title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Shawn S. Lealos of "Screen Rant" ranked the "Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do" comic book series 1st in their "10 Must-Read Comics Written By Clerks Creator Kevin Smith" list, writing, "One of the most controversial comic book storylines Kevin Smith ever wrote came with Marvel Comics' series "Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do". The controversy here was part of the Women in Fridges concept, as Smith had someone sexually assault Black Cat as a kickoff for the story. The series attempted to look at how this assault turned Felicia into the woman she became, but the problem is that this was not a series that fans liked reading at the time because it took Smith four years to finish it. The first issue hit in 2002, and he didn't release the sixth and final issue until 2006. Now, fans can pick up the entire series and read it all the way through for one of Smith's more thoughtful comic book stories." Kirsten Murray of "CBR.com" ranked the "Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do" comic book series 7th in their "10 Greatest Black Cat Stories Ever" list, saying, "Kevin Smith's six-part miniseries is controversial for a few reasons, but it is still a key entry in Black Cat's canon. Spider-Man and Black Cat find themselves begrudgingly working together again when their cases overlap. But things take a dark turn when Felicia is arrested for the murder of rapist, Garrison Klum: A crime she didn't commit. Facing the death penalty, Peter hires Matt Murdock to act as her lawyer, with the pair dedicated to saving their feline friend. It's not a series for the faint-hearted, as Smith tackles some difficult and disturbing subject matter, revealing the tragic past of not one but two infamous Spider-rogues."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Claws" #1 was the 60th best selling comic book in August 2006. "Claws" #2 was the 69th best selling comic book in September 2006. "Claws" #3 was the 71st best selling comic book in October 2006.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Craig Lines of "Den of Geek" stated, "The tone of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray’s script, although quite violent, is very much classic romantic adventure, with Wolverine and Black Cat trading flirtatious banter and saucy body language as they splat bad dudes. It’s the sort of naughty comedy-action romp that Kevin Smith started and should’ve finished with his failed "The Evil That Men Do" mini-series (as opposed to the jumbled, misogynistic angst-fest it became). Whilst not exactly challenging, there are some good laughs and even a touch of suspense. In addition to zippy writing, the artwork is also consistently nice. I liked Joe Linsner’s interpretation of the Black Cat costume and, having seen her drawn so atrociously in recent years (come on down, Clayton Crain), "Claws" scores points on that front alone. On the down side, the mini-series is maybe an issue too short and I personally felt it lost its pace a little in Issue Three with an extended (and utterly unnecessary) flashback sequence, but otherwise, "Claws" is a sharp little critter and well worth getting your paws on." Kirsten Murray of "CBR.com" ranked the "Claws" comic book series 5th in their "10 Greatest Black Cat Stories Ever" list, saying, "An unlikely duo teamed up in three-part miniseries, "Claws". Wolverine and the Black Cat find themselves held captive in cages on a mysterious island, confronted by a group of hunters led by someone claiming to be Kraven the Hunter. If the pair make it to a boat waiting to take them to their rescue on the other side of the island, they can go free. However, they have to evade the huntsmen. An action-packed adventure ensues, with Wolverine and Black Cat working together effectively as they dodge bullets, rockets, and even killer robots. Their sharp back-and-forth and willingness to get their hands dirty made this series so popular, it spawned a sequel."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Claws" #1 was the 130th best selling comic book in July 2011.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Jesse Schedeen of "IGN" gave "Wolverine & Black Cat: Claws" #1 a grade of 6.5 out of 10, asserting, "Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray offer up another rollicking adventure that's heavy on action and laughs and light on anything resembling substance. There's really no deep connection to exploit between the title heroes, so this story plays out like another take on the Wolverine/Domino dynamic from X-Force: Sex + Violence. It would have been nice to see the writers throw a new batch of villains into the mix rather than Arcade and White Rabbit. The humor also borders on being too silly and simplistic at times, such as the scene where a villain crashes into a hot dog cart and elicits a stereotypical New Yorker reaction from those around him. Again, the story is good, dumb fun, but too heavy on the dumb at times. In any case, the main appeal with either volume of "Claws" lies in seeing Joseph Linsner try his hand at Marvel's stable. For the most part, that's enough to sell the book. Linsner's work is sexy, playful, and dynamic - an all-around perfect fit for the script. Sure, his Wolverine is some bizarre amalgamation of hairless ape and furry were-beast, but at least he's back to being short and ugly. Lighthearted romps are all good and well. Where "Claws" "II" will find its greatest challenge is in competing with books like "Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine". That series has proven a comic can offer simple, unfettered fun and still rank as one of the best of the year. "Claws" can't get by with coasting on the bare minimum."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Black Cat" #1 was the best selling comic book in June 2019, with over 250 000 sold units. "Black Cat" #1 was the 4th best selling comic book of 2019.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Sam Stone of "CBR.com" compared "Black Cat" #1 to "Ocean's 11" and "The Thomas Crown Affair", writing, "Fun, true to the character, and action-packed, the inaugural issue of "Black Cat" is a top-down joy to read both for longtime fans of the character while being completely accessible to new readers. The creative team seamlessly mixes genres and explores the possibilities of the character without shying away from Felicia Hardy's recent villainous history. Reestablishing the character as a cool, confident burglar with her own checkered past, "Black Cat" #1 sets the stage for a heist-oriented adventure in the heart of the Marvel Universe for its eponymous protagonist." Charlie Ridgely of "Comicbook.com" called "Black Cat" #1 a "surprisingly enjoyable read," saying, ""Black Cat" #1 is a simple and grounded, but exciting series that gives an underutilized character the chance to shine on her own. It's not perfect, but it gets better as it goes along and is certainly well-worth your time, if you're looking for a new series to try out."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Black Cat" #2 was the 8th best selling comic book in July 2019. "Black Cat" #2 was the 89th best selling comic book in 2019.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Charlie Ridgely of "Comicbook.com" gave "Black Cat" #2 a grade of 4 out of 5, asserting, "Color me surprised once again, but Black Cat is a good book. It's a caper-heist comic that continues to be better than you'd think it has any right to be, turning a supporting character like Felicia Hardy into an effortlessly compelling leading force. It's almost impossible not to be captured by her, as well as the characters around her. Everything at work in this book was already great, but adding in a crazed Merlin and a trip to the Sanctum Santorum make it even better. It's time to add this one to your pull list."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Black Cat" #1 was the 29th best selling comic book in December 2020.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Sam Stone of "CBR.com" described "Black Cat" #1 as a "solid relaunch," stating, "MacKay and Villa reunite to take springboard Black Cat's latest comic off the back of "King in Black", staying true to the spirit of the character and their previous series while managing to complement the bombastic crossover event. MacKay and Villa succeed in making this opening issue feel more like a tie-in to the crossover's story than several of the previous issues bearing the "King in Black" tie-in banner. Despite the new #1, Black Cat's relaunch keeps very much in line with what came before it while inviting new readers to jump on for a thrill ride as Felicia rises as the Marvel Universe's unlikely greatest savior." Tanner Dedmon of "Comicbook.com" called "Black Cat" #1 an "excellent jumping-on point," asserting, "Black Cat also has a surprisingly reserved presence in her own debut issue, but that's again owed to everything occurring around her. Seeing Black Cat slay symbiote dragons might have been memorable, but considering how other heroes have performed against similar threats, it never would've been believable. As such, Black Cat sometimes gets overshadowed during the more explosive moments of "Black Cat" #1. That type of action was never her game anyway—"above my pay grade," she says at one point in the issue—so her sacrifice of the spotlight was a necessary one to set her up for an opportunity to do what she does best. Like Captain America's confidence imbued in her, Black Cat's resolve is infectious, easily carrying whatever comes next in her new series."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Giant-Size Black Cat: Infinity Score" #1 was 24th best selling comic book in December 2021.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Dustin Holland of "CBR.com" called "Giant-Size Black Cat: Infinity Score" #1 the "perfect ending for Black Cat and the Infinite Destinies Crossover," asserting, ""Giant-Size Black Cat: Infinity Score" #1 gives Felicia the heroic ending she deserves. The issue delivers a fun, action-packed story that addresses numerous characters and storylines without rushing anything. MacKay and Villa give Black Cat the opportunity to finish one of the most important jobs of her storied career. Felicia definitely still has some unfinished business, but this ending encapsulates the spirit of the "Black Cat" series perfectly." Adam Barnhardt of "Comicbook.com" gave "Giant-Size Black Cat: Infinity Score" #1 a grade of 4.5 out of 5, saying, "Jed MacKay's time with Black Cat has already been exceptional enough—then you factor in a stellar one-shot like Infinity Score, and it takes everything to a whole other level. Here, you have Felicia Hardy using half of the Infinity Stones for a relatively small purpose in the cosmic scheme of things—but it's an extremely personal and heartfelt reason as to why she does. And that's where MacKay often succeeds most: making these bombastic heroes as human as they can be. Hardy sets out to do her biggest score, regardless of the costs and she aces it, in more ways than one. As far as finales go, it's hard to imagine Infinity Score being a better endcap. For a street-level character that oftentimes aligns herself with the slimiest characters in the entire Marvel stable, "Black Cat: Infinity Score" #1 is packed to the brim with heart and a certain warmth that's perfect for the holiday season."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond" #1 was the 21st best selling comic book of January 2022.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Sayantan Gayen of "CBR.com" referred to "Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond" #1 as a "thrilling tale peppered with drama and intrigue," writing, "It is not an exaggeration to say that "Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond" #1 features one of the best Marvel crossovers in recent history. Jed MacKay writes an equally beautiful team-up of Black Cat and Ben Reilly in the "Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man" #1. Needless to say, MacKay has a good grasp on the character of Felicia Hardy and has found a seamless way to connect her with other characters across the Spider-Man mythos. Mary Jane and Black Cat may look at each other as romantic rivals, but the instant bonding between the two and the comfort they feel in each other's company is heartwarmingly beautiful to see. "Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond" #1 is an enthralling and charming tale." Hannibal Tabu of "Bleeding Cool" gave "Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond" #1 a grade of 8 out of 10, saying, "Jed MacKay has done some great work in building the legend of the Black Cat over the last few years, and this issue carries through the fruits of those labors in a Felicia Hardy that's quick to improvise but just as considerate and calculating."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Iron Cat" #1 was the 11th top advance-reordered comic book between May 23, 2022, and 29, 2022.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text:
I-J Wheaton of "CBR.com" called "Iron Cat" #1 a "neon-tinted team-up comic," saying, ""Iron Cat" #1 draws together many elements of the mythos that have been steadily building around Black Cat. It is very exciting to see a relative newcomer like Black Cat being pushed further into the mainstream with a team-up with a prominent Marvel character like Iron Man. With any luck, we'll see a whole new generation of readers checking out Black Cat and her previous solo comics. That being said, "Iron Cat" #1 is as much about the future as it is the past, and this first issue sets the stage for a thrilling adventure." Logan Moore
 of "ComicBook.com" gave "Iron Cat" #1 a grade of 4 out of 5, asserting, "Iron Cat gets off to a very fun start here in issue #1. In short, this series sees Black Cat and Iron Man coming together to go after a common enemy known as Iron Cat. This opening issue does a great job of quickly introducing all the major players in this story while also catching readers up on important aspects of previous Black Cat storylines. I'm curious to see what kind of legs Iron Cat has, but for now, I'm very excited to see how this series develops."


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: In the "House of M" reality warp, Felicia Hardy appears as the Black Cat, having gained her powers through the Kingpin. She, alongside Elektra, Bullseye, Gladiator, and Typhoid Mary, are among the Kingpin's top assassins, however she is a double agent for Luke Cage's "Avengers" and feeds them information whenever she can. The Kingpin knows this and has Bullseye and Elektra beat her, while he throws her out a window. She survives and tells Luke that they have been set up, along with the Wolfpack and the Dragons. She stays with the group and is a more vocal member of Luke Cage's resistance. She takes part in the final battle at Genosha.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: In the Marvel Mangaverse continuity, Black Cat is cybernetically enhanced. She was originally a simple thief, who stole a cursed magical amulet for its monetary value, but this act attracted the attention of Matt Murdock, the Devil Hunter, and she was cut in half. The Kingpin of Crime reconstructed her body with cybernetics, including a shut-down mechanism he planned to activate if she failed to serve him. After completing her mission for the Kingpin, he claimed to have permanently deactivated the mechanism, but whether he kept his word or not remains to be seen. She is still Spider-Man's old flame, but in the New Mangaverse storyline (with Spider-Man having chosen Mary Jane Watson over her) she is trying to move on, and is now showing a romantic interest in Wolverine though by the end of the story arc it is clear that she has a hidden agenda as she is later seen with Nick Fury.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: In Marvel Noir, Felicia Hardy is the owner of "The Black Cat", a speakeasy that caters to the most powerful and corrupt in New York City. In "Spider-Man Noir: Eyes without a Face", she takes on a more prominent role, sheltering Peter after he is almost killed by Sandman, as well as dating Crime Master. Like most incarnations, Felicia has a relationship with Spider-Man Noir. Crime Master slashes her when he finds out about this, but before passing out, she alerts the FBI that he is in league with Otto Octavius and his inhumane experiments. The final panel of the series shows her with a mask similar to Madame Masque, angrily refusing to see Spider-Man since she blames him for her scars.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Spider-Verse" storyline, she was assaulted by Kingpin and his men in hopes of extracting the identity of Spider-Man, but with nothing to lose anymore she retains her silence. She was then used as a hostage to lure Spider-Man in accepting Mysterio's challenge. After the battle, she would secretly grab the blood of Spider-Man which was extracted earlier to avoid it falling into Mysterio's hands. She would later appear tending to an injured Spider-Man Noir (accompanied by Silk and Spider-Woman) while on the run from the Inheritors.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: A zombified Black Cat is briefly seen battling Iron Fist. He punches a hole straight through her. However, somehow (in "Marvel Zombies: Dead Days") during events set after her appearance above (which happened in "Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness"), she appears alive and well, also uninfected on one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Carriers.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: When asked about this during his Joe Friday 100, Joe Q explained that "the MZ world is not exactly like the regular Marvel Universe. Our Captain America is their "Colonel America". Their Reed Richards is evil. A lot of the costumes are from different eras in our world. We assumed it was obvious from the context that in the MZ world, Felicia Hardy has a twin sister, Felicity Hardy, who is the costumed adventurer known as Night Cat".


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: In the alternate future comics known as MC2, Felicia Hardy married Flash Thompson and had two children, Felicity and Gene, before they divorced. In this continuity, she has apparently retired the identity of the Black Cat and runs a private detective agency. She has begun a romantic relationship with Diana, a woman she works with, a fact that has produced tension between herself and her daughter.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: The 2022 "End of the Spider-Verse" event introduced an alternate version of Felicia that has Spider-Man's powers. On Earth-194, she gained super powers when she was bitten by a Delvadian Spider-Idol statue she stole from Ambassador Anton Rodriguez. She uses her new powers for heists, constantly getting the best of her friend Detective Jean DeWolff. She eventually gives herself up to Jean as her powers have made stealing too easy and has taken away the thrill of it. Before she is arrested, Anya Corazon arrives on Earth-194 requests her help in stopping a threat that endangers the Spider-Verse, which she accepts due to the scope of the challenge.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Secret Wars" storyline, the Battleworld domain of New Quack City featured a version of Black Cat who is an anthropomorphic black cat. She is a crime boss and known as "The Cat Lady". The Cat Lady hired private investigator Howard the Human to find a spy within her organization, but someone was able to find him before Howard and killed him. The Cat Lady then gave Howard twelve hours to find the assassin. Otherwise, she would kill him. Howard figured out that the informant was playing possum on orders from a simian version of Wilson Fisk who wanted to take his main rival the Cat Lady down. She confronts him and Adrian Toomes at a bar but they are both arrested as Howard planned. Howard kept the informant Peter Possum alive to get the reward money from the district attorney and to have Peter testify against Felecia.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: On Earth-65, Felicia and her father are French and professional burglars. When her father stole Wilson Fisk's first dollar, Fisk sent Matt Murdock to kill him. Felicia went on to become a famous musician after singing in the streets and has a band called the Black Cats. She had a concert in New York with Mary Jane as the opening act to which she invited Murdock with the intention to kill him. While there, Murdock unleashes the Hand where she is defended by Spider-Woman. When she attempts to kill Matt, Spider-Woman knocks her out.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: In "", which is based on Little Red Riding Hood with Mary Jane in the title role, a black cat named Felicia appears as Mary Jane's pet. In the third issue, which is based on a Japanese ghost story, features a demoness resembling a humanoid black cat with long white hair.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Felicia Hardy makes her appearance in issue #17 of the series. She is a teenager who transfers to the same high school attended by Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Felicia is considered "bad luck" due to her violent past and confrontational personality. She flirts with Flash and challenges his girlfriend, Liz Allan, to a fight, which was merely a ruse to establish her reputation as a girl not to be messed with.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: A different version of Felicia Hardy is part of a team led by Brother Voodoo. Unlike her 616 counterpart, this version of Black Cat possesses enchanted vocal abilities that allow her to alter the outcomes of events by speaking certain phrases aloud (for example, at one point, saying "Break" causes a noose to snap). This ability is shown to be useless once Jack O'Lantern tapes Felicia's mouth shut.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: In the Ultimate Marvel universe, the Black Cat is Felicia Hardy, a young woman who blames her father's death on Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.In this version, the Black Cat actually has short brunette hair and wears a white-haired wig as part of her costume. Seeking revenge, she stole a priceless tablet that he was going to use on his comatose wife. Kingpin hired the assassin Elektra to retrieve it. When Black Cat threw it into the harbor, Elektra threw one of her sai into the Black Cat's chest, sending the thief over the edge. She was presumed dead, though no body was found.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: She later returned during a gang war, stopping Hammerhead from shooting Spider-Man in the right temple. She later expressed interest in working for Hammerhead if it would mean getting rid of the Kingpin although Spider-Man opposed this. She later assisted Hammerhead and Elektra in a confrontation against Moon Knight, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and Spider-Man.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Later, after the crisis was resolved, she passionately kissed Spider-Man through his mask, her previous interest in him having gotten stronger. She had apparently no idea of the age disparity between her and Peter, and mistakenly assumed, after he left in a rush, that he was a married man. When she managed to unmask him and realized how young he truly was, she was repulsed. The shock and embarrassment of such a discovery caused her to vomit on his costume. She is next seen trying to assassinate the Kingpin. However, Mysterio beats her to it. She then tries to steal the Zodiac Key from the Kingpin's vault. Mysterio, knowing that it contained great power, tried to steal it from her. Felicia tried to wish Mysterio to go away, but instead she accidentally caused the key to create a massive explosion. Shocked by what she did, she handed it over to Mysterio. Spider-Man came to the scene with Iron Man. Mysterio subdued Iron Man and then Spider-Man, Mysterio, and Felicia then fought over the key. Spider-Man won and then both he and Felicia decided to help the people who were caught in the middle of Felicia's mistake.


title: Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

text: Black Cat appeared in the "Marvel Universe: LIVE!" stage show. This version is a member of the Sinister Six.


title: Placebo

text: A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.


title: Placebo

text: In general, placebos can affect how patients perceive their condition and encourage the body's chemical processes for relieving pain and a few other symptoms, but have no impact on the disease itself. Improvements that patients experience after being treated with a placebo can also be due to unrelated factors, such as regression to the mean (a statistical effect where an unusually high or low measurement is likely to be followed by a less extreme one). The use of placebos in clinical medicine raises ethical concerns, especially if they are disguised as an active treatment, as this introduces dishonesty into the doctor–patient relationship and bypasses informed consent. While it was once assumed that this deception was necessary for placebos to have any effect, there is some evidence that placebos may have subjective effects even when the patient is aware that the treatment is a placebo (known as open-label placebo).


title: Placebo

text: In drug testing and medical research, a placebo can be made to resemble an active medication or therapy so that it functions as a control; this is to prevent the recipient or others from knowing (with their consent) whether a treatment is active or inactive, as expectations about efficacy can influence results. In a placebo-controlled clinical trial any change in the control group is known as the placebo response, and the difference between this and the result of no treatment is the placebo effect. Some researchers now recommend comparing the experimental treatment with an existing treatment when possible, instead of a placebo.


title: Placebo

text: The idea of a "placebo effect"—a therapeutic outcome derived from an inert treatment—was discussed in 18th century psychology but became more prominent in the 20th century. An influential 1955 study entitled "The Powerful Placebo" firmly established the idea that placebo effects were clinically important, and were a result of the brain's role in physical health. A 1997 reassessment found no evidence of any placebo effect in the source data, as the study had not accounted for regression to the mean.


title: Placebo

text: "Placebo" (pronounced /plaˈkebo/ or /plaˈt͡ʃebo) is Latin for ["I] shall be pleasing." It was used as a name for the Vespers in the Office of the Dead, taken from its incipit, a quote from the Vulgate's Psalm 116:9, "placēbō Dominō in regiōne vīvōrum," "[I] shall please the Lord in the land of the living." From that, a "singer of placebo" became associated with someone who falsely claimed a connection to the deceased to get a share of the funeral meal, and hence a flatterer, and so a deceptive act to please.


title: Placebo

text: The American Society of Pain Management Nursing defines a placebo as "any sham medication or procedure designed to be void of any known therapeutic value".


title: Placebo

text: In a clinical trial, a "placebo response" is the measured response of subjects to a placebo; the "placebo effect" is the difference between that response and no treatment. The placebo response may include improvements due to natural healing, declines due to natural disease progression, the tendency for people who were temporarily feeling either better or worse than usual to return to their average situations (regression toward the mean), and errors in the clinical trial records, which can make it appear that a change has happened when nothing has changed. It is also part of the recorded response to any active medical intervention.


title: Placebo

text: Measurable placebo effects may be either "objective" (e.g. lowered blood pressure) or "subjective" (e.g. a lowered perception of pain).


title: Placebo

text: Placebos can improve patient-reported outcomes such as pain and nausea. This effect is unpredictable and hard to measure, even in the best conducted trials. For example, if used to treat insomnia, placebos can cause patients to perceive that they are sleeping better, but do not improve objective measurements of sleep onset latency. A 2001 Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis of the placebo effect looked at trials in 40 different medical conditions, and concluded the only one where it had been shown to have a significant effect was for pain.


title: Placebo

text: By contrast, placebos do not appear to affect the actual diseases, or outcomes that are not dependent on a patient's perception. One exception to the latter is Parkinson's disease, where recent research has linked placebo interventions to improved motor functions.


title: Placebo

text: Measuring the extent of the placebo effect is difficult due to confounding factors. For example, a patient may feel better after taking a placebo due to regression to the mean (i.e. a natural recovery or change in symptoms). It is harder still to tell the difference between the placebo effect and the effects of response bias, observer bias and other flaws in trial methodology, as a trial comparing placebo treatment and no treatment will not be a blinded experiment. In their 2010 meta-analysis of the placebo effect, Asbjørn Hróbjartsson and Peter C. Gøtzsche argue that "even if there were no true effect of placebo, one would expect to record differences between placebo and no-treatment groups due to bias associated with lack of blinding." Hróbjartsson and Gøtzsche concluded that their study "did not find that placebo interventions have important clinical effects in general". However, in a study in 2010, patients given open-label placebo in the context of a supportive patient-practitioner relationship and a persuasive rationale had clinically meaningful symptom improvement that was significantly better than a no-treatment control group with matched patient-provider interaction.


title: Placebo

text: Jeremy Howick has argued that combining so many varied studies to produce a single average might obscure that "some placebos for some things could be quite effective." To demonstrate this, he participated in a systematic review comparing active treatments and placebos using a similar method, which generated a conclusion that there is "no difference between treatment and placebo effects".


title: Placebo

text: A review published in "JAMA Psychiatry" found that, in trials of antipsychotic medications, the change in response to receiving a placebo had increased significantly between 1960 and 2013. The review's authors identified several factors that could be responsible for this change, including inflation of baseline scores and enrollment of fewer severely ill patients. Another analysis published in "Pain" in 2015 found that placebo responses had increased considerably in neuropathic pain clinical trials conducted in the United States from 1990 to 2013. The researchers suggested that this may be because such trials have "increased in study size and length" during this time period.


title: Placebo

text: The administration of the placebos can determine the placebo effect strength. Studies have found that taking more pills would strengthen the effect. Besides, capsules appear to be more influential than pills, and injections are even stronger than capsules.


title: Placebo

text: Some studies have investigated the use of placebos where the patient is fully aware that the treatment is inert, known as an "open-label placebo". A 2017 meta-analysis based on 5 studies found some evidence that open-label placebos may have positive effects in comparison to no treatment, which may open new avenues for treatments, but noted the trials were done with a small number of participants and hence should be interpreted with "caution" until further better controlled trials are conducted. An updated 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis based on 11 studies also found a significant, albeit slightly smaller overall effect of open-label placebos, while noting that "research on OLPs is still in its infancy".


title: Placebo

text: If the person dispensing the placebo shows their care towards the patient, is friendly and sympathetic, or has a high expectation of a treatment's success, then the placebo would be more effectual.


title: Placebo

text: A 2010 Cochrane Collaboration review suggests that placebo effects are apparent only in subjective, continuous measures, and in the treatment of pain and related conditions.


title: Placebo

text: Placebos are believed to be capable of altering a person's perception of pain. "A person might reinterpret a sharp pain as uncomfortable tingling."


title: Placebo

text: One way in which the magnitude of placebo analgesia can be measured is by conducting "open/hidden" studies, in which some patients receive an analgesic and are informed that they will be receiving it (open), while others are administered the same drug without their knowledge (hidden). Such studies have found that analgesics are considerably more effective when the patient knows they are receiving them.


title: Placebo

text: In 2008, a controversial meta-analysis led by psychologist Irving Kirsch, analyzing data from the FDA, concluded that 82% of the response to antidepressants was accounted for by placebos. However, there are serious doubts about the used methods and the interpretation of the results, especially the use of 0.5 as the cut-off point for the effect size. A complete reanalysis and recalculation based on the same FDA data discovered that the Kirsch study had "important flaws in the calculations". The authors concluded that although a large percentage of the placebo response was due to expectancy, this was not true for the active drug. Besides confirming drug effectiveness, they found that the drug effect was not related to depression severity.


title: Placebo

text: Another meta-analysis found that 79% of depressed patients receiving placebo remained well (for 12 weeks after an initial 6–8 weeks of successful therapy) compared to 93% of those receiving antidepressants. In the continuation phase however, patients on placebo relapsed significantly more often than patients on antidepressants.


title: Placebo

text: A phenomenon opposite to the placebo effect has also been observed. When an inactive substance or treatment is administered to a recipient who has an expectation of it having a "negative" impact, this intervention is known as a nocebo (Latin "nocebo" = "I shall harm"). A nocebo effect occurs when the recipient of an inert substance reports a negative effect or a worsening of symptoms, with the outcome resulting not from the substance itself, but from negative expectations about the treatment.


title: Placebo

text: Another negative consequence is that placebos can cause side-effects associated with real treatment. Failure to minimise nocebo side-effects in clinical trials and clinical practice raises a number of recently explored ethical issues.


title: Placebo

text: Withdrawal symptoms can also occur after placebo treatment. This was found, for example, after the discontinuation of the Women's Health Initiative study of hormone replacement therapy for menopause. Women had been on placebo for an average of 5.7 years. Moderate or severe withdrawal symptoms were reported by 4.8% of those on placebo compared to 21.3% of those on hormone replacement.


title: Placebo

text: Knowingly giving a person a placebo when there is an effective treatment available is a bioethically complex issue. While placebo-controlled trials might provide information about the effectiveness of a treatment, it denies some patients what could be the best available (if unproven) treatment. Informed consent is usually required for a study to be considered ethical, including the disclosure that some test subjects will receive placebo treatments.


title: Placebo

text: The ethics of placebo-controlled studies have been debated in the revision process of the Declaration of Helsinki. Of particular concern has been the difference between trials comparing inert placebos with experimental treatments, versus comparing the best available treatment with an experimental treatment; and differences between trials in the sponsor's developed countries versus the trial's targeted developing countries.


title: Placebo

text: Some suggest that existing medical treatments should be used instead of placebos, to avoid having some patients not receive medicine during the trial.


title: Placebo

text: The practice of doctors prescribing placebos that are disguised as real medication is controversial. A chief concern is that it is deceptive and could harm the doctor–patient relationship in the long run. While some say that blanket consent, or the general consent to unspecified treatment given by patients beforehand, is ethical, others argue that patients should always obtain specific information about the name of the drug they are receiving, its side effects, and other treatment options. This view is shared by some on the grounds of patient autonomy. There are also concerns that legitimate doctors and pharmacists could open themselves up to charges of fraud or malpractice by using a placebo. Critics also argued that using placebos can delay the proper diagnosis and treatment of serious medical conditions.


title: Placebo

text: Despite the abovementioned issues, 60% of surveyed physicians and head nurses reported using placebos in an Israeli study, with only 5% of respondents stating that placebo use should be strictly prohibited. A "British Medical Journal" editorial said, "that a patient gets pain relief from a placebo does not imply that the pain is not real or organic in origin...the use of the placebo for 'diagnosis' of whether or not pain is real is misguided." A survey in the United States of more than 10,000 physicians came to the result that while 24% of physicians would prescribe a treatment that is a placebo simply because the patient wanted treatment, 58% would not, and for the remaining 18%, it would depend on the circumstances.


title: Placebo

text: Referring specifically to homeopathy, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Science and Technology Committee has stated:


title: Placebo

text: In his 2008 book "Bad Science", Ben Goldacre argues that instead of deceiving patients with placebos, doctors should use the placebo effect to enhance effective medicines. Edzard Ernst has argued similarly that "As a good doctor you should be able to transmit a placebo effect through the compassion you show your patients." In an opinion piece about homeopathy, Ernst argues that it is wrong to support alternative medicine on the basis that it can make patients feel better through the placebo effect. His concerns are that it is deceitful and that the placebo effect is unreliable. Goldacre also concludes that the placebo effect does not justify alternative medicine, arguing that unscientific medicine could lead to patients not receiving prevention advice.


title: Placebo

text: Placebo researcher Fabrizio Benedetti also expresses concern over the potential for placebos to be used unethically, warning that there is an increase in "quackery" and that an "alternative industry that preys on the vulnerable" is developing.


title: Placebo

text: The mechanism for the placebo "effect" remains unknown. An open-label study in 2010 showed that it had an effect even when patients were clearly told that the placebo pill they were receiving was an inactive (i.e., "inert") substance like a sugar pill that contained no medication. These results challenge "the conventional wisdom" that placebo effects require "intentional ignorance." A placebo presented as a stimulant may trigger an effect on heart rhythm and blood pressure, but when administered as a depressant, the opposite effect.


title: Placebo

text: In psychology, the two main hypotheses of the placebo effect are expectancy theory and classical conditioning.


title: Placebo

text: In 1985, Irving Kirsch hypothesized that placebo effects are produced by the self-fulfilling effects of response expectancies, in which the belief that one will feel different leads a person to actually feel different. According to this theory, the belief that one has received an active treatment can produce the subjective changes thought to be produced by the real treatment. Similarly, the appearance of effect can result from classical conditioning, wherein a placebo and an actual stimulus are used simultaneously until the placebo is associated with the effect from the actual stimulus. Both conditioning and expectations play a role in placebo effect, and make different kinds of contributions. Conditioning has a longer-lasting effect, and can affect earlier stages of information processing. Those who think a treatment will work display a stronger placebo effect than those who do not, as evidenced by a study of acupuncture.


title: Placebo

text: Additionally, motivation may contribute to the placebo effect. The active goals of an individual changes their somatic experience by altering the detection and interpretation of expectation-congruent symptoms, and by changing the behavioral strategies a person pursues. Motivation may link to the meaning through which people experience illness and treatment. Such meaning is derived from the culture in which they live and which informs them about the nature of illness and how it responds to treatment.


title: Placebo

text: Functional imaging upon placebo analgesia suggests links to the activation, and increased functional correlation between this activation, in the anterior cingulate, prefrontal, orbitofrontal and insular cortices, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, the brainstem periaqueductal gray matter, and the spinal cord.


title: Placebo

text: It has been known that placebo analgesia depends upon the release in the brain of endogenous opioids since 1978. Such analgesic placebos activation changes processing lower down in the brain by enhancing the descending inhibition through the periaqueductal gray on spinal nociceptive reflexes, while the expectations of anti-analgesic nocebos acts in the opposite way to block this.


title: Placebo

text: Functional imaging upon placebo analgesia has been summarized as showing that the placebo response is "mediated by "top-down" processes dependent on frontal cortical areas that generate and maintain cognitive expectancies. Dopaminergic reward pathways may underlie these expectancies". "Diseases lacking major 'top-down' or cortically based regulation may be less prone to placebo-related improvement".


title: Placebo

text: In conditioning, a neutral stimulus saccharin is paired in a drink with an agent that produces an unconditioned response. For example, that agent might be cyclophosphamide, which causes immunosuppression. After learning this pairing, the taste of saccharin by itself is able to cause immunosuppression, as a new conditioned response via neural top-down control. Such conditioning has been found to affect a diverse variety of not just basic physiological processes in the immune system but ones such as serum iron levels, oxidative DNA damage levels, and insulin secretion. Recent reviews have argued that the placebo effect is due to top-down control by the brain for immunity and pain. Pacheco-López and colleagues have raised the possibility of "neocortical-sympathetic-immune axis providing neuroanatomical substrates that might explain the link between placebo/conditioned and placebo/expectation responses". There has also been research aiming to understand underlying neurobiological mechanisms of action in pain relief, immunosuppression, Parkinson's disease and depression.


title: Placebo

text: Placebo-controlled studies, as well as studies of the placebo effect itself, often fail to adequately identify confounding factors. False impressions of placebo effects are caused by many factors including:


title: Placebo

text: The word placebo was used in a medicinal context in the late 18th century to describe a "commonplace method or medicine" and in 1811 it was defined as "any medicine adapted more to please than to benefit the patient". Although this definition contained a derogatory implication it did not necessarily imply that the remedy had no effect.


title: Placebo

text: It was recognized in the 18th and 19th centuries that drugs or remedies often worked best while they were still new:


title: Placebo

text: Placebos have featured in medical use until well into the twentieth century. In 1955 Henry K. Beecher published an influential paper entitled "The Powerful Placebo" which proposed the idea that placebo effects were clinically important. Subsequent re-analysis of his materials, however, found in them no evidence of any "placebo effect".


title: Placebo

text: The placebo effect makes it more difficult to evaluate new treatments. Clinical trials control for this effect by including a group of subjects that receives a sham treatment. The subjects in such trials are blinded as to whether they receive the treatment or a placebo. If a person is given a placebo under one name, and they respond, they will respond in the same way on a later occasion to that placebo under that name but not if under another.


title: Placebo

text: Clinical trials are often double-blinded so that the researchers also do not know which test subjects are receiving the active or placebo treatment. The placebo effect in such clinical trials is weaker than in normal therapy since the subjects are not sure whether the treatment they are receiving is active.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: Sigmund Esco "Jackie" Jackson (born May 4, 1951) is an American singer best known as a founding member of the Jackson 5, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Jackson is the second child of the Jackson family, and the oldest Jackson brother.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: Sigmund Esco Jackson was born at St Mary's Mercy Hospital in Gary, Indiana, on his mother Katherine's 21st birthday in 1951. He was given the nickname Jackie by his grandfather, Samuel Jackson. He and his siblings (Michael, Marlon, Tito, Jermaine, Randy, Rebbie, La Toya and Janet) were brought up in a two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana, an industrial steel city south of Chicago. His father, Joseph "Joe" Jackson, worked at a steel mill, and at night he played in an R&B band called the Falcons with his brother, Luther. Their mother, Katherine, a Jehovah's Witness, played the clarinet and piano. His father, Joseph, formed the Jackson Brothers singing group, which included Jackie and his brothers Tito and Jermaine. Younger brothers Marlon and Michael played assorted percussive instruments.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: By 1964, Joe made Michael the lead singer forming the Jackson 5, after Katherine discovered that Michael could sing. The brothers rehearsed every day after school under Joe’s lead, keeping themselves busy and out of trouble. Joe saw that their talent could get them out of Gary. Jackie gives his mother credit saying "there wouldn't have been The Jackson 5 without her". Katherine used to sing harmonies with the brothers. Within two years, the group emerged professionally, signing with Motown in 1968. Before the group signed with Motown, Jackie wanted to pursue a career in professional baseball.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: Jackie performed with a high tenor singing voice. He had the highest and lightest natural speaking and singing voice of all the brothers. He added brief lead parts in some of the Jackson 5's hit singles, including "I Want You Back" and "ABC". When the Jackson 5 became the Jacksons after leaving Motown for CBS Records in 1976, Jackson's role as a vocalist and songwriter increased. He added a lead vocal alongside Michael on their Top 10 Epic single "Enjoy Yourself", and also added composition on six of the group's albums with Epic. Jackson's voice changed to a lower tenor vocal style during the Epic years. One of his most successful compositions, "Can You Feel It", co-written with Michael, became an international hit in 1981. Jackson began performing more lead vocals as Michael pursued a solo career. On their 1984 album "Victory", Jackie performed lead on the song "Wait" and wrote the single "Torture". Before the start of the Victory Tour in 1984, he suffered a knee injury during rehearsals. Jackie recovered well enough to perform on the last leg of shows in December 1984 in Los Angeles, where Michael announced he was leaving the group. In early 1985, Marlon left the group as well. Jackie, Tito and Randy became session musicians, vocalists and producers during this time.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: In 1987, Jackie, Randy, Tito and Jermaine reunited and recorded "Time Out for the Burglar", the theme song for the film "Burglar". The single was a minor R&B hit in the US, but had more success in Belgium where it peaked in the Top 40 at #17 for two consecutive weeks. The Jacksons also contributed backing vocals to the Tito-produced title track of Tramaine Hawkins's 1987 album "Freedom". In late 1988, the Jacksons set out to record their final album, "2300 Jackson Street", on which Jackie and Jermaine split leads on the songs. "2300 Jackson Street" failed to chart, despite the Randy and Jermaine-led hit "Nothin' (That Compares 2 U)". Randy did not participate in much of the album's promotion as he was working on his solo project, leaving Jackie, Tito and Jermaine to promote the album mostly overseas. Afterward, each brother went into solo projects. In 2001, after years out of the limelight, Jackie and his brothers gave a reunion performance with Michael during his 30th-anniversary special at Madison Square Garden


title: Jackie Jackson

text: In 1973, Jackie released his first solo album Jackie Jackson. Jackie signed with Polydor, and released his first solo album in 16 years, Be the One, in late 1989. The album was a minor hit, charting at #89 on the R&B charts. The first single, "Stay", was a Top 40 R&B hit while the second single, "Cruzin'", was a moderate success.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: Later in 2002, residing in Las Vegas, Jackie founded and ran two record companies, Jesco Records and Futurist Entertainment. His son Sigmund, Jr., known as DEALZ, released a mixtape on Jesco in 2007. In 2009, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon starred in the reality series "" which Jackie executive produced. In 2012, the quartet began their first tour since "Victory" in 1984. In 2017, Jackie signed EDM meets Hip-Hop musical duo "Gold Lemonade" consisting of France born DJ/producer Lya Lewis and Caribbean rooted front-man Jvgg Spvrrow to his label Critically Amused, after having met Lya in Las Vegas in 2015. Jackie also signed artist D.B.L., a long time friend of The Jackson family.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: Jackie has been married three times and has four children. He married his first wife, Enid Arden Spann (1954 - 1997), in November 1974 after a 5-year courtship. They separated in 1984 and Enid filed for divorce, but they reconciled in 1985. In January 1986, Enid filed for divorce for the final time. She received a restraining order against Jackson after alleging that he was physically abusive. Enid died from a brain aneurysm in 1997. They had two children:


title: Jackie Jackson

text: In the 1980s, Jackie was the subject of media coverage when he had an affair with pop star Paula Abdul. From 1989 to 1991, he dated actress Lela Rochon.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: In 2001, Jackie married his second wife, Victoria Triggs. They later divorced. Jackson married his third wife, Emily Besselink, in 2012, who gave birth to twin boys, Jaylen and River Jackson, on December 31, 2013.


title: Jackie Jackson

text: On July 7, 2009, at Michael Jackson memorial at Crypto.com Arena, the Jackson brothers, Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Randy each wore a gold necktie, a single white glove and sunglasses while they served as pallbearers honoring Michael. Jackie spoke out about the allegations against Michael saying "I knew my brother, he wasn't like that. His mission was helping children, helping people around the world." The family says Michael was an easy target, made easier now because the American legal system has no law protecting the deceased against slander, "USA Today" reported, February 27, 2019.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPs are an ethnoreligious group who are the white, upper-class, American Protestant historical elite, typically of British descent. WASPs dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States. From the 1950s, the New Left criticized the WASP hegemony and disparaged them as part of "The Establishment". Although the social influence of wealthy WASPs has declined since the 1940s, the group continues to play a central role in American finance, politics and philanthropy.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: "Anglo-Saxon" refers to people of British ancestry, but "WASP" is sometimes used more broadly by sociologists and others to include all Protestant Americans of Northern European or Northwestern European ancestry. "WASP" is also used for elites in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The 1998 "Random House Unabridged Dictionary" says the term is "sometimes disparaging and offensive".


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes that migrated to Great Britain near the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Anglian and Saxon kingdoms were established over most of what is present-day England, and collectively they came to identify themselves as "English", after England ('land of the Angles'), while the indigenous Celtic people were called British. Later, the name "Anglo-Saxon" was also applied to these people, reflecting their Germanic tribal origins; and, after the Norman conquest in 1066, "Anglo-Saxon" has been used to refer to the pre-invasion English people. Since the 19th century, "Anglo-Saxon" has been in common use in the English-speaking world, but not in Britain itself, to refer to Protestants of principally English descent. The "W" and "P" were added in the 1950s to form a humorous epithet to imply "waspishness" or someone likely to make sharp, slightly cruel remarks.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Political scientist Andrew Hacker used the term "WASP" in 1957, with "W" standing for 'wealthy' rather than 'white'. Describing the class of Americans that held "national power in its economic, political, and social aspects", Hacker wrote:


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: An earlier usage appeared in the African-American newspaper "The New York Amsterdam News" in 1948, when author Stetson Kennedy wrote:


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The term was later popularized by sociologist and University of Pennsylvania professor E. Digby Baltzell, himself a WASP, in his 1964 book "The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America". Baltzell stressed the closed or caste-like characteristic of the group by arguing that "There is a crisis in American leadership in the middle of the twentieth century that is partly due, I think, to the declining authority of an establishment which is now based on an increasingly castelike White-Anglo Saxon-Protestant (WASP) upper class."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Citing Gallup polling data from 1976, Kit and Frederica Konolige wrote in their 1978 book "The Power of Their Glory", "As befits a church that belongs to the worldwide Anglican Communion, Episcopalianism has the United Kingdom to thank for the ancestors of fully 49 percent of its members. ... The stereotype of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) finds its fullest expression in the Episcopal Church."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: "WASP" is also used in Australia and Canada for similar elites. WASPs traditionally have been associated with Episcopal (or Anglican), Presbyterian, United Methodist, Congregationalist, and other mainline Protestant denominations; however, the term has expanded to include other Protestant denominations as well.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The concept of Anglo-Saxonism, and especially Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, evolved in the late 19th century, especially among American Protestant missionaries eager to transform the world. Historian Richard Kyle says:


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Protestantism had not yet split into two mutually hostile camps – the liberals and fundamentalists. Of great importance, evangelical Protestantism still dominated the cultural scene. American values bore the stamp of this Anglo-Saxon Protestant ascendancy. The political, cultural, religious, and intellectual leaders of the nation were largely of a Northern European Protestant stock, and they propagated public morals compatible with their background.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Before "WASP" came into use in the 1960s, the term "Anglo-Saxon" served some of the same purposes. Like the newer term "WASP", the older term "Anglo-Saxon" was used derisively by writers hostile to an informal alliance between Britain and the U.S. The negative connotation was especially common among Irish Americans and writers in France. "Anglo-Saxon", meaning in effect the whole Anglosphere, remains a term favored by the French, used disapprovingly in contexts such as criticism of the Special Relationship of close diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the UK and complaints about perceived "Anglo-Saxon" cultural or political dominance. In December 1918, after victory in the World War, President Woodrow Wilson told a British official in London: “You must not speak of us who come over here as cousins, still less as brothers; we are neither. Neither must you think of us as Anglo-Saxons, for that term can no longer be rightly applied to the people of the United States...There are only two things which can establish and maintain closer relations between your country and mine: they are community of ideals and of interests." The term remains in use in Ireland as a term for the British or English, and sometimes in Scottish Nationalist discourse. Irish-American humorist Finley Peter Dunne popularized the ridicule of "Anglo-Saxons", even calling President Theodore Roosevelt one. Roosevelt insisted he was Dutch. "To be genuinely Irish is to challenge WASP dominance", argues California politician Tom Hayden. The depiction of the Irish in the films of John Ford was a counterpoint to WASP standards of rectitude. "The procession of rambunctious and feckless Celts through Ford's films, Irish and otherwise, was meant to cock a snoot at WASP or 'lace-curtain Irish' ideas of respectability."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In Australia, "Anglo" or "Anglo-Saxon" refers to people of English descent, while "Anglo-Celtic" includes people of Irish, Welsh, and Scottish descent.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In France, "Anglo-Saxon" refers to the combined impact of Britain and the United States on European affairs. Charles de Gaulle repeatedly sought to "rid France of Anglo-Saxon influence". The term is used with more nuance in discussions by French writers on French decline, especially as an alternative model to which France should aspire, how France should adjust to its two most prominent global competitors, and how it should deal with social and economic modernization.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Outside of Anglophone countries, the term "Anglo-Saxon" and its translations are used to refer to the Anglophone peoples and societies of Britain, the United States, and countries such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Variations include the German , French , Spanish "anglosajón", Dutch ' and Italian '.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In the nineteenth century, Anglo-Saxons was often used as a synonym for all people of English descent and sometimes more generally, for all the English-speaking peoples of the world. It was often used in implying superiority, much to the annoyance of outsiders. For example, American clergyman Josiah Strong boasted in 1890:


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In 1700 this race numbered less than 6,000,000 souls. In 1800, Anglo-Saxons (I use the term somewhat broadly to include all English-speaking peoples) had increased to about 20,500,000, and now, in 1890, they number more than 120,000,000.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Is it not reasonable to believe that this race is destined to dispossess many weaker ones, assimilate others, and mould the remainder until... it has Anglo-Saxonized mankind?


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: A 1969 "Time" article stated, "purists like to confine Wasps to descendants of the British Isles; less exacting analysts are willing to throw in Scandinavians, Netherlanders and Germans." The popular usage of the term has sometimes expanded to include not just Anglo-Saxon or English-American elites but also to people of other Protestant Northwestern European origin, including Protestant Dutch Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, German Americans, and Scandinavian Americans. The sociologist Charles H. Anderson writes, "Scandinavians are second-class WASPs" but know it is "better to be a second-class WASP than a non-WASP".


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The term "WASP" has many meanings. In sociology it reflects that segment of the U.S. population that founded the nation and traced their heritages to...Northwestern Europe. The term...has become more inclusive. To many people, WASP now includes most 'white' people who are not ... members of any minority group.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Apart from Protestant English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian Americans, other ethnic groups frequently included under the label "WASP" include Americans of French Huguenot descent, Scotch-Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, Protestant Americans of Germanic Northwestern European descent in general, and established Protestant American families of "vague" or "mixed" Germanic Northwestern European heritage.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Historically, the early Anglo-Protestant settlers in the seventeenth century were the most successful group, culturally, economically, and politically, and they maintained their dominance till the early twentieth century. Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families, such as Boston Brahmin, First Families of Virginia, Old Philadelphians, Tidewater, and Lowcountry Gentry or old money, were WASPs. Commitment to the ideals of the Enlightenment meant that they sought to assimilate newcomers from outside of the British Isles, but few were interested in adopting a Pan-European identity for the nation, much less turning it into a global melting pot. However, in the early 1900s, liberal progressives and modernists began promoting more inclusive ideals for what the national identity of the United States should be. While the more traditionalist segments of society continued to maintain their Anglo-Protestant ethnocultural traditions, universalism and cosmopolitanism started gaining favor among the elites. These ideals became institutionalized after the Second World War, and ethnic minorities started moving towards institutional parity with the once dominant Anglo-Protestants.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Some of the first colleges and universities in America, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania, Duke, Boston, Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Amherst, all were founded by mainline Protestant denominations.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Expensive, private prep schools and universities have historically been associated with WASPs. Colleges such as the Ivy League, the Little Ivies, and the Seven Sisters colleges are particularly intertwined with the culture. Until roughly World War II, Ivy League universities were composed largely of white Protestants. While admission to these schools is generally based upon merit, many of these universities give a legacy preference for the children of alumni in order to link elite families (and their wealth) with the school. These legacy admissions allowed for the continuation of WASP influence on important sectors of the US.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Members of Protestant denominations associated with WASPs have some of the highest proportions of advanced degrees. Examples include the Episcopal Church, with 76% of those polled having some college education, and the Presbyterian Church, with 64%.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: According to "Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States" by Harriet Zuckerman, between 1901 and 1972, 72% of American Nobel Prize laureates have come from a Protestant background, mostly from Episcopalian, Presbyterian or Lutheran background, while Protestants made up roughly 67% of the US population during that period. Of Nobel prizes awarded to Americans between 1901 and 1972, 84.2% of those in Chemistry, 60% in Medicine, and 58.6% in Physics were awarded to Protestants.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant upper class has largely held church membership in the mainline Protestant denominations of Christianity, chiefly the Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Congregationalist traditions.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Citing Gallup polling data from 1976, Kit and Frederica Konolige wrote in their 1978 book "The Power of Their Glory", "As befits a church that belongs to the worldwide Anglican Communion, Episcopalianism has the United Kingdom to thank for the ancestors of fully 49 percent of its members. ... The stereotype of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) finds its fullest expression in the Episcopal Church."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: From 1854 until about 1964, white Protestants were predominantly Republicans. More recently, the group is split more evenly between the Republican and Democratic parties.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Episcopalians and Presbyterians are among the wealthiest religious groups and were formerly disproportionately represented in American business, law, and politics. Old money in the United States was typically associated with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ("WASP") status, particularly with the Episcopal and Presbyterian Church. Some of the wealthiest and most affluent American families such as the Vanderbilts, Astors, Rockefellers, Du Ponts, Roosevelts, Forbes, Fords, Mellons, Whitneys, Morgans, and Harrimans are white primarily mainline Protestant families.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, Episcopalians ranked as the third wealthiest religious group in the United States, with 35% of Episcopalians living in households with incomes of at least $100,000. While Presbyterians ranked as the fourth most financially successful religious group in the United States, with 32% of Presbyterians living in households with incomes of at least $100,000.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The "Boston Brahmins", who were regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites, were often associated with the American upper class, Harvard University, and the Episcopal Church.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Like other ethnic groups, WASPs tend to concentrate within close proximity of each other. These areas are often exclusive and associated with top schools, high incomes, well-established church communities, and high real-estate values. For example, in the Detroit area, WASPs predominantly possessed the wealth that came from the new automotive industry. After the 1967 Detroit riot, they tended to congregate in the Grosse Pointe suburbs. In Chicagoland, white Protestants primarily reside in the North Shore suburbs, the Barrington area in the northwest suburbs, and in Oak Park and DuPage County in the western suburbs. Traditionally, the Upper East Side in Manhattan has been dominated by wealthy White Anglo-Saxon Protestant families.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: David Brooks, a columnist for "The New York Times" who attended an Episcopal prep school, writes that WASPs took pride in "good posture, genteel manners, personal hygiene, pointless discipline, the ability to sit still for long periods of time." According to the essayist Joseph Epstein, WASPs developed a style of understated quiet leadership.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: A common practice of WASP families is presenting their daughters of marriageable age (traditionally at the age of 17 or 18 years old) at a débutante ball, such as the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: America's social elite was a small, closed group. The leadership was well-known to the readers of newspaper society pages, but in larger cities it was hard to remember everyone, or to keep track of the new debutantes and marriages. The solution was the "Social Register", which listed the names and addresses of about 1 percent of the population. Most were WASPs, and they included families who mingled at the same private clubs, attended the right teas and cotillions, worshipped together at prestige churches, funded the proper charities, lived in exclusive neighborhoods, and sent their daughters to finishing schools and their sons away to prep schools. In the heyday of WASP dominance, the "Social Register" delineated high society. According to "The New York Times", its influence had faded by the late 20th century:


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In 2007, "The New York Times" reported that there was a rising interest in the WASP culture. In their review of Susanna Salk's "A Privileged Life: Celebrating WASP Style", they stated that Salk "is serious about defending the virtues of WASP values, and their contribution to American culture."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: By the 1980s, brands such as Lacoste and Ralph Lauren and their logos became associated with the preppy fashion style which was associated with WASP culture.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The term "WASP" became associated with an upper class in the United States due to over-representation of WASPs in the upper echelons of society. Until the mid–20th century, industries such as banks, insurance, railroads, utilities, and manufacturing were dominated by WASPs.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The Founding Fathers of the United States were mostly educated, well-to-do, of British ancestry, and Protestants. According to a study of the biographies of signers of the Declaration of Independence by Caroline Robbins:


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The Signers came for the most part from an educated elite, were residents of older settlements, and belonged with a few exceptions to a moderately well-to-do class representing only a fraction of the population. Native or born overseas, they were of British stock and of the Protestant faith.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Catholics in the Northeast and the Midwest—mostly immigrants and their descendants from Ireland and Germany as well as southern and eastern Europe—came to dominate Democratic Party politics in big cities through the ward boss system. Catholic politicians were often the target of WASP political hostility.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Political scientist Eric Kaufmann argues that "the 1920s marked the high tide of WASP control". In 1965, Canadian sociologist John Porter, in "The Vertical Mosaic", argued that British origins were disproportionately represented in the higher echelons of Canadian class, income, political power, the clergy, the media, etc. However, more recently, Canadian scholars have traced the decline of the WASP elite.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Many reasons have been given for the decline of WASP power, and books have been written detailing it. Self-imposed diversity incentives opened the country's most elite schools. The GI Bill brought higher education to new ethnic arrivals, who found middle class jobs in the postwar economic expansion. Nevertheless, white Protestants remain influential in the country's cultural, political, and economic elite. Scholars typically agree that the group's influence has waned since 1945, with the growing influence of other ethnic groups.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: After 1945, Catholics and Jews made strong inroads in getting jobs in the federal civil service, which was once dominated by those from Protestant backgrounds, especially the Department of State. Georgetown University, a Catholic school, made a systematic effort to place graduates in diplomatic career tracks. By the 1990s, there were "roughly the same proportion of WASPs, Catholics, and Jews at the elite levels of the federal civil service, and a greater proportion of Jewish and Catholic elites among corporate lawyers." The political scientist Theodore P. Wright, Jr., argues that while the Anglo ethnicity of the U.S. presidents from Richard Nixon through George W. Bush is evidence for the continued cultural dominance of WASPs, assimilation and social mobility, along with the ambiguity of the term, has led the WASP class to survive only by "incorporating other groups [so] that it is no longer the same group" that existed in the mid-20th century.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Very few Jewish lawyers were hired by White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ("WASP") upscale white-shoe law firms, but they started their own. The WASP dominance in law ended when a number of major Jewish law firms attained elite status in dealing with top-ranked corporations. Most white-shoe firms also excluded Roman Catholics. As late as 1950 there was not a single large Jewish law firm in New York City. However, by 1965 six of the 20 largest firms were Jewish; by 1980 four of the ten largest were Jewish.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Two famous confrontations signifying a decline in WASP dominance were the 1952 Senate election in Massachusetts, in which John F. Kennedy, a Catholic of Irish descent, defeated WASP Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., and the 1964 challenge by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater—an Episcopalian who had solid WASP credentials through his mother, but whose father was Jewish, and was seen by some as part of the Jewish community—to Nelson Rockefeller and the Eastern Republican establishment, which led to the liberal Rockefeller Republican wing of the party being marginalized by the 1980s, overwhelmed by the dominance of Southern and Western conservatives. However, asking "Is the WASP leader a dying breed?", journalist Nina Strochlic in 2012 pointed to eleven WASP top politicians, ending with Republicans G.H.W. Bush, elected in 1988, his son George W. Bush, elected in 2000 and 2004, and John McCain, who was nominated but defeated in 2008. Mary Kenny argues that Barack Obama, although famous as the first Black president, exemplifies highly controlled "unemotional delivery" and "rational detachment" characteristic of WASP personality traits. Indeed, he attended upper class schools such as Harvard, and was raised by his WASP mother Ann Dunham and the Dunham grandparents in a family that dates to Jonathan Singletary Dunham, born in Massachusetts in 1640. Inderjeet Parmar and Mark Ledwidge argue that Obama pursued a typically WASP-inspired foreign policy of liberal internationalism.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In the 1970s, a "Fortune" magazine study found one-in-five of the country's largest businesses and one-in-three of its largest banks was run by an Episcopalian. More recent studies indicate a still-disproportionate, though somewhat reduced, influence of WASPs among economic elites.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The reversal of WASP fortune was exemplified by the Supreme Court. Historically, almost all its justices were of WASP or Protestant Germanic heritage. The exceptions included seven Catholics and two Jews. Since the 1960s, an increasing number of non-WASP justices have been appointed to the Court. From 2010 to 2017, the Court had no Protestant members, until the appointment of Neil Gorsuch in 2017.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The University of California, Berkeley, once a WASP stronghold, has changed radically: only 30% of its undergraduates in 2007 were of European origin (including WASPs and all other Europeans), and 63% of undergraduates at the University were from immigrant families (where at least one parent was an immigrant), especially Asian. Once also a WASP bastion, as of 2010 Harvard University enrolled 9,289 non-Hispanic white students (44%, of which approximately 30% were Jewish), 2,658 Asian American students (13%), 1,239 Hispanic students (6%), and 1,198 African American students (6%).


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: A significant shift of American economic activity toward the Sun Belt during the latter part of the 20th century and an increasingly globalized economy have also contributed to the decline in power held by Northeastern WASPs. James D. Davidson et al. argued in 1995 that while WASPs were no longer solitary among the American elite, members of the Patrician class remained markedly prevalent within the current power structure.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Other analysts have argued that the extent of the decrease in WASP dominance has been overstated. In response to increasing claims of fading WASP dominance, Davidson, using data on American elites in political and economic spheres, concluded in 1994 that, while the WASP and Protestant establishment had lost some of its earlier prominence, WASPs and Protestants were still vastly overrepresented among America's elite.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In August 2012 the "New York Times," reviewed the religion of the nine top national leaders: the presidential and vice-presidential nominees, the Supreme Court justices, the House Speaker, and the Senate majority leader. There were nine Catholics (six justices, both vice-presidential candidates, and the Speaker), three Jews (all from the Supreme Court), two Mormons (including the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney) and one African-American Protestant (incumbent President Barack Obama). There were no white Protestants.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Sociologist John W. Dykstra in 1958 described the "white AngloSaxon Protestant" as "Mr. Bigot." Historian Martin Marty said in 1991 that WASPs "are the one ethnoreligioracial group that all can demean with impunity."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In the 21st century, "WASP" is often applied as a derogatory label to those with social privilege who are perceived to be snobbish and exclusive, such as being members of restrictive private social clubs. Kevin M. Schultz stated in 2010 that WASP is "a much-maligned class identity...Today, it signifies an elitist snoot." A number of popular jokes ridicule those thought to fit the stereotype.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Occasionally, a writer praises the WASP contribution, as conservative historian Richard Brookhiser did in 1991, when he said the "uptight, bland, and elitist" stereotype obscures the "classic WASP ideals of industry, public service, family duty, and conscience to revitalize the nation." Likewise, conservative writer Joseph Epstein praised WASP history in 2013 and asked, "Are we really better off with a country run by the self-involved, over-schooled products of modern meritocracy?" He deplores how the WASP element lost its self-confidence and came under attack as "The Establishment."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: American films, including "Annie Hall" and "Meet the Parents", have used the conflicts between WASP families and urban Jewish families for comedic effect.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The 1939 Broadway play "Arsenic and Old Lace", later adapted into a Hollywood film released in 1944, ridiculed the old American elite. The play and film depict "old-stock British Americans" a decade before they were tagged as WASPS.


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: The playwright A. R. Gurney (1930-2017), himself of WASP heritage, has written a series of plays that have been called "penetratingly witty studies of the WASP ascendancy in retreat". Gurney told the "Washington Post" in 1982:


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: In Gurney's play "The Cocktail Hour" (1988), a lead character tells her playwright son that theater critics "don't like us... They resent us. They think we're all Republicans, all superficial and all alcoholics. Only the latter is true."


title: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

text: Filmmaker Whit Stillman, whose godfather was E. Digby Baltzell, has made films dealing primarily with WASP characters and subjects. Stillman has been called the "WASP Woody Allen." His debut 1990 film "Metropolitan" tells the story of a group of college-age Manhattan socialites during débutante season. A recurring theme of the film is the declining power of the old Protestant élite.


title: Special Boat Service

text: The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Royal Navy formed special forces with several name changes—Special Boat Company was adopted in 1951 and re-designated as the Special Boat Squadron in 1974—until on 28 July 1987 when the unit was renamed as the Special Boat Service after assuming responsibility for maritime counter-terrorism. Most of the operations conducted by the SBS are highly classified, and are rarely commented on by the British government or the Ministry of Defence, owing to their sensitive nature.


title: Special Boat Service

text: The Special Boat Service is the maritime special forces unit of the United Kingdom Special Forces and is described as the sister unit of the British Army 22nd Special Air Service Regiment (22nd SAS), with both under the operational control of the Director Special Forces. In October 2001, full command of the SBS was transferred from the Commandant General Royal Marines to the Commander-in-Chief Fleet. On 18 November 2003, the SBS were given their own cap badge with the motto "By Strength and Guile". The SBS has traditionally been staffed mostly by Royal Marines Commandos.


title: Special Boat Service

text: The principal roles of the SBS are Surveillance and Reconnaissance (SR), including information reporting and target acquisition; Offensive Action (OA), including the direction of air strikes, artillery and naval gunfire, designation for precision guided munitions, use of integral weapons and demolitions; and Support and Influence (SI), including overseas training tasks. The SBS also provide immediate response Military Counter Terrorism (CT) and Maritime Counter Terrorism (MCT) teams.


title: Special Boat Service

text: The operational capabilities of the SBS and the SAS are broadly similar. However, the SBS (being the principal Royal Navy contribution to UKSF) has the additional training and equipment required to lead in the maritime, amphibious and riverine environments. Both units come under the operational command of HQ Directorate of Special Forces (DSF) and undergo an identical selection process. They enjoy significant interoperability in training and on operations.


title: Special Boat Service

text: Roger Courtney became a Commando in mid-1940 and was sent to the Combined Training Centre in Scotland. He was unsuccessful in his initial attempts to convince Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes and later Admiral Theodore Hallett, commander of the Combined Training Centre, that his idea of a folding kayak brigade would be effective. He decided to infiltrate , an infantry landing ship anchored in the River Clyde. Courtney paddled to the ship, climbed aboard undetected, wrote his initials on the door to the captain's cabin, and stole a deck gun cover. He presented the soaking cover to a group of high-ranking Royal Navy officers meeting at a nearby Inveraray hotel. He was promoted to captain and given command of twelve men as the first Special Boat Service/Special Boat Section.


title: Special Boat Service

text: The unit, on the shores of Sannox, Isle of Arran, was initially named the Folboat Troop, after the type of folding canoe employed in raiding operations and then renamed No. 1 Special Boat Section in early 1941. Attached to Layforce, it moved to the Middle East. The unit worked with the 1st Submarine Flotilla based at Alexandria and did beach reconnaissance of Rhodes, evacuated troops left behind on Crete, and carried out a number of small-scale raids and other operations. In December 1941 Courtney returned to the United Kingdom where he formed No2 SBS, and No1 SBS became attached to the Special Air Service (SAS) as the Folboat Section. In June 1942 they took part in the Crete airfield raids. In September 1942 eight men of the SBS carried out Operation Anglo, a raid on two airfields on the island of Rhodes; all but two of the men were captured after carrying out their mission. Destroying three aircraft, a fuel dump and numerous buildings, the two uncaptured SBS men had to hide in the countryside for four days before they could reach the waiting submarine. After the Rhodes raid, the SBS was absorbed into the SAS due to the heavy casualties they had suffered.


title: Special Boat Service

text: The Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD) was formed on 6 July 1942, and based at Southsea, Portsmouth. The RMBPD was under the command of Royal Marines Major Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler with Captain J. D. Stewart as second in command. The detachment consisted of 34 men and was based at Lumps Fort, and often exercised in the Portsmouth Harbour and patrolled the harbour boom at nights.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In April 1943, 1st SAS was divided, with 250 men from the SAS joining the Small Scale Raiding Force to form the Special Boat Squadron under the command of Major the Earl Jellicoe. They moved to Haifa and trained with the Greek Sacred Regiment for operations in the Aegean.


title: Special Boat Service

text: They later operated among the Dodecanese and Cyclades groups of islands in the Dodecanese Campaign and took part in the Battle of Leros and the Battle of Kos. They, with the Greek Sacred Band, took part in the successful Raid on Symi in July 1944 in which the entire German garrison was either killed or captured. In August 1944 they joined with the Long Range Desert Group in operations in the Adriatic, on the Peloponnese, in Albania, and, finally, in Istria. So effective were they that, by 1944, the 200–300 men of the SBS were holding down six German divisions.


title: Special Boat Service

text: Throughout the war, No.2 SBS did not use the Special Boat Squadron name but instead retained the name Special Boat Section. They accompanied US Major General Mark Clark ashore before the Operation Torch landings in October 1942 on Operation Flagpole. Later, one group, Z SBS, which was based in Algiers from March 1943, carried out the beach reconnaissance for the Salerno landings and a raid on Crete, before moving to Ceylon to work with the Special Operations Executives, Force 136 and later with Special Operations Australia. The rest of No. 2 SBS became part of South-East Asia Command's Small Operations Group, operating on the Chindwin and Irrawaddy rivers, and in the Arakan, during the Burma campaign.


title: Special Boat Service

text: Although their roles always overlapped to some extent, the various canoe and boat units became more specialised from late 1942 onwards. The RMBPD focused on ship attack and harbour sabotage, the Special Boat Section and COPP undertook covert beach surveys, and the Special Boat Squadron engaged in raiding, sabotage and reconnaissance above the high-water mark.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In 1946, the SBS, whether of Commando or SAS parentage, was disbanded. The RMBPD was the only British Special Forces unit to survive the end of World War II intact, and one of three Special Service units to survive (the other two being the RM Commandos and the Parachute Regiment). In 1946, the RMBPD became the School of Combined Operations Beach and Boat Section (SCOBBS) at Fremington, Devon. Lt-Col "Blondie" Hasler RM became the adviser to SCOBBS and wrote the pamphlet ""General Notes on the Use of Special Parties"". The basic SCOBBS course of fourteen weeks covered the range of skills of the wartime COPPS, SRU, SBS and Detachment 385. In October 1947 SCOBBS dropped the word School from its name and moved to RM Eastney to become the Small Raids Wing (SRW) of the Amphibious School, Royal Marines. The school's Chief Instructor Norman Tailyour established the Royal Marines Special Boat Sections taking on the roles proposed in Hasler's paper. Their first missions were in Palestine, involving ordnance removal, and limpet mine removal from ships in Haifa. The SBS went on to serve in the Korean War deployed on operations along the North Korean coast as well as operating behind enemy lines destroying lines of communication, installations and gathering intelligence. During the Korean War the SBS operated from submarines like their wartime predecessors.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In the early 1950s, NATO doctrine for the defence of Western Europe called for a rapid fall-back to the west bank of the Rhine River, a natural defensive barrier. Royal Navy Rhine Flotilla’s SBS detachment had the task of demolishing the bridges over the river as well as destroying the many river barges on the river. The SBS teams of a radio operator and two SBS swimmer-canoeists would then stay behind on the eastern side of the river providing reconnaissance and intelligence and to sabotage Warsaw Pact forces logistics. 2 SB Section, and later also the newly formed 3 SB Section, were part of the Rhine Squadron until around 1958 and took part in all major British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) exercises when they would be joined by 4 and 5 SB Section, formed from the Royal Marines Reserve.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In 1952, SBS teams were held at combat readiness in Egypt in case Gamal Abdel Nasser's revolution turned more violent than it did. The SBS were also alerted during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and coup against King Idris I of Libya (1959), but in both cases they did not see action. In 1961, SBS teams carried out reconnaissance missions during the Indonesian Confrontation (see Operation Claret). In the same year, Iraq threatened to invade Kuwait for the first time, and the SBS put a detachment at Bahrain. In 1972, the SBS came into prominence when members of a combined SBS and RAOC team parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean after a bomb threat on board the cruise liner "Queen Elizabeth 2". A thorough search of the ship found no evidence of any device drawing the conclusion that it was a hoax. The SBS conducted operations in Northern Ireland during The Troubles including with submarines. In January 1975, two SBS kayak teams were inserted from HMS "Cachalot" to conduct an anti gun running operation in the area between Torr Head and Garron.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In 1973, their name was changed to the Special Boat Squadron and in 1980 the SBS relinquished North Sea oil rig protection to Comacchio Company, Royal Marines. In 1982, after the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands, they deployed to South Georgia. The only losses to the SBS during the Falklands War occurred when the SBS and SAS were operating behind the lines and two members of the SBS were shot, one fatally, by an SAS patrol, who had mistaken them for Argentinians.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In 1987, they were renamed Special Boat Service, and became part of the United Kingdom Special Forces Group alongside the Special Air Service and 14 Intelligence Company. In the Gulf War, there was no amphibious role assigned to the SBS. An "area of operations line" was drawn down the middle of Iraq; the SAS would operate west of the line and the SBS to the east. As well as searching for mobile Scud missile launchers, the SBS's assigned area contained a mass of fibre-optic cable that provided Iraq with intelligence; the location of the main junction of the network was 32 miles from Baghdad. 22 January 1991, 36 SBS members were inserted by two Chinook helicopters from No. 7 Squadron RAF into an area full of Iraqi ground and air forces as well as spies and nomads. The SBS team managed to avoid these and destroyed a 40-yard section of the cable with explosives, neutralising what was left of the Iraqi communication grid. The SBS also carried out one of its most high-profile operations when it liberated the British Embassy in Kuwait, abseiling from helicopters hovering above the embassy. They also carried out diversionary raids along the Kuwaiti coast which diverted a number of Iraqi troops away from the main thrust of the coalition buildup, to the SBS area of operations.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In September 1999, about 20 SBS members contributed to the Australian-led International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) in East Timor. Together with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment and the New Zealand Special Air Service they formed INTERFET's special forces element, named Response Force.</ref> Response Force departed from Darwin by C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and flew into Dili tasked with securing the airport, a seaport and a heli-port to enable regular forces to land and deploy. The SBS were filmed driving a Land Rover Defender out of a Hercules. Response Force was then used to perform a variety of tasks including direct action and special reconnaissance throughout East Timor. The British forces, including the SBS, withdrew in December 1999. Sergeant Mark Andrew Cox was awarded the Military Cross after his patrol came under fire from pro-Indonesian militia.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In September 2000, the SBS, integrated with the SAS, were involved in Operation Barras, a hostage rescue operation in Sierra Leone that successfully rescued five captured Royal Irish Regiment soldiers.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In November 2001, C and M squadron SBS had an extensive role in the invasion of Afghanistan at the start of the War in Afghanistan, notably, members of M squadron, alongside members of SIS, were involved in the Battle of Tora Bora. The SBS was integrated directly into Task Force Sword – a Black unit, under direct command of JSOC, this was a so-called hunter-killer force whose primary objective was capturing or killing senior leadership and High-value targets within al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Troops from C squadron (reinforced by teams from X and Z squadron, with at least one SEAL attached to them) were tasked with several missions, some with Abdul Rashid Dostum's Northern Alliance forces at Mazar-e-Sharif. On 10 November, C squadron inserted into the recently captured Bagram Airbase, which caused an immediate political quandary with the Northern Alliance leadership which claimed that the British had failed to consult them on it before the deployment, in addition to fighting with Dostum's forces, they worked alongside TF Sword in Shah-i-Kot Valley. Members of M squadron SBS, were involved in a prison revolt during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, members of the SBS along with US and Northern Alliance troops eventually quelled the uprising, however during one close air support mission, a misdirected JDAM bomb wounded four SBS personnel to various degrees. In appreciation for the SBS contribution to the battle, the CIA attempted to recognise the personnel with US decorations, but due to military and political bureaucracy, the decorations were never awarded. The SBS continued to work with Task Force Sword and the CIA.


title: Special Boat Service

text: In Spring 2005, the Director of Special Forces re-balanced British special forces deployments so that Afghanistan would be the responsibility of the SBS and Iraq would be the 22nd SAS Regiment's. In Spring 2006, the British military deployed over 4,000 troops to southern Afghanistan and the SBS were assigned to take the lead in supporting the deployment. The SBS were part of Task Force 42 the British contingent in the Joint Special Forces command; their deployment with other British special forces units was codenamed Operation Kindle (similar to the SAS and other British SF deployment in Iraq, known as Operation Crichton); the SBS carried out missions all over southern Afghanistan with AgustaWestland Apache helicopters. Along with training and mentoring Afghan Provincial Response Companies, Afghan police tactical units the operated jointly with Coalition SOF, TF 42 conducted operations in direct support of the British Battle Group deployed in Helmand Province and for ISAF SOF Command and operations directly for the Americans in pursuit of high-value targets. The main objective of the SBS (and later on other British special forces units with Afghan forces) was targeting Taliban leaders and drug barons using "Carrot and stick" tactics. On 27 June 2006, a 16-man unit from C Squadron and members of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) carried out Operation Ilois: an operation that silently captured four Taliban leaders in compounds on the outskirts of Sangin, Helmand province. As they returned to their Land Rover vehicles, they were ambushed by an estimated 60–70 Taliban insurgents, with one vehicle disabled by RPG fire, the team took cover in an irrigation ditch and requested assistance while holding off the Taliban force. The Helmand Battle Group had not been informed of the operation until it went wrong; a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) made up of a platoon of Gurkhas responded but ran into another insurgent ambush; one SBS member was seriously injured in the ambush. After an hour-long gunfight (some sources say three hours), Apache attack helicopters, the Gurkha QRF and the 16-man unit, supported by a US A-10 Thunderbolt and two Harrier GR7s managed to break contact and return to the closest FOB; two of the four Taliban leaders were killed in the firefight while the other two escaped in the chaos. Upon reaching the FOB it was discovered that Captain David Patton, SRR, and Sergeant Paul Bartlett, SBS were missing—one was helping wounded out of a vehicle when he was shot and assumed killed, and the other went missing during the firefight. An RAF Chinook carrying a company from the Parachute Regiment took off to find them, a pair of Apaches spotted the bodies and the Paras recovered them. One SBS member was awarded the MC for his actions in the ambush.