ploopy1 – Historical Thinking

Historical Assignment: The Christmas Truce

November 29, 2016ploopy1

Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

For my historical assignment, I watched a documentary and an ad regarding the Christmas Truce that took place in WWI between the British and the Germans. It was Christmas Day in 1914 in Europe when the Germans and British were singing Christmas songs within their trenches. Unexpectedly, several Germans started to emerge from their trenches and head over to the British, crossing through “No Man’s Land.” Noticing that they were unarmed, the British crawled out of their trench as well to meet the Germans. Both sides exchanged handshakes and wished each other a Merry Christmas. For the time, these two sides, enemies at the time, were brought together by a special holiday and were enjoying each other’s company.

The ad that I watched played through the exact same story. In the ad, a British soldier named Jim received a chocolate bar from his wife back at home for a Christmas present. After both sides sang the song “Silent Night,” Jim unexpectedly emerged from his trench, eventually followed by the rest of the British Army. Jim met a German soldier named Otto, whom he grew very close with in the short amount of time together. Both sides eventually emerged and began greeting each other. It was a very positive scene: both sides were playing soccer, helping out with grooming one another, and were even showing everyone photos of their wives back at home. After hearing the loud claps of thunder and danger imminent, both sides headed back into their trench, but before they left, Jim handed Otto his jacket and wished him a Merry Christmas. When Otto returned to his trench, he felt something in his pocket–it was the chocolate bar that Jim had received for Christmas!

This story and ad just blew me away. Despite the gruesome scene of war, it amazes me how both sides agreed to hold fire and come together on a big holiday such as Christmas. Either side could have used it as an opportunity to formulate a surprise attack, but that did not seem to cross a single soldier’s mind. Despite differences, it really goes to show that even enemies have something in common at the end of the day, that there really is some innocence and purity left in the world.

Was the Earthquake a Good Thing?

October 25, 2016ploopy1

In this chapter, Rozario focuses on the San Francisco disaster as if it was a good thing, making it seem as if San Francisco really needed it. Despite the high death toll and destruction of society, Rozario makes claims of how the disaster was more of a blessing in disguise for the city (73.) Because of the fire, the people were then able to re-structure the modern environment and increase capitalism. In @ramsescastillo03’s work, he talked about how the people of San Francisco at the time were completely blind; not physically, but just the fact at how they were looking past the many deaths that had taken place for the sake of money. The greed in society not only then but even today is ridiculous. People are willing to look past thousands of deaths just for the sake of a dollar. A quote that I found interesting in Rozario’s work was “Although cities might fall, they never just died (77.”) I agree that society can be given a second chance, but it is up to the people that will determine how society is rebuilt from the ashes. Either the people can look at the damages and deaths brought out from the disaster and rebuild society as a team to be prepared for the next disaster, or everyone can simply just think about themselves and worry about monetary value. Either way, as long as people only care about themselves, the selfish problem will never be fixed within society.

Quakes and Fires

October 23, 2016ploopy1

In San Francisco’s Great Earthquake of 1908, the great shakeout set fire to almost the whole city-burning almost 28,000 buildings and ending the lives of approximately 3,000 city dwellers. While this catastrophe was titled as an earthquake, many argued that it should have been titled as “The Great Fire,” due to the fire contributing to most of the damage in the city. Despite how big the catastrophe was, in 1868, there was actually another earthquake in San Francisco that had occurred-putting the Chamber of Commerce to Work; the Chamber of Commerce pushed for the future study of finding ways to build earthquake-resistant structures in the city (106.) Similar to my colleague @heaven01’s work, I found that too good to be true. In her work from last week, she had stated how Marx’s view of communism to make everything equal was too good to be true as well to the point where he blinded himself of many other circumstances. The same goes for the people living in the city of San Francisco before and during the time of the earthquake. Obviously after the earthquake of 1868, the people of the city were so focused on being prepared for the next big earthquake that they completely blindsided themselves for the fires that erupted during the 1906 quake. As much as being ready for the next earthquake to occur, I think that it is safe to say that nobody was expecting the fire to take as much of a toll as it did on the city. In order to move on and learn from mistakes, historians and people of society have to look at the big picture and think several steps ahead as to what they can do to make improvements.

People in History

October 16, 2016ploopy1

This chapter was very interesting in taking note how history was broken down and recorded. What stood out to me the most was the progress that was made within history when people came together to change or rebel against something. In the beginning of the chapter, Herder stated how people are identified by their cultural traditions which makes them unique, all leading up to collective actions under one group. Herder uses the storm of the Bastille in the French Revolution as an example, where collective actions of individuals led to the emergence of a new government in France (Popkin 72.) Looking back at the time, surely a lot of people living in France came from different backgrounds with their unique identities, but the fact that all of them decided to step up and fight goes to show that people are willing to put aside their differences in order to improve their ways of living, especially under a strict government; a new appreciation of history is developed through times of revolution and uprising of the people (Popkins 72.) It seems when people put themselves in tough and disastrous situations, there then tends to be benefits in the long-run. I like in @mvanderdussen’s work how the author notes Galveston’s people coming together deciding to decline electing officials to the Deep Water Committee. He also noted how he personally would have wanted to put it all to a vote, but in the end it did not matter since it was a collective decision by the people. I can now see that history can be identified by the actions of people within society. Even though conflict may be inevitable, it is a key value in the development and understanding of history

Making a Recovery

October 4, 2016ploopy1

I agree with @raldrich25’s view of Offman’s interpretation of Larson’s Isaac’s Storm-how issuing the rating of the hurricane as a four or five was just pointless. Regardless of how little or big the hurricane was, it destroyed countless acres of property and resulted in the death toll of thousands of lives. It is clear that the people of Galveston were not ready for the big storm ahead of them. Similar to the Chicago fire, people in society eventually came together as one and worked together in finding the best ways to prepare themselves for potential storms that would arise in the future. The way I see it, it is necessary for society to work together as a unit to plan for the future ahead and make revisions within its structure. The people of Galveston were said to have been really determined after the hurricane to restore the city as it was originally; with the thought of hurting the economy by losing significant industries such as the Railroad industry, the citizens of Galveston knew that it was time act in order to make a better future. Thinking ahead for future disasters, the city of Galveston pushed for the proposals of a giant sea wall, jetties and anything that would put the region in good hands. Even though citizens of the city knew that re-building Galveston would involve changing the political structure, it was a choice that they were all willing to make. For any society to rise once again, sacrifice is necessary in order to make progress. By making changes in society, the people of Galveston were more prepared for another hurricane that approached in the year of 1900, which helped save the lives of many (239.) I think it is important that these people recognized the tolls that the hurricane had on Galveston; every society needs start from somewhere, and in order to do so, they need to step away from their past.

Faith and Doubt

September 20, 2016ploopy1

After reading “Faith and Doubt: The Imaginative Dimensions of the Great Chicago Fire,” it has really opened my eyes to a whole new perspective of both the people and society associated with the fire. Despite the destruction of society and the people behind the fire, Biel stated how the fire actually brought somewhat of a needed purge to Chicago, almost as if God was giving the city another chance; an opportunity for Chicago to be born again from the ashes and start over (Biel 146.) I really agree with what Biel had in mind; after reviewing all of his statements of Chicago before the fire, the city was full of “extra weight;” many citizens were too focused on greed and luxury, some were too obsessed with prostitutes, and in general over-settlement was bringing social chaos into society (131.) If there is something to take away from the chapter, it would be taking things for granted and not truly appreciating what you have until it’s all gone. People have the drive to stand as one and rebuild society once they have all been struck in the same place. It is an event like this that makes me wonder if God did it for a specific reason, not primarily to punish the people of Chicago, but rather to challenge them. As Reverend Poe states in his book, Barriers Burned Away, “All that has come out of the crucible of this fire is my character myself (138.”) When all material possessions were lost, it made people grateful for what they had. In my classmate @ramsescastillo03’s work, I note the part where he mentioned how the fire was just a new experience to the city of Chicago. Experiences like those of Chicago are never easy to recover from, but they have helped me realize that ways of society can always be improved and that society is never “finished;” it all matters on how people work with what they have and how they perceive the situation’s end result.

Chicago Railroads

September 13, 2016ploopy1

Before reading chapter two, I had no idea that railroads played such an important factor in not only promoting industrious societies such as Chicago, but also how they played a big role in our nation’s history. With Chicago’s ideal location near bodies of water, I knew how ideal it would be to use ships to transport everything from one state to another, but seeing the gap that the railroad filled up really sped everything up and made transportation a lot more efficient. Cronon even stated that on November 18, 1883, the railroad company divided the United States into four different time zones (Cronon 79.) I always wondered how different parts of the country were divided up into different time zones, and now it all makes sense; to make sure that railroad stations in certain parts of the country were on the same page and to avoid having trains running on the same track at the time based on schedule. Reflecting back on some of my colleagues’ work, I can really see the connection made between natural and unnatural; in @ramsescastillo03’s work, the author noted how humans use their inventions and ambitions to turn the “natural,” into “unnatural” (Ramsescastillo03.) This can easily be seen throughout the course of Chapter Two; in the beginning of the chapter, Cronon noted how it was becoming harder to sustain the city with new obstacles of nature arising, especially when the mouth of the Chicago River had a 70-yard sandbar. The people dealt with the sandbar by putting their innovations to the test by raising money to cut a new deep channel along with building piers (Cronon 56.) Humans will always have a solution to everything when it come to turning natural into unnatural.

Chicago Urbanization

September 11, 2016ploopy1

After reading Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis, I now see the big connection between the city and country. Throughout my life, I have always appreciated the city lifestyle; I loved how everything was really fast-paced and how all local industries were just right around the corner from where you needed them to be. As far as the development of the United States, however, I never looked at how important the rural countryside played in the development of the industrious city side we see today. The way how Cronon first described Chicago was depressing, when he was talking about the gloomy atmosphere and noting how “Chicago represented all that was most unnatural about human life. Crowded and artificial, it was a cancer on an otherwise beautiful landscape (Cronon 7.”) Referring back to the negative aspects, it is amazing to look at the sacrifices that were made for the development of such prosperous cities, including Chicago. Nature was truly in the hands of the people at the time and it still is today. Even though nature eventually became limited, society in the city was able to prosper; Garland stated, in his metaphor, how the city was similar to the ocean, where fresh streams would flow into and become salt (Cronon 13.) What Garland meant to say was that in order for society, which is the city in this case, to meet new horizons, then sacrifices must be made. In @mvanderdussen’s post, it reflects Popkin’s work on how history is a complicated field of study, looking at the past from new angles. By looking at the past from new angles, we are able to experience what drove these people to do what they did in tearing up what used to be a beautiful piece of land and transform it the industrious society that we all know today.

Story of Historiography

September 6, 2016ploopy1

After reading Jeremy Popkin’s From Herodotus to H-Net: The Story of Historiography, I have opened my eyes up to so much more and I now know that history involves much more than just absorbing information and memorizing it. The information may be right there in the text to absorb, but in his work, Popkin brings up various questions such as “what exactly led to the start of an event,” or “what pushed the people of the time period to want to do such a thing (Popkin 3.) I never thought it would be very necessary to look even deeper into these cases, however, I now realize how important it is in order to preserve knowledge from the past. Popkin made another reference comparing historical cases to a library, where each case is just filled with many viewpoints from different historians, knowing that there is a chance that this knowledge can carve out the future (Popkin 7.) Just because we heard a viewpoint from one historian does not mean that all other historians will agree nor will their ideas align. In @daisysolorio’s work reading Disaster: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, she noted how there was a catastrophic event, and how all survivors stated that the disaster affected each individual differently. It is interesting to explore history through more than just one perspective, to get a more well-rounded view on a particular topic. In the part of the first chapter “Justifying the Study of the Past,” it is stated how “Creating and preserving knowledge from the past is important in order to teach rules of human behavior and guiding conduct (Popkin 16.) I am one of those people who believes that history tends to repeat itself; memorizing information is not nearly enough to know why something happened, but rather creating what happened and critically analyzing the sequence of events that led up to the final event itself.

Historical Thinking – Fall 2016

Author: ploopy1