daisysolorio – Historical Thinking

Mary Typhoid

November 15, 2016daisysolorio

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While reading about Mary Mallon, her story is amazing especially the way they reacted to the situation. The fact that was fascinating was her resistance and the way that the department of health reacted and handled her case. Chapter six opens with Alphonse Cotils which was another carrier of the disease but his case was handled very different to his and also he didn’t want to associate to her inn sense that would jeopardize his integrity (Typhoid Mary, 162). Also, how when they were investigating the case of why these families had the illness and when they identified the new cook as someone that could possibly be the cause of it and they related it to the slum in which most of immigrant because of how the dirty and unsanitary (Typhoid Mary, 167). The thing that sucks about her cases was basically how they treated and isolate her from the world. Which sucks for her because how unfairly treated for something she fully did not understand and they really did not explain it to her. Also something interesting with her case was the fact that while in her isolation they experimented on her instead of just letting her work in something else that was not cooking. Society plays a big role in her treatment because at first they so hostile to her but when they sent her to North Brother Island some were not agreeing with the health department. As @derekjahwu mentions the fact that they associate her as a threat to society which is such a huge burden and sad to even think. Also the fact that she died in isolation is even more sad.

History in a New Millennium

November 13, 2016daisysolorio

As I was reading chapter seven by Popkin I came across the theme of this chapter regarding the change of history in the new millennium. Technology was great innovation for mankind it changed many aspects of life for many people. We have become so attached to our technology and cannot live without them especially with the internet. The internet has changed not only a way a life but also how history has been changing due to the new innovations. Popkin mentions how the internet gives a new way to communicate historical knowledge across the globe (Popkin, 170). Historians are now able to communicate with their colleagues faster now that they can email each other instant (Popkin, 171). This important because the way I learned history was not just by reading and looking through book but learning most of my history from the internet. I found it interesting when Popkin mentions how not only did the internet affect the way the historical communication changes but also how along the way the we will teach about history will also change. This topic is interesting to me because I want to be a history teacher and most of the ideas brought by him were true in my opinion. The internet is very valuable especially with coming up with ideas for creating lesson plans and new was to show the students something such as virtual museums and movies. @armando35 mentions “Technology in general has allowed almost anyone to be involved with the study of history because it isn’t solely confined to books, journals, or even schools; there are many new mediums in which history can be accessed,” which I can agree with especially with the new generation of historians who grew up learning history from different mediums that were not books. Technology advancement has in my opinion increased the study of history to many people and the new innovations coming in the future will keep changing the way history is communicated.

Herodotus to H-Net Ch.6

October 30, 2016October 30, 2016daisysolorio

Historians have mostly argued what is the right way to study the field and what methods to use. In this chapter Popkin at first notes how time eras such as the 1960s affected the way history was studied (Popkin, 129). A lot of conflicting methodology was causing a change not in just the way that the field is being studied but also how the historians were actually thinking about historical events. In the 1960s there was a lot of vocalization of the country’s problems which lead to a vocal discussion on how the certain methods in use for talking about history and having a way to relate to their own lives and problems in their country. The new forming historians on these campuses were looking for ways to relate the past events in a way that it was useful to solve a problem. It was because the 1960s that historiography took a new turn. Like any other person who hates change many older historians challenged and disliked the new turn of history was taking because it was not their way of studying the field. The field of history transformed into a field with many avenues that reflected with the past information but also with experiences that helped strengthen the information of the past. In @jessica42 she states that “Popkin argues that history has reached a new era in which everything has become more technologically advance,” I can agree with her because due to the technology the way you study or even learn about history has changed. Now historians can communicate all across the world and talk about their research and not be limited to search about how different historians have discussed about a certain topic.

Historical event: Museum of Tolerance

October 24, 2016daisysolorio

On Friday the 21^st of October I visited the museum of tolerance as part of group. I had only visited the museum once before but it was very different experience. I took the same tour from years ago but the impact and emotions where very different for me. Just being there and finally understanding and experiencing a sense of hopelessness that these people felt in such a horrible situation. During the tour there were different scenarios in which they would duplicate different ways people were talking about the upcoming power of Hitler. This was very interesting especially when trying to figure out the mindset of not only the Jews of that time but also the well-educated German people that either sided with Nazi party or didn’t. There was an instance during the tour where we had to walk through these gates and we had to make the decision in which category we belong to and then enter a gas chamber room where there was a documentary explaining what was happening to the Jews in the concentration camps. At the end of our tour we spoke to a holocaust survivor about his experience and life. It was an honor to listen to Morris’s life and to know despite everything he went through he was so optimistic about the future. In this class we have noted how important it is to obtain primary source and how sometimes it is very difficult to come across but just having the opportunity to listen to his life story and all the ways he found to survive was something incredible. Also having the opportunity to shake his hand and get his autograph was something just out of this world. Leaving the tour made me so reflective about our history but also how incredibly different it is to learn about the Jewish holocaust from a book rather than going through a museum that hold true artifacts and have primary sources talking about their experience.

San Francisco in denial?

October 23, 2016daisysolorio

While reading the chapter “Smoke and Mirrors: The San Francisco Earthquake and Seismic Denial” from American Disaster the theme Steinberg discussed how even though there was an earthquake the most destructive to the city was the fire. This argument can be related to other disasters we have studied such as the Chicago fire. These real estate and businesses were really focused on blaming the fire for the destruction because with a fire they could come up with ways to reduce and avoid it to happen again but with an earthquake, there was no possible way to prevent it from happening (Steinberg, 107). The way they viewed the calamity was similar to the way boosters viewed Chicago in which they could make a profit and rebuild but this time by telling lies about the state not having a seismic problem. It’s interesting how it took until the next big jolt for the first Californian legislation stating that the state had a seismic problem but it didn’t really hinder the migration of people to California. The fact that to this day there is an unclear number of deaths during this disaster illustrates how the earthquake was downplayed in order to bring more capital in order to rebuild the city. Steinburg brings up an excellent point relating the connection between how the calamity was being advertised and the death poll (Steinburg, 119). As ngojoseph’s question of “Are we all earthquake deniers?”, it is clear nowadays we know the risk of living in a state that is so prone to earthquakes but does it stop us from making our lives here and the answer is no. We know the risk but we also like to think we are safe by coming up and inventing state of the art things that would help us stay safe for the next big earthquake. Just like those people that lived right next to an active volcano in Pompeii they never that they would live to see the day that it erupted because it had never erupted in the past. We aren’t as naïve but why would we stop living in the best climate-controlled place.

Image result for safe coffin for earthquakes

Histories Beginnings

September 18, 2016daisysolorio

The way I thought about history was similar to Thucydides because he focuses more on the facts and the narratives of those who played key roles in his stories (Popkin 28-29). Pokin mentions that both Herodotus and Thucydides are important to modern history because without them the format of history would have been very different (Popkin 27). These two ancient historians tell history in two different ways but were able to coincide that history should be the story of the thoughts and deeds of beings without the intrusion of the gods to explain the events (Popkin 27-30). These two chapters in the book discussed how historical writing kept changing and developing over time depending on the time period or the events that were occurring but they in a sense still had similarities of the two ancient historians mentioned before.

I was reading the article “The Great Conflagration” which part of the narrative of Bessie Bradwell Helmer discusses the great fire of Chicago that burned the city down. There was an instance in this narrative that I recalled was very similar to our lectures on Monday and Wednesday when discussing the themes of environmental history. One theme that jumped out was the idea of natural versus unnatural. Bessie points out that another historian related to the topic of Chicago fire mentions “Nature had withheld her accustomed measure of prevention, and man had added to the peril by recklessness” which to me was a great example for that theme. @mvanderdussen was describing which is the whether the benefits that the city had in geographical features were “natural” or manipulated by those who wanted the land from the native people that previously resided there. My classmate discusses the benefits the city of Chicago had when being built but with those benefits and limited space had many failures. This helped further the discussion of the quote because nature has its limits and when pushed could be a cause of devasting consequence done by man.

Chicago Historical Makeover

September 11, 2016daisysolorio

As I was reading the prologue of the book Natures Metropolis by Cronon he starts by recalling his first encounter with The City. The fact that he saw the way Chicago was becoming an urban city but everything outside that city was rural (Cronon 7). Also that he mentions that he only got a small glimpse when passing by they bad living neighborhoods that was a place that nobody wanted to live in but unfortunately many did in the nineteenth century (Cronon 6). Cronon wrote the book to in a way to help understand how the city and the country because a tight system in which helped understand the city’s place in nature by using a series of historical journey’s. (Cronon 8) The makeover that Chicago went through was a historically needed to help put america forward. Before the factories their was vast lands of “free” land that was up to be used. The location that it was in was an advantage because they had a water source that close by (Cronon 55-56). When times were using and expansion started along with the industrialization of america Chicago became a part of it. Building and factories were being made and their were employees being worked in horrible conditions (Cronon 58-60). From that point on Chicago stopped being rural instead it was morphing into a urban city. Everything that we thing of today as a city was so different in the nineteenth century. As a brand new city everything was horrible such as the living conditions, drainage, streets, and etc. (Cronon 58-60). However that did not stop the flourishing city of become on the greatest city in America. As @ jessicak mentioned that ” History has constructed us to think how we do today.” Which ties in perfectly when discuss a city like Chicago because it helps understand a different time period and how it came to be but also when I think about Chicago as a great industrial place with many skyscrapers and buildings that it looks so crowded.

Image result for cartoon about chicago going rural to urban

From Herodotus to H-net

September 6, 2016daisysolorio

In this weeks reading “From the Herodotus to H-net” by Jeremy D. Popkin explained what exactly was historiography. Popkin defines historiography as ‘the critical assessment of the ways in which historians try to reconstruct past events as distinguished from the statements they make about the past’ (Popkin 3). Not only are we making sense of the what happened doing these historical affects and trying to find connections but also we are trying to interpreting what other historians had to say about the event. He mentioned how every historian will have a different opinion or view on history but to validate the truth on these historical events they have to find some similarities in each of their stories (Popkin 4). For me studying the past especially ancient civilizations is very interesting so I hope when I get a better understand in what historiography it will help me have a better understanding and increase my interest in it even more. I really have never heard before about historiography in my life but as I keep reading its making more sense sense in why its so important when being a historian to know this and be able to understand the concept. I know this will be difficult for to get a grasp of but it will be very useful to learn and to master when I graduate with a history degree. As mentioned in @oosegueda blog post when writing history perspective can change over time and viewed differently in another era. For example those who wrote diaries or stories about the past about slavery some of those narratives would have a whole different opinion about the topic then the scholar of this era. Its a whole different process a thinking. So its important as a history to know what is historiography because it helps them understand what is happening and get a clearer picture of the event or issue.

Disasters?

August 30, 2016daisysolorio

Disaster is defined in very similar ways in both the book American Disasters and the article Disaster: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis by describing them as events that are out the ordinary and indescribable. Something interesting that I can cross in the book was a mention of a plane disaster that was not covered by the media. This event was particularly interesting to me because of the reactions of the victims. These victims did not want the media in their faces but they also wanted them there to cover the disaster. When no media outlet showed up their reaction was an outrage because they wanted to be acknowledged for their sufferings. For example, one passage in the book mentioned “Later, the victims of “airborne toxic event” demand the media’s validation of their suffering and terror” (Biel 3). This explained how a disaster in modern times was really validated when media did a coverage on the event if not then it was not a real disaster and did not really happen. It also helped demonstrate what events were chosen to be public and which were not worthy to be covered. Another interesting point that I can came across in both the book and the article was the mention of these disaster were in fact catastrophic but also mentioned how these disasters affected the people differently. Also from these disaster grew a language in which was used to describe them properly and to also describe the effects that they had on the community. Disasters can be very hard to explain in its nature but its a very important to our history because it helps describe how our “communities” have changed ad survived those events.

Historical Thinking – Fall 2016

Author: daisysolorio