Author: zhedrick

Introduction Into Disaster

May 3, 2017 / zhedrick / 0 Comments

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In Steven Biel’s Introduction, Biel begins his work with a critique of media and how disasters are portrayed and marketed. Analyzing the news anchors during the Titanic Research and Recovery Expedition in 1998 to Steven Spielberg’s Oscar acceptance speech, Biel reasons that the importance of disasters are found in the affects they have on culture and society. Using the collective works of various scholars, Biel seeks to understand “how we define disasters” and what were the contributing factors that led to these particular events. Asserting that disasters disrupt the rhythm of everyday life, it is the reactions and responses to the aftermath of the disasters that drive a desire to return to the previous cultural and social aspects of the disrupted “daily life.” Though these events effect change socially and culturally within the United States, as stated by Rebekah Benninger, Biel approaches these disasters in a different manner. Rather than the effect these events had on the United States culturally and socially, Biel’s introductory piece asserts that it is the manner in which each disaster reflected American social and cultural values. These events allowed for the growth and development in the understanding and management of disaster recovery and the manners in which the American populace encountered each event.

Dynasty Warriors and History

April 5, 2017 / zhedrick / 0 Comments

As I grew up with a father that had an immense love of history, I found myself drawn to entertainment that centered around historical figures and time periods. After reading Sun Tzu’s The Art of War at a young age, I gravitated to Chinese history and sought out different media platforms that allowed me to discover more about the history of China. One platform that allowed me to gain insight into Chinese history was the video game Dynasty Warriors. Delving into the romanticized period of China known as the Three Kingdoms period between 220 ACE to 280 ACE, the forth iteration of the game provided a full character biography for all mentioned individuals within the game. Reading through this, I became interested in the story that the game had been based on. Leading me to read the epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, I became captivated by this unique period in Chinese history responsible for producing vast amounts of literature, cinema and cultural traditions within Chinese society. As i familiarized myself with the stories of the Three Kingdoms, I continued to look at the actually history of the characters and their respective achievements during this period in Chinese history. Looking at this game as a historian, it is necessary to separate it from the hack and slash action and over the top character designs to discover the historical importance of Dynasty Warriors. The game offers the modern gamer to enter into a time period marked with great devastation and political upheaval to understand components of Chinese history that helped shape the modern Chinese state. Though retelling the story of the Three Kingdoms period, viewing this game as a historian allows the individual to see the attention to detail of this chaotic epoch.

Becoming White

April 3, 2017 / zhedrick / 0 Comments

David Roediger’s Whiteness and Race brings forth the debate of what it meant to “become white” and how it pertained to the different immigrant groups within the United States. Reading Roediger’s work as a way to understand the racial history of the Untied States, the primary argument for this piece is the perception of the American people of the incoming immigrants. The question asked by Roediger is how the different ethnic groups obtain the title of “white” and how this shaped the racial identity of the arriving Europeans. By using Upton Sinclair’s King Coal, Roediger brings forth a racial hierarchy that developed within the United States. As the Americans and the British occupied the primary rung of the hierarchical ladder, the degree of “whiteness” is diluted as it spreads from the British Isles and into Southern and Eastern Europe. With the allotment of “whiteness” coupled with nationalities and religion, becoming “white” in American culture was obtained through the degradation of the African American community and an assimilation into the American culture. Gravity21 see Frederick Douglas’ mention of the Irish as a warning that they too will treat the African American community with the same degree as the Americans. However, it is in this passage that Douglas brings forth the belief that racial identities did not transcend national boundaries. This became an important aspect in the challenges to “becoming white.” As a basis for a historical approach to the discussion of race in the United States, the article’s focus on immigrant groups allows for race to be discussed as a social construction in response to an influx of ethnic or religious groups that do not define themselves according to the nation’s societal standards.

The Layman’s Manifesto

March 20, 2017 / zhedrick / 6 Comments

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is philosophical work that proposes a societal shift in which the proletariat rises above the shackles of the bourgeoisie and creates a world of economic and social equality. Written during the Industrial Revolution, this text spoke to the growing urban populations that experienced a growing disparity between work and wages earned. As the Industrial Revolution transformed both the countryside and the urban centers, mass migrations into the factory systems for work create a stark separation among the already diverging economic classes. Speaking to the marginalized working class, Marx and Engels created a unifying ideology for the disenfranchised workers to rally around and champion their own needs in the growing urban centers. The ideology presented by the authors created an identity for the working class, one that stressed the importance of the laborer in the industrialized world. John Kane believes that the Manifesto is a work that solves the growing disparity between the classes by providing a solution that benefits the masses. However, this ideology is targeting a specific class of people, the proletariat, and implores them to initiate a bloody revolution in the name of equality. The contents of the Manifesto endears the proletariat to force a confrontation with the societal plagues that seek to oppress them. Though this work can be seen as a call to arms, it is better used as a framework for a growing working class to understand the inherent powers they hold over the middle and upper classes. It is a work that understands the trials and labors of the laymen, propelling them into a unity to protect themselves from the interests of the bourgeoisie to create a society that protects the workers from the employers.

Mid Semester Post and Reflection

March 15, 2017 / zhedrick / 0 Comments

At the beginning of the blog posts, I found myself unsure how to approach the readings and create an intelligible response that could further the discussion of the presented works. Constantly rewriting and editing my posts forced me to reanalyze the readings to create a provoking response that did not mirror a simple summary of the works. As this new rewriting took place, I was able to find new avenues into the arguments of the authors and became capable of presenting them in class. As the posts expanded my own understanding of the works, it became apparent during the class period that others had benefited from the blog posts as well. As Candice Luna says that as a class we have progressed our in class discussions through the blog posts, I feel that both the blog posts and class discussions have aided in the development of a more advanced discussion based on deeper themes of the works. Seeing the growth of the posts from myself and the class as a whole can be attributed to the better understanding that comes from a necessary in-depth analysis of the works for the purpose of blogging. This blogging has fostered the classroom communities ability to share and and improve upon our own ideas regarding the readings, as put forth by Gabriel Sevallos. Taking this statement, I have found my own assumptions about the texts reinforced and reshaped with the competing ideas of the class to foster a better understanding of themes from the works.

Though the blog posts have proved challenging at times, I feel that they have aided in my understandings of the reading from a historical perspective. With a constant need to reread and edit my blog posts, I have developed a better understanding of the necessary the readings and have aided my in class discussion topics. The challenge of the posts and discussions in class not only help the individual, but the class as a whole. With multiple platforms for ideas to be shared, it has been possible to develop themes to the readings that may have gone untouched in other settings.

Isaac’s Hamartia

March 5, 2017 / zhedrick / 0 Comments

The entirety of Larson’s Isaac’s Storm is centralized on an idea that this storm belonged to Isaac Cline and no other individual in the devastated town of Galveston, leaving the reader to question how this storm belonged to a single individual and not the town as a whole. Throughout the book Larson not only gives the perspective of Cline, but that of other individuals within the town and their own experiences with the tragic event that took the lives of their neighbors and loved ones. To make this event accountable to a single individual comes across as artistic leeway to retell the event from the perspective of a single individual. However, to make this claim Larson gives an analysis to the character of Cline during the course of his work to show that Cline in fact takes the storm as his own. Cline’s own recounting of events during the storm are at constant odds with those of his own brother Joseph, a contradictory force that undermines the “well meaning” elder brother. Isaac’s own inflated hubris allows him to make large claims of his heroic actions prior to the storm hitting land and the 6,000 lives he saved, a number that later grew to number 12,000. Later telegrams to the Weather Bureau sent by Isaac say that the warnings of the storm were widespread and sent to areas beyond Galveston as well. Contradicting the telegrams sent by Joseph that tell of death and devastation, Isaac continually downplayed the destructiveness of the storm and allowed it to take a personal tone within him. Mckenzie Jackson states that many of the town’s inhabitants were given warning signs to evacuate given the weather conditions. Though it is possible to foresee the coming dangers from a modern lens, the people of Galveston witnessed storms yearly and were accustomed to them. The only individual who could have given credence to the dangers of the coming storm was Isaac Cline and because of his inaction and competition with his brother he failed to adequately warn the town. This storm is Isaac’s and it is through his inherent in his own abilities that allowed for the devastation of Galveston.

Leave Isaac Alone

February 27, 2017 / zhedrick / 2 Comments

In Isaac’s Storm, Erik Larson analyzes the Galveston Storm of 1900 through the perspective of the town’s meteorologist Isaac Cline. Using a unique perspective to evaluate the devastating effects of the storm, Larson uses his beginning chapter to create the circumstances that gave rise to the storm and the subsequent mismanagement of the entire affair. Unlike a historical writing, Larson depicts the events leading to the storm in a literary narrative of the events and portrays the storm as the antagonist seeking to destroy the island city of Galveston and push Isaac to the limits of heroics. However, this approach removes the severity of the storm and lends itself more to literary imagination than a disaster that took the lives of thousands of people. Rebekah Benninger says that the devastation of Galveston is found in the poor communicative efforts and over reliance on a single individual to dictate the necessary actions to notify of the impending storm. Though the poor communication and reliance on Isaac directly impacted the fate of Galveston, the fault is better placed in the Weather Bureau for the lack of confidence it instilled in the American people prior to the storm. Perceived as a lecherous and incompetent division, the maintenance and repair of a public image concerned the upper echelons of the bureau more so than advancing the science behind meteorology. The fault can’t be placed on Isaac solely, due to the history of hurricanes in the area. Using the data available to him and the visible trends of the ocean, Isaac assessed the dangers accordingly and was unaware of the growing dangers of the building storm. The severity of the storm can best be described by Larson’s butterfly opening its wings, a natural occurrence.

Faith and Doubt, Identity and Diversity

February 15, 2017 / zhedrick / 2 Comments

In the work Faith and Doubt, Carl Smith analyzes the societal state of Chicago following the fire through various accounts and articles of individuals effected by the disaster. Rather than try and find a primary cause of the fire, Smith focuses on the post-fire reactions of the public and the use of religion as the primary reason for the fire. As the embers died down and the city searched for answers to the inferno, religion acted as a reinforcement of Chicago’s divine nature among the urban centers of the world. As sin and avarice descended upon the city, a divine flame cleansed the city of its wrongdoings and allowed for the rebirth of the city’s purity. Through examination of this theme of zealotry in Chicago society, Smith states that “need for reformation was quickly buried under the theme of ultimate good,” subsequently allowing for the city to look towards an enriched future. However as Smith examines other accounts of valiant acts of heroism, the humility of the brides or the reactions of the investors, the core sentiments extracted from these works is that of a united people of a single identity joining together to create a Chicagoan spirit to rebuild the devastated city. Justin Rodriguez notes that the progression of works regarding the actions of individuals lead away from religious fervor and into self promotion, however the differing accounts of piety, humility and valiance do not contradict each other. Rather than prescribe themselves to a single notion of character, the varying accounts presented by Smith allow the reader to understand the nature of the thriving urban centers and the unique identity that forms among its populace. With this understanding, it is possible to take the accounts of the individuals and create an image of Chicago as a center of diversity that can overcome adversity in its ranging forms.

Chicago’s Economy

February 6, 2017 / zhedrick / 0 Comments

In Nature’s Metropolis’ second chapter Rails and Water, Cronon speaks of the “second nature” that the new American city had created as it expanded its city limits and economic influence within the region. Pertaining to the man-made creations that allowed for the city to expand its commercial opportunities, the “second nature” of Chicago changed the geographical landscape of the region to fit the economic needs of the city. However, the growth of Chicago coinciding with the development of the waterways reinforced the boosters ideals of a “new Rome” as the city now had access to larger economic ambitions. The growth of the city also saw the rise of the farming class as a vital contributor to the growing economy, making use of the new waterways to transport their goods to the city to obtain better pricing for their goods. Unlike the river fed cities of Peoria and Springfield, the desire for goods in Chicago created a large demand for crops and created a prosperous economic environment for the farming community that fed the city and the surrounding areas. John Kane has said of Cronon’s view of Chicago to be a “romanticized emotion attached to [Chicago] and its history [creating] a bias toward the importance of the city,” however this would negate the influence that Chicago had as a cultural and economic center for the region. Rivaling its East Coast counterparts in economic ability, Chicago became a center for cultural integration between different societal groups that would otherwise not interact. With merchants and farmers exchanging goods, Chicago became a place in which both the urban and rural communities melded together and created a thriving economy not based on a single product. Though Cronon does create a romantic image of Chicago as an ever changing city, Chicago itself is a city based in its own unique culture that combines both agrarian and industrial communities within its city to create a diverse and thriving economy.