The thrill of aviation has held mankind's imagination since he first watched the birds in the sky. The early 20th century was a pivotal moment in history, with the addition of submarines, tanks, long-range artillery, and aircraft. Since 1903, man has proven that powered, controlled flight is possible above the dunes of North Carolina. The Great War of 1914-1918, or the First World War, was a critical period in which both sides tested new technologies and transitioned out the old. A mere ten years later, the world's armed forces began to examine various applications the aircraft offered.  First World War airpower is often viewed as insignificant concerning the broader conflict.  These conceptions oversimplify the impact of pursuit and bomber aviation and ignore the role of aerial observation and overall battlefield integration. The use of early aviation in ground support roles significantly contributed to the war on the ground. While limited by technology and doctrine, the lessons of early aviation learned during that period directly influenced the development of more effective air-ground coordination in later conflicts.  Over a century ago, mankind incorporated the aeroplane into its killing machine inventory.  The research will examine the opposing sides and their approaches to aerial close support.

IntroductionThe most common cause given for the Great Depression was the stock market crash of October 1929. On October 23 to November 13, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped almost 40 percent, from 327 to 199. Stocks rebounded, as historian Maury Klein has noted, by March 1930, the Dow had recovered 74 percent from their December level.  Stocks later fell, but that was a consequence of the Depression, not the cause.

A common challenge to mankind has been preserving food to be available during foul weather and low food supplies. For centuries, most foods were only available at certain times of the year, known as seasonality. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American naturalist Clarence Birdseye was working in Newfoundland and learning from a local Inuit how to ice fish that, when thawed, still tasted fresh. This discovery would be the beginning of the innovation of freezing and preserving process of various foods for later consumption. One of the treasures of America is that its citizens are free to explore and innovate. The free market economy, with its potential to reward the inventor who creates a product, tool, or process to achieve a marketable goal, is critical in promoting such innovations to consumers.

The rebuilding of the economy of a nation after a civil war is a major undertaking. Beginning with a simplified examination of the economic growth between the North and the South and concluding with an examination of business cycle severity of economic fluctuations provided by U.S. economic historian Robert Gallman.

Although her guns are silent, the USS Texas museum is alive and well in The Lone Star State.