jessicak – Historical Thinking

Historical Event

December 2, 2016jessicak

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For my historical event, I chose to write about two historical movies I watched over the summer. They are called Taegukgi (The Brotherhood of War) and Ode to my Father, and they both focus on the effects of the Korean War, during and after. Taegukgi focuses on the warfront where family and men are torn apart due to the division of Koreans being accused of being with the communist party by association. There is a lot of confusion and families forcing to fight against one another. The movie was heart wrenching but beautiful to watch because of the deep connections between families and brothers.

The second movie was Ode to my Father wasn’t something anywhere near what my expectations were. I watched this movie a few hours after Taegukgi, and was told that this one was going to be a “comedy.” My Aunt lied big time. The movie had be smiling and laughing at one moment, only for my heart to be thrown onto the ground and stomped all over. (That was literally how my cousin and I described our feelings after the movie.) The movie follows a boy who loses his house in the Hungnam Evacuation, and encounters numerous trials and guilt throughout his life. The movie incorporated actually footage of TV programs from the past, they were so real and raw that really the Korean War so authentic. The feeling was similar to the awe and connection you experience going to a museum and seeing items of the past.

As a historian both movies have created a deeper appreciation into learning about not only about my own heritage, but about others events throughout history. And that where there is history, there are lives that impact and are impacted by the paths people choose. And that will continue for as long as people live.

(P.s. I really recommend these movies)

Facing New Encounters

November 8, 2016jessicak

The more I learn about the growing “new” nation, the more I realize that America had really forced their way into becoming a rich nation through any means possible. These numerous tragedies undoubtedly created North America that we live in today. The Dust Bowl, whether natural or unnatural, was worsened by the farmers and government who disregarded their environment. The residents knew of their environment because “local newspapers from throughout the region contain unequivocal evidence that dust storms happened on the southern plains throughout the late nineteenth century, before a significant amount of grassland had been plowed. (Knowles, 110)” The farmers and the government took a gamble to over plow the land to create an overabundance of crops which fell through for the people living in the Great Plains and the land. As @raldrich25 mentions, “had people taken closer consideration to the obvious environment around them rather than the idea of producing as much as possible as fast as possible things would have been far less catastrophic throughout the Great Plains. (Natural or Unnatural)” Science and agriculture may have improved through this event, but achieving this through the extent of the land and people was unnecessary. By not only looking at the present, but taking heed to the plains ecology, a question or a concern (about how there would be a lot of dust and dirt in the air) should have arisen of this situation. This relates to how we should use history to interact with a situation we’ve never faced before.

Mother Nature’s Dusty Revenge

November 6, 2016November 6, 2016jessicak

In the 1930s, the United States faced severe droughts and dust storms due to the farming methods that restricted wind erosion. The dust is the product what was once soil trapped within the earth through little moisture, but was torn up vigorously through plowing to create a cultivated cropland. Koppes mentioned in “Dusty Volumes: Environmental Disaster and Economic Collapse in the 1930s” that farmers “gamble for hugely profitable stakes; on ever larger farms, they produce bumper crops by using heavy amounts of machinery, chemicals, fossil fuels, and (most critical of all) irrigation water from underground aquifers that threaten to run dry (Koppes 538).” Rather than the forgotten age, the dust bowl was rather the disregarded natural disaster. Both periods wanted bigger and better things no matter the price. The expansion was a selfish conquering of the new land and their people, but benefited environmental and agricultural development. This was much like the gilded age where there was technological advancement through means of corruption.

As @Rdaigh mentions that both periods need to be “look(ed) beyond the stereotypes of the dust bowl to discover more interesting and important characteristics that only can occur when looking at a source with more ‘explicit, and more developed, theory’(The Depressing Depression).” Rather than being a subject that can be turned over with the farming technique wasn’t correct for the land, there is more to it. Such as the fact that people would make products, wheat, in overabundance. The production may solve issues at that present time, but what of the resources and labor that was once in such high demand do after it’s not required.

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Was it worth it?

October 23, 2016October 23, 2016jessicak

In the San Francisco earthquake, both earthquake and fire contributed to the destruction of the city and their surroundings. However, the chapter centered on what was covered by the investors and business owners in San Francisco. There were seismic deniers who wanted everyone to believe that the city was safe, and that it was the architectural fault that the city came into ruins rather than the location being dangerous. Businesses and people wanted to downplay the effects and how bad an earthquake could get because they wanted to deny the fact that the location where they put effort in was deemed dangerous. Businesses believed that if “earthquakes were fictional a fictional threat in California, insurance to protect against such phenomena was a hard sell. (Steinberg 113)” These denials presented fake advertisements because earthquakes themselves are impossible to prevent. Having the fire being the main factor for destruction presents a more human relation to the disaster because fires can be prevented.

In a sense everyone who lives anywhere are prone to some sort of natural disaster whether it be hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, and/or more. So in a sense, we may all be denying earthquakes living in California as @ ngojoseph claims (Earthquakes in California: Yet People Still Choose to Live Here). But who isn’t “denying” the threats in their living spaces. Take for the example people who live on the coast, there may be a chance for hurricanes, but the location is still extremely pricey even at the risk of being caught up in a natural disaster. We all decide where we live on depending on our finances and abilities, but we just need to figure out if the location we decide to settle is really worth your life.

Literature and Communism

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016jessicak

Utopian and dystopian worlds and the literature that presents these works has always been a fascination of mine. I read 1984 by George Orwell, A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and the Giver by Lois Lowry a few years before learning what communism was. At first a world where everyone was equal seemed so authentic and possible, but as I continued reading I realized that in each one of these books, human nature prevailed. Humans are egocentric not through sheer selfishness, but through survival instincts. There is always a reason behind an action, and an individual will try to come out on top if they found the opportunity.

The Communist Manifesto was conceived in order to not undermine the working class which at the time were given little to no rights. The foundation is strong in the sense where communism would help unite the lower class to overthrow the corrupt upper class, the bourgeois. As a historical figure, people may see him as the creator of governments such as the Soviet Union and China, an ideologist whose ideas were led astray. Marx’s idea for communism wasn’t as violent of a term we think of today, instead it was a political philosophical concept that historians can still learn from today. In @Derekjahwu, he points out that “Marx is difficult to be studied as a historian because his interpretation of his society was rooted in speculation of futures actions of the proletariat that would be potentially caused by the bourgeois. (How to view Marx)” But I think that the fact that Marx is focused on what may happen if the upper class were to get out of hand is important because we can learn from the past/present as he did. Although his interpretation into fixing a situation had cause a domino effect on other nations, there can and may be other concepts that would be able to lead us into a more successful world.

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Your mama jokes.. communist style.

Virtual Museum of the San Francisco Earthquake/Fire of 1906

October 17, 2016October 17, 2016jessicak

http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/06.html

Escaping Static History

October 16, 2016jessicak

This chapter covers how interpreting and recording history became more developed and changed during the nineteenth century. Historians began by making use of different primary sources for research. And instead of just isolating the facts of the past, historians began intertwining documents to synthesis with each other. Interpreting the past through multiple sources to create a “unity and progress of events” instead of having a dry strict chronicles of events which is the “supreme law” (Popkin, 77). The nineteenth century is when the researching history changed from providing facts to analyzing and interpreting historical events.

In the 19th century historians began straying away from dry facts that may exclude certain facts percentages and numbers. By interpreting history we are able to find parts which were neglected because of their lack of “importance.” Just as @armando35 specified in History in the 19th Century women had almost no say or part in history. Without their participation and lack of background diversity there would be fewer arguments over what may have happened or in having different perceptions of the past. To find out what happened in the past, historians need to research, argue, and compare. With similar backgrounds and less varying opinions, the general consensus may be too subjective to one “side” of history. From this, I take the importance of researching multiple aspects to a historical event. Rather than going for the first sources that surface up and agree with each other, but to search more thoroughly by finding sources that argue against each other.

What We Remember

October 2, 2016October 2, 2016jessicak

Although the book is rather accurate about the facts leading up to the storm, what is left to be considered is the characters in relations to each other, and how it had affected how the storm went about. Had Isaac been able to save as was reported, and “despite his failing as a scientist it is Isaac rather than his brother who has gone down in Galveston-area legend as the Paul Revere who warned residents to leave before the hurricane raged into town (Offman). Because in the book it showed that it was his joseph, Isaac’s brother, who was the one keen on evacuating the town, whereas Isaac trusted his scientific abilities and insisted on staying. Both scientists tried to find the most logical answer with the knowledge they were given. Fincher defends Isaac’s role in the hurricane: “I think he studied everything he could. He was going by the knowledge that they had with them in the bureau.” The Galveston hurricane shows that humans and technology has its limitations.

The book gives a lot of insight to the truth of what had happened through journals, diaries, newscasts from the time it had happened. But the story also was made from fabrications that the people of the time decided to want to believe. And as Joshuadw88 states that “So though this was a historical novel where it is possible some facts can be twisted around in the name of entertainment, the book presented a real history (Trying to Reflect Reality). Our history is created through facts, how people experience going through events, how they present their perspective, and how people will take all of the to account and create something, that may be subjective, but a true interpretation of the past.

Advancement through Disasters

September 27, 2016jessicak

The adrenaline and anxiety I was given through Larson’s vivid and gruesome writing style made for a mesmerizing read. Larson’s choice in structuring the book by funneling the people of Galveston and their stories to the storm created a connection which normally is absent in historical observations. I think that the truth in remembering the past is lost through Larson’s writing style because the story is mixed with truth and fabrication to the story to make every action reasonable. Publicly we may only hear what reporters want us to hear, but through this story we find out that Isaac may not be a hero as he was made to be seen by Moore (Larson, 251). The process of Isaac’s heroic actions was much more complicated, and this book emphasizes that there are gray areas in history we need to search for.

I do agree with @jessica42 that the book was heavily themed with a man versus nature, but I don’t believe that nature will always inevitable win. I believe that as human technology advances, we slowly can overcome obstacles nature has given to us in the past such as transportation over lands and water, our ability to gauge the weather, and etc. Isaac’s storm is not completely man’s loss, there were many deaths, but humanity was able to advance farther in their hurricane knowledge to maybe prepare for the future. Through Isaac’s experience he was able to become publish two books on hurricanes and became “one of the nation’s leading hurricane experts” and identified what was truly a hurricane’s deadliest weapon. (Larson, 270)

Fantastic book, I have a new appreciation for disaster history and narrative history texts.

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Chicago! The New… Rome?

September 11, 2016September 11, 2016jessicak

The entirety of the Roman Empire has always been an interest of mine, and I love seeing it being referenced. And in this case, Cronon referenced writers speaking of “Chicago as ‘the Rome that is to be of the new world’ or ‘the Rome of the railroads,’ they were reaching for a metaphor that lent their city the grandeur of past urban empires” (p 42). The city was so focused on the fame they would receive from their advancements in technology resembling Rome, that they didn’t worry about other aspects, like corruption, that also lead to the fall of Rome. Although Chicago isn’t an empire and conquering other lands, it grew through the expansion of railroads, attempting to take as much space as it could. But then again the colonization is pretty much the same thing. However, what was more important was they tried becoming the known central city, the city known for its achievements without any considerations for what could go wrong. With no thought of what it was doing to the nature, the health of its citizens, and the future of the land plowed to ground becoming infertile. It shows that we need to look into the past and make considerations to what we want to achieve today and onward. In @mvanderdussen they mention the importance of “allowing historians to gain a better understanding of history, and helps continue to encourage historical research and debate, helping to maintain the discipline as a whole.” We can learn about what we need to avoid or encourage to make a better tomorrow through the achievements and failures of our pasts through the history of Chicago and other empires/states/cities in the world.

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Historical Thinking – Fall 2016

Author: jessicak