Author: jessicabode

Reel Injun

May 3, 2017 / jessicabode / 0 Comments

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The documentary called “Reel Injun” directed by Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge and Jeremiah Hayes explores the portrayal of Native Americans in film. Director Neil Diamond, who is a Cree Indian, tries to uncover why Hollywood portrays Native Americans in the way they do and how their is a fantasy about how Native Americans act. In the documentary, when director Neil Diamond travels to the site where Crazy Horse killed Custer at Little Bighorn, he talks about how Hollywood has romanticized that they have created out of that victory for the Native Americans, and explains that the reality was was that in over a decade after that Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were dead, and the Natives were rounded up and taken out of their homes and put into reservations. Then the film goes onto explain how the idea for the portrayal of the Native American came about, with them even being portrayed in some of Thomas Edison’s silent films. In the early western films, Native Americans would be hired, but only paid in tobacco and alcohol, while armed guards were always around them, making sure they did not get out of hand. An aspect i found quite interesting is that Natives are portayed as these great horsemen in films, with the contrast to nowadays where a majority of Natives don’t even know how to ride a horse. The Director, Neil Diamond, believes that this myth of Natives being great horsemen is due to the Crow, who are known for being very skilled on horseback. The documentary also explains that transition to having the portrayal of Natives be almost one of positivity, to being the savage, during the Great Depression. This was because people wanted a new hero, the cowboy, and the birth of the western cinema.

New Historical Technologies

April 17, 2017 / jessicabode / 0 Comments

In the article ” Digital History’s Perpetual Future Tense” by Cameron Blevins discusses the gap that has been developing between digital history and academic argument-driven scholarship. He discusses the limitations of quantitative history and compares the historian to a scientist with running “experiments, test hypotheses and [reaching] empirically verifiable conclusions”. He also discusses that digital historians are eager in distancing themselves from quantitative historians before them due to this viewpoint. An interesting point that Cameron Blevins makes is that digital history began with archival collections, and digitization of certain sources. He also points out that public history was the “most influential and enduring” genealogical strand that helped with digital history’s emergence in the 1990s. Blevins makes and argument that in digital history needs to reengage with argumentation because “making arguments is a fundamentally valuable and necessary way to further our collective understanding of the past”. This is because usually when people use digital history is only in researching for sources to use. Blevins also makes the argument that ‘academic argumentation is still a crucial means of advancing a conversation about the past” which should be done, or else some events will be lost.

Gender as a category of Historical Analysis

April 10, 2017 / jessicabode / 2 Comments

In the article “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” by Joan W. Scott, explains the history of the term gender. She explains that the term first appeared for Americans who were feminists that wanted a term that would be a “rejection of the biological determinism” that is implicated with the term “sex”. (pg. 1054) She also focuses on the establishment of women’s studies because with the inclusion of women into history, it redefined historical significance, by created a new history, which includes the account for women’s experiences. cluna3 connects gender to marxism by saying that there is a historic approach that Marxist feminists take to define feminism. She connects feminism with Marxism because they “believe class structure has a role in gender”. This does make sense because females for a duration of time and even now, in some cases, were seen as property with no social standing. Joan W. Scott also explains that theories of patriarchy have been directed at the “male ‘need’ to dominate the female” (pg. 1058). She also explains that with Marxism, if women expressed their shared experience of being objectified, that women would come to understand their identity and move forward with political action. Scott points out that theorist of patriarchy, while addressing inequality among males and female, that it does not “show how gender inequality affects areas of life that are not connected” (pg. 1059). Scott then discusses a theory known as the object-realations theory. This theory she says though “limits the concept of gender to family and household experience” which is difficult for historians because they cannot the concept or individual that is being focused on with using this theory to other social systems (pg. 1063).

10.1 Theorizing Race

April 3, 2017 / jessicabode / 1 Comment

juanrosamp‘s post mentions that “one of the key points of the Communist Manifesto is that the bourgeois takes advantage of the proletariat in order to maintain and increase their wealth”. This relates to the “Whiteness and Race” article and “The Case For Reparations” article. Because both deal with white supremacy, with the white people being like the bourgeois, and the African Americans being the proletariat, and being taken advantage of, specifically their labor in order to increase the Southerners wealth in the 1800s. While the “Whiteness and Race” article by David R. Roediger focuses more on the literature about white racial identity and the idea about “becoming white”with European immigrants, there still is a theme about racial superiority being talked about. This is also true for “The Case For Reparations” article, by The Atlantic because its about the struggle that African Americans had to go through in order to own a house back in the 1920s; and how there are still things that are going on in real estate that result in African Americans not getting the best loans for houses. In the “Whiteness and Race” article, it mentions how studies on marxism raised issues of how immigrants into the U.S. learn about white supremacy. One point that i found interesting while reading the “Whiteness and Race” article was that even though Italian immigrants did not make a point of claiming themselves as white even though they participated in campaigns to only allow Caucasians into the neighborhoods that they lived in.

Mid-Semester Blog Post

March 14, 2017 / jessicabode / 1 Comment

Looking back at my own blog posts and from other classmates comments referencing my own work, I have seen some common themes and some changes. In my first post, looking back on it, it’s obvious that i was trying to figure out how to do these blogposts. The majority of the post was kind of a summary of the article, and a summary of the time period that we were talking about at the time in class. Looking back at the first article, and after attending the lecture, looking back I was thinking that the author of the article convinced me, like when i said in the post that “The Gilded Age was also a time where the politicians that were in office during this time period were actually sincere and dedicated to being public servants.” This now looking back, is in fact not true at all of the Gilded Age. Now after doing a couple of these blogposts, I now know to read between the lines of every article and to take everything that i read with a grain of salt. In my second post, I start bringing up points that the author has made in their writing. In my second posting I stated that Chicago developed because of the “ many people that lived in Chicago were the ones that contributed money for the railroad by the rural communities that were to be along the railway line.” Looking at this i see that that is also a common theme with the readings that its common for communities to fund projects for their town. An interesting point that I included is a point about historiography and that it’s ” a way other historians try to take a new angle at another scholar’s work or to try and disprove what their statement is with their own facts and interpretations.” Which is kind of what we are doing through these blog posts, and in many ways picking apart another scholar’s work. One aspect that i noticed, looking back on my blog post about Isaac’s Storm is that I enjoyed the way that Larson “ explains Isaac’s background in how he got into meteorology, and also gives accounts of the approaching hurricane as it travels to Galveston.” Which is something when i finished the book, I actually didn’t like because I felt like there was actually too much background about the main character. Looking at someone else’s mid-semester blog post, Gravity21 said that in my first couple of posts that i decided to “brief that audience on what is occurring in the reading and what types of sources that the author used to show to event.” Which i think is an accurate description of my beginning blog posts.

early 20th century meterology- Isaac’s storm

February 26, 2017 / jessicabode / 0 Comments

In the book, “Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History,” Erik Larson explains the events of the Hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900 through the eyes of the real meteorologist of Galveston, Isaac Monroe Cline. He became one of the central figures of the Galveston Hurricane. cluna3 says in their post that “Throughout American history there are multiple disasters that have shaped our nation.” And the hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas in 1900s is one of those disasters. An interesting technique that Larson uses throughout the first part of the narrative, Larson explains Isaac’s background in how he got into meteorology, and also gives accounts of the approaching hurricane as it travels to Galveston. I actually like this method of storytelling because it breaks up the more larger parts of the first part of the book and gives different viewpoints of people that saw the start of the hurricane as it made its way to Galveston, Texas. Another part that i find interesting is one of the first chapters in the book that mentions different storms in history that Isaac Cline studied.In the chapter “Dirty Weather” it chronicles Isaac Cline’s personal experience with a flood that had come about due to a hailstorm that hit San Angelo 10 days prior to the flood in Concho river. Soon after this Cline becomes obsessed with hail, tracking accounts of it wherever they appeared.Ironically at the end of part 1 of the book, Larson mentions an article that Cline wrote in 1891, about how Galveston would escape hurricanes and his theory about how if there ever was a hurricane that would hit Galveston, that it would spread over the lowlands behind Galveston instead of hitting Galveston directly.

Setting Fire- “Did the Cow Do It?”

February 12, 2017 / jessicabode / 2 Comments

In the article ” Did the Cow Do It? A New Look at the Cause of the Great Chicago Fire” by Richard Bales, he tells the story of how the biggest fire in Chicago’s was started by a cow that kicked over a lantern. This article is a great example of historiography because as stated in gparker77‘s blog post that historiography is ” a way other historians try to take a new angle at another scholar’s work or to try and disprove what their statement is with their own facts and interpretations.” This is because in the article about the Great Chicago Fire, Bales brings up different viewpoints throughout the article about what supposedly happened with Harry Albert Musham’s take on the events of the fire and stating that Mrs. O’Leary was the one to blame for the fire. And then the following analysis of Musham’s account of the fire, stating that he did not take into account the 7 factors that Bales states turned what could have been an ordinary fire into one of the biggest fires that Chicago had ever seen. Bales analysis of the Great Fire of Chicago is very convincing due to the first person accounts that he includes in his article that disprove some aspects of what has become a myth about how the fire started and gives more evidence on how really was the one that started the fire. This is because Bales includes personal accounts of other people that lived near the O’Leary’s home and witnessed the fire that broke out in the barn.

Setting the scene for the Fire

February 5, 2017 / jessicabode / 3 Comments

In Cronon’s, Nature’s Metropolis, in his second chapter of the book, “Rails and Water”, he talks about the development of canals and railways that helped Chicago develop as one of the most successful trade centers during the 1800s. As peterrossi1 stated in his post that Chicago’s landscape fit the economic needs of the area. Through the development of a canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. Cronon uses accounts of the people that lived in Chicago during the time of the development of the canal and the railways to back up his statements of how the city began to flourish as farmers began to trade more of their produce in Chicago. Using first hand accounts in the second chapter of his book to explain the people that lived in Chicago during the development of the canal and railways that crossed through Chicago was very persuasive ways of convincing me as the reader that without those developments that Chicago would not have flourished as it did. The points that Cronon points out is that the creation of the railways and canals changed Chicago in a positive way and that One argument that Cronon proposes is that Chicago’s development happened not just because of its location but because of the people that lived in Chicago. This is because many people that lived in Chicago were the ones that contributed money for the railroad by the rural communities that were to be along the railway line. After 10 railways were built that would go through Chicago, the people of Chicago were excited at the new technology that allowed them to benefit from more trade in their city.

What was the Gilded Age?

January 29, 2017 / jessicabode / 2 Comments

The Gilded Age was a time period that is usually not taught, but was a time of accomplishment. The Gilded Age was a time period between 1870 to 1900. This time period was marked with several accomplishments, which were railroads, factories and the industrialization of the economy. This was also the time of the industrial revolution, which was when many people that lived in the rural areas left their homes for the cities in search of work. This was due to the increasing amount of agricultural productivity that was seen that required less people to man the agricultural fields. The Gilded Age was also a time where the politicians that were in office during this time period were actually sincere and dedicated to being public servants. This resulted in the creation of a stable monetary system and the beginnings of federal regulations that would become the Commerce Commission and the Sherman Anti-trust act. The Commerce Commission would set rates for transportation of goods. The Sherman Anti-trust act’s purpose was the protect consumers from any efforts restrain trade, to preserve economic competition between companies; And made it so monopolization could no longer occur within businesses. Finally the Gilded Age is known for the expansion of transportation the led people to go to more museums and theaters, which were funded by big business leaders, such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie being the one that expanded the American Steel Industry and Rockefeller who made his wealth in the American Oil Industry. Both are regarded as the richest men in modern history.