Author: johnkane

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Biel’s text explains how different people in the United States remember the Titanic Disaster, and it also takes a look at the current political atmosphere during the beginning of the 20th century. The two groups of people that are examined are Blacks and Women.  During the early 1900’s American women were campaigning for suffrage, and the sinking of the Titanic had been used by both sides as a political propaganda. Women wanted equality between genders in every aspect and an argument to that would mean the end of Chivalry. When the Titanic sunk, women and children boarded escape boats and the men sacrificed their life to save the opposite sex. A counter argument that Biel presents was that women are needed to reproduce and that is the main goal of every living species. Another argument was that the law of the land was separate from that of the law of the sea; which is true, on international boarders, there is only customary law that presides between states beyond their extended economic zone. The other group that was spoken about were the Black population and their coverage of the story. There were many songs and poems that were written about the catastrophe; and  chriscobar explains that  “the idea of class is also brought in with having immigration and racism in the center of it.” This was noticed by comments from the white population that told the Black population they were lucky they could not afford to buy tickets to go on the ship. which was more of a sarcastic insult presented as a blessing.  The final thought the Biel’s wants to bring to light was that the Titanic was just like any other disaster, but different people were trying to make the incident remembered in a different context.

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Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles wrote a Manifesto that they thought would solve societies problems of inequality between the proletariat and bourgeoisie classes. They wanted to give more to the working class by taking private land from the factory owners. their plan had many steps that needed to be taken in order to achieve this goal; some included seizing private property, nationalizing factories and agricultural production, and regulating production throughout the market. The one beneficial aspect that the communist ideology possessed was to eradicate child labor in every form. The Communist Manifesto begins by explaining what society’s problem is, then it continues to argue who is to blame for the social injustice, and provides a new never before attempted idea to reform society to benefit the masses and not a single class; it finally provides information on the political parties that it supports in different states and finishes by provided one last uplifting quote to motivate people to join the communist revolution. The other paper we had to read was a historical background for the manifesto, which explains what was going on in society during this era, who they were reaching out to, and why they thought this revolution would inevitably come. One problem that I noticed in the Manifesto was where it mentioned German Philosophers and their ideas/ philosophies; but never names any philosopher specifically. In the city, many people were herded into factories to work long hour days to make minimal wages just to scrape by, but never enough to actually make enough to prosper. These people were like that of those in Chicago when it was first being developed.  Like ZHEDRICK said,”Chicago became a center for cultural integration between different societal groups that would otherwise not interact”. These different societal groups are the people that Marx had hoped to convert to Communism and potentially start the revolution.

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After eight weeks of reading and writing posts, I have seen an increase in written communication skills through my posts.  My diction has also broadened since I first writing my posts, and it has helped me to look more in depth on other papers and books  I have read for other classes. A trend I have noticed in this class besides disaster is the aftermath and how people like to witness the destruction. In my very first post, I see the ground work that is put in place for people who love sight-seeing,“With more people traveling around more museums and other historical landmarks were created or preserved which also benefited future generations of historians to understand the past”.  I am not the only person who has noticed this theme throughout our readings. CLUNA3 also explains how people wanted to visit places that have been destroyed my natural disasters and how “people wanted a relic” to take home with them as a memento. even in the last book we read,that theme is still present. JUANROSASMP explains how “[p]eople that traveled to the city described a bleak and depressing scene.” but those civilians still continued to flock towards the aftermath of destruction to see it with their own eyes.

These eight weeks have helped not only me but other students to critically analyze books that we read, and help us to continue to reflect back at other peoples posts or talk in class about what  new ideas we learn. MCKENNDY21  explains “We were asked why this book was written during class and after reading this sections”, just like Mckenzie has continued to analyze books, I too have combined class lectures with class readings.

The themes throughout the semester have continued to broaden as well.  I have  learned the difference between methodology and theory, which helps to gain different aspects of writing in my second post, I only talk about how “Smith explains both the optimistic and pessimistic”. Now I can also see how Smith uses other ideas such as class, race, gender, and other themes that are presented in the text as well. Overall this semester has provided an immense help to me, by teaching me how to critically analyze stories, understand citations, and develop a better grasp on writing skills.

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After watching the movie Lifeboat, I reflected back at it with a more historical perspective because of this class. The movie takes place in 1944 and is about a group of people who were stranded in the ocean after a Navy ship is sunk by a German U-Boat. The historical significance in the movie shows what people in the 40’s thought of the deceptive and manipulative German soldiers. It also portrayed the importance of women’s looks and how important they were to be maintained at all times. When the German takes control of the life boat, it symbolizes the transition of democracy to a dictatorship. This is important to note, because under the German’s dictatorship the boat is operating more efficiently and everyone submits to his power. It  is interesting because there are three perfectly healthy men that could over power the one German, but it was the women in the end of the movie that was the most adamant to kill the German. The overthrow of the German is symbolic to anarchy and a reestablishment of a pseudo democracy. I looked at this movie differently then I would have because the politics in the movie are more dominant the the actual historical characteristics. I had to really pay attention to understand what historic information and references were noted in the movie. Overall this movie was very engaging and i would definitely re-watch the movie after finishing this semester because I will have finished by World War II class and have more extensive knowledge about the background of the movie.

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     On May 28, 1889  the destructive force of a broken dam decimates  an entire city that is in its path. At peak velocity this flood, with the equivalent force of Niagara Falls kills roughly 2,200 people.  This natural disaster killed more than seven times that of the Chicago fire, which Peterrossi1  explains, “killed around three hundred people”. The Conemaugh River which was blocked by a crumbling dam was patched by “straw and horse manure” and “relief pipes that were sold for scrap metal”, was doomed to break and people all around the dam new that it was not gonna be long until it happened. When the dam broke, it was stopped by  a wall of people and debris that sent the water back into Johnstown.  The problems that followed included fires and hoards of people flocking in to see the destruction. This was known as “Tragic Tourism”  because the death and destruction was interesting for people across the U.S. The two main Railroad companies, P.R.R. and B&O  which were in competition with each other, were starting to prevent travelers to visit the city of destruction in order to get workers in to rebuild.  these rubbernecking  tourists wanted to go on tours of the city, get photographic souvenirs and and physical mementos that they could bring back home with them. These same people also took souvenirs from the Chicago Fire and the San Francisco Disaster later on. People also toured morgues to witness the mass volume of lifeless bodies that were occupying the buildings, and the morticians that were disemboweling them. What is interesting is that the U.S. copied that morgue structure from Paris where morgues were massive and in public areas. the aftermath of the flood was described by Willis Fletcher Johnson  as ” all of the negatives of a military camp and new mining camp, with none of the pleasures of either”. The author finishes the article by comparing the tourist attraction of the Johnstown flood to the “Katrina Tour” which happened in the 21st century to show that people will always be attracted to disaster.

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In Smith’s  interpretation of the aftermath of the Chicago fire, He explains that there were two different feelings that emerged. On one hand people saw the fire as a good thing that occurred from divine intervention. The fire burnt away all the bad in the city and was the pathway in which other cities must change to be like. authors like Andrew Shuman, thought that the fire was a “blessing in disguise”  that was beneficial to the city as a whole and wanted everyone else to see it also. On the other hand, many saw the aftermath of the fire as a horrible disaster, because so many people were left with out a domicile, and the myth the dangerous prisoners were set free into the city to escape the flames of death. what really happened was that the more dangerous prisoners were lead out of the city in chain lines and transferred to different prisons; but nevertheless this caused citizens to panic and caused trust issues to strangers in the city.

The idea of “New Chicago” was what branched from the fire, many saw it as a fresh start and the opportunity to create a better city. As peterrossi1 states “It was the biggest fire and disasters the city [Chicago]  ever suffered”. Because of this people need to look forward to a more optimistic future, especially since the centennial of the city was only 5 years away. Overall, Smith explains both the optimistic and pessimistic

views that erupted following the Chicago fire.

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In this chapter, Cronon explains how the transportation competition between the water ways and railroads, were influenced by seasons as well as economic advantages to the merchants and farmers. Cronon talks about the railroads and expansion of the river as “second nature” because it shaped the landscape where ever it went.  He also explains that the city’s greatest strength was also its greatest weakness; during raining seasons, the flat land was tarnished with horrible muddy conditions and flooding in the cities. the problem with that was the water would not run into the rivers, instead it would just sit on the land and make deep mud pits that would be nearly impassable as Cronon explains.  Since the river that passed through the land was guarded by extended sandbars, bigger ships were unable to traverse through them.  People of Chicago tried many different projects to widen the river and expand the river but many were of no success and companies went bankrupt trying to complete the task. When Railroads began to rise up from the ground the farmers took advantage of the expedited means of transportation to send their crops to Chicago; this is because Chicago had the highest sells output for the farmers. as peter explained in his post on, The Theory of City Development, “it made sense for there to be a big city [Chicago] in that commanding of a economical position in the middle of the US. Since Chicago was the gateway to the west as Cronon declares it, The development of the city was crucial to the future of the United States.  The need for Chicago to be sustainable led to other great projects such as raising the city up more than 10 feet in certain areas to fix the sewage system were major investments that needed to  be completed. Overall, Cronon has a romanticized emotion attached to the city and its history and because of that there is a minor bias toward the importance of the city.

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The Gilded Age was a time in American history shortly after the Antebellum era and right before the Progressive era, when urbanization began to increase throughout the nation. This urbanization is because of the easier means of transportation as well as the overproduction of crops in the agricultural sector of the nation. As Calhoun describes, many cities were being created with a more modernized organization and innovation. Cities had sewage systems, lighted streets, parks, and other amenities being constructed to enhance urban life.  Before historians began to actually research this era in American history, there were many negative associations with it; such as corruption from government officials and wealthy corporations. The interesting fact is that this is not the case, more so that there had been many great developments such as a more structured economic environment for citizens, which also helped for them to travel and go on vacation with higher frequencies. With more people traveling around more museums and other historical landmarks were created or preserved which also benefited future generations of historians to understand the past. What Calhoun says in great, is that more scholars are beginning to teach there students about different aspects of the Gilded Age, and not simply skimming through the era or completely skipping past it. I also agree with Calhoun, the best way to understand things that are happening today or cultural norms that are practiced is by understanding what the generation before it had done or major events that occurred to shape society. Then repeating that process for the generation before that and so on. The gilded age helped shape society to place it on the track of innovation and modernization and is an era that should be focused on more to better understand what the healing era did after the war.