ABOUT JOHN CHUCKMAN

John Chuckman is former chief economist for a large Canadian oil company. He has many interests and is a lifelong student of history. He writes with a passionate desire for honesty, the rule of reason, and concern for human decency. John regards it as a badge of honor to have left the United States as a poor young man from the South Side of Chicago when the country embarked on the pointless murder of something like 3 million Vietnamese in their own land because they embraced the wrong economic loyalties. He lives in Canada, which he is fond of calling “the peaceable kingdom.”

John’s writing appears regularly on many Internet sites. He has been translated into at least ten languages and has been regularly translated into Italian and Spanish. Several of his essays have been published in book collections, including two college texts. He has published a book, The Decline of the American Empire and the Rise of China as a Global Power, published by Constable and Robinson, London. John also writes book reviews.

Apart from his writing since retiring from the oil industry, John has taught university courses in economics, done a good deal of private tutoring, served as a professional newspaper restaurant reviewer (he likes cooking), followed his favorite hobby of photography, and created a popular family of image blogs on the Internet.

John may be reached directly at:  formersouthsideboy@gmail.com

SOME INTERNET SITES FROM JOHN CHUCKMAN:

CHUCKMAN'S PLACES ON WORDPRESS: FEATURING THE BELOVED URBAN VILLAGE OF SOUTH SHORE CHICAGO

https://chuckmanplaces.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S PHOTOS ON WORDPRESS: CHICAGO NOSTALGIA AND MEMORABILIA

https://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S PHOTOS ON WORDPRESS: TORONTO NOSTALGIA

https://chuckmantorontonostalgia.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN’S MONTREAL

https://chuckmanmontreal.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S PHOTOS ON WORD PRESS

https://chuckmanphotos.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S KODACHROMES ON WORDPRESS: JOHN AND BOBBY LONG AGO

https://chuckmankodachromejohnandbobby.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S PORT STANLEY

https://chuckmanportstanley.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S BAYFIELD

https://chuckmanbayfield.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S GODERICH

https://chuckmangoderich.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S ILES DE LA MADELEINE (MAGDALEN ISLANDS)

https://chuckmanmagdalenislands.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S ART

http://chuckmanart.blogspot.ca/

CHUCKMAN'S ROBOTS

http://chuckmanrobots.blogspot.ca/

CHUCKMAN'S GALLERY OF GROTESQUES

http://chuckmangrotesques.blogspot.ca/

CHUCKMAN'S CARTOON COMMENTS

http://chuckmancartoons.blogspot.ca/

CHUCKMAN'S PHOTOS ON WORDPRESS: 1920s ARCADE CARD BEAUTIES – THEIR CHARM AND GRACE AND WHIMSY

https://chuckman1920sarcadecardbeauties.wordpress.com

CHUCKMAN'S WORDS ON WORDPRESS: POLITICAL ESSAYS

https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S WORDS ON WORDPRESS: COMMENTS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS

https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/

CHUCKMAN'S MISCELLANEA OF WORDS

http://chuckmanmiscellanea.blogspot.ca/

CHUCKMAN'S NON-SPORTS TRADING CARDS OF THE 1950S VOLUME 01 (OF 4 VOLUMES)

http://chuckmannon-sporttradingcards1950s.blogspot.ca/

ME, ROUGHLY: THE DECLINE IS RAPID NOW

MISCELLANEA OF CARDS AND WRAPPERS FOR SETS OF THE 1950S NOT INCLUDED IN FULL IN THESE VOLUMES

The sets included here offer a good idea of the variety of trading cards in the 1950s. These are mainly sets in which I have little interest so I offer just a sampling. That is especially true of sets using photographs, which were already being used in the early 1950s - see Hopalong Cassidy or the Lone Ranger below, this last being such an ugly set of cards you just wonder why people bought these TV images painted over crudely in primary colors and with their dull backs.

The 1950s had another kind of ugly card, and that was the propaganda card. The best example of that is Bowman's Fight the Red Menace, a set of cards whose message is ghastly. Just compare the extreme treatments, quite typical of the extremes of this set, of Mao and MacArthur, Mao being literally a green Frankenstein monster and MacArthur a glowing hero. Topps joined in the action here too with its large set of Freedom's War, although it does not contain the same grotesquely childish propaganda.

Topps' Scoop was one of the cleverer sets of the 1950s and featured the same quality artwork used in Topps' best sets, but I have not collected it.

War and shoot-em-up cowboys were the subjects of many sets, including some extremely large ones, as 240 cards for Topps' Jets - a truly dull set of images - 203 cards for Topps' Freedom's War, and 288 cards for Bowman's Wild West.