The Risks of the Push for STEM Education

So I've recently started at job with a tech not-for-profit working with first generation and low-income students, helping them prepare and get into college, through the Upward Bound program. And I am really loving it. But I've noticed in my...

Justified and Unjustified Fears

Vonnegut came to General Electric on the heels of the success of his older brother, Bernard, taking a job in the public relations department. Bernard’s work at GE will be discussed in more depth later, especially his close proximity to...

Kurt Vonnegut and World-Ending Technologies

I am titling this section World Ending Technologies, rather than the Bomb, because there is a level of importance to the way which Vonnegut chooses to end the world in Cat’s Cradle, and yes, he does end the world. There...

Kurt Vonnegut and Relevant Scholarship

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 11, 1922, Armistice day, a fact that, as an adult, he was quite proud of, being born on a day associated with peace.[1] Descended from wealth and proud German-Americans, by...

Mass Producing an “American” Identity

Much of what is presently understood as the “American” identity can be traced back to a rather pivotal period of the immediate postwar and early Cold War. It is not surprising that many of these values which we deem to...

Postwar Industrial America and the Shaping of the Humanistic Worldviews of Kurt and Bernard Vonnegut: Part VII

So what is the lasting legacy of GE on the Vonnegut Brothers? On the professional, General Electric fundamentally changed and impacted the career path for both men. Kurt discovered that writing was his passion, he left the company after his...

Postwar Industrial America and the Shaping of the Humanistic Worldviews of Kurt and Bernard Vonnegut: Part VI

Cat’s Cradle was begun shortly after the publication of Player Piano because Kurt felt that there was still a story about GE to be told. It was published in 1963 and is much more a story “the scientist” as a...

Postwar Industrial America and the Shaping of the Humanistic Worldviews of Kurt and Bernard Vonnegut: Part V

The two novels which I am focusing on were published well after Kurt left GE, however the significance of General Electric spills over into the two works. Player Piano, published in 1952, is a novel set in a near future...

Postwar Industrial America and the Shaping of the Humanistic Worldviews of Kurt and Bernard Vonnegut: Part IV

Kurt Vonnegut Jr, was born on November 11, 1922, Armistice Day. Unlike Bernard and their sister, Alice, Kurt was the only one of the Vonnegut children to attend public school, due to his family losing the majority of their money...