joshuadw88 – Historical Thinking

One of Many Visits: This Year’s Visitation of the Getty Villa/Historical Event

November 8, 2016joshuadw88

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One of the most relaxed places I have always loved going to yearly has been the Getty Villa Museum. Located around Malibu, this is a museum based off of the Villa of the Papyri (a Roman villa buried in the Mount Vesuvius in the eruption of 79 CE) and mainly features various Greco-Roman artifacts, three of which I have reflected on since. One of the artifacts I first reflected on once I arrived there was the Parthian silver ware. It reminded me of how wealthy some parts of the feudalistic Parthian Empire was and those the brief moments of peace with the Roman Empire that allowed traders came from cities like Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia to trade with the Romans to reflected the interconnections of that world. Later on, I also was amazed by the intimidating statue of Herakles known as the Lansdowne Herakles. Standing in a domed-cylinder room that felt like a small pantheon dedicated to the Gods, the marble statue of Herakles stood there reflecting the passion of the Greeks for perfection and a belief that humanity can achieve great things when they want to. Yet when I saw the broken off penis of the statue, I was also reminded of how the world of Antiquity changed into a Christian driven world which saw the destruction of the Classical World. As it was a reaction to disasters all around the Roman Empire from diseases, climate change, internal problems, and the Germanic migrations, I could only sigh and move on with over a thousand years of hindsight on my side. Last and third artifact I came across at the museum that I wanted to mention was a bust of Emperor Commodus. This marble statues reminded me of not only the fact statues of the Greco-Roman world were colored, but the transition of the Roman Empire into slow instability due to the craved eyes that reminded me of more emperors that came about that had sculptures that reflected power than wisdom. The Getty Villa shows that history can be told through artifacts if people examined background of such things of the past.

Detail of Head: Front

Beyond Journals and Essays: Examining and Interacting with History

November 8, 2016joshuadw88

While Images are not needed in order to understand the significance of battles, decisions, and cultural trends through time, it helps out. Trying to understand what the past looked gets historians closer to the people who lived in the time they study which makes websites, like that of UCLA’s Mapping Indigenous Los Angeles, valuable. This can be seen when understanding the website’s mission which is, ” not presenting a historical narrative that begins with the maps made by the [Spanish]…but rather hope to show that many Tongva have had consistent occupation in the region, not just those associated with the [San Gabriel Mission]” (Mapping Indigenous LA: Placemaking Through Digitial Storytelling). This exposure also goes beyond that by showing people, not familiar with historical literature, to sources like O, My Ancestor or even to festivals held by groups that want to maintain and share their culture with others. Rdaigh also weighed in on the usefulness of websites as he stated, “I also appreciate that the website gives you the ability to insert videos to give further information so you don’t intimidate your audience with too much information” (Historical Discussion…again). Thus websites can be a jumping off point for people and help educated them more about the world around them. Yet only websites like that are the beginning as some interactive media forms can be used to help spread knowledge of history. The best example of this in action is Sid Meier’s Civilization video game series which Jeremy D. Popkin, in From Herodotus to H-Net, mentioned as allowing players, “to experiment with different decisions and see what the consequences of their actions are. Instead of being passive consumers of representations of the past…, video-game players take an active role in constructing notions of the past” (184). While mainly for entertainment value, certain video games can be just as useful in exposing people to history as educational websites are as it can lead to the development of critical historical thinking skills when it comes to various factors like understanding the importance of resources to why nations may justify wars. This shows the necessity of going beyond journals and essays as seeing and interacting with history is just as important as writing about it.

Manipulating Disasters

November 1, 2016joshuadw88

It seems like a recurring theme in this course that a disaster can be manipulated in order to support an argument of one side. This concept was brought up by Steven Biel in his own writing piece “Unknown and Unsung” which takes a look at the perspective of certain groups in America and their reaction/take on the disaster. The concept is made apparent by first looking at an African American point of view in several versions of the song “The Great Titanic” where the song mentions upper class people living in separate quarters from lower class people and due to this perceived unfairness, the wealthy are later on divinely punished with the sinking to make a point (Biel 316). Another example of the Titanic disaster being used to justify a point is when Socialist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman saw it as only being seen as a major disaster due to the wealthy on board and thus hinted that it was, “the product of capitalism and its desire to legitimate itself” (Biel 324). Either way, these opinions and others mentioned in Biel’s work show that a disaster can be used to support an idea or ideology. I agree with this argument by Steven Biel for what should rather be another sinking disaster that reflected more on the cockiness of designers as well as the preference for speed over safety in the Atlantic became blinded by the politics of the time. These arguments are no better than early Christian writers who used the horrific deaths of Roman Emperors who were hostile to Christianity as justification of their faulty belief system. This is made more clearer in a post by Rhruska in discussing the feminist interpretation of the disaster by saying, “This rejection of paternal [dominance] by feminists after the disaster was critical to publicizing their cause” (Titanic – More to the Myth). Publication also helps gets more people to curious about a topic and even if the argument is flawed, will at least have knowledge of what is going on. Still these are interpretations of a disaster for political arguments in order to create change. If someone wants to create real change in society, an use of rational argumentation and support, not opinion, is needed to make an impact.

When does Destruction Equal Great Opportunities?

October 25, 2016joshuadw88

It can be odd to be in a city in ruins, with dead people lying around, and there is one man looking around, grinning unusually wide, while saying to himself, “I bet this would be a great place to place a giant shopping mall.” Not unlike the way Emperor Nero took advantage of the Great Fire of Rome’s destruction to build his grand palace, so do some people in the modern era look at the flip side of devastation as Kevin Rozario wrote about in “What Comes Down Must Go Up.” Throughout this essay in which he focuses primarily on San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, Rozario looks at the concept of creative destruction in which he defines as, “the notion that modern capitalist systems require the continual obliteration of outmoded goods and structures to clear space and make way for new production and development” (Rozario 72). He uses this concept to explain why some Americans see opportunity in disasters as it is argued that the concept does work to further expand economic growth but points out that reliance on destruction, “at times seems to create only to destroy” (Rozario 96). It is for this reasoning that I can agree with Kevin Rozario that creative destruction does work though it is an unsustainable process. Take the aftermath of the 1906 Earthquake into account as San Francisco was rebuilt to be shiner and better and thus had more capital placed into it rather than out of it. Due to the city having more capital following what happened, it thus became more vulnerable as Rozario best states, “that unending growth is an environmentally unsustainable that may produce a calamity that finally buries rather than invigorates capitalism” (Rozario 95). Nothing is wrong at all about rebuilding a city though constantly rebuilding and using that as a major way to promote growth is. People want to live their lives and not worry about losing everything though as Ploopy1 commented, “it is up to the people that will determine how society is rebuilt from the ashes” (Was the Earthquake a Good Thing?). So when a disaster happens at worst of times, the creative destruction theory will truly be put to the test by the people who survive and craft the future that lies ahead of them.

My Thoughts on Marx

October 18, 2016joshuadw88

In the eyes of erodriquez317, he saw that Karl Marx revealed something about society that is neglected and explained it in such a manner so that, “other readers can see it through their eyes” (The Father of Marxism). As one who has always found Karl Marx as the most important philosopher of the 19th Century, I agree. He presented a through examination of the Industrial Era as well as a classification of history being based on, “the history of class struggles” (14). By building on this by offering a little context and an idea of society’s workings, Karl Marx predicted a revolution into the era of Communism. While I doubt a classless society will be possible with humanity (which has greed, power-lust, individuality, selfishness, and disagreements for example), Karl Marx did laid down a macro examination of industrial societies. This can be seen when he states the rapid results of industrialization, where the applications of technologies to industries and agricultural areas saw huge populations come out of nowhere compared to the previous century (17). While it was subtle context for the reader, it is overall a well laid out summary of Europe from the late 18th Century to the publication of the book. This is due to the fact that Europe did indeed rapidly change with the rise of industry and that rural societies declined as migration to the cities occurred to fill the labor needs of factories. So while I do enjoy and mostly agree with the presentation of labor being unjustly used by the bourgeois, I, however, do not see him as a proper historian. Karl Marx did present a history, but it was condensed history. A detailed history, like Edward Gibbon’s The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, required a huge amount of resources to use in order to create an argument. If Karl Marx was a great historian, he would of covered what exact history of the Roman Empire, Medieval Europe, and industrialization was available from a historical perspective to craft his argument. Yet he did not and thus is the reason why he is not a proper historian.

Trying to Reflect Reality

October 2, 2016joshuadw88

Challenging the perception of a past event can be difficult as Craig Offman pointed out in his article, “A tempest around ‘Isaac’s Storm.” This centered around Eric Larson’s historical narrative, Isaac’s Storm, in which in a novel like fashion, Larson described the events surrounding the before and after of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. As his presentation challenged traditional view points of what happened through reasonable points made throughout the text, I thus believe Eric Larson did not use authorial intent in the depiction of Isaac Cline. The town of Galveston, in the aftermath of the hurricane, viewed Isaac Cline, “as the Paul Revere who warned residents to leave before the hurricane raged into town” (Offman). Yet Larson looked at the sources of the time and presented Isaac Cline as a human being. The author does this when he mentions Isaac’s claim in his journal that he saved over 6,000 people though records from the town’s library have no evidence of this (Larson 168). 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. Larson does this by using personal writings, like journals, as they are great tools that give people a chance to recreate people or even disproof them when they make false claims, as he has done with Isaac. As a future Ancient Historian (or basement dweller), I need to look at primary sources carefully as the writer’s intent (especially in Late Antiquity) can be bias and nonfactual in an attempt to make an argument. This goes for anyone making a history as jessicak best makes light of this as she stated, “Isaac’s heroic actions [were] much more complicated, and this book emphasizes that there are gray areas in history [that] we need to search for” (Advancement Through Disasters). Thus Eric Larson not only created this book to entertain but to inform people of reality as it is always present with us, whether we accept it or not.

An Enjoyable Story of Impending Doom

September 25, 2016joshuadw88

Foreword: I have to say that I have honestly enjoyed the material read for Monday. An excellent piece of crafted historical narrative that I applaud Erik Larson for creating as a historian should always be enthusiastic in his writing and not dull to the point where you lose your audience, even if they are able to mentally consume the material posted. Such methods must be examined more in today’s world if the historians of today want to make an impact on the world.

As a a history major who takes more pleasure in learning about such details like the specifications of a Tiger I Heavy Tank of World War II, I mainly looked at Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson as another read I would not be able to connect with due to my tastes. Still, despite that feeling, I was pleasantly surprised and thus became immersed into this historical narrative of the devastation of Galveston an the author argument that man cannot ignore nor control nature (Larson 16). One such reason I was pulled into it was the setting of the scene by the author with constant mentions of important events of the time (like the Boxer Rebellion) and the background of Isaac Cline. Yet it was the background of the Weather Bureau that won me over with his mentioning of major problems with the bureau, such in the case where Willis Moore and his weather bureau’s dislike of Cuba’s bureau where, “It was an attitude, however, that seemed to mask a deeper fear that Cuba’s own meteorologists might in fact be better at predicting hurricanes” (Larson 102). Without this unnecessary beef between these organizations, more lives could of been saved in alerting Galveston of the hurricane. It is important to note, however, that the author’s main focus is on man being unable to enslave nature. This is seen with Captain Simmon’s faith in his experience and his steel ship, best referenced as, “the technological arrogance of the time” (Larson 128), in which he placed himself and his crew in danger of the storm that threatened to turnover his ship (Larson 129). In a post about the Chicago Fire, slee72897 brought up an idea that can be applied here, “of ‘natural vs. unnatural’, not about the environment and how humans impact nature, but the how humans respond to these natural or unnatural events.” This thought process best concludes this post as it works excellently with this argument by Larson man can create things, like a steam boat or train, that can somewhat ignore nature’s powers but in the end will always submit to it when the time comes.

Tiger I Heavy Tank in case anyone wanted to know what it looked like.

Twisting the Negative into the Positive

September 20, 2016September 20, 2016joshuadw88

Losing something and never being able to have it again can be a destructive feeling and the many inhabitants of Chicago knew that in 1871 as they lost nearly everything to the great fire of that year. As a result of a fire that not only affected the local people but the nation, people of all kinds look to explanations as well as ways of turning such a disaster into something positive as Carl Smith indicates in his piece called, “Faith and Doubt.” Due to this unusual look at the reaction of America at the time, I find this piece interesting as it looks more at the effects in the immediate aftermath rather than the long term effects like most historians tend to do. Take Chicago Mayor Roswell B. Mason’s establishing of October 29th as a special day of prayer in reaction to the fire as he stated, “of humiliation for those past offenses against almighty God, to which these severe afflictions were doubtless intended to lead our minds…” (Biel 133). By reading such sources, this allows modern historians to examine how closely linked religion and society was at that time. Yet beyond people using religion once more as a Swiss Army Knife, it was also interesting to read about how Chicago business men of that time that attempted to twist the disaster like Joseph Stephen Wright stating, “so has there never have been such cheerful fortitude in the face of destruction and ruin” (Biel 145). This reflects on a common theme by Smith of people trying to explain or make sense of the disaster and than trying to make it into something very positive. The post by rhruska also mentions how writers of the time took advantage of Chicago’s bad repudiation and by using “the fire as a metaphor for cleansing,” they crafted Chicago into a Phoenix that they believed will rise again. With this kind of mentality, it is no wonder why Chicago did indeed die but come back from the ashes in a way that makes such a fire a distant memory.

Connecting the “New Rome” of the West to the East with Rails: A look at Chapter II

September 13, 2016September 13, 2016joshuadw88

One of the things I enjoy while I leisure is a video game centered on creating a civilization from the ground up called Civilization V. As this game centers around founding cities, I constantly look for a great site and location that brings benefits to my civilization so I can make my civilization prosper by placing a city there. Yet once I found a city, I immediately work on connecting it to my internal trade network with roads, harbor, and much later on, a railroad. So just like I would do in centering my focus on connecting my city to the rest of my land, so did the New York and local Chicago investors did in real life with the city of Chicago in connecting it to the East Coast of the United States as mentioned by Cronon. Chicago, despite being a rising star on the stage of Illinois, had various problems with transportation in the 1830s and 1840s best summed up by Cronon stating, “Too much water on land mired wagons; too little water in harbors stranded ships” (57). So with these issues and the fact local farmers preferred Chicago as it was more profitable and accessible to the East Coast, it can be seen why a railroad was necessary (60). If a region is providing a lot of income but there are occasional difficulties in gaining those resources, a strong connection that is able to ignore the affects of nature, most of the time, is needed and the rail road, as evident from this chapter, was the main answer. Geography major mvanderdussen states that, “By observing and studying this relationship [between the city and its geography] we can gain a very good understanding of the city itself” and I cannot agree more. If a railroad was never constructed to Chicago, it would be likely that the city’s history would be a lot more focused on maritime trade and that it would of grown slower in size than it did due to the railroad. Thus without the railroad, there would be no Chicago metropolis that exists in the present day.

Historical Thinking – Fall 2016

Author: joshuadw88