद्ध थी लेकिन अब इस दीवार के कुछ ही अवशेष बचे हैं। यह मिंग वंश द्वारा बनवाई हुई वर्तमान दीवार के सुदूर उत्तर में बनी थी।

वहीं, कहा जाता है कि मिंग वंश की सुरक्षा के लिए यहां 10 लाख से ज्यादा लोग नियुक्त थे और इस महान दीवार के निर्माण परियोजना में लगभग 20 से 30 लाख लोगों ने अपना पूरा जीवन लगा दिया था। आज यह दीवार विश्व में चीन का नाम ऊंचा करती है और इसे युनेस्को द्वारा 1980 से विश्व धरोहर घोषित किया गया है।

इससे जुड़ी कुछ और बातेें

दुनियाभर में खासतौर पर चीन में बच्चों को यह पढ़ाया जाता रहा है कि धरती पर चीन की दीवार ही एकमात्र ऐसी मानवनिर्मित चीज है जो अंतरिक्ष में दिखाई देती है लेकिन सब ओर निराशा तब फैल गई जब अंतरिक्ष में गए चीन के पहले यात्री ने यह कहा कि उसे अंतरिक्ष से दीवार नहीं दिखी।

यह निराशा तब दूर हुई जब सरकारी अखबार ने चीनी मूल के अमरीकी अंतरिक्ष यात्री द्वारा खींची तस्वीरों का प्रकाशन कर दिया।

भले ही अंतरिक्ष में चाइना की दीवार दिखाई देती है लेकिन चीनी गर्व की इस महान दीवार का भाव लोगों में थोड़ा कम हो गया है क्योंकि मिस्र के पिरामिड और कई हवाई अड्डों को भी अंतरिक्ष से देखे जाने की बात सामने आई है।

यूनेस्को की वर्ल्ड हेरिटेज साइट्स में शुमार चाइना वॉल की अब देख-रेख नहीं हो रही है, जिसके कारण इसके नष्ट होने का खतरा मंडरा रहा है। दीवार का एक बड़ा हिस्सा प्राकृतिक आपदा और मानवीय लापरवाही के चलते गायब हो चुका है।

ग्रेट वॉल ऑफ चाइना के नाम से जानी जाने वाली यह दीवार अब अटूट संरचना नहीं रही। कई हिस्सों में बंटी यह दीवार 1962 किलोमीटर तक टूट चुकी है। इस ऐतिहासिक संरचना को टूरिस्ट ने भी काफी नुकसान पहुंचाया है। इतना ही नहीं आस-पास के गांव के लोग अपना मकान बनाने के लिए यूनेस्को के इस विश्व धरोहर स्थल से ईंटे तक चुरा रहे हैं और बेच रहे हैं, जिसे रोकने के लिए सरकार ने जुर्माना लगाया है।

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

For other uses, see The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (disambiguation).

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Original title page

AuthorL. Frank BaumIllustratorW. W. DenslowCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishSeriesThe Oz booksGenreFantasy, children's novelPublisherGeorge M. Hill Company

Publication date

May 17, 1900OCLC9506808Followed byThe Marvelous Land of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an Americanchildren's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900. It has since been reprinted on numerous occasions, most often under the title The Wizard of Oz, which is the title of the popular 1902 Broadway musical as well as the iconic 1939 musical film adaptation.

The story chronicles the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy in the magicalLand of Oz, after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their Kansas home by acyclone.^{[nb 1]} The novel is one of the best-known stories in American literature and has been widely translated. The Library of Congress has declared it "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale". Its groundbreaking success and the success of the Broadway musical adapted from the novel led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz booksthat serve as official sequels to the first story.

Baum dedicated the book "to my good friend & comrade, My Wife", Maud Gage Baum. In January 1901, George M. Hill Company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956.

1900 first edition cover, George M. Hill, Chicago, New York

Back cover

PublicationEdit

The book was published by George M. Hill Company. Its first edition had a printing of 10,000 copies and was sold in advance of the publication date of September 1, 1900. On May 17, 1900, the first copy of the book came off the press; Baum assembled it by hand and presented it to his sister Mary Louise Baum Brewster. The public saw the book for the first time at a book fair at the Palmer House in Chicago, July 5–20. The book's copyright was registered on August 1; full distribution followed in September.^[1] By October 1900, the first edition had already sold out and the second edition of 15,000 copies was nearly depleted.^[2]

In a letter to his brother Harry, Baum wrote that the book's publisher George M. Hill predicted a sale of about 250,000 copies. In spite of this favorable conjecture, Hill did not initially predict that the book would be phenomenally successful. He agreed to publish the book only when the manager of the Chicago Grand Opera House Fred R. Hamlin committed to making The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into a musical stage play to publicize the novel. The play The Wizard of Ozdebuted on June 16, 1902. It was revised to suit adult preferences and was crafted as a "musical extravaganza", with the costumes modeled after Denslow's drawings. Hill's publishing company became bankrupt in 1901, so Baum and Denslow agreed to have the Indianapolis-based Bobbs-Merrill Company resume publishing the novel.^[3]

Baum's son Harry Neal told the Chicago Tribune in 1944 that L. Frank told his children "whimsical stories before they became material for his books". Harry called his father the "swellest man I knew", a man who was able to give a decent reason as to why black birds cooked in a pie could afterwards get out and sing.^[4]

By 1938, more than one million copies of the book had been printed.^[5] Less than two decades later in 1956, the sales of his novel had grown to three million copies in print.^[3]

Plot summaryEdit

Dorothy is a young girl who lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and her little dog Toto on a Kansas farm. One day, Dorothy and Toto are caught up in a cyclone that deposits her farmhouse into Munchkin Country in the magical Land of Oz. The falling house has killed the Wicked Witch of the East, the evil ruler of the Munchkins. The Good Witch of the North arrives with the grateful Munchkins and gives Dorothy the magical Silver Shoes that once belonged to the witch. The Good Witch tells Dorothy that the only way she can return home is to go to the Emerald City and ask the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to help her. As Dorothy embarks on her journey, the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead, giving her magical protection from harm.

On her way down the yellow brick road, Dorothy attends a banquet held by a Munchkin man named Boq. The next day, Dorothy frees the Scarecrow from the pole on which he is hanging, applies oil from a can to the rusted connections of the Tin Woodman, and meets the Cowardly Lion. The Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin Woodman wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion wants courage, so Dorothy encourages the three of them to journey with her and Toto to the Emerald City to ask for help from the Wizard. After several adventures, the travelers enter the gates of the Emerald City and meet the Guardian of the Gates, who asks them to wear green tinted spectacles to keep their eyes from being blinded by the city's brilliance. Each one is called to see the Wizard: Dorothy sees the Wizard as a giant head on a marble throne, the Scarecrow as a lovely lady in silk gauze, the Tin Woodman as a terrible beast, the Cowardly Lion as a ball of fire. The Wizard agrees to help them all if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West, who rules over Oz's Winkie Country. The Guardian warns them that no one has ever managed to defeat the witch.

The Wicked Witch of the West sees the travelers approaching with her one telescopic eye. She sends a pack of wolves to tear them to pieces, but the Tin Woodman kills them with his axe. She sends wild crows to peck their eyes out, but the Scarecrow kills them by breaking their necks. She summons a swarm of black bees to sting them, but they are killed trying to sting the Tin Woodman while the Scarecrow's straw hides the other three. She sends her Winkie soldiers to attack them, but the Cowardly Lion stands firm to repel them. Finally, she uses the power of the Golden Cap to send the winged monkeys to capture Dorothy, Toto, and the Cowardly Lion, unstuff the Scarecrow, and dent the Tin Woodman. Dorothy is forced to become the Wicked Witch's personal slave, while the witch schemes to steal Dorothy's Silver Shoes.

The Wicked Witch melts, from the W. W. Denslow illustration of the first edition (1900).

The Wicked Witch successfully tricks Dorothy out of one of her Silver Shoes. Angered, Dorothy throws a bucket of water at her and is shocked to see the witch melt away. The Winkies rejoice at being freed of the witch's tyranny and help restuff the Scarecrow and mend the Tin Woodman. They ask the Tin Woodman to become their ruler, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas. Dorothy finds the Golden Cap and summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions back to the Emerald City. The King of the Winged Monkeys tells how he and the other monkeys are bound by an enchantment to the cap by the sorceressGayelette from the North, and that Dorothy may use the cap to summon the Winged Monkeys two more times.

When Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard of Oz again, Toto tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room that reveals the Wizard. He sadly explains he is a humbug—an ordinary old man who, by a hot air balloon, came to Oz long ago from Omaha. The Wizard provides the Scarecrow with a head full of bran, pins, and needles ("a lot of bran-new brains"), the Tin Woodman with a silk heart stuffed with sawdust, and the Cowardly Lion a potion of "courage". Their faith in the Wizard's power gives these items a focus for their desires. The Wizard decides to take Dorothy and Toto home and leave the Emerald City. At the send-off, he appoints the Scarecrow to rule in his stead, which he agrees to do after Dorothy returns to Kansas. Toto chases a kitten in the crowd and Dorothy goes after him, but the tethers of the balloon break and the Wizard floats away.

Dorothy summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and Toto home, but they explain they cannot cross the desert surrounding Oz. TheSoldier with the Green Whiskers informs Dorothy that Glinda the Good Witch of the South may be able to help her return home, so the friends begin their journey to see Glinda, who lives in Oz's Quadling Country. On the way, the Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider who is terrorizing the animals in a forest. The animals ask the Cowardly Lion to become their king, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas. Dorothy summons the Winged Monkeys a third time to fly them over a mountain to Glinda's palace. Glinda greets the travelers and reveals that the Silver Shoes Dorothy wears can take her anywhere she wishes to go. Dorothy embraces her friends, all of whom will be returned to their new kingdoms through Glinda's three uses of the Golden Cap: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman to the Winkie Country, and the Lion to the forest; after which the cap shall be given to the King of the Winged Monkeys, freeing them. Dorothy takes Toto in her arms, knocks her heels together three times, and wishes to return home. Instantly, she begins whirling through the air and rolling through the grass of the Kansas prairie, up to her Kansas farmhouse. Dorothy runs to her Aunt Em, saying "I'm so glad to be at home again!"

Illustration and designEdit

The book was illustrated by Baum's friend and collaborator W. W. Denslow, who also co-held the copyright. The design was lavish for the time, with illustrations on many pages, backgrounds in different colors, and several color plate illustrations.^{[citation needed]} In September 1900, The Grand Rapids Heraldwrote that Denslow's illustrations are "quite as much of the story as in the writing". The editorial opined that had it not been for Denslow's pictures, the readers would be unable to picture precisely the figures of Dorothy, Toto, and the other characters.^[6]

The distinctive look led to imitators at the time, most notably Eva Katherine Gibson'sZauberlinda, the Wise Witch, which mimicked both the typography and the illustration design of Oz.^[7] The typeface was the newly designed Monotype Old Style. Denslow's illustrations were so well known that merchants of many products obtained permission to use them to promote their wares. The forms of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard, and Dorothy were made into rubber and metal sculptures. Costume jewelry, mechanical toys, and soap were also designed using their figures.^[8]

A new edition of the book appeared in 1944, with illustrations by Evelyn Copelman.^[9]Although it was claimed that the new illustrations were based on Denslow's originals, they more closely resemble the characters as seen in the famous 1939 film version of Baum's book.^[10]

Sources of images and ideasEdit

Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion, from the first edition

Baum acknowledged the influence of theBrothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, which he was deliberately revising in his "American fairy tales" to include the wonder without the horrors.^[11]

The land of Oz and other locationsEdit

Local legend has it that Oz, also known as The Emerald City, was inspired by a prominent castle-like building in the community of Castle Park near Holland, Michigan, where Baum lived during the summer. The yellow brick road was derived from a road at that time paved by yellow bricks. These bricks were located in Peekskill, New York, where Baum attended the Peekskill Military Academy. Baum scholars often refer to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (the "White City") as an inspiration for the Emerald City. Other legends suggest that the inspiration came from theHotel Del Coronado near San Diego, California. Baum was a frequent guest at the hotel and had written several of the Oz books there.^[12] In a 1903 interview with Publishers Weekly,^[13] Baum said that the name "OZ" came from his file cabinet labeled "O–Z".^[14]

Some critics have suggested that Baum may have been inspired by Australia, a relatively new country at the time of the book's original publication. Australia is often colloquially spelled or referred to as "Oz". Furthermore, inOzma of Oz (1907), Dorothy gets back to Oz as the result of a storm at sea while she and Uncle Henry are traveling by ship to Australia. Like Australia, Oz is an island continent somewhere to the west of California with inhabited regions bordering on a great desert. One might imagine that Baum intended Oz to be Australia, or perhaps a magical land in the center of the great Australian desert.^[15]

Alice's Adventures in WonderlandEdit

Another influence lay in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A September 1900 review in the Grand Rapids Herald called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a "veritable Alice in Wonderland brought up to the present day standard of juvenile literature".^[6] Baum found Carroll's plots incoherent, but he identified the books' source of popularity as Alice herself, a child with whom the child readers could identify; this influenced his choice of a protagonist.^[11] Baum was also influenced by Carroll's belief that children's books should have many pictures and be pleasurable to read. Carroll rejected the Victorian-era ideology that children's books should be saturated with morals, instead believing that children should be allowed to be children. Building on Carroll's style of numerous images accompanying the text, Baum amalgamated the conventional features of afairy tale (witches and wizards) with the well-known things in his readers' lives (scarecrowsand cornfields).^[16]

American fantasy storyEdit

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is considered the first American fairy tale because of its references to clear American locations such as Kansas and Omaha. Baum agreed with authors such as Carroll that fantasy literature was important for children, along with numerous illustrations, but he also wanted to create a story that had recognizable American elements in it, such as farming and industrialization.^[17]

Baum's personal lifeEdit

Many of the characters, props, and ideas in the novel were drawn from Baum's experiences. As a child, Baum frequently had nightmares of a scarecrow pursuing him across a field. Moments before the scarecrow's "ragged hay fingers" nearly gripped his neck, it would fall apart before his eyes. Decades later, as an adult, Baum integrated his tormentor into the novel as the Scarecrow.^[18] According to his son Harry, the Tin Woodman was born from Baum's attraction to window displays. He wished to make something captivating for the window displays, so he used an eclectic assortment of scraps to craft a striking figure. From a washboiler he made a body, from bolted stovepipes he made arms and legs, and from the bottom of a saucepan he made a face. Baum then placed a funnel hat on the figure, which ultimately became the Tin Woodman.^[19] John D. Rockefeller was the nemesis of Baum's father, an oil baron who declined to purchase Standard Oil shares in exchange for selling his own oil refinery. Baum scholar Evan I. Schwartz posited that Rockefeller inspired one of the Wizard's numerous faces. In one scene in the novel, the Wizard is seen as a "tyrannical, hairless head". When Rockefeller was 54 years old, the medical condition alopecia caused him to lose every strand of hair on his head, making people fearful of speaking to him.^[20]

In the early 1880s, Baum's play Matches was being performed when a "flicker from a kerosene lantern sparked the rafters", causing the Baum opera house to be consumed by flames. Scholar Evan I. Schwartz suggested that this might have inspired the Scarecrow's severest terror: "There is only one thing in the world I am afraid of. A lighted match."^[21]

In 1890, Baum lived in Aberdeen, which was experiencing a drought, and he wrote a witty story in his "Our Landlady" column in Aberdeen's The Saturday Pioneer^[22] about a farmer who gave green goggles to his horses, causing them to believe that the wood chips that they were eating were pieces of grass. Similarly, the Wizard made the people in the Emerald City wear green goggles so that they would believe that their city was built from emeralds.^[23]

Baum, a former salesman of china, wrote in chapter 20 about china that had sprung to life.^[23]

During Baum's short stay in Aberdeen, the dissemination of myths about the plentiful West continued. However, the West, instead of being a wonderland, turned into a wasteland because of a drought and a depression. In 1891, Baum moved his family from South Dakota to Chicago. At that time, Chicago was getting ready for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Scholar Laura Barrett stated that Chicago was "considerably more akin to Oz than to Kansas". After discovering that the myths about the West's incalculable riches were baseless, Baum created "an extension of the American frontier in Oz". In many respects, Baum's creation is similar to the actual frontier save for the fact that the West was still undeveloped at the time. The Munchkins Dorothy encounters at the beginning of the novel represent farmers, as do the Winkies she later meets.^[24]

Baum's wife frequently visited her niece, Dorothy Louise Gage. The infant became gravely sick and died on November 11, 1898, from "congestion of the brain" at exactly five months. When the baby, whom Maud adored as the daughter she never had, died, she was devastated and needed to consume medicine.^[25] To assuage her distress, Frank made his protagonist of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a female named Dorothy.^[26] Uncle Henry was modeled after Henry Gage, his wifeMaud's father. Bossed around by his wifeMatilda, Henry rarely dissented with her. He flourished in business, though, and his neighbors looked up to him. Likewise, Uncle Henry was a "passive but hard-working man" who "looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke".^[27] The witches in the novel were influenced by witch-hunting research gathered by Baum's mother-in-law, Matilda. The stories of barbarous acts against accused witches scared Baum. Two key events in the novel involve wicked witches who both meet their death through metaphorical means.^[28]

Baum held different jobs, moved a lot, and was exposed to many people, so the inspiration for the story could have been taken from many different aspects of his life.^[29] In the introduction to the story, Baum writes that "it aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out."^[30] This is one of the explanations that he gives for the inspiration for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Influence of DenslowEdit

The original illustrator of the novel, W. W. Denslow, could also have influenced the story and the way it has been interpreted. Baum and Denslow had a close working relationship and worked together to create the presentation of the story through the images and the text. Color is an important element of the story and is present throughout the images, with each chapter having a different color representation. Denslow also added characteristics to his drawings that Baum never described. For example, Denslow drew a house and the gates of the Emerald City with faces on them. In the later Oz books,John R. Neill, who illustrated all of the sequels, continued to include these faces on gates.^[31]

Allusions to 19th-century AmericaEdit

See also: Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Baum did not offer any conclusive proof that he intended his novel to be a political allegory. Historian Ranjit S. Dighe wrote that for 60 years after the book's publication, "virtually nobody" had such an interpretation until Henry Littlefield, a high-school teacher.^[32] In his 1964 American Quarterly article, "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism",^[33] Littlefield posited that the book contained an allegory of the late 19th-century bimetallism debate regarding monetary policy.^[34]

Not only did Baum draw inspiration from the American land around him, but he also created Oz to display an American utopia where the issues of the day were solved. There is little distinction between utopia and fairy-tale land.^[35] Baum believed that the imagination was the best tool for creating a striving society. In a later book in the Oz series, Baum writes: "imaginations and dreams are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent and, therefore, to foster civilization."^[36] In this way, Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a modern fairy tale depicting Oz as an American utopia that displays numerous allusion and solutions to issues in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The realm of Oz very closely resembles America. It contains four countries, the Land of the North, East, West, and South, and the national capital, the Emerald City. America and its inhabitants are often divided into similar categories such as Midwestern, Southern, etc. These locations are also separated by an American color scheme that was relevant to American during the 19th century.^[37] The color blue represents the industrial East known for the blue-collar jobs. The South is red for the red earth it contains or the "redneck" inhabitants. Yellow describes the West, denoting the California gold rush. Finally, the Emerald City as Washington D. C., denoting greenbacks and money of the country.

The villains of the story are the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East. The wicked witches use their power to control and enslave their subjects. There was an equal balance between good and evil, and until this balance was altered, there could be no change or development in Oz. This standoff can be seen as an allusion between the different political parties in America. The Wicked Witch of the West represents the American West, including the wealthy railroad, oil barons, and nature. The American West's greatest weapon in the 19th century, though, was nature, most malignantly the drought. The effects lasted longer than any fire or twister, and a long enough drought could ruin a whole year's worth of crops. Thus, water as the weapon to kill the Witch of the West is quite poetic. The brown mass the witch's remains turn into resembles mud after a heavy storm. Dorothy even cleans the melted witch off the floor and her shoes as if she had walked through a rainy puddle.

Baum's Wicked Witch of the East has been suggested to represent Eastern financial and industrial interests, such as Wall Street, which oppresses the agricultural citizens.^[38] The Witch of the East enslaved her subjects much as industrialism was thought to enslave the working class in 19th-century Eastern America. Once Dorothy killed the Wicked Witch of the East the balance of power could be shifted. Both these groups opposed Populist efforts to move the U.S. to a bimetallic monetary standard since this would have devalued the dollar and made investments less valuable. Workers and poor farmers supported the move away from the gold standard, as this would have lessened their crushing debt burdens. The Populist party sought to build a coalition of Southern and Midwestern tenant farmers and Northern industrial workers. These groups are represented in the book by the Good Witches of the North and South.

At the beginning of the novel, Dorothy is swept from her farm to Oz by a cyclone, which was frequently compared to the Free Silvermovement in Baum's time.^[33] The yellow brick road represents the gold standard, and the Silver Shoes, which enable Dorothy to travel more comfortably, symbolizes the Populist Party's desire to construct a bimetallic standard of both gold and silver in place of the gold standard. "Oz" is the abbreviated form of ounce, a standard measure of gold.^[39]When Dorothy and the Scarecrow walk through the forest, the road begins to be rough and patchy, causing the Scarecrow to trip and fall numerous times. The Scarecrow's falls on the yellow brick road resemble the damage farmers faced owing to deflation caused by the scarcity of gold. Dorothy, however, simply "walks around" the holes in the road, showing that the bimetallic standard works. Even when gold was scarce, the other metal in the bimetal system would be relatively cheap, therefore one bypasses deflation.^[40] Throughout the book, most of the characters do not know the magic behind the silver shoes. It is not until Dorothy meets Glinda, the good Witch of the South, that she finds out that the silver shoes have had the power to transfer her back to Kansas all along. Baum is possibly alluding to the fact that the bimetallic standard has been a working solution to the economic crisis all along, though no one knows how to do it. Once Dorothy clicks her heels three times, she returns to Kansas, where she realizes that "The Silver Shoes had fallen off in her flight through the air, and were lost forever in the desert." The silver shoes were lost, much like the fight for the bimetallic standard, which began to fade away in 1900.

The Wizard is the national leader of Oz, thus it is fitting for him to symbolize the President(s) of the United States during the 19th century.^[38] Politicians have been known to have many faces; it is a must if they want to be able to be everything for everyone. The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz agrees to meet with each traveler separately, allowing him to alter his appearance to best fit each character. When the gang returns having completed the Wizard's task, they discover that the Wizard is a fake and is actually just "a common man" who has made everyone believe he was powerful. The Scarecrow adds that he is a humbug, in which the Wizard gladly says that is he is exactly that. The Wizard made promises he could not keep, as did many 19th-century politicians. The Wizard later states: "How can I help being a humbug… when all these people make me do things that everyone knows can't be done," showing that he was able to deceive others because others were willing to be deceived.

While journeying to the Emerald City, Dorothy encounters a scarecrow, who represents a farmer. The Scarecrow believes he is a fool, since his head is full of straw and not brains. Four years before the book's release, William Allen White, a journalist from Chicago, published an article entitled "What's the Matter With Kansas?" In the article White questions why Kansas is unsatisfied and sarcastically answers saying America needs "fewer white shirts and brains", implying Western farmers were ignorant, lazy and bad businessmen.^[41] The Scarecrow shares this opinion and doubts himself, believing he is inferior without a brain. In the same year White published his article, William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous "Cross of Gold speech" at the 1896 Democratic Convention. Bryan fought for the farmers and argued against such accusations made by White, exclaiming: "The farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day, begins in the spring and toils all summer, and by the application of brain and muscle to the natural resources of this country creates wealth, is as much a businessman as the man who goes upon the Board of Trade and bets upon the price of grain."^[42] Baum shares Bryan's view on American farmers by showing that the Scarecrow is sharp and capable by his actions throughout the book. The book ends with "farm interests achieving national importance" and farmers' true potential in politics being revealed once the illusion of ignorance has been removed.

The next companion Dorothy meets on the yellow brick road is the Tin Woodsman who has been cursed by the now deceased Wicked Witch of the East. He was once a hard worker yearning to earn money to start a family with a Munchkin girl. The witch enchanted his axe so that the Woodsman chopped off each of his limbs and eventually his body. Each time a tinner healed the Woodsman by replacing his body with tin, however once the Tin Woodsman's heart was removed he could no longer love. The Tin Woodsman symbolizes the Eastern working man competing in an industrialized society. The 19th-century man had to keep up with the machine in order to be useful and relevant. In this way the Witch of the East's curse "dehumanized a simple laborer so that the faster and better he worked the more quickly he became a kind of machine."^[38] The Tin Woodsman was caught in the rain and rusted in the same position for one year before Dorothy oils his joints to set him free. The Tin Woodsman's year of waiting is parallel to the unemployment of Eastern workers during the severe depression of 1893-1897. His calls of help that were never heard relate to President Grover Cleveland's "hard-hearted refusal" to take action during this time to reinstate the economy.^[38] While the Tin Woodsman stood still for a year, he finally slowed down enough to ponder life. During this time, he discovers that "the greatest loss [he] had known was the loss of [his] heart" for without it he cannot love. Baum portrays the Tin Woodsman as an Eastern worker who lost sight of family values for a moment. Part of the Progressive movement in the 19th century was to reestablish the family as the center of American life. The curse of the Tin Woodsman by the Wicked Witch of the East is consistent with the depiction of the witch representing Wall Street and other Eastern big businesses during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The final addition to the traveling party is the Cowardly Lion. This character is hypothesized to be the famous Populist politician William Jennings Bryan. The muscular, six-foot-tall (183 cm) political figure was known as a compassionate but powerful speaker, which could be compared to a lion's roar.^[43]Throughout the book, Baum is mostly sympathetic towards populist characters such as the Scarecrow; thus it seems odd that Baum would refer to the character portraying Bryan as cowardly.^[44] However, the late 19th century began an age of American expansionism in which the United States struggled to gain control of countries like Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines from Spain. Bryan's non-violent and anti-imperialist stance on the popular Spanish–American War of 1898 was often referred to as unpatriotic and cowardly. Baum seems to take this criticism and turn it into a complaint towards Bryan, showing that although the Lion is the King of the Beasts it shows more bravery to stand by than to run in towards unnecessary obstacles, no matter how popular. The Cowardly Lion's first encounter with the Tin Woodsman shows support for both of their characters being based on Bryan and Eastern industrial workers, respectively. When they meet, the Cowardly Lion strikes the Tin Woodsman with his sharp claws, but to his surprise "he could make no impression on the tin, although the Woodman fell over in the road and lay still." This refers to Bryan's inability to get votes in the 1896 presidential election from Eastern workers owing to pressure from their employers to vote for McKinley.^[38] Bryan himself said, "During the campaign I ran across various evidences of coercion, direct and indirect."^[45] Other historical sources share this opinion noting, "for some reason labor remained singularly unimpressed." Thus, the Cowardly Lion's claws did not pierce the Tin Woodsman body, just as Bryan's roar did not leave an impression with Eastern industrial workers.

Baum's fairy tale contains many other allusions to American life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance, Dorothy's loyal companion, Toto, could be a play on "teetotalers" which is a person who never drinks alcohol.^[46] The prohibitionists deemed alcohol consumption should be unlawful and they were longtime political allies of Populists during the late 19th century. Ironically, Toto trots "soberly" behind Dorothy on their adventure. The Winged Monkeys have been thought to resemble the Plains Indians who were "once free people" but were now enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the West. Their actions can be good or bad depending on how they are controlled; however they "belong to this country alone" and therefore cannot leave, as can be said for American Indians.^[38] The Yellow Winkies that inhabit the Land of the West could represent Asian workers in California during the gold rush; their harsh work environment can be seen as enslavement.^[38] The lenses that the groups must wear before entering the City of Oz to dim the emeralds' shine turn out to be fake, like the Wizard. The Emerald City is not a city made of emeralds but a plain, white city where the emerald color lenses cast a green hue on everything and everyone. This shows that anything can be made to look spectacular if you allow yourself to be tricked. Baum traveled all over the United States and would have been introduced to all these events in the 19th century, making it very likely that he drew inspiration from the land around him.

Baum's modernized fairy tale, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, ends with both the Wicked Witch of the East and West defeated and Dorothy, Toto and the Wizard returning to the United States. The Scarecrow reigns over the Emerald City; thus farmers achieve national importance. The Tin Woodsman brings industrialization to the Land of the West. And the Cowardly Lion becomes the protector in the Grand Old Forest, as Bryan commanded a smaller number of politicians.^[38]

Littlefield's thesis achieved some support, but has been strenuously attacked by others.^[47][48][49]

Cultural impactEdit

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has become an established part of multiple cultures, spreading from its early young American readership to becoming known throughout the world. It has been translated or adapted into well over fifty languages, at times being modified in local variations. For instance, in some abridged Indian editions, the Tin Woodman was replaced with a snake.^[50] In Russia, a translation by Alexander Melentyevich Volkov produced five books, The Wizard of the Emerald City series, which became progressively distanced from the Baum version, as Ellie and her dog Totoshka travel throughout the Magic Land. The 1939film adaptation has become a classic of popular culture, shown annually on American television from 1959 to 1991 and then several times a year every year beginning in 1999.^[51]More recently, the story has become anAmerican stage production with an all-black cast, set in the context of modern African-American culture.^[52][53]

Critical responseEdit

This last story of The Wizard is ingeniously woven out of commonplace material. It is, of course, an extravaganza, but will surely be found to appeal strongly to child readers as well as to the younger children, to whom it will be read by mothers or those having charge of the entertaining of children. There seems to be an inborn love of stories in child minds, and one of the most familiar and pleading requests of children is to be told another story.

The drawing as well as the introduced color work vies with the texts drawn, and the result has been a book that rises far above the average children's book of today, high as is the present standard.

...

The book has a bright and joyous atmosphere, and does not dwell upon killing and deeds of violence. Enough stirring adventure enters into it, however, to flavor it with zest, and it will indeed be strange if there be a normal child who will not enjoy the story.

“

”

The New York Times, September 8, 1900^[54]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz received positive critical reviews upon release. In a September 1900 review, The New York Times praised the novel, writing that it would appeal to child readers and to younger children who could not read yet. The review also praised the illustrations for being a pleasant complement to the text.^[54]

During the first 50 years after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz's publication in 1900, it received little critical analysis from scholars of children's literature. According to Ruth Berman of Science Fiction Studies, the lists of suggested reading published for juvenile readers never contained Baum's work. The lack of interest stemmed from the scholars' misgivings about fantasy, as well as to their belief that lengthy series had little literary merit.^[55]

It has frequently come under fire over the years. In 1957, the director of Detroit's libraries banned The Wonderful Wizard of Ozfor having "no value" for children of his day, for supporting "negativism", and for bringing children's minds to a "cowardly level". Professor Russel B. Nye of Michigan State University countered that "if the message of the Oz books—love, kindness, and unselfishness make the world a better place—seems of no value today", then maybe the time is ripe for "reassess[ing] a good many other things besides the Detroit library's approved list of children's books".^[56]

In 1986, seven Fundamentalist Christian families in Tennessee opposed the novel's inclusion in the public school syllabus and filed a lawsuit.^[57][58] They based their opposition to the novel on its depicting benevolent witches and promoting the belief that integral human attributes were "individually developed rather than God given".^[58] One parent said, "I do not want my children seduced into godless supernaturalism".^[59] Other reasons included the novel's teaching that females are equal to males and that animals are personified and can speak. The judge ruled that when the novel was being discussed in class, the parents were allowed to have their children leave the classroom.^[57]

Feminist author Margery Hourihan has described the book as a "banal and mechanistic story which is written in flat, impoverished prose".^[60]

Leonard Everett Fisher of The Horn Book Magazine wrote in 2000 that Oz has "a timeless message from a less complex era, and it continues to resonate". The challenge of valuing oneself during impending adversity has not, Fisher noted, lessened during the prior 100 years.^[61]

In a 2002 review, Bill Delaney of Salem Presspraised Baum for giving children the opportunity to discover magic in the mundane things in their everyday lives. He further commended Baum for teaching "millions of children to love reading during their crucial formative years".^[16]

The Library of Congress has declared The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to be America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale", also naming it the first American fantasy for children and one of the most-read children's books.^[62]

EditionsEdit

After George M. Hill's bankruptcy in 1902, copyright in the book passed to the Bobbs-Merrill Company. The editions they published lacked most of the in-text color and color plates of the original. It was not until the book entered the public domain in 1956 that new editions, either with the original color plates, or new illustrations, proliferated. Notable among them are the 1986 Pennyroyal edition illustrated by Barry Moser, which was reprinted by the University of California Press, and the 2000 Annotated Wizard of Oz edited by Michael Patrick Hearn, which was published by W.W. Norton and included all the original color illustrations, as well as supplemental artwork by Denslow. Other centennial editions included University Press of Kansas's Kansas Centennial Edition,illustrated by Michael McCurdy with black-and-white illustrations, and Robert Sabuda'spop-up book.

SequelsEdit

See also: List of Oz books

Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Ozwithout any thought of a sequel. After reading the novel, thousands of children wrote letters to him, requesting that he craft another story about Oz. In 1904, he wrote and published the first sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, explaining that he grudgingly wrote the sequel to address the popular demand.^[63] Baum also wrote sequels in 1907, 1908, and 1909. In his 1911 The Emerald City of Oz, he wrote that he could not continue writing sequels because Ozland had lost contact with the rest of the world. The children refused to accept this story, so Baum, in 1913 and every year thereafter until his death in May 1919, wrote an Oz book, ultimately writing 13 sequels. TheChicago Tribune's Russell MacFall wrote that Baum explained the purpose of his novels in a note he penned to his sister, Mary Louise Brewster, in a copy of Mother Goose in Prose(1897), his first book. He wrote, "To please a child is a sweet and a lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward."^[3] After Baum's death in 1919, Baum's publishers delegated the creation of more sequels toRuth Plumly Thompson who wrote 21.^[16] An original Oz book was published every Christmas between 1913 and 1942.^[64] By 1956, five million copies of the Oz books had been published in the English language, while hundreds of thousands had been published in eight foreign languages.^[3]

AdaptationsEdit

Main article: Adaptations of The Wizard of Oz

Judy Garland as Dorothy discovering that she and Toto are no longer inKansas

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has been adapted to other media numerous times, most famously in The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 film starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr. Until this version, the book had inspired a number of now less well known stage and screen adaptations, including a profitable 1902 Broadway musical and three silent films. The 1939 film was considered innovative because of its songs, special effects, and revolutionary use of the newTechnicolor.^[65]

The story has been translated into other languages (at least once without permission) and adapted into comics several times. Following the lapse of the original copyright, the characters have been adapted and reused in spin-offs, unofficial sequels, and reinterpretations, some of which have been controversial in their treatment of Baum's characters