Author: zhoeffken

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Kozol’s article focuses on the Great Depression and how the photographs taken in the time period seem to have a similar focus, the mother. During the Great Depression obviously it was hard to get work for anyone; yet the reforms promised by the New Deal really only focused on the middle class. Photography during the time focused on the women as children almost as if they were the real victims who needed protecting. A mother is seen as someone who is a caretaker and who would help raise the future generation, seeing a mother in need is supposed to provoke a sense of wanting to help. These photos of mothers and sometimes their children have an underlaying purpose to help bring about welfare programs. Kozol does state that even though these photos seem to have a larger focus on women and it is not necessarily exploitive or sexist. They say that these question the social issues of class of gender but they also enforce them. These photos were often staged as the public generally accepted photography as a true state of documenting and did not question if they were staged. Photos generally followed similar patterns to help move people, they would focus on people in a desolate land that brought pity to the subject but also dignified them to make the images easier to digest for the general public. Koloz says that the programs were paternalistic and the photos helped push that ideal because children are a blameless victim and protecting women plays on the patriarchal ideals of men being at the head of a household. Jessicabode touched on this in their post on gender as a historical category they talk how in patriarchal values the men are dominating over the submissive women, by showing the women as submissive and helpless in these photos it plays into that ideology.

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In American society our class struggle is that between the White Americans and the Black Americans, this is the easiest way to split. According to the article by Roediger in fiction and immigrant could earn their whiteness by reinforcing the status quo. Often fiction represents the ideals of society and it is easy to see that black Americans were looked down on in American history. Roediger also gives other works as proof that focus on this divide especially in the work force. Other then fiction Roediger gives real life experiences as well like those of Douglas on his trip to Ireland. He had hoped that immigrants like the Irish would join the cause for emancipation because even if what they felt was not the same pain it was something that was similar, Douglas said he could feel this in their music. Those who had wished immigrants would join emancipation attempts were often let down by the fact immigrants did not end up joining.

The second article by Coates focuses on the struggles of black Americans after emancipation. Black Americans were not simply left alone to live their lives as free men but instead were terrorized with Jim Crow laws or other issues. Many were kept in debt due to having to be sharecroppers at the mercy of the landholders. Even later in the North issues were faced like unfair housing terms. Black Americans simply cannot work out of poverty and are said to be more likely to fall into poverty then white Americans.

Both articles can be tied into a marxist approach as well with the fact that one can see it as another proletariate bourgeoisie class affair. Marxism focuses on the disenfranchised workers and lower classes as zhedrick talked on in their post. White Americans can be viewed as as the bourgeoisie as they were the ones in charge of the land during sharecropping as well as keeping blacks out of housing areas while the proletariate is the black American who strives to have the same wealth as the whites but it held down by the system.

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In “What Comes Down Must go Up” Kevin Rozario talks on the San Francisco earthquake and fire and how that disaster is good for capitalism. Rozario looks to find why Americans view disaster as a good thing, he states that in the past disasters were seen as a way to punish people for their sins and remind them of what is truly important in life, God’s salvation. Overtime Rozario says that Americans started to see disasters as not only a religious event but also as an economic boon. He says that modern capitalism needs the destruction so that outdated structures can be rebuilt and made new. Rozario seems to take a Marxist stand on these events. Marx in his manifesto talks on how there is an issue with over production and that capitalism can only continue with exploiting old markets even more or by finding new markets. A disaster allows investors to buy up the land and rebuild something better it gives them their new market to work with. Buying up these lands allows them the pick what they want to build be it new apartments or businesses, this could push people out of their homes because they can no longer afford the rent.

Steinberg in his article focuses more on how investors wanted the disaster to be blamed mainly on the fire then the earthquake. Fires can be prevented but earthquakes cannot be. An earthquake is not something one could avoid through planning. Cronon’s idea of second nature to where a city can be built to avoid things, like in Chicago’s case where they lifted to city to avoid sewage problems that JOHNKANE touched on.

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Over the course of the semester I feel that we as a class have become better at interacting with our source materials. The first few blog posts read as if they are summaries with little interpretation of the work, JESSICABODE even mentions in her mid-semester review that she also noticed this from her own posts. Looking back on my own first post I notice that I was truly just trying to figure out what my blog post was supposed to say and how it was to be written. I felt insecure with my posting my writings and I truly didn’t know exactly how and where to be adding in the connections to others posts. At first the references felt like they were small references like in SEVALLOS‘s post where they do reference my first post. Time and practice have made it easier for us to blend in references to other’s works in a way that strengthen our own arguments or in ways that tie certain themes together be it on race or other similar events like how JUANROSASMP did in their post about Galveston.  Over time the class has also learned how to check sources and be more critical of readings, mainly with our work while reading Larson’s book Isaac’s Storm, such as CHRISCOBAR shows in their post about the issues in Larson’s writing.

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The article by Craig Offman focuses on the book Issac’s Storm and analyzes some of the accuracies of the book. The book is based on a true story but to make it a more entertaining read it would make sense that some things are a little exaggerated and we must take that into account, Offman does just that. Offman says that Larson treats Isaac as an incompetent scapegoat, Isaac, according to Larson just could not read the signs that were presented to him. Offman also points out the fact that Larson claims the brothers had a rivalry though as mckenndy21 says in their post that Offman uses evidence from Lew Fincher to disprove that and he brushes off the brothers’ cold letters as due to their Victorian upbringing and military background.  Offman also criticizes Larson for not using certain sources that could have helped him in his writing.

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The last two chapters in Isaac’s Storm focus on the aftermath that the hurricane caused. Larson tells us that the reports of the death toll often varied due to rumors among others and it was hard to know the exact number shortly after the hurricane. Larson tells us of how people went to find their lost loved ones. He tells us of the warehouse where the bodies are laid down in lines and people would walk between the lines trying to find who they had lost. Larson also talks us through how the bodies were disposed of, the burial of so many bodies was not possible as the morgues had all been filled, so at first they tried burial at sea. This proved to fail as bodies began to wash back up onto the shore, some even had weights tied to them in failed attempts to keep them under the water. We see that the only solution the people could turn to was burning the bodies. Larson tells us that cremation itself was new and the idea seemed sacrilegious, especially the burning of children’s bodies(241). The smell of death and now burning corpses permeated the air and was a constant in their lives. We are told of how the papers reported looting and vilified the black population by saying they were chewing fingers off to get valuables and then keeping said finger, this relates to how after the Chicago fire papers would often exaggerate the looting as mentioned by JUSTINROD717 in their post. Eventually though the city moves on they rebuild and start anew though they never forget their dead and sometimes those they thought dead do come back. These stories put hope into the hearts of those who are missing loved ones but also could cause false home such as with Isaac and his family. The children wished for their mom back but it was not possible as she was later found dead. 

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The second chapter in Cronon’s book starts with a focus on the natural benefits that the land around Chicago has. Cronon talks on the transportation helped Chicago become the large city it is. As peterrossi1 talked about in their post a geographical location will help a city boom and Chicago’s waterways were helpful. Though Cronon does not let us forget that the waterways and land surrounding Chicago that were its boon were also its bane. Cronon states that “nearly half the year, ice and storms, on Lake Michigan closed shipping,” and the river had sandbars causing the water to be too shallow. He also talks on how the rain caused the ground around the city to just become mud as the streets were just dirt roads.  The citizens tried a few things to help combat this problem like using canals or putting wood planks over the mud to make the area easier to traverse, yet still most of the businesses were slow until better weather arrived. The development of the railroad systems helped make traveling into the city easier, at first the railroad did not have a hub in Chicago yet it still helped boost the economy. As the railroad system grew in Chicago so did the economy of the city. It became easier for people to come to trade and sell their wares and helped Chicago become a railroad hub. How Cronon talks of the railroads helps to convince the reader that not only the natural resources of the land helped Chicago become a great city but also people helped by making more artificial ways of transportation.